The Redskins at Midseason

A slow week here so I will take a moment to write about the Redskins at the midway point in their season. A little history for those tuning in for the first time here. The Redskins under Head Coach Joe Gibbs, version 1.0 were always competitive and they won three Super Bowls. On their way to those three titles, they were an offensive powerhouse. This landed coach Gibbs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Fast forward a bit and since Gibbs retired after the 1992 season, they have been a comedy of errors thanks to poor drafts, bad free agent signings and terrible coaching moves. Yet they are one of the more profitable sports franchises year in and year out. I'm not the biggest fan of his but I will give Owner Dan Snyder his props for that.

So here we are at the midway point of the season and the Redskins are 5-3. It's an ugly 5-3. Among their five wins are overtime victories against two AFC East teams that are a combined 1-16 (Miami 0-8, Jets 1-8).

Here's something that is amazing about this team and not in a good way. I look at their stats in the paper and see the Redskins don't have a Wide Receiver touchdown yet! Chris Cooley, a Tight End, is the team leader with five TD's. The season is half over. In the modern NFL, this is an incredible stat.

So many times this season this team gets inside the opponents 20 yard line only to come away with field goals. It's frustrating to watch. I have to keep in mind that their QB Jason Campbell is in his first season as the full time starter and to be patient but to see that none of the team's WR's have scored a TD is shocking. How much longer can this go on?

To their credit, they did rally from a 14 point deficit against a woefully inept Jets team. They got a much needed win after getting pasted and embarassed 52-7 the week before against the soon to be World Champion Patriots.

The rest of the schedule (2007 record in parenthesis) looks like this:

11/11 Philadelphia Eagles (3-5)
11/18 at Dallas Cowboys (7-1)
11/25 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-4)
12/2 Buffalo Bills (4-4)
12/6 Chicago Bears (3-5)
12/16 at New York Giants (6-2)
12/23 at Minnesota Vikings (3-5)
12/30 Dallas Cowboys (7-1)

Joe Gibbs, version 2.0, is in the fourth year of a five year contract to return the Redskins to glory. To quote Judge Smails in Caddyshack, "Well, we’re waiting". I'm not sure this year's team makes the playoffs but stay tuned.

One thing I did like was the team's throwback uniforms they broke out for the Giants game. They wore these in the late '60's, early '70's.



Washington Post: Redskins Reflect at Midpoint