Liberty Bell
courtesy of KCZooFan

At the end of the first half the Redskins had the chance to get on the board after being handed a gift of a possession after a Brian Orakpo sack led to a fumble recovery by Perry Riley deep in Eagles territory. The Redskins couldn’t help but be the Redskins though. The first issue came on a incomplete pass to Santana Moss were he was in the belief that the defender deserved to be called for pass interference. Unable to keep his emotions in check he ripped off his helmet to better scream at the officials. It resulted in a fifteen yard penalty and a loss of down.

The Redskins still had time, but not much and were out of timeouts. Rex Grossman either needed to throw the ball into the end zone or out of bounds. He did neither and completed a short pass over the middle. The kicking unit had to scramble onto the field to attempt a last second field goal. They never made it and the half ended in the most Redskins fashion that it could.

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Nats Game Seats Below
courtesy of Mr. T in DC

2011 was not a banner year for sports in the District of Columbia, I’m afraid to say. While the Nationals worked hard to move up the NL East ladder, they still had a losing record. The Capitals once again flamed out in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Wizards finished with a .280 winning percentage as the team struggled to gel. Once a bright star in DC’s sports constellation, D.C. United finished out of the post-season again. And of course there was the Redskins’ struggles this year, even as they parted ways with McNabb and Haynesworth.

It wasn’t all bad news, though, and we’ve gathered up some of the top moments in DC Sports for 2011 for you after the cut.

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Eagles8
courtesy of Homer McFanboy

If you have made it to this point in the Redskins season then it might feel like you deserve a prize. It is unfortunate that there is no prize given out to Redskins fans that make it all the way to the end of the season. Perhaps they have bragging rights, but that is like bragging about eating all of Aunt Briana’s rotten green bean salad at Christmas dinner.

The fans aren’t the only people to make it to the end of the season. The Redskins players have as well, or at least some of them. There are quite a few Redskins that won’t be playing in this game; Cooley and Landry and others are hurt, Fred Davis and Trent Williams would have played but then they got high, and Ryan Torian has been cut. The Redskins that are playing will be ready to play and have more to prove than an Eagles team that was picked to run away with the NFC and couldn’t even manage to make the playoffs.

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Seahawks6
courtesy of Homer McFanboy

There are a lot of plays in from the Vikings 33-26 defeat of the Redskins that sum up how the game went. It was a game of mistakes for the Washington Redskins. The Redskins had a Rex Grossman fumble that led to a Vikings field goal, a off-sides call on a Vikings punt that led to a Vikings touchdown, allowing a two play scoring drive after taking the lead in the third quarter, retaking the lead and subsequently allowing another quick Vikings scoring drive, the holding call on what should have been a Brandon Banks touchdown run, and worst of all immediately following that with a Rex Grossman interception leading to a Vikings field goal.

Saturday against the Vikings was the first time in a long time the Redskins had been favored to win a game. It was a competitive match-up between two defenses that seemed completely unable to stop offenses that are not highly regarded. The biggest issue for the Redskins came when Joe Webb entered the game. All season long the Redskins have been unable to stop running quarterbacks. Two of the Redskins defense’s worst performances came against Cam Newton and Michael Vick.

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Gio Gonzalez
courtesy of Kimberly*

Late Thursday afternoon the news leaked out that the Nationals had acquired Gio Gonzalez for a package of players that included RHP’s AJ Cole and Brad Peacock, LHP Tom Milone, and catcher Derek Norris. In a conference call tonight Mike Rizzo talked about the deal that had been in the works since before the Winter Meetings began. Rizzo wanted to add a top of the rotation starter that was left handed that could slot between Strasburg and Zimmermann in the rotation. Rizzo said that being left handed was key not just to break up the righties in the rotation but to help deal with the tough left handed batters around the league.

The NL East features so particularly tough left handed batters in Brain McCann, Jason Heyward, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard. Mike Rizzo feels that Gio Gonzalez is a power lefty that has struggled with walks, but is trending in the right direction and as his career progresses so will the command. He feels that Gonzalez stacks up with the best left handed pitchers in baseball. A group that would include CJ Wilson, Cole Hamels, Clayton Kershaw, and Cliff Lee. A number of whom struggled with command early on in their careers.

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IMG_7667
courtesy of dbking 

Since Matt Barkley announced yesterday that he was heading back to USC and their are reports the Robert Griffin III and possibly Landry Jones could be leaning towards heading back to their respective schools there has been a lot of concern over the future of the Redskins at the quarterback position. One thing that has become clear during this season is that the Redskins do not have their future quarterback on the roster. Rex Grossman still turns the ball over too much, and John Beck looked more than a little confused when he got his chance to start.

If Andrew Luck does end up being the only big time quarterback to enter the draft this year then the Redskins possibly not having a top ten pick shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It shouldn’t have been in the first place as people should be rooting for the Redskins to win and then to find a talent later on in the draft like the Baltimore Ravens did with Joe Flacco.

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Cowboys2
courtesy of Homer McFanboy

After Rex Grossman’s four interception game against the Eagles a decision was made. With the great power of hindsight that now looks like a poor decision. When John Beck took over for Rex Grossman people were excited to see what Beck could do, and for at least one game Beck looked like the much better option. He was mobile in the pocket, and moved the ball down the field. Then a few more games happened and Beck managed to do the impossible, he made people long for Rex Grossman.

Since taking back over as the starting quarterback the Redskins offense has looked competent. Grossman still has all the problems that come with Grossman. He turns the ball over, he sometimes holds onto the ball too long and takes a sack, and he has trouble with the pre-snap duties of a quarterback. Rex Grossman has always been inconsistent. His game against the Eagles was the worst that Grossman can be.

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Giants1
courtesy of Homer McFanboy

Remember all the way back to week one when the Redskins looked surprisingly good in beating the Giants. Ryan Kerrigan scored a touchdown in his first game as an NFL player, and Rex Grossman looked like a competent quarterback. It might feel like it was a long time ago or happened in a different universe. It did happen this season and it caused a bit of a stir to the Giants world. They felt like they should roll over the Redskins and if that game were played 100 times they would win 99 of them.

The Redskins and Giants don’t play 100 times in a season, but the Giants will get another crack at the Redskins. One of the excuses the Giants used was that they were injured. They are no less injured no. They are still missing players on the defense. The real difference in the Giants from week one ’til now is the play of Eli Manning.

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Santana Moss
courtesy of Keith Allison

A game as good as Sunday’s match-up between the Patriots and Redskins shouldn’t have ended the way it did. With CBS refusing to show a replay of the Santana Moss penalty it is unclear whether or not there was a penalty, but there was no foul once Santana Moss came into view on TV. The closest defender to Moss was four feet away. On the second to last play of the game Moss was as open as any receiver could be and it didn’t look to be because he pushed off. If CBS had shown a replay to clarify the call and found an angle that showed the foul that would have helped, but they didn’t and what was seen remains all the info available.

Santana Moss wasn’t happy with the call and it cost the Redskins on the next play. They still had one more down to try and get back the score that was taken from them. Moss too busy being upset about the previous play lost concentration when the ball came his way and shoveled it into the waiting arms of a Patriot’s defender. It was a typical ending to a Redskins game that got off to a promising start.

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_MG_0874
courtesy of dbking

As soon as the decision was announced the crowd erupted with the fury they had held in all night. For most of the evening the cheers of Amir, Amir were louder and more numerous than those of DC, DC. It sounded like the typical Nationals vs. Phillies game that happens in DC, or the games the Capitals played against the Penguins before the arrival of Ovechkin. Perhaps that is why the crowd was so reluctant to be loud before they knew a winner was in hand.

It has been 20 years since a major championship has been won in a major sport by a DC based team. In recent years DC faithful have had to suffer through the Dan Snyder led Redskins, back to back 100 loss seasons by the Nationals, Capitals early exits from the playoffs, and the Wizards. As soon as the decision was announced all that recent heartbreak turned into utter joy and Hall E of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center erupted with cheers.

The fight itself was one of the better fights in recent memory, and before going much further the controversy should be discussed. It is rare these days to find a major boxing match that is lacking in controversy, and those that focus on the two points deducted from Khan will end up missing the athletic battle this fight was. The problem with blaming the two point deduction is it focuses more attention on just how close this fight was. It wasn’t predicted to be a close fight, and when a fighter is as heavily favored as Khan was going into this fight then two points shouldn’t make that much of a difference. Plenty of people doubted the fight would even reach the twelfth and final round where the second, and more controversial, of the points was deducted.

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Tom Brady
courtesy of Keith Allison

Ever since Drew Bledsoe went down with an injury and Tom Brady emerged on the scene the Patriots have been the class of the NFL. They have down it not just by having one of the best quarterbacks in the league, but also by mixing in talented by high risk players with a steady flow of high character and work ethic football players. It is a method where the big name players like Randy Moss or Albert Haynesworth aren’t the focus or the focal point for a season.

Tom Brady is the face of the Patriots and over the last few seasons he has been one of the most consistently great quarterbacks the NFL has seen. In 2011 Tom Brady has been just as good as expected passing for 3916 yards, 30 touchdowns with 10 interceptions, and 66.7 percent of his passes completed. All of this has added up to the Patriots having the second best passing offense in the NFL in both yards a game and touchdowns.

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dolphins3
courtesy of Homer McFanboy

This past Sunday’s game against the New York Jets got off to a good start for the Redskins with two young offensive players continuing to show development. Fred Davis caught a long pass to put the Redskins in scoring range and then Roy Helu ran it in. Helu had a good first half and finished with 100 yards on 23 carries. Most of those yards came in the first half as the Jets figured out how to stop Helu and the Redskins were unable to adjust.

Adjusting in the second half has been a problem for the Redskins all season long. They are able to be competitive for a half. Consistently this season anything that was working in the first half of the game has ceased working in the second half of the game. The Redskins coaches either can’t figure out that they need to adjust or they lack the personnel to make those adjustments.

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