Why Arizona means something but the Giants just felt good. Welcome 4-0 into the bye.

[kevinklein]

We are going to need to generate an enormous pass rush. I don't see our secondary running with them. And we don't have anyone on the team capable of covering Witten.

Really, we're going to need to simply outscore them. Which I think we can do.

This changes if Bryant, F. Jones, and Austin are out, and if Landry is in.

We can hope, right?

[MartinC]

We are going to need to generate an enormous pass rush. I don't see our secondary running with them. And we don't have anyone on the team capable of covering Witten.

Really, we're going to need to simply outscore them. Which I think we can do.

I think Dallas start out as favourite - if only because of home field advantage. However I watched their game against the 49ers yesterday and their offense and Romo sits to pee were out of synch the whole first half - they scored on one big pass play to Austin on a 3rd down and they were lucky to get that after a bogus defensive offsides call after an incomplete pass the play before.

Austin will be out and Dez Bryant may play but he is knicked up inconsistent. Take Witten away - especially on 3rd down - and Romo sits to pee is very uncomfortable with his other receivers. They just dont commit to the run enough for that to be a real threat.

We will move the ball when we have it and score 20+ points. Romo sits to pee is banged up and we need to be agressive, get after him and make him get the ball out before he wants to or eat it. If we play well on defense this is a very winnable game.

[pjfootballer]

We still have one area to improve on greatly and it's been a thorn in our side for years. Scoring TDs in the Red Zone. I'm tired of kicking FGs. If we convert 2 of attempts into TDs, I think we win this going away. Until we correct that, we'll continue to play close games.

[DeMarco Murray 29]

This changes if Bryant, F. Jones, and Austin are out, and if Landry is in.

We can hope, right?

Bryant and Jones will likely play. Austin likely will not play.

Good luck this week fellas.

[88Comrade2000]

I don't think we are as good as some think we are but we aren't as bad as some think we are. We are who the team thinks we are. Just as we are 2-0, this team could easily be 0-2. The team just has to show us. So, just one win at a time. Hopefully, when it all ends there will be more wins than losses and enough wins to earn a playoff birth. I still see 8-8.

[#BgMase76#]

Excellent post. No one has to slam the Kool Aid....just sip it slowly and enjoy it.

call me exuberent but I've been chugging it. If you watched preseason then you know thus far it's exactly how the season has played out so far.

[gortiz]

this team is itself into believing they are good, and its working, it really is.

here is the key, and they way to be done with the parity bull**** in the league, they have to make the right personnel moves in the offseason and stay healthy, and they will no longer have to trick themselves, they will know they are good.

but, that is down the road, for now this team is gaining confidence and the beauty of that is they are WINNING at the same time. sure we got some breaks with two homegames to start off the season, a banged up giants team, a west coast team coming east for game two ... but this thing is snowballing and soon enough we will snatch games from other teams and will not need "help".

we are not super bowl bound, but it reminds me of the 1999 rams. they had the easiest scheduel EVER for any super bowl winning team, but besides helping the win column the easy schedule helped breed confidence,a nd come playoffs they tricked themselves into beliving they were that good.

so, dallas is banged up and maybe we win another squeaker, people will call us lucky, but screw it, i see it as another notch on the belt and one step closer to tricking ourselves in thinking we are that damn good!

[hail2skins]

We have the history of the "years that end in 1s" on our side. Since 1961, in any year that ends with the number 1, the Skins have either started the year with a minimum of 5 straight wins (1971, 1991) or five straight losses (1961, 1981, 2001). And the latter isn't even possible. Plus it looks like we alternate decades between feast or famine, so.........book it! (Although now I'm not looking forward to 2021 when we start out 0-5...............)

Seriously, can't get carried away just yet. Four out of the next five are on the road, including against a Panthers team whose rookie QB is doing better than we thought and a Bills team who is surprising. Not to mention the home date against Philly which is gonna be a bear.

And again, people have the fresh memories of 6-2. And some might answer, yeah, but Zorn is no Mike Shanahan. But here's how Shanny started/ended his last three years in Denver:

2006: started 5-1, ended 9-7

2007: started 2-0, ended 7-9

2008: started 3-0, then 4-1, ended 8-8

Of course, Mike had some pretty good seasons in Denver as well, even after Elway left.

I'm just enjoying the ride now......its a lot better to start 2-0 than to be the reverse.....the fans of some of the 0-2 teams have to realize that their season will basically be over if they lose next week.

[Zazzaro703]

Good thread. IMO a good sequel to Murf's thread before the game about developing a tradition of winning at Fedex where the discussion got into these being the type of games that the Redskins have typically lost in the past. I have to admit I don't like one thing about this team and that is how the speak OPENLY about how good they think they are, I just wonder at some point whether the bulletin board material will get the opposition fired up. Hightower last week with the "we will win" comment which got to the Cardnals locker room with Dockett commenting. And after this game, we already got Kerrigan telling Chris Russell that they are going 3-0. Grossman reaffirming last week they will win the division and multiple players talking about how this team is special. It takes me back to Smoots comment "we are the beasts of the east" after they beat the Eagles under Zorn. As far as I noticed, save Vince Young's comments about the Eagles being the dream team -- I wonder if the Redskins continue to talk they become the team with the giants bulls eye on their back.

Zorn's 6-2 had a very good feeling about it too, beating the Eagles and Cowboys on the road, I recall one of the NFL announcers thinking JC should be up for MVP, etc. I like this team a lot more. We got some really good skilled players with depth for this first time I can remember since the glory years. The defense looks revitalized, Kerrigan a potential stud. Seems like a great draft this year. While I don't think Rex Grossman is Tom Brady, I do think he's good enough. The offensive line to me seems the obvious weakness and that's with everybody healthy, i wonder what would happen if lets say Trent goes down.

Edit: It's been said many times, that teams don't need bulletin material to get fired up, probably so. And heck Rex Ryan lives for it. But personally, it makes me nervous. And I agree this win was more a statement win then the one against the giants.

Bulletin Board material is nothing to worry about. This is the NFL and these guys are supposed to be professionals. This is why the Redskins have lost in the past, they should be coming out and leaving EVERYTHING on the field no matter if things are said or not. If any one player on the Redskins plays harder because another player said something.... i want them cut. Seriously. Shouldn't take someone saying something to make you want to perform at your best no matter what.

---------- Post added September-19th-2011 at 06:21 PM ----------

I just think this all fits into the team saying there is something special going on because through 2 weeks, this season has been something special. We beat a team in our division we normally struggle against, and then we won a game we would have lost 100 times out of 100 the last decade. There are numerous things that happened yesterday that would have doomed us last year. Poor red zone offense, Rex 2 early picks, blocked field goal, long bomb to Fitz when London was a quarter second late, tying the game but missing the 2pt conversion, The field goal snap making it to the holder and Gano making it... The Cards fumbling instead of driving for the game winning field goal with less than 2 mins to go like we have seen SO MANY TIMES. The last decade any of those things i just listed would lead to a loss EVERY TIME in a game against a team we SHOULD beat. Special team for sure so far in my eyes. If they improve each week they have a good chance to start 4-0.

[Skinsinparadise]

Bulletin Board material is nothing to worry about. This is the NFL and these guys are supposed to be professionals. This is why the Redskins have lost in the past, they should be coming out and leaving EVERYTHING on the field no matter if things are said or not. If any one player on the Redskins plays harder because another player said something.... i want them cut. Seriously. Shouldn't take someone saying something to make you want to perform at your best no matter what.

You got me, I never played in the NFL. Lavar Arrington on his radio show says it would get him going more and he spent time on his show going off both Grossman's and Hightowers's comments. Though I hate to give that show a plug. Every now and then you hear a player pop off about how their team was extra fired up because of something the opposing player said. Intuitively, I would assume bulletin board material wouldn't enhance performance but might get a team up more for a team that might otherwise be complacent about. Maybe I am just used to all those years with Joe Gibbs who was Mr. humility and played up the opponents regularly.

As for players should be professionals, they don't need motivation, etc. Well, I actually argued on another thread that outside motivation -- bulletin board material, pep talks -- isn't the operative thing when it comes to winning or losing. So I agree with the thrust of your point. But I do think it can be gravy.

[Zazzaro703]

I see what you are saying too. I think it def does happen but most of the time when it does, it's already a great player just putting up a perfect performance which was bound to happen anyways.

[Woofer]

Um, point of OP missed. Point of explanation of OP missed. Did I read the word "dense" in there somewhere?

You did, and if you are unable to understand that welcoming us to 4-0 was the point of the thread regardless of how it is justified I would think that perhaps you noticed it because it's appropriate in your situation.

He says welcome to 4-0 and then goes on to explain that we will get there because we beat a team he thinks we should have pounded in the cardinals but barely managed to squeak by. he says it isn't so much a statement as a inexorable march of a team that basically deserves it.

The truth? We aren't better than the cardinals by much if at all. That team that turned the ball over in the redzone today and had a field goal blocked, that IS the Redskins, not just some unfortunate caricature of them. This is a team with a qb who is known to turn the ball over and did so twice today and has done so 3 times in the first two games. This is a team coming off a 6 win season and still has a ton of work left to be done. Proclaiming welcome 4-0 into the bye" and then justifying it afterwards is both ignorant and arrogant for a team so prone to self destruct.

Actually, the person you're responding to was not only correct, but you have confirmed his accuracy. Welcoming us as 4-0 was not the point of this thread. It was a part of the thought. Commenting on why this game was more meaningful even than the feel good Giant game, and what it feeds in a team like ours was the point of the thread. That it allows me to expect, having expected a loss today, two more wins in the coming weeks is certainly meaningful, but was more an after thought to the thread than the thrust, which is this team showed itself in a way it hasn't in a long, long while. It won a game in a fashion it has lost a dozen just like it. The Redskins arrived and played like the Redskins of our recent memory.

They ended like someone new.

And they think they are on to something.

And Romo sits to pee, who was OUT with a cracked rib, is back in.

Love this post Art. A lot of fans are going to focus on the negatives from this game. The fact that we were able to win this despite ourselves in huge. I've been preaching since preseason that something feels different about this team. They players see it and they are backing it up on the field. There was a point when we were down in the 4th quarter where you could almost feel the air going out of the Skins. The Cards had the momentum and we could have sulked and given up. We didn't. They persevered, came together, and fought back.

See? WyomingRedskin gets it. the point of Art's post is that this is not the same old skins who can move the ball up and down the field and still lose with several gunshot wounds in both feet. There are a couple of bullet holes in the shoes, but they found a way to win. That's building on something.

[kubstix]

Superbowllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MrSilverMaC]

Why not? Why does it matter if we as fans "pencil" in wins and predict a victory over the Turds and the Lambs?

I will deal with the dissappointment if and when it happens.

Until then.....

4-0 is realistic :HTTR:

You know, I read your reply maybe the day after you wrote it and the question "what does it matter if we fans'pencil' in wins and a victory over the turds and lambs?" caused me to reassess my postings in this thread. Not the thought process that caused me to formulate them in my mind, but the urge to post them.

I wanted to reply to you and tell you that you are right. It doesn't matter. Even after losing to dallas tonight it doesn't matter. Not in the big scheme of things. Threads predicting some monstrous blow out of the rams will pop up this week. Absurd point totals and yardage prognostications in favor of the Skins will populate various threads on this board. And it's ok.

I guess my disgust and urge to rail against a thread like this was my desire and belief that Redskins fans in general (especially on this board) were smarter/more humble/more aware of the actual state of the Redskins than to post a thread that declared both in the title and the ensuing original post that we were well on our way to a 4-0. My expectations of people are too high and my attitude in this thread reflected that.

I apologize to anyone I may have offended by my original post in this thread or any of my ensuing posts/replies and a general dampening of spirits due to my reluctance to buy into just how good this team may be even with the loss tonight. Here's to hoping that even the most ridiculously Redskin's skewed predictions on this boards come true this coming sunday.

Hail :helmet:

[Dan T.]

No need to apologize for being a voice of reason, MrSilverMaC.