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courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

The Redskins are in fact still playing, so the Cheat Sheet is business as usual. Of course, most people are likely to be talking turkey, today, with another loss in the books. Just in case, though, We Love DC has you prepped to look like you still care.

As it’s nearly December, the final month of the NFL season is coming quickly upon us. After yesterday’s loss, the Redskins are 5-6 and, for all intents and purposes, basically out of the playoff picture barring a miracle (it doesn’t help that the NFC is incredibly top heavy this year). While the 2010 Redskins slip silently into the final five games of the season, here’s a few points from Sunday’s defeat at the hands of the now 4-7 Minnesota Vikings to get you through water cooler chatter this morning.

Early Celebrations – With minutes to go in the fourth, it looked like the Redskins may have pulled off yet another low scoring victory. Brandon Banks fielded a Minnesota punt and seemed to get some great blocking that freed up a hole and led to paydirt in the end zone. Alas, the range of emotion Redskins fans generally feel came together all in that one moment as a piece of yellow cloth hit the field. On another look of the play, it was pretty blatant that the hole Banks hit to get to the end zone was created by an unbelievably conspicuous block in the back by Perry Riley. Come on, he took out two guys while hitting them in the numbers. You can’t do that. And it just may have cost the Redskins their best shot to win the game all afternoon.

Stop Someone on Third Down – Brett Favre? The guy’s like, 90. Who’s letting him run for a first down on 3rd and 8 with the game on the line and a chance to ice the victory? Oh, that’s right, the Redskins. While it actually was a respectable day for the defense statistically, they couldn’t get that stop when it counted. All those crazy stat lines from last week finally came back to bite the ‘Skins.

And My Fantasy, Team, Too! – It’s never nice to cheer for injuries, but there had to be some sort of sigh of relief come across the Washington defense when Adrian Peterson got knocked from the game in the first half. Of course, if you were hoping to get more than 36 yards and a TD from the Purple Jesus to help beat your coworker in a playoff tune up for fantasy…the Redskins even found a way to ruin that for you.

The Redskins Cheat Sheet will continue until morale improves. See you again next week when we look back at the first game of the season against division rival New York.

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.