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Extremeskins @ Dallas: Dallas still stinky -- Blogging Texas (Audio/Pics -12:53 a.m.)

Art

By Art
in The Stadium

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Art

Art

Posted
Posted

pregame004.jpg

The next two weeks you should know everything there is to know about Texas as I'll be all over Dallas and Houston. And, to that end, let's tell you how it's going:

8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Printing out paperwork for trip. Start packing. Wife who is pregnant, having been unable to fold laundry for the last three weeks, suddenly feels this is the morning she can not stand stacked up clean laundry, and expresses her frustration that I can't help with the baby. This, married men know, is the opposite reaction to, "Sure, honey, this is a great opportunity. You should go to as many games as you can," which morphs into, "You lazy, inconsiderate, lousy jerk," when you actually go. Guilty :).

Noon, Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Ask NWA agent if it would be possible to get an exit row seat. She immediately defaults to no. Apparently my charm got her to say, "I'll put you on a wish list." This is relevant later :).

12:20 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Find sir Blade at the airport Maui bar. Flying in from North Dakota for the connecting flight I'm on makes a man thirsty I see. Chat it up. Blade expresses worry about the game. Too many injuries. Too lethargic. Defense doesn't seem right. Hard to argue.

1:15 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Boarding flight, my ticket is rejected cause I got my wish list and an exit row. I'm sure this is the hardest thing ever done, because I was assured the plane was full and no seats were available. On flight, there wasn't even anyone in the middle seat next to me. Honestly, it shouldn't be hard for a 6-5 man to get an exit row just to make him and other customers more comfortable. You know? Boarding plane, three Redskin fans notice our cool gear. Invasion of Dallas begins.

4:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- On the ground in Dallas. Immediate sensation? This town smells bad. Like mold, mixed with sewage. Kind of like how the Cowboys play :). Calls sent out to team party goers that a big car would be had and fun would occur. Rental car line finds more Redskins fans, one in a Moss black-and-white jersey. He suggests 75 percent of Cowboy fans are only fans of the Cowboys because of their colors. Knowing the level of intelligence of most Cowboy fans, this seems highly plausible.

5:00 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Got return call from VIP -- name withheld to protect the wicked. Informed to meet up at team hotel and, "Do some research." No more needed to be said. First Google search to be, "Dallas adult nightlife."

6:00 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Freshening up for five block drive to team hotel. We got bumped to the Westin, but, we have a mini-van, so we are critical to the night. 8:30 reservations at big sushi place scheduled. Meeting at around 7:30 for drinks. Research suggests place close to here is No. 6 in the country for entertainment value. I say this now. NEVER BELIEVE askmen.com :).

7:00 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Roll into the team hotel. Run into group of about 50 who see Redskin garb on us and presume we'll show them where to go. They're Kenny Wright's family. We find the hotel lobby going through some other building first. The team really spares no expense for this stuff.

7:05 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Pat Wixted tells us our passes are at the front desk. Snyder is around because 8 beefy security agents are hovering. Then, bingo, Mr. Snyder himself walking through the lobby with daper Vinny Cerrato. Derrick Dockery on the phone at the front. Jim Molinaro all over the place. Blade and I wait for people we know. Snyder talking with Randy Thomas on the couch near us. Not close enough to hear, but we will ask Randy what they were talking about if we win :).

7:15 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Run into Gary Fitzgerald of Redskins.com. Chat it up a bit. Al Saunders comes in pouring with sweat. The man just got back from some kind of run. He's a nut. Jack Burns slips by as we're chatting. Sam Huff getting out of a conversation with someone and heads out somewhere. Sonny Jurgenson comes out of the elevators. We think he even recognizes us.

7:25 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- A fragrant Larry Michael comes down with his standard navel-revealing unbuttoned look :). We start working our way toward the bar. Sonny is looking for Sam. We can't find him. There are a ton of good places to eat in this hotel but Sonny said Sam was going somewhere else. Best line of the early evening comes next. "He's probably looking for a Marriott. You know he is."

7:40 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- In the bar and sushi/Japanese joint for dinner. Captain Chaos -- Cooley -- holding court with Brandon Lloyd and Shawn Springs at booth next to Sam and Sonny. Bram Weinstein permits use of the following line. He went up to Sam and asked how he liked his food at this Japanese restaurant. "Chinese is Chinese," is the answer. Bram waits for Sonny to pounce on it, but figures he probably agrees :). We try to figure out how to work that quote in to the radio broadcast for the game.

8:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Sushi ordering begins orderly enough, but over the course of a LONG dinner it became, "Gimme some of that. One of those." Who wouldn't think six guys could eat that much, for that long. Dinner aide was high quality background views. Dallas may smell bad, but, on Saturday night, the ladies know how to dress well and show up in groups. And, parents weekend never looked so good. Parents weekend for me was a BK Broiler. Here, a little different.

10:15 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- Heading out for post-game entertainment. We are encouraged to discover Bennigans at our exit. Anyone who remembers the Tampa blog will know what "Bennigans" is. So, it is "Bennigans" again tonight. Cover charge $3, which should have been a tip off. Giving away Dallas tickets. Who cares. :). Most entertaining event of the evening was when one danc.....er, waitress coughed up a lung on the shirt of........well, doesn't matter, really, does it? We'll just call him Mr. Red Bull. I will say this, you'd never think Mr. Red Bull was the dancer he was. John Travolta school of dance, as the index finger is in the air. Still have to come up with code words for others :). We did find out that Risky Business still has influence in certain areas of society and that Andy Warhol may be dead, but his twin can't dance and has lots of singles.

1 a.m., Sunday, Sept. 17 -- Make it to the team hotel. The hearty head to the hotel bar which is now a club. A wedding party is dancing it up, cheering on a white guy getting down with several of the wedding party. Big Pun's, "I'm not a player, I just...." was on. Amusing to see one 50-year-old guy and his 50-year-old wife trying to dance to a song you know neither has ever heard. Hell, I'm almost too unhip to say I know it.

10 a.m, Sunday, Sept. 17 -- Lazy day. Blade and I do breakfast. No hoops rematch with Larry this year as no court. Maybe at home against Jacksonvile :). Pretty much sitting around rest of day until we head to the field.

3:10 p.m., Sunday Sept. 17 -- Blade and I ready to head to the stadium, but, the Giants game has us transfixed. How lucky can one team be. We leave when the game heads into overtime.

3:45 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 17 -- Not in the team hotel, but, we have better parking this year. There are a number of lots here, each further from the stadium. Last year the team had us beyond the cash lot to the, "I will probably rape you then kill you," lot, somewhere in the south of Texas. Now we're in the front row. Good thing because it's raining. And this state stinks when it's dry. Imagine the odor now.

4:00 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 17 -- Arrive in the press box. Sonny is already there with a couple of the Redskins Radio guys. You know the guys from 95.4, 20.1, 65.8, 1331 am, 580 upper band Ham Radio, etc. Discover the Giants won. Sit and watch football. I'm not sure I can express how cool it is to sit around watching football with Sonny Jurgenson. Larry shows up. Wants to know if we should do the chats this year. Trying to get Dan for next week, but wants to know if you guys want the chats. I told him, "HELL YEAH." Hope I'm right.

4:20 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 17 -- Sonny and Larry head out to grab some food. Sonny asks me to watch his bag. This is only here so I can declare Sonny asked me to watch his stuff. Not sure why, but that tickles me :).

5:00 p.m. -- Rain is terrible. Drives Mark Brunell and Sellers inside. No player activity on covered field. This is going to suck to play in.

5:12 p.m. -- We're in the upper row behind the Washington Post guys. They'll know this when they read this and they may turn around and say hi. I say this because Jason LaCanfora is browsing ExtremeSkins even as we speak. We have picture evidence. We will use it :).

pregame003.jpg

6:00 p.m. -- Redskins look different. Oh, it's burgandy. I forgot that was one of our colors. Burgandy tops with white bottoms tonight. I dig it. And, Dallas fans are pathetic. They cheer Owens every time he runs down field. If he catches a pass against no one, they jump up and down hollering. They remind me of Eagle fans :).

6:09 p.m. -- Ed Werder is on ESPN radio confirming that Portis is out. It's been known since Thursday but we've been trying to keep everyone guessing.

6:44 p.m. -- 37 minutes till game time. I hate to admit it, but, for the first time I'm actually FEELING the passion and anticipation for a game this year. I was wondering if it would come to me after many months of working too much and doing anatomy checks with the daughter -- i.e. "Where's your nose?" I didn't feel any of the familiar heat leading through the training camp and preseason and opener. Not even really leading up to this. Now, the music loud, the teams warming up, the crowd making noise, and my stomach is twisted up in knots. I want to effing SCREAM. Let's get started baby.

End of First quarter -- Cowboys executing well offensively. Tight coverage for the most part, but everything is perfect and complete. We're still off. Can't get out of our own way. Aided by a bad roughing call on Ware. Post guys and Ed Werder hollering about how bad a call it was. Game feels too much like last week. Everything precison perfect for the opposition. NOt for us.

11:50 left, second quarter -- Drops are good. Every ball can't be perfect. Every catch can't be made. And like Minnesota, the mistakes happened to the Cowboys. Now, we have to take advantage of it. Cowboys have us going a little. Now's the time to turn it.

ROCK BABY -- That kickoff opened up nicely. Rock made the kind of play that turns everything around. This is as key a defensive sequence as you're going to see. If it's a three and out, we will win this game by 10 or more. This team seems to need something to get the fire going. That play could be it. And here I was wondering why Randle El isn't back there :)

2:30 left, second quarter, our ball -- We are out hitting the Cowboys and it's taking a toll. You can see with their body language they don't want to take the hits. It's contributing to at least a few of the recent drops. Now, the offense has to take full advantage, PLEASE.

Halftime Update -- We've all heard Brunell's comments about not loving the fact he had to learn a new offense after the team started to have some success last year. The body language now almost would seem to be a guy who not only doesn't fully know the offense, but, may not fully love it. This offense seems to require a bit more creativity from QB than Brunell seems eager to show. More anticipation and comfort is clearly needed. The total loss of Cooley has to be frustrating to everyone. But, he has had people to hit. He had Cooley across the field. He had Lloyd. The defense is creating some of these drops. Owens seems literally like he'd prefer to be anywhere but where he is. Hard to love much of what happened that half. The defense is laying wood, but, doesn't seem able to really stop them so much as they are stopping themselves. The team needs to get something going and continue it. This has too halting a feel for comfort.

Post-game -- Just a bit off. That's exactly what you feel watching the team. Coverage just a bit off. Pass rush a bit off. Running game a bit off. Pass offense a bit -- lot -- off. Gibbs said the same at his post-game and that's probably as good as it can be said. The hardest thing to do as a fan after a loss is go into your team's lockerroom. This was THE quietest I've heard since I've been doing this for the team. Even the reporters seemed afraid to ask many questions. As always, the team echos Gibbs' sentiment. They are all together. They have to look in the mirror and make it change. In many ways this team is a lot like the start of last year, save instead of 2-0 we're 0-2. There's just enough wrong to make you scared to death. There's just enough potential to make you hope it can turn around. This is a physical, tough team. They know what they can do. And they know they aren't doing it.

We have some pretty solemn audio and lots of pictures to come.

Blade's Take

6:30pmEST

Here in the pressbox with Art watching it rain like a SOB. They are taking the tarp off the field now. It looks like the rain hits the first 10 rows or so on the sidelines, but because of the toiletseat on top of this stadium, it keeps everyone in the endzones and higher up dry. Its damp and muggy outside, and in the corner of the pressbox that we are assigned, its a freakin' icebox with the AC blowing right on us. Not only am I amped up for the game, I am now freakin shivering from the AC. I almost look forward to getting soaked on the sidelines.

Redskins fans are noticable throughout the stadium. Impressive to see. I'll try to get some pics of them up before the game starts....

More to come...

POSTGAME

While Art was typing away, I've been uploading my pics and the audio we gathered in the locker room. There isnt much more for me to add beyond what Art has said. More frustration and inconsistency... many glimpses of what we hope will gel, but its not close yet. Lets hope they can bring it together this week.

PICS

PreGame #1

PreGame #2

Game Pics #1

Game Pics #2

Game Pics #3

AUDIO

Silent Locker Room Post-game

Renaldo Wynn

Ade Jimoh

Clinton Portis

Jon Jansen

Lemar Marshall

Santana Moss

Al Saunders

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Jumbo

Jumbo

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Good stuff, Arthur. I'm glad you went blog. It's like I was there, but without the sirens. Keep your eye on Eric, he sounds a bit mopey. I have no idea who Big Pun is. Can I count that to my credit?

My fingers are crossed for tonight and I am really looking forward to your guys' take on how the team seems to "feel" overall. Have fun, ya'all :cheers:

:dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck

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DOOG

DOOG

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Wife who is pregnant, having been unable to fold laundry for the last three weeks, suddenly feels this is the morning she can not stand stacked up clean laundry, and expresses her frustration that I can't help with the baby. This, married men know, is the opposite reaction to, "Sure, honey, this is a great opportunity. You should go to as many games as you can," which morphs into, "You lazy, inconsiderate, lousy jerk," when you actually go. Guilty

Buy something, put half a thought into it...something for the kid on the way and the lady would help...hope you catch her in the right hormonal mood when you walk in the door...dont ask me cause a Bottle of TIDE Babyfresh scent came to mind...:laugh: :2cents:

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Blade

Blade

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Keep your eye on Eric, he sounds a bit mopey.

No worries Dana, I am extremely pumped for this game. Just wish we had less injuries on the D side. Regardless, I am excited to see how Gregg Williams gameplans for this one. This game has the potential to be a highscoring shootout.

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PCS

PCS

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No worries Dana, I am extremely pumped for this game. Just wish we had less injuries on the D side. Regardless, I am excited to see how Gregg Williams gameplans for this one. This game has the potential to be a highscoring shootout.

Great. Just what I need. Mountain Dew and a shootout. The rest of my 17 hairs may not make it. ;)

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Jumbo

Jumbo

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No worries Dana, I am extremely pumped for this game.

That's tellin' 'em, Cap'n! I have all the concerns, too. But tonight I'm gonna put my trust in effin Scott and Gibbs and all the rest of our merry crew to step up to the plate and bring it home. I'm looking for a week 2 serving of that 6-win streak attitude from 05. I know you guys will do your part. You can count on us here keepin it rockin ;)

:dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck :dallasuck

:cheers:

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PCS

PCS

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"5:12 p.m. -- We're in the upper row behind the Washington Post guys. They'll know this when they read this and they may turn around and say hi. I say this because Jason LaCanfora is browsing ExtremeSkins even as we speak. We have picture evidence. We will use it"

Heh. Busted. ;) Quick. someone start a Jason LaCanfora thread. :silly:

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DOOG

DOOG

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5:12 p.m. -- We're in the upper row behind the Washington Post guys. They'll know this when they read this and they may turn around and say hi. I say this because Jason LaCanfora is browsing ExtremeSkins even as we speak. We have picture evidence. We will use it

We need to start a "Jason LaCanfora" thread....look-a-likes, photoshops, bashing...give him a good beating!!!:D Hi Jason!!!:dallasuck

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