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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."

I know, I know, that's a terrible title. However, I've only been to one game here at the Linc, and we won. Division championship in 2015, a thing of beauty. I'm also 2-0 while writing these things. At the same time, I was at the Monday Night Massacre/McNabb's Payday, so don't get too ****y. Philly has been fun-ish. We went to Geno's to get some world famous cheesesteaks Steak-Ums. More overrated than any free agent signing we've had since, well, you know. No matter what this turns out to be, it'll be a nice break from all of the distractions off the field. #yourenotwinningoffthefieldbruce It's been something that's divided us intensely, and I'm glad that we can all agree that we're scared ****less about the ramifications of this game. A few weeks ago we are two games up, Dallas is faltering, Philly is doing poorly, and Giants gonna Giants. Now? With a loss today, we're in third place in the division. I mean, that's, ouch. Some of us can see the bright side in the deepest cavern, and others of us only see shadows while staring at the Sun (I happen to fall into the latter category). This game means everything. It's not a tone-setter, it's as Code Red as Tampa three years ago. It's definitely nice to see Thompson and Crowder back. I hope that Stroman can defend Wentz, because he's gonna get picked on all day. And that #86, you gotta cover him. As @TK said, that number is dangerous for both sides. A big problem is actually following through on that. We knew that Cooper was going to get the ball, but our safeties (I love ya, DJ, but ugh on Thanksgiving) were more like safety valves. We cannot let that happen, even once, against this Eagles team that has Sproles returning. As you've already read, Inactives: Sudfield Maddox Mills Hicks Warmack Mailata Pryor Quinn (ugh!) Dunbar Perine (forgot he was on the team) Marshall Howard Ioannidis So some hits on both sides. Both secondaries need to really bolt down to give their respective teams a chance (don't worry, I didn't tell Philly that). Oh, and then there's that Colt McCoy guy. With a non-zero number of practices with the ones, hopefully he can actually do something. With 38 minutes to go, it's not looking much better than FedEx. I even heard cheers when our boys ran out. Well, that's it for pregame unless something else happens. With 13 minutes to go, the stands are maybe half full? Nothing to Josh Norman's standards for sure. With three minutes to go, we are at about 2/3 capacity. All levels on the home side look full, but other than that it's not impressive. FIRST QUARTER 7:31 Zach Ertz with the insane false start. Except not. So touchdown. Well, looked like typical Redskins. A little help from the refs for the Eagles touchdown and then for two straight, and wasted, first downs. But Doctson did something. So at lest we have that. SECOND QUARTER McCoy hurt. Sanchez in. Peace out, season. And I'm wrong. Colt's first play after coming in, touchdown. Sanchez's first play after coming in, touchdown. Longest run in Redskins history. At 4:03 - And a fourth down stop? Sanchez with a nine-play, 40-something drive ending in three points. At the half, the team is showing some grit. Two bad calls by the refs led to 14 Philly points, the non-call on Ertz on their first touchdown and the ticky-tack roughing the passer by Stroman. Moreau looking very, very good today, which is a relief. Josh Norman needs to tackle, not strip. It's costing us yards and on the Sproles run cost us seven. Overall we're doing better than I thought we would. THIRD QUARTER Off to a bad start. McCoy out for the year. The rest of the third was also bad. Another injured lineman, down to zero reserves. Moreau injured after being awesome all game. This isn't going to end in a win for us, unfortunately. FOURTH QUARTER: And it just keeps getting worse. Sanchez, Sanchez, Sanchez. That was awful. In all ways. I don't know how it could've been worse. I'll finish this up later, emotions are too high in being too low.

Greetings humanoids. Murf & I are here in the land of perpetual sunshine, oranges, & the world famous Florida Man. What a difference a week makes. One game, one single game, completely changed the look of this then 5-2 Redskins team. Last week against the Falcons they lost nearly the entire Offensive Line. Having to scramble, the FO was signing guys off the street in order to play the Bucs. There’s lots of factors that will play into what this M.A.S.H. unit of an Offensive Line will be able to do. As Jay Gruden said earlier this week, they’re teaching these guys OTA’s, Training Camp, & Pre Season all in about 5 days. Also to consider, it that the local weather will be around the low to mid 80’s. If any of these 3 new guys didn’t bother to keep in football shape, it’ll show up pretty quickly. If dehydration starts up, they have to start recruiting dudes from the stands to run/pass block. If this feels somewhat familiar, it may be because the same situation happened last year in Seattle. Skins went in there with a make shift O Line & came out with the win at the last second thanks to D Hall having some major hops & breaking up Russell Wilson’s pass attempt in the end zone. The difference was it was raining & cold there. In Tampa, anything below 90 degrees is considered cold. Today’s matchup should be interesting either way.

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.

Greetings from yet another Thanksgiving at AT&T Stadium. Feels like this is starting to become an annual thing playing here in Dallas. Though last year the team stayed home & beat the Giants on Thanksgiving. Personally I wish the League would take off this schedule as it makes the holiday more enjoyable without having to worry about a game. And what a game this could be. The Redskins are still looking for their 600th franchise win. They also come into this one a game ahead in the Division with a chance to sweep the Cowturkeys. “Wait.” You’re saying to yourself. ‘Did he just use the word “Cowturkeys”?’ Yes. Yes I did. Think of it as a Turducken, but with red meat. Anywho, this game will also see Texas legend Colt McCoy take his first start in nearly two years due to Game Manager Alex Smith going down to injury last week & having his season ended after managing to help get the team to a 6-3 record. When McCoy took over last week, you instantly see a change in how the offense worked. They were faster. There was a sense of urgency. And McCoy gave more guys opportunities. He even gave Doctson three opportunities on go balls. While most will say McCoy just doesn’t have that canon arm that fans love to see fire off the deep ball, they’d be wrong. You see, McCoy has been building his arm back up again. He suffered a shoulder injury in the National Championship Game back in 2010 & a neck injury in 2014. During the last four seasons, he’s been following his shoulder exercises, but the team has also worked with him to compact his throwing motion. That said, with McCoy behind the wheel, the car will go faster, sound meaner, & take more off the line then the Smith driven to perfection luxury grandpa machine ever thought about doing. McCoy will get you pulled over once in a while, Smith is the guy in the right lane with the blinker on for the last five miles. Expect a ticket, maybe even a reckless driving charge from McCoy today as it’s all on the line. The franchise’s 600th win. First place in the Division. And a two game lead on that same First Place before heading into an ECW street fight in Philly next Monday night.

Good afternoon Redskins nation! I’m in beautiful Landover, MD with Spaceman Spiff who has been pulled away from Instagram models and tailgating and sent down to the field to do what he does best (roll around in the mud). Let’s get down to business... Can we block them? There are other story lines entering into this game but worrying about them feels largely academic. The Texans have two terrifying pass rushers and the Redskins intend to block them with optimism and underdog stories. Alex Smith isn’t a statue but he does take time in making decisions and getting the ball out. This combination looks disastrous. The sort of thing that has us all after the game consoling each other with things like “well, it was just a bad matchup" and “we caught them at the worst possible time.” Or... we could walk away wondering just how the heck this team managed to pull off another improbable win. Last week the gave up something like twelve thousand yards of offense to the Bucs, I’ll have to check those numbers to be sure, but only three points. That’s not supposed to happen. Maybe we can enjoy an outrageously unlikely result again. Not probably, not likely, but you know... maybe. I’m saying there’s a chance. I’m here for that chance. (and you know... the free food and climate controlled free seats) 1st Quarter Update Redskins are running their bend and break defense, and I’m not sure a little over three quarters is enough time for the Redskins offense to close a 10-point gap. I’m having flash backs of week nine, but having human emotions is considered “disruptive behavior.” I'm fine. Everything is fine. That Quinn celebration, whatever that was, was the highlight of the 1st quarter. 2nd Quarter Update Is there a better way to start a quarter than by scoring a touchdown? There is, if you follow that TD drive with a forced turnover on defense. Things are looking good! So much for that. A great start was quickly ended up canceled out by the Redskins offense. With a chance to take a lead Alex Smith throws a pick six in the red zone and takes the air out of the stadium. He followed that up by throwing another interception on the very next drive. Alex Smith almost made me forget about Vernon Davis dropping that pass. Almost. Texans missed a field goal attempt and the lead remains frozen at 10. This quarter feels like a giant blown opportunity. Halftime Update. I should have stopped at one hotdog. I deserve this. 3rd Quarter Update You know the feeling where you say and think all these bad things about a player and then he breaks his leg and you immediately feel bad about it? I live there now. Colt McCoy has freed me from that place of sadness! As much as I love this defense, they have to start forcing teams to punt at some point. Is there a stat for defense tha thas forced the fewest punts? We have to be near the top of that list. Texans have punted just once today. Holding them to three was good, though. The lead is down to six and Colt McCoy has arrived to save us. (Please let that be true.) Personal Note: Someone just stomped, loudly, out of the press area like a while muttering at his phone. Laughter and comparisons to toddlers followed him. The media's laugh is an evil laugh! Good times. 4th Quarter Update Colt has brought us back. Welcome to the first lead change of the season, Redskins fans. You like that?! (Yeesh, was that always so lame?) I guess you could say Adrian Peterson contributed by actually scoring the touchdown. I bet Colt told him to score though, so you have to factor leadership into things. Once again, the defense cannot force a punt, hard to feel great about holding a team to a field goal when that field goal gives them the lead in the 4th quarter Remember that whole "can we block them" thing? The answer was absolutely not on the Redskins 2nd drive of the 4th quarter. Watt and Clowney each sacked our man Colt, and ended that drive before it really had a chance to begin. Horrible, no good, very bad holding called on Norman gifting Houston a first down at the worst possible time for it. Colt chooses to throw deep at an inopportune moment resulting in a 60+ yard attempt for an injured kicker. Heartbreaking end to a game that cost this team entirely too much (via injury) yet still seemed to be within reach several times. I'm off to the post game press conference and locker room, check back later for updates. Final Thoughts I’ve always found it preferable to watch my favorite team simply get destroyed, than to feel that they were the better team and still managed to lose. The Redskins gave this game away with mistakes in the 2nd quarter. Fred Davis makes a routine catch and Alex Smith doesn’t throw a pick six, and the scoreboard shows at least 7 fewer points for the Texans. Even if the Redskins had settled for field goals, that’s a 13 point swing in 2 point game. Losing the game wasn’t even the worst part. Losing Alex Smith, for at least the remainder of the season, is likely enough to push the Redskins past the point where they can continue toughing their way through key injuries. We'll all feel better after a win against the Cowboys next week.