Have fun storming the castle -- Detroit blog. (The game is over)

[Art]

TK and I are are in the building. I'd say stadium, but it's not. It's a building. There's a football field here in it, but it's just a building.

Those expecting a ton of trim in the coming blog will be disappointed as the only trim which exists is me writing the following line of code:

$user_username = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc, trim($_POST['username']));

Extra points for he who knows what any of that means, as I still have no clue . Ok, kinda.

Anyway, will start posting shortly.

Live stuff updates here when there's live updates:

Rogers has an ankle sprain and is questionable for a return. Ack.

Inactives for Detroit: Drew Stanton, Marcus McCauley, Eric King, Ernie Sims, Turk McBride, Daniel Loper, Ephraim Salaam, Cliff Avril.

For us: Marcus Mason (strange with Portis dinged, but change of pace is coming), Kevin Barnes, Edwin Williams, Robert Henson (don't tweet, twit), D'Anthony Batiste, Marko Mitchell, Anthony Montgomery, Renaldo Wynn.

We are on the seventh floor. Only one of us -- me -- has a seat and the honor to pay $30 for wireless for today. Who says the Redskins don't lead in some ways how other teams do business. We're basically in line with the net behind the goal posts.

The history

Saturday, 8 a.m. -- My first road trip since Seattle last year. First time away from my crazy wife and two kidlets. I wake both with hugs and kisses and promises to call. Big girl asks daddy not to go and just as I start to get a little weepy, little monster says, "Daddy, go. Go. Leave." Swat. All said with a grin revealing she knows exactly what she's doing.

Saturday, 9:15 a.m. -- Upgrade to first class, because I'm worth it. Redskins travel people apparently can only find a flight from Minneapolis to Detroit which goes through Chicago. I'm not even sure the plane has to leave the ground to make the 30 minute flights, but first class anyway.

Saturday, 10:02 a.m. -- Bloody Mary please. Thanks.

Saturday, 10:11 a.m. -- Bloody Mary please. Thanks.

Saturday, 10:18 a.m. -- Bloody Mary please. Thanks.

Saturday, 10:31 a.m. -- We're about to land sir would you like.....Bloody Mary please. Thanks. I face my internal fan anger at this team with drunkenness. I recommend all try.

Saturday, 10:45 a.m. -- On the ground, gotta get my connection. Wait. This is my connection. Wait outside for five minutes. Boarded back. Same seat.

Saturday, 2:21 (eastern now) -- Got my bag. Text Rick for status as his journey lasts 38 hours and traverses six continents. How many continents are there anyway? I don't recall. Text Larry. What's the dealio. Use word "hizzy". Larry, despite vast reserves of incredible whiteness and Greek heritage gets the lingo. Team is 5 out.

Saturday, 3:30 p.m. -- Sitting in Expedition waiting on Rick. Finally get impatient and let him know he's got 10 minutes to reach me before I'm at the hotel.

Saturday, 3:32 p.m. -- Rick, ever the planner, has run out of batteries. This is likely because every second and a half his phone blurts with a bird chirping, or "Crazy *****" by Buck Cherry, or some jive slang. He's waiting. I get. Rick nearly humps my leg in announcing Kiss is live in concert tonight in Detroit. I thought Kiss was dead.

Saturday, 4:02 p.m. -- We make it to the hotel despite Rick's navigation unit openly cursing at me for six of the 12 miles. The jive language pack is colorful. And I flew Delta so jive fit. (Someone post that We be Delta clip please). Team is already in the house. Smooty is putting a card up for incidentals and Lufthansa stews are checking out. Nice union deal there guys. Rocky and others are wandering about. But the layout is funky. There's REALLY nothing to do here. At all. It's depressing.

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. -- Larry's finishing a workout. He and all other I know are going out to the "big" dinner. Tonight's big dinner has a cursed guest. Tom Cruise and entire family. If Snyder comes up to my elbow, Cruise comes up to my elbow if I'm on my knees. The man's tiny. I only get a glimpse of him later. I decide whether to work out or go drink. Drink wins.

Saturday, 4:50 p.m. -- Rick and I arrive in the swagged out Ritz lobby bar. The lobby bar is a series of furniture pieces of the sort your great grandmother would show you and tell you to stay off, perhaps even putting plastic on the seat cushions. The television, a sprawling 30-inch flat panel, stood in front of the think curtain leading into the actual Ritz restaurant. The television has no access to anything but ESPN Chicago or something. We run into to some of the team guys and ES benefactor Karl Swanson. The Ritz has the feeling of a waiting room at a funeral home. Dead quiet. You can actually hear people crunch peanuts. It's really a place for smelly old people. Oh, hey, there's Sam Huff. Hey, I wave to a man who's never before seen me in his life, despite having seen and talked to me dozens of times. At least everything's fresh for him.

Saturday, 5:15 p.m. -- In the quiet of the bar comes the inspiration for the blog title. This nice old woman belts out from about 20-feet away as she's leaving, "Have fun beating us tomorrow." We were all taken aback, but I said, "Intend to enjoy it." She says, "Oh, we know you will. Trust me." As she waddles off, talk of being cursed now rises around the table, but, it's about the nicest thing a fan of another team has ever said to us. Have fun storming the castle boys.

Saturday, 6:30 p.m. -- Eating, having shifted seats. Talking to Larry and Karl and Sonny. I'm talking too loudly, because I'm getting shushed by all of them as I go on my, "What the **** is Zorn doing," rant with Redskin coaches sitting about three feet away. I'm sure they find me insightful, or full of ****. Either, or. I challenged Sonny on his playcalling is overrated comments. He was in good form, repeating a lot of what he was quoted on earlier in the week. Zorn is really caught up in his playcalling. That is probably exactly what's wrong with this team. Zorn's trying to be too perfect, instead of building to something big. Rick slips out to go see Kiss. Team guys gather up for the 26-person dinner.

Saturday, 7:00 p.m. -- I realize I'm in Detroit, alone, with nothing to do. So, I code my web stuff, watch Hellboy2, see the Mayweather fight, then the heavyweight snoozer, dozing throughout. It's good to rest with no children around. Talk with some Redskins people on the way to the room. Apparently Blache had a Comcast like moment with Brian Billick and crew in a production meeting. See if anyone mentions that today.

Saturday, 11:30 p.m. -- Rick rolls in. Talks of seeing the crew returning. Cruise, Katie, Surry and all, with Karl holding two bottles of stolen wine and talking about ice cream -- which has meaning soon. Sleep is difficult given Rick alternately snores and gasps for air as if dying. Joyful. Note to self. Drink more tomorrow.

Sunday, 7 a.m. -- Bells from hell begin. Wake up call. Apparently the front desk can set my alarm too. It starts whining. Second wake up call. More beeping. Rick by now has left the chaos and started smoking. Crazy ***** plays on his phone, which makes three bird calls. Saturday's a Rugby day an old song I used to sing declares. Sunday is a football day. Yeah. I like today much.

Sunday, 8:30 a.m. -- I like wandering the lobby before games because you run into people. Just not here, where it's dead. Snyder's security is around. So's the limo.

Sunday, 9 a.m. -- Heading to the stadium and the overflow parking six miles from it. It's a lot like Fed Ex. The Lions push the workers and press way, way out. So do we. Pure class. We find our lot and park. We do walk to the stadium. On the way we see a handful of Lions fans and about 20 Skins fans. This ratio holds up at least until noon, EST as I'm writing this and the stadium is not mostly Lions fans. Nor is it mostly Skins fans. It's mostly empty, but there are more Skins fans.

Sunday, 9:30 a.m. -- Getting frisked by a man who tells me not to be too sad when we lose today. They are a confident bunch for a sucky bunch. 9-7 to the Rams does that to the deluded probably. In the box. Big, open box. Like the Rams and Vikings, seats are open to the crowd, wide open. Skins buses are not here yet. No one is. Usually Sonny and Larry beat us here. Not today.

Sunday, 10:15 a.m. -- Sonny and Larry are here. Rick and I join them. Little idle talk. These are always the best times of my trips. Sitting with Sonny is always a treat because you see so many interesting people stop by with him. Today was even better. I got to hear about dinner, who sat where, who said what, who was cute, who was fun. Sonny got to sit next to Tom Cruise, who enjoyed making Top Gun more than any other movie. I predicted it would be MI2 which was one long homo-erotic slow-motion shot of him, but I was wrong. More talk of the game. Lions version of Larry saying the national media predicting the Lions to win have never seen them play. The Lions CAN win, if they ever play well for a whole game, but a lot of teams limp in against the Lions and get real, real healthy.

Sunday, 10:45 a.m. -- Cast around the table has changed, but conversation is great. Sonny repeating the playcalling stuff to more people stopping by asking about it. Talks about ordering ice cream at dinner the night before. The ice cream was ordered from TOLEDO, OHIO. You gotta be rich to want ice cream and order it from 100 miles away AND get it delivered AFTER MIDNIGHT in Dearborn, MI. There were 10 mile check ins with the delivery gal, but the big crowd wouldn't wait, going back to the hotel and having six gallons delivered. Sonny says it was awesome. He stayed up talking with Dan until after 2 a.m. with most others in the party sleeping. Sonny got to smoke a cigar, and I said, "Here, inside the Ritz?" In Dan's suite you could do anything you wanted at that rate. I offered I wouldn't know as I'm not often invited to the owner's suite. Sonny smiled and laughed and said, "Yeah, I didn't see you there." I REALLY love this part of my trip. Sonny was mouthing his SJ9 and needed a cutter. I don't travel with mine for northern games, but I hoped I had it so I checked. Who doesn't want to help Sonny out if you can.

Sunday, 12:22 p.m. -- Sonny gave me an interesting stat. From 2002 to 2006 the Lions had 39 draft picks. Only 1 is on the team today. And he's inactive. For those who think a GM is the cure all, remember, there are people like Millen . Teams are working out. Thomas should actually have a good day. Detroit boy, playing for the home crowd. I'd watch for something to be done for him to play to that. Alridge on third downs could get interesting. I hate watching warm ups. All we throw is 20-yard or better passes. Why do that when we never do that.

Sunday, 12:35 -- They are taking the possible terrorist threats seriously giving an evacuation plan announcement. First I've heard that.

Sunday, 12:50 -- Lions are announcing several players from the 44 and beyond. The most recognizable names are from the 60s. Wow. Sucks to be a Lions fan. Only Eddie Murray, Lomas Brown and Robert Porcher got big applause until we hit the 60s. The 35 people in the stadium liked it.

Sunday, 12:52 -- Redskins announced. Lions play It's a barbie world for our intro. That's not nice. Defense is being announced.

Sunday, 12:54 -- Lions entry video is ludicrous. After two hours of rap, they break out heavy metal to introduce the Lions, showing highlights of an 0 and forever team. Fans gotta be watching the highlights going, "Yeah, lost that." "Yep, lost that." "Uh, huh, lost that." Boring. Highlights come out of wins. Losses mean nothing. Don't show them off. Lions fans only actually cheerd Louis Delmas, Julian Peterson and Larry Foote. Three guys who played college in Michigan.

Kick off -- Defense against Stafford. This can't possibly be ALL that hard, can it? Reverse action, run at Al. It worked. On third, I'd like them to try it again . Lucky. A run out of the shotgun and spread. Hope Zorn is taking notes that such a thing can occur. I love Smoot. Always have.

Our turn -- Will we call a long ball early so Campbell can under throw it? My guess, off tackle right. Wow. Empty set? Ack. Facemask Sheesh, why is everything so hard. I was going to look down field, but, dammit, when you can't snap, you can't snap. The best part was Hunter was trying to celebrate breaking Campbell's neck. Moron. Now Zorn will run. Wrong again. That's a nice depth for Campbell to throw and our receivers to work. Nice work by Thomas getting that first. Sweet. Lions rotate into Moss in man and the team went to it. Moss raised his hand before the play. That was easy. Not sure if it was called or they went hot to it. Moss wide open. Campbell can't hit him. But THAT's the depth people. That's where our receivers get open. Empty on second. Heyer is having trouble with the wide set of the ends. Run up that gap please. Wow. Back shoulder fade. Sweet. And, again, PERFECT depth. That's the money zone for this team. Throw into the end zone. That's good. Don't care if it missed. A simple, standard, smart play. Betts gets stuffed, but it looked like it could have opened. It's reasonably loud for no one being here. Time out. Sigh. That's what happens when you run someone on 15 seconds late.

Time out observation -- Turning my head left I see lots of hair product and blonde with the sports chicks, Czarniak, Johnson and Walsh I think. UnWise Mike is chatting up the Times guys.

Game time again -- Screen. Too many people too close for that. Great effort by Portis. And we go. A team that can't score gives up three for 0 or 7. I don't hate this as much as last week's second fourth call. I may even KIND of like this. I'd love it if I thought Zorn had a play that worked here. If he does I will be happy. If he doesn't, it'll explain why I'm not sure I love it. In the end to love this you have to believe we know how to actually make it work. Have we shown that? A team that throws 7 times to get down here sets up big to run. And it's 0. That's just not what we are. Why do we insist on stretching short yardage. RUN IT UP THE EFFING MIDDLE ONCE.

Their ball -- The human penalty gets a penalty. When you're standing over the ball how about watching it. Nice pressure. But only one guy with it so they get a pass off and inch away. Spread, run. It can work. We can't work it for some reason, but it's just so open when you spread. Fletcher was held and had a guy pull his facemask, but we don't call those here. How come a rookie can get us to jump. When was the last time we got ANYONE to jump? Theisman? Pettigrew looked to have a step. But if Stafford lofts that, it's a kill shot as we had a safety chilling behind. Third and long. We've had trouble with this. Still do. Something like 32 percent of runs against us have gone for 1 or less. They are actually getting openings. The worst thing is happening. We forgo points and they change field position or get their own. Bad, bad news. They are doing a really nice job running. If you don't take the penalty, they will go for it to I'd bet. Have to take it. If you can't get off the field against this team, you don't deserve it. A 0 or negative and this isn't terrible. Crowd gets excited. Dumb. Oh lawd. The worst possible response drive is before our eyes. And is completed.

Gay song -- Detroit has the gayest song ever. Even gayer than the Eagles and fly Eagles fly. I was so stunned I can't even really repeat. With hope they don't score again so I never see it again. I'll let you know.

Ours -- Down 7 having given up 3. The Redskins know how to put themselves in the worst situations ever. We can't run out of the gun. Others can. Not us. Weird. Davis makes a man play. Plausible we'll have 800 yards of offense and 5 points today. Play action only actually works if we actually run well. And THAT is the offense we can't do. Sellers for 5 is not our top play. We should put it away. And now it's fourth. I get sad sometimes.

Defense needs to step up -- Detroit down deep. Stop them here, and quick and help the offense by putting them in a solid position. Or, let them gut us. The Lions have our defense guessing and off. Just beautiful calls. At will comes to mind. We don't appear to have any answers because we never seem to know what they are going to do. they are doing a great job of getting man coverage. Very complex routes. Crosses and posts and flooding areas and reverse action limiting help. Really very pretty. We don't ever do anything like this. We have nice plays here and there, but we never just look efficient and good. And another monster third down play. They are just out playing us offense against defense. And about the fifth time they've called that dive with reverse action and it works. They are SETTING SOMETHING UP. Guarantee you they hit something huge off that soon if they want to because that's how you call plays. You set stuff up. Hall's playing well in coverage. And another third down. We seem to forget it's ok to play well on this down. And Haynesworth decides to take it upon himself. Big play. He's awfully still. He's not ok. At least we know we have to score double digits to win. That's big. 10-0 bad guys.

NO. GAY SONG II -- PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. Something about blue and silver wave, cheer for the brave, fake rah, rah, rah, blah. My God. Someone should be ashamed of themselves. Our song is neat. You can copy us by making us pay for internet. You can copy us by making us park in hell. But you can't sing our ****.

How do we respond -- I like the thought of a deep out. I hate the thought of a dive. Seriously. We CAN NOT RUN. There's no where to go. They aren't fooled. We can't figure them out. They know every time we try. And a beautiful 11-yard gain on on third and 12. This is a hard team to love. Someone got faked out of their shoe on that punt return.

No Big Al -- Does the defense step up? Lions have a ridiculous "all you can eat package". Brats and snacks. All you can eat. Packages start at JUST $57. Honestly. NO ONE can eat enough brats and snacks to make it worth it. Look for a similar package coming to FedEx soon. The Lions are brimming with confidence. They should be. They are eating us up. We have to set things straight now. With their help. Thanks for the flag. A safety could be ok. Better than another 80-yard drive. They do not mess around running. It's downhill. Hey, we stopped that dive reverse action. That's a good sign. Third down first is not a good sign. Spreading us out again. So easy for them. Notice their passing offense against ours. We are all outside or stops on the inside. They are crosses on the inside, streaming downfield on seams or go routes. On the move. Us, standing still. There, Pettigrew had a nice catch, good coverage, but he didn't turn around and stand still like us. He was moving to the outside. They have an offense that is doing very clear, very professional things. Ours are a series of interesting plays. They have layers and complexity. We have four guys running routes across the field. I hate what I'm seeing, because we look like two different classes of NFL offense, and while I have no doubt we can move the ball again, maybe, for us, every time we "take a shot" it's clear we're taking a shot. They are just making plays. It's us trying to force something. It's them just running stuff. If that doesn't turn fast, we're in trouble. Finally Reid seems to be taking the run away. We're finally coming down hill on running plays. We've been on our heels all game. And again, on the move. We've no answer. Blache blitzed, but, when you do all that crazy slow looping, it might as well not be called. When they pass, they just have so many guys running all over the field. They empty a zone out and have someone trail into that zone. It's really very pretty. It's hard to stop, obviously. That drag across the field into that area to Smith is just a nice, nice play. I think you'll see us play straight zone now. Man isn't working. We have to have them run those moving routes into our zones. I like how they keep going into the end zone from this range. You NEVER see us do that. They just keep putting the ball into the end zone. It's what I've been calling for. Everything THEY are doing is what I pray for when I pray for offense. Consistent 20-yard and deeper challenges. Over and over. It creates running lanes and pressures your defensive backfield. We played zone and they got us. Then, they went Zorn. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid call. Why ever do that. 13-0.

Halftime review -- Lions or no, they outclass us. We call plays, put ourselves in bad spots, force things and sputter. We put them in bad spots, down deep and can't get off the field. They have a very, very nice offensive scheme. We have no answers. Defensively they haven't so much as stopped us as what typically happens with us. We just kind of grind to a halt or run the 9-yarder when we need 10. That's just us. The first drive had promise, but we have nothing on the move really. Everything is caught standing still. Sometimes we make them miss. Mostly we don't. The Lions are threatening us deep, hurting us intermediate deep and just running well designed layered routes. They have really good idea. They are spreading us, which causes us to leave the middle and they dive up inside us. It's well thought out. It has purpose. It's clearly planned and really well designed. I watch it and it works. Even if they were dropping passes or sputtering, it's clear they are open and confusing us. We aren't confusing them really. The Redskins look down and depressed. I'm not sure this team has enough fire to turn it around. I hope they do.

Halftime thoughts timed out. Our ball -- And flag. Someone not lined up right. But, watch for us to run. The team is angry. We like to think we're a pounding team. So we'll probably run constantly. And if it's downhill it could work some. AND THAT IS A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAY. WE CLEARED THE ZONE OUT AND DRAGGED LATE INTO IT. THAT IS ALL I'VE EVER WANTED. THIS IS NOT A HARD GOD DAMNED GAME.

Will the defense step up? -- Haynesworth is out with a bad hip. Defense was trounced in the first half. Pride here boys. Nice little run. Once I'd like us to stop playing with technique and play with fury. On second down that's complete before the snap. We had no idea what to do. Hall following C. Johnson. Releases him. Damn. Runs way free. Flag. Catch. UGLY. Penalty on Landry too. Uh, wait. That's on them. Whew. Hell of a throw. Easy run for them. Third and advantage us if there is such a thing. They were 9 of 12 on third. Hard to win. Screen set up. FLETCHER never misses. Lucky. But, it's enough.

Offense again -- Crowd is angry. Fired up. We bumble our way to a 22-yard gain. We are so sloppy. On the move there. Maybe we took plays from them at halftime. It's weird when you hit guys in stride how they get that first down so much. Second down run if Portis goes the other way, it's a TD. My, that side was empty. Oh, to be Portis in Denver. We're all bunched up. Stupid. This won't work. It just won't. It didn't. Man, hate that crap.

Defense -- Page is timing out here with my crappy $30 internet connection. What I saw was u RACK POOOOOOOOO. Making a play with speed. NICE.

Ok, back to the offense, down deep -- How about proving that other drive wasn't a total fluke. Just once, huh? Two runs. First. I'll take it, though it's never all that pretty right now. Streak to Moss. Apparently in this offense it's everyone else involved OR Moss. Not both. Hey, look at us bumbling for a sack. That's the, what, third or fourth ball to hit the ground on a play? Sheesh. Defense in neutral zone. So we'll get another chance to look terrible. Yeah. ARE wide open deep. Behind everyone. No one back. Don't throw that whatever you do. Why do I even try.

Connection keeps losing stuff -- But I keep trying. Let's do something special here. Come on. Surprise the world with a huge 14 points. Do it baby. Crazy. Portis for almost nada. Exciting. And fourth quarter. Ugly pass to ARE. Three receivers open everywhere there. Too bad. Spread them out. Yeah. They cheat and go offsides, no flag. Way to go Campbell. That's a nice recovery Jason. Portis gashing. Ok. This will help the running stats. First down. Easy play. Holding. That hold flag came out quick. Then everyone is playing but our center. Sneaky. Way to go Casey. Make everyone on both teams jump and get the call. Whew. BOMb....lowercase b because it's not that close and into double coverage. I can live with it though. Unless we run here, then I can't. Can't run when you have a delay. Sigh. We're the world's ugliest team. Devin Thomas is all alone, but go to ARE instead, no gain. Now they'll run I'm sure. Pass. Line is doing a good job pass blocking to give credit. But, that's over. Field position edge is with us. Score with them.

DEFENSE PLEASE -- The defense is finally getting off the field, but, boy, they are open a LOT.

Field position us still -- Come on ARE. Should have returned that. Still, it's where we were before the bad holding call. Pinch around the edge. Jason is learning to step up. Portis should cut to the right. There are yards there. Third down. Starting to get big. Third down dump off. Afraid of the blitz. If Campbell looks AT ALL down field it's a TD. No one was covering Thomas. No one. About 15-yards down field. Apparently the officials forgot there are two types of facemask call. Just because it's not one, it could be the other.

Ok D -- D has done enough to stem the tide. Here is where, if I'm Detroit, I do reverse action and do something off it for the first time. Here's the kill shot if you're the Lions. There's your reverse. Not a huge play, but a nice one. Nice timing route. On the edge now guys. I like how often they go deep. I have deep envy. Deep again. We're held. They don't call that. They do call the PI. The game teeters on over whether they get 3 or 7. Almost better, from a time perspective, to give seven, but we'll try to stuff and see what happens. I'd be surprised if they can run this in. If we ever had them figured out at all today running would not be what they would be doing. Well played on the flip. TD. Close Going for two are they. Nope. 19-7 them.

There's still time -- Whatever explosion the offense has, it's now to show it. No runs. Hurry up. We all doubt it'll work, but if it does, it could actually be the beginning of something interesting. Wide open. Good play. Wide open. Bad play. Get out of bounds. Third play. Ok. Fourth play, Cooley is wide open. ARE for an incomplete. Stunning challenge. If it works I guess it's ok, but it better be damn clear. It's second down. If you can't get a first down it doesn't matter. Losing that time out hurts if we don't get it. Now, we should win this. So it should work out. You can see dirt kick up. That's big boys. A TD here with three time outs and you have something. Short pass for ok yards. I'd like to see us actually try the end zone once instead of having to run into it. But that's not us for sure. Everything allows them to come down on us. First down, but again, running forward. Just once see if you throw it in there what happens. Like that. Interesting. 19-14.

Only hope is the d -- And they rape us. That's called WINNING the game. Well done Lions. If I were them I'd try one more pass after the two-minute warning. Why not. That's the real kill shot. They are probably going to run. 40896 is today's crowd. They may see the Lions win. If we have a stop in us, it's here. Whew. Good discipline Daniels. Nice call Lions. That is pretty good both ways there. One last try baby.

And that is that -- As everyone knows, I do not feel my job is going into a losing locker room and asking questions. That's the job of the press. My job is to be a fan. When we win, and they feel good, go ask them something funny. I feel worse than they do when they drop a game to a team like this. There's nothing for me but to swallow my pissed-off-ness and shake my head. I can't sit here and say we were simply better than them and should have won, because we while we MAY be, the fact is they out planned and out executed us. There's no disguise for that. We were sloppy, balls bouncing around, bumbling. It was a whole half before we ran a single play like they were constantly running. Clearing something out and exploiting the void. The team had some relatively positive things. The offensive line did a great job pass blocking. YES, when the Lions can pin back and stream in from the sides they can force Campbell up, but he had up to go. Great job by Chad and the interior guys today and all year.

The offense tried to stretch things more today than before, especially in the second half. In the end, what we are is what we looked like late. A spread, shotgun team. That's what we need to do all game. No huddle too if you must. We play so tight to the vest as to create impossible situations and when the other team just has us out coached, like today, it's hard to overcome it. That we were at all close is somewhat surprising given how well they had us pegged and how bumbling we were at times. The Redskins are a team without any identity. They exist only to infuriate and frustrate. In this, they excel. Perhaps it's the identity.

Even at the end you see what we are. Almost everyone puts the ball in the end zone -- or maybe tries a timing 15-yard-out for a first and sets up one last play. Us? Try to run it in from distance. I don't get why we're afraid to throw the ball into the end zone. The Lions must have tried 10 passes into the end zone. I think we tried two. It's just not a good feeling to know the team CAN do more. Both on offense and on defense. At the end of the day, until we can score 20 a game we probably can't win many games. If the defense continues holding people -- no matter how clumsily -- to under 20, we have to be able to win. It's such a chore for us to score.

I'm angry and unhappy.

And I get to hear TK snore all night.

MORE TO COME.

[Monte51Coleman]

Those expecting a ton of trim in the coming blog will be disappointed

No scrip clubs last night, huh?

[Toe Jam]

Where are your seats?

[pez]

TK and I are are in the building. I'd say stadium, but it's not. It's a building. There's a football field here in it, but it's just a building.

Those expecting a ton of trim in the coming blog will be disappointed as the only trim which exists is me writing the following line of code:

$user_username = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc, trim($_POST['username']));

Extra points for he who knows what any of that means, as I still have no clue . Ok, kinda.

Anyway, will start posting shortly.

That is a mysql (database) function for escaping (or encoding) special characters that the mysql database uses such as quotes or special symbols...

Looks like you are making sure that the username you are using to connect to the database does not include any special characters that the database does not like..

[RedskinDan0557]

Formating and posting your user name??

[Art]

That is a mysql (database) function for escaping (or encoding) special characters that the mysql database uses such as quotes or special symbols...

Looks like you are making sure that the username you are using to connect to the database does not include any special characters that the database does not like..

Close. It's a PHP statement to prevent SQL injection attacks. Pez wins a Private Stock Captain and Vanilla Coke.

[zoony]

Have fun today Art & TK and tell us all of the Press box dirt

[HapHaszard]

Who's this Art guy? Anyway glad to see you back.

[braindx]

So Anthony Alridge is active?

[Tennessee Ed]

Thanks Gentlemen.

Please let us know the announced attendance.

[SonOfWashington]

So Anthony Alridge is active?

Yes.

Any word on why Marko is inactive?

[pez]

Man... I wish we could give Marko a chance

[zoony]

Art, your blog entries have me :rotflmao:

good stuffs

[Art]

Have fun today Art & TK and tell us all of the Press box dirt

No real dirt. Unless you consider it dirt that Jason Reid of the Post pees in an empty bathroom in a stall rather than at a urinal. Men, we all know what that means, don't we?

[Pedro]

Gonna be an interesting game today, hope it's one you get to jump and cheer a lot in Art. A healthy dose of Shotgun and a real change of pace back should about do it

[Art]

Gonna be an interesting game today, hope it's one you get to jump and cheer a lot in Art. A healthy dose of Shotgun and a real change of pace back should about do it

From your lips to Zorn's lips to Campbell's ears.

[Monte51Coleman]

No real dirt. Unless you consider it dirt that Jason Reid of the Post pees in an empty bathroom in a stall rather than at a urinal. Men, we all know what that means, don't we?

Standing or squatting?

[Art]

Standing or squatting?

Standing.

[Jumbo]

Don't kill each other.

[MarkB452]

As a STH, all I can say is BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Art]

What's an STH?

[Toe Jam]

What's an STH?

Season Ticket Holder.

[SonOfWashington]

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[Mark The Homer]

Nice job, Art. Thank-you.

It's a sad late afternoon here in Washington, in case you were curious.

The site saw its all time record get broken by about 50% just after the game. The max member number was something around 2,700 before today, and it went to 4,005 at 4:34 PM.

I'm sure this was because people wanted to read your blog.

[Hubbs]

Apparently the officials forgot there are two types of facemask call. Just because it's not one, it could be the other.

I hate to be persnickety here, Art, but there aren't two types of facemask penalties anymore - they changed the rule during the offseason. The five-yard incidental variety is gone. It's either the personal foul or no penalty at all.