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courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Welcome to a new weekly series here at We Love DC, the Redskins Cheat Sheet. Whether celebrating triumphs or swearing profusely over frustrating defeats, the Redskins take up a lot of the Monday Morning water cooler chatter in offices around town. Of course, lots of people have better things to do on Sundays, but if you want to follow along to those, here’s your quick guide to ‘Skins Banter.

A much bigger recap is coming later on today, so I will not steal all the thunder on writing up a gamer on yesterday’s overtime loss to the Houston Texans. Here’s three quick points to keep in mind to fake your way through any conversations that may come up.

Bullet Point 1: Houston is a better team than they’ve been in their first seasons in the league, and their ability to score points through the air and ground was showcased in the second half as Matt Schaub quarterbacked his team to the road victory. The linebackers and defensive line kept Arian Foster in check running, but the secondary wasn’t playing up enough on Houston’s outstanding receiving corps and the Texans were able to come back to force overtime mainly through the air raid attack.

Bullet Point 2: The Redskins showed some life on offense for the first time – legitimately – in the last few seasons, but only in passing the ball. New QB1 Donovan McNabb played well, but even though he was moving the ball nicely for the team, the running game was nearly non-existent. There may have been a better chance to control the fourth quarter if the line could have sprung some more room for Portis/LJ, and it probably also would have been nice if they were able to get a few more yards in overtime instead of asking second-year kicker Graham Gano to try a 52-yarder for the win.

Bullet Point 3: NFL’s overtime rules stink something terrible. Gano kicking a 52-yarder was not necessarily the best football decision, but the situation in the sudden death/determined by coin flip rules forced it a little. Yes, unlike some overtime games, the team that won didn’t earn their victory on the first possession, but while each team had different outcomes the first time they touched the ball (Houston punting instead of kicking the long field goal, and the aforementioned miss for Gano), Washington never got a chance to trot their offense out again to match Houston’s second drive. It’s a team game that shouldn’t be determined on random chance…and don’t get me started on ties in football that can only happen in the NFL.

And there’s your cheat sheet. Happy Monday, Washington.

Dave Levy

Dave Levy is a PR guy by day, a media researcher on the side and a self-proclaimed geek. He blogs often about how traditional media adapts – or tries to adapt – to the growing digital media world at State of the Fourth Estate. You can follow Dave on Twitter for various updates about everything from sports from his previous home in Boston to eccentric and obscure pop culture references. Read why Dave loves D.C.