Blogging for the Playoffs! (With Live Game Updates! UPDATED: Playoffs, Here We Come!)

POST-GAME: Playoffs, here they come!

So where does that leave the NFC?

The team that looks the best, is Green Bay. They’ve played strong football to finish the season and they’re playing at home unless they play Dallas. It is very hard to beat the Packers in January at Lambeau.

The Giants and Seattle look good sometimes and horrid at others. Seattle can turn up the offense so what the ‘Skins will have to do is play the kind of defense it did against Dallas tonight. They will have to get plenty of pressure on Hasslebeck or he will pick the secondary apart. If Springs plays like he has the last three weeks, though, the game could rest on him.

Dallas does not look good. They’re limping in, worse, even than the Giants, who at least played their guts out (to quote Coach Gibbs) against New England and darned near beat the Pats.

The ‘Skins have beaten every team on the NFC side of the playoffs except Green Bay, who escaped on their home field thanks to a single play that turned the whole game. Washington can beat every team in the NFC right now. There’s no reason to count them out of any game.

So next week is Seattle. I’m going to call this one early. Redskins by ten and it’ll go to the fourth quarter before that’s fully decided.

Plenty of updates below the fold. There was live-blogging in abundance. It was fun. Go read!

UPDATE 19: Dallas turns it over on downs and the Redskins basically will run out the clock.

Here’s another tasty morsel. The previous Dallas record for least rushing yards in a game was 8 in, I believe, 1998 or 1999. They beat that today with what looks like either 2 or 0 yards rushing. (Oops! Officially, it was one yard.)

Two Cowboys came in looking to rack up some good personal numbers. Romo was after the single-season completion record. Witten was after 100 receptions. Neither one made their goal. So the Redskins denied them their records and hung a record of shame on them.

Sweet.

UPDATE 18: Okay, so Moss goes over 100 yards and a touchdown. Portis is the first RB to go over a 100 on Dallas and gets two TDs. That’s a complete victory.

Remember, Redskins fans, our team came one INT away from beating the Cowboys in Dallas. If we beat the Seahawks next week (and Seattle is not a particularly strong team), we get the Cowboys again, at their place. You have to feel very good about that matchup, even though Terrell Owens will be back by then.

Seattle will be a rematch of the NFC Divisional game in 2005 where the Seahawks beat the ‘Skins. This team is better, especially at WR (where we have both Moss and Randle El back and healthy) and at QB (where we don’t have the Easter Island statue named Mark Brunell behind center this year). It should be a very good game.

UPDATE 17: Johnson takes the ‘Boys down the field and gets a field goal to make it 27-6. They’ve yet to hit 0 yards rushing.

UPDATE 16: Collins to Moss via Da Bomb! 27-3.

This. Game. Is. Over!

Note Not Related To Football: “I call Shotgun.” “I call nine millimeter”. Wait…what? The new Terminator series looks absolutely terrible. Summer Glau is pretty as all get out but she’s not a Terminator. She’s not even close to a Terminator. And for some unknown reason John Connor keeps getting more and more wussy as the movies and TV shows go on. At what point is he going to be the rough, tough leader of the human resistance? From the looks of things, he couldn’t lead a Boy Scout Troop out of a median strip.

UPDATE 15: Ouch. Even with their starters going almost the whole game to this point (and we’re in the 4th Quarter now), Dallas has 83 total yards and -4 yards rushing.

You think they want to face the ‘Skins again in the playoffs? I wouldn’t.

UPDATE 14: Tony Romo’s day is over, having only tied the Cowboy’s single-season record for pass completions. It makes me very happy that he didn’t break the record today.

Brad Johnson is in and he could be a little trouble. Johnson’s had a real hate-on for the Redskins after being unceremoniously dumped after a really good season. Letting him go was one of Dan Snyder’s biggest mistakes. Johnson has been a very good QB. He’s not too sad, though. He’s won a Super Bowl since then.

UPDATE 13: Don’t get too happy, guys. Just keep grinding them into the turf. Get happy when the final whistle sounds and you’re in the playoffs with a resounding win against the team who is already the top seed in the conference.

Aaaaaaaand…TOUCHDOWN – Washington Redskins!

UPDATE 12: Suisham makes it 13-3 and the ‘Skins continue to pummel the Cowboys. They’re saying that Romo and Witten won’t play in the second half. That’d be a shame. The ‘Boys look bad. I think they need a little mojo before the regular season ends. Then again, I’m not an NFL coach.

And that’s the half!

UPDATE 11: A booth review overturns a first-down catch. You’d think that playing at home, the Redskins wouldn’t get something like that done to them. That’s a discretionary decision by the officials upstairs and they should have left well enough alone.

Oh, well. First-down again. I’m surprised they didn’t review that one, too.

UPDATE 10: I gotta fevah and the prescription is more Portis!

I said earlier in the season that the ‘Skins should trade Portis and give him a chance to play for a winner. I want to retract that. Portis is a Redskin. He just has the Redskin Way deep in his bones.

UPDATE 9: Folk redeems himself with a solid FG. 10-3, Redskins.

UPDATE 8: Gah! Fumble again. The Cowboys do have a good pass rush. Play action will slow that down in the second half.

Gibbs will challenge the play. I don’t think he’ll win it. it’s not a bad challenge, though.

Oh, and in other news. The Vikings are losing. If they lose their game, the Redskins are in, no matter what. Not that it’s important at this point. I think the ‘Skins have the strong hand today.

And he lost the challenge.

UPDATE 7: And the Dallas kicker shanks one. That was a horrible-looking kick.

And the rivalry is renewed! There’s a scuffle on the field. I’m predicting a lot more bad blood. THIS, folks, is what a Redskins v Cowboys game is all about.

UPDATE 6: That’s the first first-down for the Cowbows, thanks to a Fred Smoot penalty. Also, Terry Glenn took a really hard hit and is a little woozy. Wasn’t anything that could be done about it. LaRon Landry hit the ground to try to intercept the pass and slid into Glenn’s path. Glenn got upended and basically landed on his head.

The ‘Skins have turned the defense up to 11 thus far. They’re shut down the ‘Boys first-team offense almost entirely. That should worry Wade Phillips because he may well see this team again in a couple of weeks.

UPDATE 5: I just don’t like the way Ledell Betts runs. He’s too much back and forth and not enough straight ahead. I wish that the ‘Skins had found a way to trade him at the end of last season and kept T.J. Duckett.

Okay, Suisham nails a long FG to make it 10-0. I think perhaps, for the first year in the past several, the ‘Skins can go into camp knowing they have a steady kicker.

And he can put it in the end zone on kickoffs. Amazing!

(You really do have to be a Redskins fan, having lived through the years when we were lucky to have a kicker who could get one to the five yard line to appreciate that.

UPDATE 4: Catch or not, I love it when a receiver lays himself out to get a long pass. It’s perhaps the prettiest play in football.

UPDATE 3: Another patented Roy Williams clothesline tackle. I swear, if Williams had to tackle the Headless Horseman, he wouldn’t know what to do.

UPDATE 2: I expect, if the ‘Skins get up by 17 points or so, we’ll see the Cowboys backups. That’s fine. I don’t like when team yanks their starters in the last game when there’s nothing at stake in the standings. I tend to think that it dulls the players’ skills and it leaves them flat for the next week. Yes, injuries are a possibility. They don’t happen as often as you might think, though. It’s not worth having your team flat in the first game of the playoffs. And with Dallas getting a first week bye, that’ll be basically two weeks when their big guns won’t really play. I wouldn’t want my team having to compete after losing their edge.

Darn. Fumble.

UPDATE: Interception, Shawn Springs. Tell me, has any defensive back played better coverage the past three games than Springs. This is – what – his fourth INT in three games? He has at least three.

ORIGINAL POST:

Touchdown – Washington Redskins!

Okay, I hadn’t planned on blogging the biggest game for Redskins fans in the past five years, but after watching Clinton Portis embarrass two Dallas Cowboys defensive backs on his way to the first Redskins touchdown, I figured that my glee should be shared.

Roy Williams is overrated as a defensive back. His tacking is atrocious and it’s gotten worse since the league put in the “horsecollar” rule. Basically, if Williams can’t grab some guy from the back of the collar, he can’t tackle them. Portis just proved that in the open field yet again.

And yeah, Cowboys fans, you can quote me. I’d rather have Fred Smoot or Estelle Getty doing my tackling in the secondary than Roy Williams.

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Category: My Beloved Redskins