kleese

Haven't played in years, but my 9 year old son wants in a league-- he's like his old man so he's only interested if it's a league with at least a little skin in the game/buy in with payouts for the winner(s). If anyone has a league looking for more shoot me a PM. Thanks

23 days until we kickoff against the Chargers Today we dial it back to the glorious 1991 season— when I hear the #23 only one score comes to mind… Monday, September 30th at RFK Redskins 23, Eagles 0 Before I dive into it, there is an important note. Randall Cunningham tore his ACL against the Packers week one. Philly defense is 91 was phenomenal. A dominant unit. But they had NOTHING behind Randall and his injury cost them big time that year. As a matter of fact, had he been healthy, I think the likely would have been the second best team in the NFC that year. We came into the game 4-0, having shutout our previous two home opponents. Eagles were 3-1 despite losing Randall. Such fond memories of 1991 and that time in my life. I had turned 14 a few weeks earlier. I was in 8th grade. Played nose guard on our school team. There was absolutely nothing in my way of being an obsessed fan. I went to school, played football, hung out with friends— weekends wide open and Sundays off limits. My had a rec room upstairs in the house I lived in at the time. I had a small TV in the room, video games, etc. I was so content in that small space. Normally, I watched the games on the “big” TV downstairs, but would occasionally be banished to the upstairs TV if my Mom or Dad wanted to watch something else. I often wound up watching the night games up there. That was the case on this night.. watched solo in the rec room. Jim McMahon started at QB for Philly, but didn’t last long. Pat Ryan came in and was a total disaster. What happened that night at RFK was always what I imagined what would happen if an NFL defense faced a college offense. It wasn’t just domination. It was shocking. The Eagles tallied a grand total of 89 yards of offense for the night. I’m pretty sure a decent amount of those yards came in the fourth quarter. They had net 35 yards passing with three INTs. 4 total first downs. It was wild. Our offense was fine, but the Philly D had no chance with their offense being so inept. It wasn’t petty for us offensively, but we moved it enough. It was only 10-0 at half and 13-0 at the end of three, but I was never nervous. Eagles weren’t crossing the 50, much less scoring. I believe to this day it remains the most dominating defensive performance by the Redskins that I’ve ever seen. First three home games to start the season— 0 points given up. Remarkable.

The 1987 game at Miami is a blind spot for me. Almost zero recollection which is really odd because it was a National TV game and back then that was always a big deal for me living out of market. Nice find!

24 days until we kickoff against the Chargers… Going super random on this one… November 23rd, 2003 Sunday Night Football at Miami Dolphins 24, Redskins 23 First of all, it should be noted that this was right before the league changed the MO in relation to Sunday and Monday Night Football. In 2003, SNF was still generally mid-card level games while MNF got the more marquee match-ups. It shifted shortly after. I chose this game because this loss always bothered me to an odd level. It was year two of Spurrier. We were 4-6 entering the game. The Dolphins were 6-4. There was no real reason to be excited about this, but I do remember thinking it was our “desperation” game that season. If we won, we would have kept some playoff hopes alive. A loss and we were more or less toast. Even though I’d pretty much lost faith in Spurrier at that point already, I imagine I was still hopeful that a great finish to the season might validate his hiring (I was big fan of the hire when it went down). We played really well that night for three and a half quarters— or we are least didn’t screw it up for the first three and a half quarters. Tim Hasslebeck took the majority of the snaps that night. He was NOT good at all, but this was the one game I recall that he actually made some plays. After giving up a long TD early we went on a 20-0 run and wound up leading 20-10 at the half. Brian Griese was helping us out by having a terrible game for the Dolphins. In the third quarter, we put a drive together, but couldn’t punch it in from about the 5. We settled for a FG and entered the fourth leading 23-10. I remember thinking, “we are probably gonna lose this game 24-23.” Failure to punch that last drive into the end zone was inevitably going to cost us. Dolphins pulled Griese in favor of Jay Fiedler and he gave Miami just enough boost to start moving the ball. We had bottled up Ricky Williams pretty good all night, but he started getting going in the fourth. He scored a TD to make it 23-17 and that’s when it really started feeling shaky. After failing on another drive, Williams broke lose for a 24 yard TD run and Miami took the one point lead. I honestly do not recall the last 4:00 of that game or if we had any real chance to get down for the go-ahead score. Feel like if anything really significant happened I would have remembered. What I do remember is shutting off the TV that night and feeling pretty depressed about the game and where we were as a franchise overall. No progress made from 2002. Another lost season and it looked like Spurrier was in over his head/out of his element. I just recall being very bummed over that loss and frustrated that they couldn’t even give me one semi nice win the week of Thanksgiving to at least keep things interesting. Obviously when you look at those rosters it’s probably a mini miracle we even had four wins— maybe Spurrier was actually a decent coach and just a horrid talent evaluator? But for whatever reason, when I think “24” that mundane, relatively meaningless mid-season game in a lost year in Miami comes to mind.

25 days until we kickoff against the Chargers… Today we go back to December 9th, 1990 in Foxboro. Redskins 25, Patriots 10 This may be the worst weather game we’ve ever played. It rained the entirety of the game, and it rained HARD. It was also cold and windy as you’d imagine it would be on a rainy day in Boston in December. This was also back when the NFL would have 1-2 Saturday games once the college slate ended. This one was a 3:00 kickoff. It might be hard to imagine, but there was a time when the Patriots were BAD. Like, REALLY bad. The 1990 Patriots entered this game at 1-12. Terrible team. So, terrible team and absolutely horrendous weather conditions led to perhaps the most sparsely attended NFL game I can ever recall. Place was empty. This was also back in the days of real AstroTurf… so when it got wet, it was like an ice rink. For the Redskins, clinching a playoff berth was on the line— they’d missed the playoffs in 1988 and 1989– back then, that felt like forever. So I remember being excited to hopefully see us get back— The game itself felt like a formality, but you never know with a weather game like that what might happen. Well, what happened was we took a 9-0 lead before we even took one snap on offense. Kurt Gouveia ran back a fumble for a TD and then we got a safety when the Pats snapped the ball out of the end zone. This was all less than 3:00 minutes into the game. Honestly, we basically tried to run out the clock for the remaining 57:00 minutes. Rypien completed FIVE passes on the day. Three to Sanders and two to Monk. That was it. Byner carried the ball 39 times. No one else had more than 2 carries. We took a 19-0 lead into Halftime. Patriots finally got on the board in the third, but never truly threatened. The second half was a boring slog, just bleeding the clock down. Final 25-10. Watched the game at home and was able to rest easy after our clinching win. Earlier that day, the Giants lost in Buffalo (SB preview) in a great game. We knew it was wild card time for us from there on out. A mundane, boring, methodical victory… 31 years ago, but due to the slip n slide conditions, it’s a game I’ve always remembered well.

I have very little to offer this world… one thing I can offer is a steel trap-like memory for things that don’t matter My wife will confirm this. For whatever reason, I’ve always been able to recall details from things that mattered to me. I’m able to remember where I was, what I was doing, who I was with, etc… when it comes to the vast majority of sporting events I’ve cared about over the years. It’s the same with pop culture- movies, music, TV shows… I am good at remembering what year something came out, order of sequence, etc. Now, this does NOT extend to a Rain Man-like recall of math or numbers or anything like that at all. Again, it’s really just nonsense that I remember. So, for the most part I do this from memory. I then use Pro Football Reference to hammer down the details. For example, in the Bears example above, I absolutely remembered the game, the final score, where I was… I remembered the Big Daddy TD happened early in the game. I did NOT remember it was exactly 88 yards— so I got that detail from PFR. I am also less sharp the more RECENTLY it happened, which is weird. I can EASILY rattle off every Super Bowl match up, winner, MVP for the first 35 or so Super Bowls. Almost zero hesitation if you give me the year, I can tell you all the info. For the last 20 years, I have to work much harder to pull it. I’ll get there without cheating, but I will need to dig down to get it and it’s not on the top of my mind like the older games. If you say, 1979… the Steelers beating the Rams immediately comes into my mind with John Stallworth smoking the Rams (I was two years old at the time so obviously I’m remembering NFL Films). If you say 2016, I hesitate. I’ll ask myself, wait, was that the Patriots or Eagles or was it the Falcons choke? It will take me a minute before I land on the right one after I go through it in my head.

26 Days until kickoff vs the Chargers…. Let’s take a look at a 26 point victory that took place on Halloween Day, 1999. Redskins 48, Bears 22 (26 point victory) Yesterday we looked at one of the more underrated teams in franchise history (1986); today we visit the opposite- the overrated 1999 team. 1999 started with a bang… the heartbreaking opening day loss to Dallas didn’t erase now explosive our offense was that day. As a matter of fact, through four games to start the season we were averaging over 37 points per game. Brad Johnson was on fire and we looked unstoppable offensively. Seems many forget that over the second half of the season, we cooled considerably, as did our QB. We also went 10-6 without beating any teams above .500 until week 17 in a meaningless game against the Dolphins. 1999 saw TWO 8-8 teams make the playoffs in the NFC— it was a down year and every time we had a chance to really make a move and earn home field and/or a bye in the playoffs, we failed to get the job done. That said, the offense was still rolling on Halloween… and things certainly didn’t slow down that day. Bright sunny early afternoon kickoff at FedEx. 1999 was also my first year with Sunday Ticket. I was in my senior year (my first senior year I should say) at OU in Norman, living off campus in a rent house with two good friends. 1999 was such a great year for me personally. I’m also a big Reds fan and it was a magical summer in Cincinnati. I’d also met my future wife in Feb and by October we were an item for sure. Very few stresses, almost no responsibility, living in a place I loved with good friends all in the same boat. It was glorious. Despite my take that the 1999 team was overrated, I certainly ENJOYED that team and that season. The game itself was over quickly. The most memorable highlight was Big Daddy Wilkinson taking an INT 88 yards to the house. Darrell Green ran him down at about the 50 and escorted him unscathed to the end zone. It was one of four INTs on the day for the Bears QBs. Stephen Davis only carried the ball times, but still went for 142 yards. It was 31-0 at the half and 45-0 midway through the third. I recall being mildly annoyed that Cade McNown came in for the Bears and led them to three late TD drives. Also remember thinking McNown was gonna be really good. Oops. The win moved us to 5-2 on the year and it looked like we had a special season on our hands.

Milot was right in the middle of the greatest single moment in franchise history (1:45 mark of video). RIP.

That’s one of those weird things where it depends on how you count it. I generally don’t count the day it lands on. So the day before is the final day.. how many full days until kickoff… I don’t count the kickoff day. Guess it just depends on how you interpret.

Trying something a little different with my franchise history based threads…. gonna do a daily countdown leading up to the opener against the Chargers. Each day I’ll focus on a number significant to that day. Going to start with margin of victory and see how far I can get. So, here we go… 27 days until we kickoff against the Chargers... Sunday, November 23rd, 1986: Redskins 41, Cowboys 14 (27 point victory) I will always maintain that the 1986 Redskins were the third best team of my lifetime (born in 1977). I would rank this team AHEAD of two teams that WON the Super Bowl (1982, 1987) and behind only the 1991 and 1983 teams. We were awesome in 1986. Jay Schroeder had one of the best seasons at QB in team history— an oft forgotten season of brilliance. Unfortunately the Giants were in our way in 86 and we just couldn’t quite figure them out. I actually believe we were the second best team in the league in 1986 and we would have beaten the Broncos (or the Browns) in the SB. Alas, NYG weren’t going to be stopped that year. Heading into this game at RFK, we sat at 9-2 while Dallas entered at 7-4. We started the season 5-0, but got absolutely drilled in Dallas week 6, losing 30-6. In week 12, we had a chance to avenge that defeat and essentially end any hopes for Dallas of catching us in the standings. Back in the old days, the late games didn’t have the staggered start times. Not 4:05 or 4:25 kickoffs. All of the late games were 4:00 sharp. I grew up in Tulsa and the Cowboys were our” home” team, which meant we got them on TV every week. This was before the days of Sunday Ticket of course so you were dependent on your local carriers only. Luckily, because interest in the NFCE was high where I lived and because we were always so good, a decent number of our games were on local TV throughout the 80’s. But those firm 3:00 kickoffs sometimes bit you because they would almost always stay with the early game until it ended. On this day, I do not recall what the early game was, but I distinctly remember that CBS got to our game well after it started. One reason I remember this is because right as the game switched over, Clint Didier caught a long TD pass from Schroeder down the sideline to put us up 14-0. It may have even cut in during that play in progress. I can see it like yesterday, so excited the game finally switched over and there goes Didier for the TD. Also gotta remember no score bug back then, so it wasn’t until after the PAT that I realized it was already 14-0. Things got better from there. Gary Clark had a huge day and Schroeder made the most of his 16 completions— totaling 325 yards. It was 34-0 at the half. Dallas made no real push in the second half and we took the air out of the ball and won easily, 41-14. I don’t recall if that game officially clinched a playoff berth for us, but I do remember that after that win, I knew we were in and I knew we were a threat. I was also just 9 years old and I thought we were going to win every game and win the SB every year. But even in hindsight, I believe the 1986 team/season is criminally under appreciated by the fanbase. That game at RFK, late afternoon, under the lights, dominating Dallas… a highlight of a season full of them.

Very sad to hear this; RIP and condolences to his friends and family. I’ve made it to one ES tailgate in my life— Eagles game in 2011. Took my Dad. We had an absolute blast. It was a decade ago and that day was a whirlwind of meeting so many people from this board… I am 90% sure I met Kaos as he looks very familiar and I certainly remember him from the boards. If I’m remembering correctly, my brief interaction with him, certainly seemed like a great guy. Someone gave us some apple pie shine that day (first time I’d ever had it). All in all a great time. Again, condolences to those that knew him well.

They are still pretty reluctant to move a game unless it’s just a total and obvious dog. That becomes even less likely if the game includes one of the 4-5 top marquee draws like Cowboys, Steelers, etc.

Actually, SNF games are rarely flexed. And SNF games involving Dallas are almost never flexed. That’s probably a case where both teams would have to be totally out of contention late in year.

Sounds like at Buffalo week 3

Well, the home/away is already determined so that WILL be how it shakes out.

Here is my Mock: I think the league/networks are going to view us a "safe" bet this year in terms of national windows. I don't think we will be plastered on the national schedule, but we will make plenty of prominent appearances-- schedule boasts a lot of marquee franchises and we know that the NFCE games are always valued when making the schedule. I want to say the most I've ever gotten exactly right in a given year was 3 (exact date/time). I've also gotten some National Games correct here and there although not always in the right slot. Here goes: Sunday, September 12th: at Giants (1:00) Sunday, September 19th: Saints (1:00) Monday, September 27th: at Cowboys (8:20) Sunday, October 3rd: Chargers (1:00) Sunday, October 10th: Bucs (8:20) Sunday, October 17th: at Broncos (4:05) BYE Sunday, October 31st: at Eagles (1:00) Sunday, November 7th: Seahawks (1:00) Thursday, November 11th: at Panthers (8:20) Sunday, November 21st: Chiefs (4:25) Monday, November 29th: at Bills (8:20) Sunday, December 5th: Eagles (1:00) Sunday, December 12th: at Raiders (4:25) Sunday, December 19th: Cowboys (8:20) Sunday, December 26th: at Falcons (1:00) Sunday, January 2nd: at Packers (1:00) Sunday, January 9th: Giants (1:00) *small edit based on the week 1 rumor

I am SUCH a fan of this signing. Mainly because it’s a very honest and transparent move for all parties. No one is force feeding Fitz as some sort of long term solution. No one saying we can now shelve the QB position beyond 2021. We know they took a legit shot at Stafford. I imagine they explored some other options that would have resulted in a more stable future at the position. But it didn’t come together. So rather than try and cram someone like Trubisky or Mariota or Darnold in there on the faint hope that there is still an elite player living in there, the team went with a known entity that has had recent success. He is also a ZERO risk in terms of team character, etc. No delusions here. Even for me, as a fan of this, I understand we haven’t “solved” anything. What we’ve done is brought in a HIGHLY competent and capable NFL starter while we continue to build the roster and culture. If the team is good around him, Fitz will NOT hold them back. Hold them back from the Super Bowl? Sure, maybe. But he won’t stunt development and in many cases he may very well help in that department— our young skill players are for sure going to get chances. No worries about our offense being check down city now. And he’s FUN. That never hurts. Fun, exciting, likable. I mean, that isn’t going to hurt anything. Super easy to root for no doubt. And yeah, there is 5-10% of me that wonders if maybe Fitz is the kind of guy that has been building a storybook ending. Maybe he will finally be on a roster that is legit good and has playoff hope AND one that hasn’t already committed a high pick sitting behind him. Maybe this will be his chance to really grab the reins of a team that can legit win. I mean if we can go 7-9 with our QB situation last year, I know we can be in that 9/10 win range with Fitz assuming rest of roster improves incrementally. To me, the hope here is that in 2021 the roster and culture really come together and Fitz helps keep things in order. Even if it’s clear we need to go next level at QB, he can hold fort down for a season. And then maybe in 2022 it becomes crystal clear what we need and we can dedicate all resources to getting it. I am fully on board with this.

The first place schedule thing is vastly overrated. We have very little disadvantage on the schedule as opposed to say, Philly who finished last. All NFCE teams play the AFC West and NFC South next year— home/away is pretty determined in rotating basis. So 14 of the 16 (or 17) games on our schedule next year were locked in regardless of where we finished. The standings only determine 2 (and probably 3 now) games. We get the Seahawks at home and Packers on the road based on how we finished. But the Giants play the Rams and Cowboys play the Cardinals and Eagles play 49ers based on same criteria— and honestly it’s entirely possibly that our game against Seattle is the easiest of those match ups next year. Assuming the league goes to 17 games, we get Buffalo— not yet determined where. A tough game for sure. But the Giants will play Miami, and who knows, maybe they will be equal to or better than Buffalo next year. I’d also expect NE to be better as well and they will play Dallas. So for me, there is no hand-wringing over the schedule. We will for sure be placed more prominently next year. I bet we are back on SNF at least once, will probably get 1-2 MNF games, the standard Thursday game and likely be the late featured game at least once or twice. We won’t be all over the National schedule or anything, but certainly more than the past few years. And if we were to land a top veteran QB, that could increase as well.

Dungy was still there in 1999

Difference for me was that I felt Gruden more or less got out of his team what was there. He didn’t get any EXTRA, but under Jay we were actually pretty good in games against teams similar or worse than us. We just never were able to elevate against better teams. I also don’t think we “blew” many games under Jay. Under Norv we just had such a hard time doing the easy stuff— like beating the Cardinals when they were awful or closing out a late lead. Norv was just always so close to breaking through and we just never could figure out how to get out of our own way.

It’s funny, Mosley was considered THE money kicker of the early to mid 80’s, but judged against today’s kicker standards he wouldn’t even be in the league. His career FG % was about 65% and he had a number of years sub 62%. As a comparison Dustin Hopkins currently sits at 85% for his career and I think most of us would term him as average to slightly above average. And by the way, Mosley career from 50+ he was 12-42. Like you said, Tampa was DONE. I have no idea how that defense of ours was smothering them so, but they were. All we had to do was not mess it up. Hallmark of the Norv era though; something seemingly in hand unravels after the slightest slip. We saw that story more than once. Of course there was also the customary horrendous luck— the sack of Shaun King on third down results in a fumble, which Warrick Dunn scoops up and converts a first down. Not that I remember...

One of the dumbest/worst plays in my history as a fan. He blew that game.

For me the point isn’t that Cooke and Casserly and a Norv somehow “screwed” Snyder by leaving a mess. Even if it was the worst situation in NFL history a good owner would have figured it out in a shade less than 21 years. Even an average owner would have likely stumbled on some moderate success over that time. In now way is talking about 1993-1999 a “defense” of Snyder’s tenure. It’s been an F. There is no other way to put it. The reason I point out our organizational failures is to illustrate two main points: 1. The initial post-Gibbs era was a total failure and that is NOT on Snyder. As illustrated in this thread JKC and Casserly swung and miss wildly on coaching hires and the draft during this era. Norv was a great offensive mind and a poor head coach. He could tantalize a bit and we certainly had reasonable chances to win/make playoffs under his leadership, but continually found ways to screw it up. It went on so long that I do think this constitutes an “era” of Redskins football— and it was a bad one. Just as bad (and in some cases worse) than what Snyder has produced. 1996-1997 remain the two most frustrating years of my fandom. So simply in the history books, that era stands alone for me a lost time for the franchise and it was all before Snyder arrived. 2. Snyder took over a bad situation. We got lucky in 1999, but we also used major draft capital to get there. The NFC was horrendous that season and we took advantage. We actually made smart moves in the off-season to improve our deficiencies but couldn’t overcome the Norv factor in 2000. So the ship was kind of rudderless at that point; we had an old roster with very few good, young players. That’s when Snyder REALLY took over and well, we know what happened.

Totally disagree on the QBs. BJ was awesome the first half of 1999, then dropped off big time. He didn’t play well down the stretch in 99, especially against better teams. He was then absolutely awful in the playoff game at Tampa. Granted, the Bucs D was fantastic but we had a 13-0 lead late in third quarter. All we need was BJ to not screw up. Well, he did. He threw a terrible INT to John Lynch that totally shifted the momentum of that game. BJ was terrible to start 2000, picking up right where he left off in 1999. George was the superior QB at that point and probably should have been starter week one.

My biggest “defense” of Snyder over his tenure is 2000. I know he’s always probably treated people poorly but one year wasn’t enough to say the culture was so bad that it translated down to the field. 2000 was much more of a coaching issue in my mind. The signings we made more or less panned out. Deion gets blasted around here and obviously his contract was silly, but he played well for us that year and was a big part in our defense going from something like 30th in 1999 to 4th in 2000. Problem in 2000 is that it just became a total Norv year— finding all manner of ways to lose games. One week the offense throws 4 INTs and still loses just by three. Then our kicker melts down and we give up a 99 yard fumble return TD and still lose by just 1 point. Then we give up a 80 yard INT return for a TD in the last play of the half. The offense in general was a disappointment in large part because Brad Johnson lost all the magic he had in 1999. He stunk in 2000. The dirty truth that no one wants to admit is that Jeff George was better. Offense moved the ball much better under his direction. Should have turned it over to him earlier in the year. The 2000 Redskins were the best team talent-wise since 1991. Better than 1999, better than 2005 (although that is close), better than 2007 and 2012. They just blew a golden opportunity. That was not a failure by Snyder. That was on-field. The timing was bad; we should have/would have fired Norv after 1998, but the ownership thing was tied up and no one could do much of anything. Perhaps if a decent coach was hired BEFORE Snyder was hired things would have worked out better and 1999/2000 would have been more successful. Dan was obviously eventually gonna mess it up, but perhaps we could have had a higher high had the timing been better.