Redskins at 49ers: The Brotherhood Of The Falling Pants

Washington Redskins (8-7) at San Francisco 49ers (6-9)
4:15 p.m. Candlestick Park
It’s time for the last four quarters of football for the Washington Redskins. It will be more than eight months before we live to pass this way again. Until then, we’ll have the NFL playoffs (consisting of at least two teams that are worse than Washington), a Super Bowl winner, the NFL draft, the last round of free agency with a salary cap, mini-camp, training camp, sleep-away camp and preseason. Then, and only then, will we see the Redskins back on the field. That’s sort of depressing.

At the beginning of the season, I said the Redskins would go 9-7. I think most people would have been happy with 9-7. If you considered the fact that the Redskins had a rookie coach, a young quarterback, an aging offensive line, no defensive live and six games against the best division in football, 9-7 would have seemed very good.

So why does the season feel like a disappointment? Well, when you start 6-2, the playoffs are kind of expected. With wins at Dallas and at Philadelphia in their pocket, most fans figured that even the Redskins couldn’t blow a shot at the playoffs. There was the easier second half schedule. There were automatic wins against Cincinnati and San Francisco sitting there. All the Redskins had to do was scratch across a couple of more victories, and they would have been in. But then the offense went to crap, they somehow lost to the Bengals, and now the road game in San Francisco means absolutely nothing. Just one more win somewhere along the way, and all the Redskins would have had to do today is beat a bad 49ers team. They can still beat a bad 49ers team today, but it doesn’t make a difference.

On the plus side, the Redskins have shown that despite a rookie head coach, they can compete in the tough NFC East. I don’t think this team is going to be worse next season. I’m glad that Dan Snyder has decided to stay with Jim Zorn. He deserves at least one more season to prove he is an NFL caliber coach. You don’t get to 9-7, or even 8-8, on accident. Give Zorn the offseason to bring in more of his players and give him time to adjust to the league and then we’ll see where the team is.

As for personnel, this is going to be an important offseason for the Redskins. They don’t have a lot of free agents, but they’re probably not going to have much room under the salary cap. Resign Pete Kendall if at all possible. Despite two balky knees, Kendall has been one of the best linemen on the team. He has at least one more good season left in him. Any defensive lineman that can rush the quarterback needs to be added. The Redskins may also want to consider spending the money on Andre Johnson or Anquan Boldin. I know that spending more money on receivers seems like a waste. However, I think it’s clear that Santana Moss can’t stay healthy long enough to be considered a #1 receiver in the NFL. Pony up the cash to sign Johnson and Boldin, demote Moss to #2 and have him return punts. Then either cut Antwaan Randle El or find a creative way to use him in the offense. In the draft, the Redskins need to spend just about every pick they have on offensive or defensive line players. I know it’s not sexy and won’t excite the fans, but it’s what needs to be done. Finally, Snyder needs to fire Vinny Ceratto as soon as possible. Tomorrow would be preferable. Mike Holmgren doesn’t want to coach anymore, but I think if the check was big enough, he’d love to be a general manager. With his buddy Zorn as the coach, this would be a perfect situation for a smart football man like Holmgren. Let’s make this happen, Danny.

In review, it’s hard to call this season a disappointment or success. The Redskins didn’t go 4-12 or 5-11 like every expert and analyst thought they would. Winning in Dallas and in Philadelphia is always fun. Sweeping the Eagles is even better. But after a 6-2 start, 8-8 or 9-7 and a meaningless final game is not what the fan base had in mind. So in other words, 2008 was typical Redskins. Not bad enough to be really bad, not good enough to contend for a title.

The Redskins close out with a trip to the Bay Area. The San Francisco 49ers still have all kinds of problems. They started the season with Mike Nolan as head coach. Nolan had a somewhat successful season (finishing around .500) three years ago, and had been living off that until he was fired in late October. The Niners tapped Mike Singletary as interim head coach. Singletary then immediately dropped his pants in front of his players in some bizarre motivation tactic. Not exactly what grown men want to see.

However, the pants removing has sort of worked for Singletary and the 49ers. Since Singletary took over, the Niners are 4-4 (4-4 with a bullet...two of the wins were against the Rams) and have actually begun to resemble a football team. Even more surprising is the play of former Maryland star Shaun Hill, who has actually begun to resemble a NFL quarterback. The 49ers defense has toughened up. A game against San Francisco no longer means playing an opponent with an apathetic attitude and it no longer means an automatic two-score win. Even better for Singletary is the extension he is about to receiver. It’s been reported that after a meeting with the owners, they were so impressed with Singletary that they will hire him to be the 49ers full-time head coach. Now, I’m not sure how hard it is to impress the 49ers ownership. As long as you can convince them that you are going to win a minimum of five games and have players that appear as if they actually care, you can probably coach San Francisco. Add in a pants-dropping, and the job is all yours.

Despite the recent improvements, this is still a team the Redskins should have no problems with. The 49ers defense may be playing better recently, but they have nowhere near the talent to be able to keep up with the Redskins offense. Then again, I said the same thing about St. Louis and Cincinnati. If the Redskins had played up to caliber in those two games, they would have already clinched a playoff spot. Instead, the Redskins allowed a huge opportunity to go by the waste side. It’s going to be another long winter, spring and summer until we see the burgundy and gold again.