‘Cardinals7’
courtesy of ‘Homer McFanboy’

Twice in the fourth quarter the Redskins needed the defense to come up big to put the game away and both times the defense answered. On fourth and five the Seahawks offensive line was overwhelmed and Tavaris Jackson was sacked with just over two minutes left to play. The Redskins played conservative and settled for a field goal which gave them a six point lead and the Seahawks a chance to drive down the field with just over a minute left on the clock for a game winning touchdown. On the third play of the drive Jackson was picked off by DeAngelo Hall and all the Redskins had to do was take knees and they had their first victory since week four.

The Redskins scored on the opening drive and the Seahawks were handed a touchdown courtesy of a Rex Grossman interception that gave them a short field to work with. Aside from those two scores the game was tied most of the afternoon with neither offense able to mount much of a drive. It will not go down as one of the better football games anyone has watched unless it was the first football game they’ve watched. The overall staleness of the game was made worse by having Jim Mora Jr. prattling on about dance floors, the size of Rex Grossman’s hands, and how he may or may not have once looked like David Cassidy.

This is of course what happens when two bad football teams play the late game in week twelve. The poor fans in that region get stuck listening to whoever are the newest and often worst announcers on a station. The real benefit to the Redskins rebuilding might be when they are finished Joe Buck will sound like candy to the ears instead of Jack Buck’s son.

The game worked a bit like a basketball game where the teams felt each other out for the first 45 minutes of play and then decided to make things interesting in the fourth quarter. Besides the two touchdowns the only other score before the fourth quarter was a Seahawks field goal that was a result of a questionable pass interference call. If it weren’t for penalties there exists the chance that neither team would have had a score before the fourth quarter. In three quarters of football the Redskins and the Seahawks combined to score 17 points. In the fourth quarter they combined for 23. If a person arrived home late and switched this game on just to watch the fourth quarter they would have been rewarded with a decent game of football.

The Redskins might have won this game but their issues are not all cleared up and Rex Grossman had good numbers again this week throwing for 314 yards and two touchdowns while completing 26 of 35 passes, but he did have two interceptions. One of which was a classic Rex Grossman interception. The Rex Grossman special is to get the ball to begin a key drive after either a big defensive stop or the other team scored. To then look down field and see one Redskins’ jersey surrounded by two or more of the other team’s jerseys and to try and fit the ball through a window that isn’t there. It cannot be said that Grossman doesn’t have guts and the long interceptions aren’t the ones that hurt as bad. It is those interceptions combined with the shorter ones over the middle that all quarterbacks have the tendency to give up.

Winning is good for those fans that started the season wanting to see some sort of progress this year. The Redskins passed for over 300 yards and Roy Helu rushed for 108, the Redskins controlled the clock, and the Redskins defense played big when they needed to. It was a complete effort on offense and defense that helped the Redskins win this game, but the special teams was not good as they had a short field goal and an extra point blocked and were unable to contain the Seahawks return game.

There are of course the fans that are pleased with the effort of young players like Helu, but not the outcome of the game as it means the Redskins will be picking later in the first round and might not get as good of a quarterback. My only answer to that is that smart teams can find that good quarterback later in the first round. Look up 95 at what the Ravens did with Joe Flacco, and while it isn’t pleasant to say look to Baltimore on how to get things done. They completed a rebuild successfully and in a quarter of the time than the Redskins have been trying.

David Huzzard

David Huzzard was born at Fairfax Hospital in 1981 and has spent his entire life in the Washington, D.C. area. He has been a fan of all the area sports teams either since he was born or since they arrived here. He is also very pleased that his hometown is a burger town.