Column, 12/31: "Well, #@*%&!!"

We were so close. So close.

All we needed was one play. Just one.

Maybe something as unremarkable as a real block by an offensive lineman, coupled with a strong cutback by Ladell Betts on that last 3rd down run—maybe a quick hitch to Cooley instead—and the Redskins convert that puppy, proceed to run out the clock in the Victory Formation, and a million of us are raising a collective burgundy fist to the heavens.

Or maybe—on that 4th and 10 from their own 25 yard line, with 1:09 left—Cowboy rookie WR Patrick Crayton hears Redskins rookie FS Sean Taylor’s footsteps coming, hot-potato's Vinny Testaverde’s pass just long enough for Taylor to get there and gently persuade him to relinquish it ... and we’re all dancin’ on the ottoman and to hell with taking off our shoes.

Or maybe the aforementioned Taylor, in his zeal to “make a play” just a few plays later, does not catch wily veteran Testaverde’s eye and get “looked off” for the split second it takes that same confounded rookie receiver to shake free down the sideline, catch a (naturally) perfectly thrown ball, and stick a knife deep into the guts of a million Redskins fans.

Or hey, maybe (stay with me now), the Football Gods Themselves (Whom I have concluded, by the way, are, if not actually Crazy, certainly a loathsome bunch of merciless sons of [guns]) could have decided to let WR Laveranues Coles get just five more yards on that last-second desperation “drive” ... and somehow the FG is good, and we win the overtime coin toss, and ...

But honestly, who am I kidding?

The Gods, it is clear, have decreed that the Dallas Cowboys, in no matter how woeful an incarnation from year to year, are simply Going To Beat The Washington Redskins ... at least for the time being (the “time being,” of course, presently stretching back, seemingly, for the last 50 years). We should thank Them, I suppose, for, in Their inscrutable wisdom, at least letting us have those two NFC Championship Games way back when upon which to hang our proverbial hats ... because frankly, without those to fall back on when pressed, we’d be the Washington Friggin’ Generals to their Harlem Bleepin’ Globetrotters.

It’s just ... old.

Really old.

Been thinking about how different the conversation out here in Redskins Nation would have been this week had even one play gone differently in that stupid game, and had the Skins actually held on to win. Were it a Just World we live in, and had that one play actually gone our way just this one time, we would be talking this week about the team going 3-1 over the last four games, and probably indulging in some pretty brave talk about thumping Minnesota to finish 4-1 and rolling into the off season.

We’d be crowing (with class, of course) about yet another stellar defensive performance and chasing number one rankings despite just a ridiculous number of injuries.

We’d be talking about how, even while the offense struggles to find its way in the passing game, the team was “learning how to win,” and how it had “character,” and about momentum and confidence and chemistry and synergy and all that wondrous stuff.

And we’d surely be talking about how our young QB, Mr. Patrick Ramsey, led a clutch, 13-play, 80-yard fourth quarter touchdown drive, going 7–7 for 50 yards and the winning touchdown along the way, and how he showed once again that he’s well on his way to becoming the steady, solid pro Gibbs wants him to be, with the added bonus of that Howitzer he has hidden up his sleeve.

“Yup,” we’d be thinking, “our QB situation is looking pretty damn bright heading into 2005. Pass the cheese plate.”

And, of course, we’d be talking about how the Redskins not only “broke the Curse,” but how they finally seemed to have turned the corner in terms of winning in the division, having gone 2-1 down the stretch, with the only loss being a down-to-the-wire heartbreaker to the likely NFC Champion Eagles. Think that wouldn’t have been big? Forget the damnable Cowboys for a minute; this team has gone 7-23 (.304) against the NFC East over the last five seasons. It’s gone 21-54 (.388) against the NFC East in the twelve years since Joe Gibbs retired after the 1992 season. Think going 2-1 over the last five weeks—including a pounding of the Giants, a squeaker against the NFC-best Eagles, and a road win against “those people”—wouldn’t have sent us all into the offseason with a sense that those storm clouds that have been overhead for so long might finally be breaking?

Darn right it would.

One play. That’s all we needed. Just one.

But it wasn’t to be.

Again. Still.

And since it wasn’t—and because, as so many will solemnly tell you, it’s all about the “W” and only the “W”—instead we’re talking once again about the team having taken a “big step backward.”

And we’re talking about whether Patrick Ramsey’s other drives—you know, the ones where the Coach apparently doesn’t trust him to throw the ball down the field, and then, when he does once or twice a game, Patrick still sometimes shows us why that is—are the ones we should be more properly focusing on.

And we’re listening to a whole lot of disgruntled fans, as well as countless easy-target-taking, reactionary media types, openly wondering again not only if Joe Gibbs is actually making progress in his quest to “turn it around,” but whether he has it in him to do it at all.

And we’re busily, grumpily breaking down all the things the team does not have—like a functional, NFL-caliber offensive line, for instance, or a passing game to function behind it—rather than what it does (you know, the silly stuff; like committed ownership, a great defense, a HOF Head Coach with a year back in the league under his belt, a young, strong-armed QB, a Pro-Bowl caliber running back ... and some other really cool stuff that, well ... we won’t be talking about because we lost in the last second to that blasted team with the stars on their heads again).

The dye, I’m afraid, is cast. For the next eight long, looong months, the angst will bubble over. The drums will beat in the hills. There will be little rejoicing.

And all because of those contemptible, vexatious, noxious, pestilential (forget it, he’s rolling) Dallas Cowboys, and the vile, fiendish angels that sit on their sloped shoulders whenever they line up across from the Washington Redskins. It just ain’t right.

For the want of just one play ...

Damn those people.

Damn them all to ... um ... Abaddon.

Happy Friggin’ New Year.

:dallasuck

Happy Friggin' New Year to you too, Om. I'm surprised - you're not one to take things so badly...soon enough, 'that one play' will start to go our way. You know it, I know it. Here's to a win vs. Minnesota, and barring that, a well-managed offseason by Gibbs and Co.

Cheers, and thanks for the column.

I love the Washington Redskins!

Originally posted by SkinsFan03

Happy Friggin' New Year to you too, Om. I'm surprised - you're not one to take things so badly...soon enough, 'that one play' will start to go our way. You know it, I know it. Here's to a win vs. Minnesota, and barring that, a well-managed offseason by Gibbs and Co.

Cheers, and thanks for the column.

Rats.

I knew I should have put one of these ... ... and maybe a couple of these ... ... in there somewhere.

Didn't think I'd have to.

Friggin' Cowboys musta messed up my gestalt.

Patience is a virtue.

Good things come to those who wait.

Having read your stuff before, I knew it wasn't intended to be as dire as it read, don't worry.

And seriously, thanks for the columns. Are you going to continue them, maybe on a monthly basis, in the offseason?

Monthly? Nah, afraid you'll not get off so easy.

Gonna try to stay weekly ... or at least semi-weekly during the the dry periods in summer.

The more the better - just thought the doldrums wouldn't provide much grist for the mill.

Originally posted by Rejuvenated Canadian Hog

Patience is a virtue.

Good things come to those who wait.

:stfu: :laugh: We've patient since '97. The Spurrier win is probably the only thing holding this town from mass suicide. :laugh:

BTW, sweet article OM.

Always a pleasure to read your columns Om and this one made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Not only that, but you made me learn two new words: vexatious and pestilential. Pretty slick.

:dallasuck

Originally posted by Om

Monthly? Nah, afraid you'll not get off so easy.

Gonna try to stay weekly ... or at least semi-weekly during the the dry periods in summer.

Excellent!!!

You took the (&$(*$@($#@(#$ right out of my mouth, Om. Even though I know things will get turned around, that was a miserable loss - again - to Them. Couldn't have said it better myself!

Thanks for another great article and I'm looking forward to your articles during the off season. They always make me smile!

:dallasuck

Annie the Skins Fan

P.S. Go Skins this weekend - I am going to the game! :point2sky

I'm on the OM bandwagon! Is there anyway we can get rid of Kornheiser, and left OM write his articles. Om's yours are much better. Thanks for the words, and we're all with you and the Skins! Happy New Year!!

Om.

It's too bad it took such a colossally dread-inspiring event to bring it out of you because that was you're best yet, IMHO. REALLY good article.

That loss knocked the wind out of me and I'm still not "breathing" right. It really felt like some higher power waved it's finger over Texas Stadium and decided that Washington Redskin fans (for some reason) don't deserve to exhale yet. And it hurts.

I actually feel a physical change when I think of that TD pass. My gut tightens and a lump in my throat rises. I believe I have a reputation as a "negative" Redskin fan, but it really only comes to the surface when we play the Cowboys. I simply KNEW we were going to lose that game. I ran a thread about a week before we went into Texas about how stopping the sig bets and how Redskin fans should keep the smack-talk out of it this time because I just didn't feel like this was over. I was tired of seeing my daily compadres eat their words, NFC East opponent sigs defaming their every post for a week or two. (Or four, depending on the stubborn optimism of the fan that made the foolish bet.) The Skins just are not consistent or confident enough to warrant gambling our integrity.

The "streaks" are one thing to live with, but a loss like that DURING a streak just seems to label a team. L-O-S-E-R-S. It places a stigma upon our beloved Skins that only perpetuates itself.

I'm sure a few Cowboy fans will step into this thread to console us and a few Cowboy trolls will simply post a smiley. Truth is, they can be as bad as they've been for a decade but never have to really suffer, simply because of this run they've had over US.

I could go on for days, but hey- GREAT article, Om. It very much articulated alot of what I'm feeling as I try like a trooper to regain some respect for my B&G. It's slow-coming.

:helmet: :helmet: :helmet:

Good post OM,I'm 100% in aggreement with what you've written.

These guys continuosly leave us hanging.Sooner or later,something has to give.We can't keep coming up short and accepting it.This does suck,and I'm an optimist.

:dallasuck :eaglesuck :gaintsuck

spot on.....

extra points for the use of the word "Abaddon" (I had to look that one up)

so others don't have to look it up:

Abaddon

A Hebrew word signifying:

ruin, destruction (Job 31:12);

place of destruction; the Abyss, realm of the dead (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11);

it occurs personified (Apocalypse 9:11) as Abaddon and is rendered in Greek by Apollyon, denoting the angel-prince of hell, the minister of death and author of havoc on earth. The Vulgate renders the Greek Apollyon by the Latin Exterminans (that is, "Destroyer"). The identity of Abaddon with Asmodeus, the demon of impurity, has been asserted, but not proved.

In Job 26:6, and Proverbs 15:11, the word occurs in conjunction with Sheol.

The only thing that soften that loss was the fact that the Saints and Panthers won, eliminating the Redskins from the playoffs prior to that play. Otherwise, I would still be in mourning.

:cry::dallasuck::hammer:

"Well, #@*%&!!" summed it all up.

These hard times will make the good times to come that much sweater....

:dallasuck

Of course you all realize, we are being set up.

The stage is being set for the biggest Redskins-Cowboys game ever.

We will get to watch history, and be damn proud that we suffered through all this to get there.

Maybe it will be an NFC Championship game.

Maybe it will be a regular season game.

It may be at home, it may be away.

But the stage is set.

Om, as always, you prove so adept in putting into words what the rest of us are feeling. Don't apologize for the lack of qualifying statements in this one. It was perfect.

Unfotunately.