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In today's Divisional Debacle, the Defense under Greg Manusky in the first half, gave up 207 yards of offense (105 rushing/102 passing) and two touchdowns. That said, they did manage a single INT on which the Offense actually managed to score a touchdown off of. They allowed 12 of 16 passes to be completed . In the second half it was 107 yards given up (58 rushing//49 passing) a field goal and a touchdown. They traded their first half pick for a second half sack. However, Dallas completed all five of their pass attempts. Don't read that thinking "Well it seems like they tightened up some in the 2nd half." They didn't. They simply had about half the plays in the second half. 30 plays in the First and 18 in the Second. So far in two Divisional matchups, the Defense has faltered in the Second half. They start out like a house of fire for the first few drives until their opponents gradually make adjustments. This Defensive coaching staff fails make any adjustments, whether in game or at the very least at Halftime. They've given up over 30 points per game for a total of 63 points given up in two games. While the Bears are up next, the Pats await and they've put up over 70 points in two games. Yeah. Ok. They did shut out the Dolphins today which is looking like the NFL version of ... ahem... shooting fish in a barrel. The frustrating thing is Manusky is the DC that the Front Office actively looked to replace during the off season without firing him. When you know they're looking to replace you, most people would make a concentrated effort to show an improvement. Yet Manusky's Defense still keeps acting like it's starring in Groundhog Day. In his post game presser, when asked directly about if any coaching changes would be made, Gruden said "No, I think after two games – you’re talking about playing two very good offensive football teams and two of the best offensive lines in pro football we just played back-to-back. That’s no excuse whatsoever, but I don’t think we need to hit the panic button yet. We just have to continue to focus on what we can do better to win. Get Jonathan [Allen] in here, get a couple of our corners back in here and let’s go back and strap it up against Chicago [Bears] next week and see what happens.” Here's another frustrating thing. The defensive communication was an issue last season as well. Wasn't this supposed to have been worked on during OTA's and Training Camp? It's understandable that the rookies would still be on a learning curve, but NFL vets like Collins and DRC you'd think they would have down by the start of the season. Gruden said they're a very talented group on Defense but that they weren't reaching them. When questioned as to why the coaching staff that has been in place for several years, wasn't reaching them, he defended the comment as them being a young defense. “We have some moving parts now. Landon Collins is a veteran guy but this is his first year, [Montez] Sweat’s in his first year, [Cole] Holcomb, it’s his first year, [Jon] Bostic is in his first year. We’re playing Dominique [Rodgers-Cromartie] at corner and this is Jimmy Moreland’s first year, so it’s not like we are the most experienced group. We feel like were very talented, but we`re still fighting through somethings. There are a lot of things to look forward to, without a doubt, but we do have to play better and strap it up and get back to work."

We’re still doing this? Absolutely! Despite all the compelling reasons to just let everyone go home and enjoy and extended offseason, this is not an option. The games must be played, and therefore we the long-suffering fans will feel compelled to watch. Even games no reasonable football fan would choose to watch like, for example, today’s Redskins Jets game. Today’s convergence of sadness features the 30th ranked scoring offense (Jets 14.4 ppg) versus the 32nd (Redskins 12.0 ppg). The first team to 15 wins! With no playoff aspirations the compelling story lines for this game are largely limited to watching young players (hopefully) develop. Dwayne Haskins gets his first home start and Derrius Guice is back from injury. My, reasonable, goals for today’s game: 1- Score a touchdown 2- Score more than 17 points. 3- Haskins throws for 200 yards or more with no interceptions 4- Guice runs the ball at least 10 times and finishes at 3.5 yards per carry and healthy. Hoping for a win at this point feels like setting myself up for disappointment, so I’m happy to settle for an entertaining loss. Special thanks to @pez for some excellent Guinness beef stew. If you absolutely have to stand in a frozen parking lot at 9am, the best place to do it is at the Extremeskins Tailgate with Pez and @Huly. Great fans, great people. The Redskins have declared for the following players as inactive: Paul Richardson Colt McCoy Deshazor Everett Chris Thompson Ross Pierschbacher Vernon Davis Tim Settle The Jets declared the following players as inactive Nate Hairston Darryl Roberts Paul Worrilow Matthias Farley CJ Mosley Jordan Willis Leo Koloamatangi 1st Quarter - Redskins 0 - 6 Jets If you wanted to sit in the cold and watch a football game with some Jets fans at FedEx, but were worried that there were not enough seats available, I have good news. There’s plenty of space available, so come on down and prove you’re a real fan by sitting though this in person. Jets dominated the 1st quarter even though they only scored 6 points. The reason being that Washington managed only 13 yards of offense and a single first down. Question: Is it still a check down pass if the QB never looks at anyone else? 2nd Quarter - Redskins 3 - 20 Jets The Jets have achieved an insurmountable 13 point lead early in the 2nd quarter. All hope is lost. Is there a more perfect example of the Redskins offense than their first scoring drive in the 2nd quarter? Interception gives the Redskins the ball on the Jets 16 yard line. They proceed to march 10 yards backwards before kicking a field goal from the Jets 26. It's perfect. Two or three more field goals we can call it a day. The Jets score again and if feels like they are are just piling on at this point. Three touchdowns in the first half for them, just three points for the redskins. Our streak of no touchdowns has now extended to 15 quarters. 3rd Quarter - Redskins 3 - 20 Jets There is a spider slowly descending from the ceiling in the press box and it's the most interesting thing that's happened during the third quarter of this game. I have decided to allow the spider to live, provided it does not touch me. I'm off to get some more caffeine. 4th Quarter - Redskins 17 - 34 Jets The first wave of Redskins fans, the few that are here, started streaming towards the exits after that 4th Jets touchdown. As if the Jets didn't have this game wrapped up in the 2nd quarter. Jet have now more than doubled their average points per game and have matched their season high of 34 points (and they missed two field goals in this game). TOUCHDOWN REDSKINS! THE DROUGHT IT OVER! Guice took a short pass from Haskins all the way to the house. 2 point conversion is successful on a pass from Haskins to Quinn. The Redskins score another touchdown! This feels like an embarrassment of riches, even if we are still certain to lose this game. End of Game. Let's review those reasonable goals I mentioned earlier: 1- Success. 2- Close enough, I'm counting it 3- Haskins did throw for over 200, but unfortunately did have an interception. 4- Guice was not given the opportunity to run the ball ten times today. He did however score on a 45 yard TD pass and finish the game healthy. I'll take it. Even though the Redskins lost, it was good to see the offense show some faint signs of life and end the streak of games without a TD. The team looked competitive for much of the second half, and perhaps they could have made this a fun game if they carried that same energy throughout. It was good to see Guice and Mclaurin show out today. I think both of them have a future with this team that I look forward to seeing.

Good afternoon Redskins fans! I have once again been invited to sit in the relative comfort of the press box and shout my thoughts into the void via this blog. As you watch the game today and see the rain pour relentlessly from the heavens, know that I am safe and dry. Know also that @Spaceman Spiff is out there somewhere, cold and unappreciated, rolling around in the muck trying to capture that perfect picture. Maybe say a little prayer for his health (or laugh, whatever, I’m not judging you). Also, be sure not to miss the pictures he posts on this site after each game. Before we get into today's Redskins game, I want give some thanks for more positive occurrences in DC sports. Congrats to the Washington Mystics for winning their first championship. Congrats go out to the Washington Nationals as well for reaching the world series. These two teams (along with the Caps) are working hard to change the sports related mood around this town, and we're all happier for it. Lets move now into less cheerful topics, namely your Washington Redskins! Yow know things are going bad, and I mean really dang bad, when your team has gone through three quarterbacks and two coaches and your not even half way through the season. Today's fresh hell comes in the form of a specter of the our recent past coming to smirk at our misfortune. Im talking of course of Kyle. Kyle's spent the week assuring everyone that he isn’t holding a grudge, while very obviously holding a grudge. “Everything else.” You know what I’m talking about. If all he brought to town were his hurt feelings we wouldn’t have a problem. Sadly, he’s arrived with an undefeated football team that the NFL says we have to play this week. This feels entirely unfair. My generic key to the game: Run the ball and stop the run. The team (spoiler alert: 49ers) that does this today will win. Redskins Inactives QB Colt McCoy S Deshazor Everett CB Josh Norman RB Chris THompson LB Josh Harvey-Clemons G Wes Martin TE Vernon Davis 49ers inactives QB CJ Beathard WR Deebo Samuel CB Ahkello Witherspoon FB Kyle Juszczyk T Mike McGLinchey T Joe Staley DL DJ Jones 1st Quarter Update Redskins 0 – 0 49ers Callahan wasn’t playing around when he said he wanted to run the ball. That first drive was all runs, and looked great... right up until they tried to pass the ball. Hopkins missed the relatively short fied goal, because of course he did. Maybe Quinn isn’t a good choice to be returning punts? Consider it. That second Redskins drive looked more like what we’ve come to expect from this offense. Run for negative yards, pass dropped, and an unsuccessful screen pass. A quintessential Redskins three and out. Passing yards this quarter: Redskins 3. 49ers 9. Are you not entertained?! Half Time Update Redskins 0 – 0 49ers How happy are you to spend your Sunday afternoon watching this game? Consider that some people paid money, to sit in a poncho, in the rain, to watch this game. It’s now time for those half time adjustments that our beloved skins do so well. It’s unlikely the second half mirrors the first. 3rd Quarter Update Redskins 0 – 3 49ers Good news, this game will not end in a 0-0 tie. Those half time adjustments have kicked in as expected and the 49ers have found a way onto the scoreboard in this messy throwback game. The Redskins have decided to spend the second half collecting holding penalties and sadness. Mercifully, only one quarter remains. End of Game Update Redskins 0 – 9 49ers Callahan hasn’t spent much time as the head coach of the Washington Redskins, but he’s already proven that his team can waste 2nd half timeouts like a veteran. It makes little sense to adopt a strategy that shortens the game when your team is losing, and it makes even less sense when your team is short on time outs. I’m not really sure what the thinking as late in this game. Next week Kirk Cousins!

I'm sitting here in the press box with a personal conflict. I want us to win, yes. But I want us to win a Super Bowl. This year, unless we have a Gibbs-like turnaround or 2012 going from 3-6 to 10-6, ain't that year. We had high hopes out of the gate, the offseason seemed to be drama-free for the most part, it looks like we got something special in Scary Terry, and for the most part the draft seemed serviceable at least. Of course we started off with our starter-by-salary-only hurt, but at least we had McCoy with the steady hand. Oh, wait, he's still hurt? Um, okay, who do we have now? Keenum? Wasn't he in Minny and replaced by the other guy who used to be wearing number 8 here? Uh, okay, I guess that's fine. Colt will be back any minute now, right? Oh, that's a negative, too. Well, we have that Haskins guy we drafted, but we'll sit him like the Jags and Giants are doing with their rookies. More on that in a minute. Then we have Williams holding out, us refusing to trade him for a ship ton of picks like Miami did, while he takes up the cap. Reed gets hurt because why not and then we sign a couple of placeholders while our next big homegrown signing in, number 75, starts playing at 75% and then gets injured because, again, why not? I'll change my name to Francis so that I can be frank: This ain't going well. Everything was fantastic when we were up 17-0 against Philly in their house, and it's just been a steady trajectory of suck since then. With rumors swirling about this game potentially being the last straw for Gruden, it's not going well. And on the other sideline? All those LOL's at taking Jones at #6 have turned into quite chortles while our rookie sits behind a five-turnover game by the new guy. Our coach is making excuses that our team has new players, which is the same for 31 other teams, and that we've got to execute. The Giants, though, benched a two-time Super Bowl MVP (in case you weren't sick to your stomach by this team already) in order to start Daniel Ten Cents or whatever they're calling him. Their alleged once-in-a-generation running back goes down, and now they look better than ever. What do we do? Have our once-in-a-draft running back get injured while our Hall of Fame back, um, sits? I mean Thompson's on my fantasy team so there's some selfish plus to that, but, okay? And of course injury bug. So, this comes back to the conflict between the angel and devil on my shoulders. Do we win today and really make a run at it, going 16-3 to win the Super Bowl? Nah, the brownie I ate wasn't the special type, so I don't see that happening. But do we want to beat the Giants just because Giants? I guess. But something that this team has really robbed of us is any real hope, replaced by a passionate apathy and a team logo of shoulder shrugs. So, we'll see. Nobody's gotten hurt at warm ups so far, so we've got that going for us. Let's see if anything else gets going today. INACTIVES: McCoy McLaurin (replaced with Harmon) Colvin McKinzy Roullier (replaced by Bergstrom at center) Scherff (replaced by Martin at right guard) Reed (Obviously Vernon Davis at TE) This does mean that Robert Davis is active and Dwayne Haskins is our #2. If Keenum plays like he did last week, then be ready to see Haskins on the field. Fun note: If Haskins takes any snaps today, then he will be the SIXTH quarterback since November 2018: 1) Smith 2) McCoy 3) Sanchez 4) Johnson 5) Keenum Fifteen minutes until kickoff, and we had no visible injuries during warm-ups. Woot. FIRST QUARTER: Let the stupid begin. Stupid pass on that pick, RIDICULOUS decision to not decline the hold leads to a first down for NY at the 19. And we're five minutes in and we've already had a pick, a dumb call to accept a failed third down, and given up a touchdown due to a miscommunication. More self-inflicted BS. The Giants dominated that quarter as we had ten or fewer plays from scrimmage. Atrocious start, and the trajectory isn't pointing up. SECOND QUARTER: Let's see if we get a different result. Keep in mind this drive started at their six, and at the beginning of the quarter, they're on our 44. And at 12:01 left in the half, touchdown. An unbelievable amount of stupid in penalties. No update on Norman yet. Norman back. Hell of a hit by Settle and a pick by Dunbar at the 8:17 mark. And the Haskins era begins at 6:35 left in the half. Haskins with four good minutes, including that 14-yard scramble, rookie miss to Davis. END OF THE HALF: Well, this looks pretty bad. Having the spark with Haskins was good, and he's already out-playing Keenum. Unfortunately that's like being the tallest of the Seven Dwarves, but he was pretty okay. Nobody expected him to light it up. When it comes to the defense, we've got two picks on Daniel Jesus, but we keep extending drives and they're destroying us on TOP. The biggest problem? Penalties, specifically holds in the secondary. It still doesn't feel like a win is coming, but it feels like maybe the tide is turning with the team. Hopefully we will be able to play a little less stupidly and we'll see what that brings. Still doesn't feel like we're doing too much right to outweigh the dumbass mistakes. Let's hope that Haskins lights it up once we get the ball back. Giants receive at the half. THIRD QUARTER: Well, Haskins threw his first TD pass, just to the wrong team. We continue to have an ungodly amount of flags. Stupid, stupid flags. I feel like they can just take the burgundy out of our uniforms and just keep the gold, since that's the only impact we're having today. Haskins is not lighting it up like Jones did, but folks, remember that this is how a rookie typically plays. FOURTH QUARTER: And with pick and loss number 4, we're out. The battle for Tua begins Week 6. ____________________________________________________________ Well, here's at least something good with some of the fans here in Not New York. And that's @TK giving the finger to this stadium so I have permission. #dontbanme There were quite a few out there tailgating at about 9:00 (they open the gates at 8:00), probably twice as many as there were on Monday Night since, you know, nobody not wearing a Bears jersey was there after halftime.