You know the drill by now. It's a home game, so the live blog will come from the "the 1990's called and they want their technology back" press box at FedEx Field. That means the blog will be updated quarter by quarter as events unfold. I'll pop in with an update via the BlackBerry should events warrant. You can leave comments on the game blog posts and I'll get them and respond as needed.
Also, a note on the blog schedule this week. As you may have seen, the Flashback Friday post came a couple of days early. My game prediction, which I usually put up on Thursday, will go up on Monday morning. I'll probably post something over the weekend if my schedule permits.
Those who are backing the Washington Redskins on Monday and Barak Obama on Tuesday face an interesting dilemma.
A Redskins win on Monday night would an omen that does not bode well for those who want to see the electoral maps bathed in blue on Tuesday night.
Here's the deal: In nearly every presidential election since the Redskins moved to Washington, the outcome of the Skins' last home game prior to Election Day has been a rock-solid predictor for which political party would win the presidential election.
From 1940 through 2000 things fell into line perfectly. If the Redskins won that last home game prior to Election Day, the party that held the White House won the election. If the Skins dropped that game, the other party started to measure for drapes in the West Wing.
Four years ago, part of the phenomenon went by the wayside. On October 31, 2004 the Redskins lost to the Packers 28-14. In spite of that, two days later Republican incumbent George W. Bush defeated challenger John Kerry by an electoral vote score of 286-251.
However, the other half of the predictive nature of the Redskins' last home game prior to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November is intact.
Ever since the Redskins moved to Washington, every time the Redskins have won that game, the party in power has retained the White House.
So, those who bleed Burgundy and Gold who want to see John McCain pull off a comeback win might be rooting extra hard for the Redskins to take down the Steelers on Monday.
It's unlikely that any Obama backers who normally are Skins fans will be changing their allegiance and pulling for Big Ben and company on Monday night. But perhaps there will be some small solace in the land of the donkeys should the Redskins lose.
For the record, here are the details of the "streak" from 1940 through 2000:
1940—Frankie Filchock and Sammy Baugh teamed up to go 14 for 15 passing to lead the Redskins over the Pittsburgh Steelers 37-10. Two days later President Franklin D. Roosevelt easily defeated Wendell Willkie 449 electoral votes to 82.
1944—Washington was outgained by the Cleveland Rams 407 yards to 197 but the Redskins scored two TD's in a four-play span in the second quarter to pull out a 14-10 win. FDR's win was not as close as he outgained Thomas Dewey 53% to 45% in the popular vote and outscored him 432-99 in the stat that counts, the Electoral College.
1948—The game was close in the early going, but a 14-14 tie at the end of the first quarter ended in a 59-21 Redskins win over the Boston Yanks. The election was much closer and Dewey didn't defeat Truman much to the chagrin of the Chicago Tribune and others as the incumbent won 303-189.
1952—Washington's attempted fourth quarter rally fell a point short at the Steelers won 24-23. Adali Stevenson didn't show nearly as much game, trailing Dwight Eisenhower all the way in a 442-89 loss.
1956—This was the first time that the Redskins didn't have a home game on the Sunday immediately preceding the general election. Sixteen days before election day Eddie LeBaron led the Redskins past the Browns 20-9. Ike beat Stevenson in the rematch by over 9 million popular votes and an electoral count of 457-73.
1960—The first of 17 consecutive losses over two seasons for coach Mike Nixon's Redskins came at the hands of Cleveland 31-10. The loser for the GOP was another Nixon, Richard, by a much closer margin to John F. Kennedy, 303-219.
1964—Sonny Jurgensen's fourth touchdown pass of the day went to tight end Pres Carpenter with a minute left to play as the Redskin s pulled out a 27-20 win over the Bears. Lyndon Johnson didn't have to sweat out his win over Barry Goldwater nearly as much with an electoral tally of 486-52.
1968—Jurgensen had one of his worst days as a pro, going 7 for 25 passing but Washington hung close and nearly rallied before losing to the Giants 13-10. Dick Nixon's comeback, on the other hand, was a success as he beat Vice President Hubert Humphrey 301-191 in a contest that was much closer than the final score indicated.
1972—Finally, a significant game to talk about. Larry Brown had one his greatest days as a Redskin as Washington rallied to beat Dallas 24-20. Nixon, who had suggested plays to coach George Allen the previous season, rode to coattails of the Redskins win to a 520-17 trashing of George McGovern.
1976—Pete Wysocki, out of Michigan, was blocking as Eddie Brown returned a punt for Washington's only score in a 20-7 loss to Washington. Another former Wolverine football player, Gerald Ford, who finished up for Nixon after his term concluded before the end of regulation, also lost. Jimmy Carter won 297-240.
1980—The Redskins started a five-game losing streak that knocked them out of playoff contention by falling to the Vikings 39-14. The Republicans launched a three-election winning streak for the White House with the Gipper, Ronald Reagan, routing Carter 489-89.
1984—In a Monday night game that ended as Election Day was dawning, the defending NFC champion Redskins prevailed over Atlanta 27-14. Reagan had a much easier time with Fritz Mondale, defending his office by a score of 525-13.
1988—Politicians are infamous for using dirty tricks to win elections and Dexter Manley pulled one off to help his Redskins win. The Saints were in position to kick a game-clinching field goal, but their tackle Jim Dombrowski took a swing at Manley and the ensuing 15-yard penalty put the kick out of Morten Anderson's range. It turns out that Manley had spit (he says he "sneezed", but we know better) in Dombrowski's face to provoke the punch and the Skins won 27-24. Some would say that the Willie Horton ads were the political equivalent of Dexter's expectoration as it helped George H. W. Bush roll up a 426-111 win over Michael Dukakis.
1992—The New York Giants had possession for nearly 40 minutes and ground out a 24-7 win over Washington. The incumbent Super Bowl champs were on their way out as was President Bush the elder. Bill Clinton won as convincingly as the Giants had 370-168.
1996—The Redskins ran their record to 7-1 with a 31-16 win over the Colts. The early returns from the season had them projected as the winner of a playoff spot but they would later collapse and finish out of the money. Clinton also won easily over Bob Dole, 379-159. He would encounter some rough sledding later on, too.
2000—The Tennessee Titans built up an early lead and held off the Redskins for a 27-21 win. Tennessean Al Gore rallied from behind and took George W. Bush into overtime before losing by one fewer than the Redskins did, 271-266.
The Washington Redskins enter the second half of the 2008 season with plenty of classic good news/bad news scenarios.
Good news: The Redskins are 6-2. No other NFC team has won more games; they are a half game out of the NFC East lead and a game up in the race for a Wild Card spot.
Bad news: They haven't played particularly well lately. Mistakes, including fumbles, at key times are stalling offensive drives. They lost to the then-winless Rams and struggled to beat Cleveland and Detroit.
Good news: Nobody seems to be satisfied with the performance of the team. There is not a Norv-like "what we do works" mindset at Redskins Park. After his defense held the opposition to 274 yards, including just 57 yards rushing, 13 first downs, and 17 points in a win, Greg Blache likened the performance of his unit to "the South end of a North-bound skunk". Jim Zorn said, "We have to play more sudden. We have to know our assignments and know the technique. . . Were almost getting there – we just need to fix those little things."
Bad news: The injury bug is biting this team hard. Five starters—Chris Samuels, Cornelius Griffin, Jason Taylor, Shawn Springs, and Chris Horton—missed the Detroit game. Taylor and Springs already have been ruled out for Monday night's game and none of the other three is 100% certain to go against the Steelers. Clinton Portis and Santana Moss got dinged up later in the game and, at best, their practice time will be limited this week.
Good news: It could be a lot worse. These injuries are day to day, week to week issues. There hasn't been a season-ender or even a multi-week injury (typed with one hand while knocking on wood with the other). The bye week is coming after Monday and that's not a moment too soon.
Bad news: For the next four weeks, the schedule gets tougher than a three-dollar steak. There are contests against the two of the legitimate Super Bowl favorites in the Giants and Steelers. Another game is against the preseason favorites, the Dallas Cowboys, who will be coming off of a bye with Tony Romo back under center.
Good news: All three of those games are at home. On top of that there is the aforementioned bye coming in between the Steelers and Cowboys so Dallas has no advantage in terms of being rested.
Bad news: The Redskins will pay for all of that November home cooking by hitting the road for three of their four December games.
Good news: Two of those games are against teams that are flat-out bad, the Bengals and 49ers, and the other is against the up-and-down Ravens. It's never easy to win on the road in the NFL but it's unlikely that the Redskins will be facing stadiums packed with amped-up fans in Cincy and Frisco.
Jim Zorn's postgame presser wasn't the only one at Ford Field with a tense moment. Lions coach Rod Marinelli told a reporter that he "wasn't qualified" to evaluate the team's defensive scheme.
Just for kicks before Sunday's game, I compared the two rosters and tried to see if there were any Lions players who clearly were better than their counterparts and would start on the Redskins.
Defensively, there was nobody. Ernie Sims instead of Rocky McIntosh? A tossup at best.
On offense, you can make a case for Calvin Johnson over Santana Moss, although Moss, as he showed the Lions, can contribute in many ways.
Who else? Seriously, you have one, maybe two, Lions who could unseat one of the Redskins starters. And you're wondering why this team is 0-7? I don't think Marinelli is wondering.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com talks about a league MVP candidate on the Redskins in his Sporting News article. And it isn't Clinton Portis.
An excellent piece from ESPN the Magazine takes a serendipitous look at some of the formative moments in Jason Campbell's football life. There were several good ones, this one from his days at Auburn when he faced a fourth down against LSU:
As the stadium waits, quiet as a spool of string, Campbell takes the ball from under center. The Tigers blitz. Before he's hit by two defenders, Campbell finds receiver Courtney Taylor with a 14-yard pass to get the game-saving first down. Three plays later, he hits Taylor again for a 16-yard touchdown. The Tigers win 10-9 and don't lose a game all season.
I nearly had the Jim Zorn moment that Ryan O'Halloran of the Times experienced after the Lions game.
In case you haven't seen it, go to about the 2:00 mark in this video. You'll see Zorn get annoyed at a series of followup questions by O'Halloran, who was trying to find out about Zorn's thinking on the sequence at the end of the first half.
As you can see, Zorn gets angry and pounds his fist on the podium in frustration. As O'Halloran explains it in the WT, Zorn misunderstood exactly which series he was referring to in his questions. That led to the reporter rolling his eyes in frustration over his inability communicate to the coach and Zorn reacting in the way that he did.
I will vouch for Zorn's occasional propensity to misunderstand questions. After the Rams game, I asked him if he planned to make a point of going to Pete Kendall and Leigh Torrence, who publicly would be wearing the goat horns, and give them a pat on the back and tell them to keep their chins up after making very visible errors that helped cost the team the game.
Zorn apparently thought that I had asked if he would go to each player and chastise him for making a mistake and he said, "I'm not going to single Pete Kendall out. How many times is that going to happen to him again in his life?"
"I could be smart alecky here and ask if you really fell I need to go to him and teach him how to react?" Zorn said, looking right at me in a tone of voice that was a cross between annoyed and bemused.
I then tried to clarify my question, saying that I just wanted to know how he handled such situations.
After a few seconds he got what I was talking about and said that his teammates would pat Kendall on the back plenty and give him enough encouragement. And then he said, "I'll probably do that, too."
Not to try to probe too deeply into Zorn's mind here, but I think that he sometimes listens to the first few words of a question, decides what's being asked, and starts to formulate his answer before listening to the rest of the question. In the case yesterday he heard something to make him think it was a different series. In my case I used the word "goat" in reference to some of his players and that got him off track for the rest of the question.
I'm sure that there will other such moments in the weeks, months, and years to come. Hopefully, those of us asking the questions will learn to get to the point up front. And maybe Zorn will learn to suffer through the verbose questions that we sometimes ask and get to the nut of the issue.
I really liked the play calling on that first drive; Zorn's script worked to near perfection. Play action to pass Moss, Portis up the middle, Portis off right end, sprinkle in a little Randle El, then the slip screen to Moss for a first and goal at the one. Then they missed connections on a handoff, ran a pitch to the left which was a). Stephon Heyer's side of the field and b). the short side of the field, and then a shovel pass that did not fool the Lions at all. The fact that the Redskins had to settle for three there set the tone for the game.
Mike Green played fairly well in his first start in place of Chris Horton, especially for someone who was on the street a couple of weeks ago. He had six tackles, second on the team to London Fletcher.
Dan Orlovsky is not a smooth operator and he gets a little sloppy in some of his throws. He doesn't possess a laser or a cannon for an arm. But he could be a good QB someday, someday soon. Not a Pro Bowl type or anything like that, but he looks like someone who could develop into a Kyle Orton type.
It seems like Jason Hanson has been kicking for the Lions forever, but it's only been 17 years. He made his debut for Detroit about seven months after the Redskins won their last Super Bowl.
The Redskins run the traditional screen to a running back so poorly that they rarely even try it. But the tight end screen to Chris Cooley works nearly every time it's tried. Cooley usually is able to rumble for at least 10 yards before even needing to elude a tackler.
I thought that the facemask call on Jansen that cost a first down in the Red Zone was bad, but on another look, it was awful. Jansen never touched the defender's face mask. Suisham missed a 50-yard field goal after that.
I hate Jim Zorn's two-minute philosophy. He says that he's afraid of the other team getting the ball back with enough time to move in for a score so he doesn't even think about calling a timeout with less than 50 seconds left. That's fine, but why not go no-huddle, spike the ball, work the sidelines, anything to conserve the clock and get in more plays. They got the ball back with 2:30 left. Portis runs for five and they let the clock run down to 2:00. Then a pass to Cooley picks up about 10 and the clock continues to tick. The next snap comes with 1:24 left. That's 1:06 for two plays. Yes, the Skins got a field goal but with a slightly more aggressive philosophy they might have been able to score a TD.
That said, the third and 19 conversion pass was a thing of beauty. The Lions had eight back in coverage, Thrash found a soft spot and Campbell just dropped it in right on the money.
Even after watching it a few times, I can't decide whether or not to blame Cooley for the incompletion that stalled the Skins' first drive of the second half. He did have both hands on it but the safety did make hard contact on the arm.
The biggest little play of the game came in the middle of the third quarter. Cooley caught that TE screen for 17 yards to convert a third and six at the Washington nine. If the Redskins punt there, trailing 10-9, the Lions have a good shot a good field position to expand their lead. As it is, the drive stays alive and ends with the Skins taking the lead for good on Campbell's 50-yard bomb to Moss.
On that pass to Moss, Campbell did a great job of just shrugging off the unblocked blitzing defender and firing on target.
Brian Billick referred to Santana Moss as "Santonio" at least four times, maybe more. He even did it while he was in the process of apologizing for doing so. I trust that his boss will give him a verbose, convoluted reprimand.
Devin Thomas was the first Redskin to greet Moss in the end zone after the punt return for a TD. I'm sure that Thomas was relieved that Moss was able to make something out of it after the collision.
At the time, I liked the decision to go for two after that, but it could have come back to bite them. The return put them up by 12 and the thought process was that two Detroit touchdowns beats you if you're up by 12 or by 13. But after Detroit scored a TD, Suisham's field goal just after the two-minute warning would have wrapped up the game had they kicked the extra point. Instead, the Lions could have sent it into overtime with a touchdown and a two-point conversion.
There are complaints that the Redskins let the Lions get back into it with their touchdown drive after that. Those concerns are legitimate but the Lions, for all their faults, have a way of coming back. They made competitive games out of brewing blowouts against Houston and Green Bay earlier this year. Still, you'd like to see the defense make a statement and force a three and out or get a turnover in that situation. Greg Blache wasn't happy with it; see the last bullet point in this article.
You have to like the Redskins coming out throwing on that last drive—which, again, would have been a classic game clincher had they been up by six instead of five. After the passes to Moss for 20 and to Cooley for seven, it was Portis three times for four, four and 31 yards. They burned off over four and a half minutes.
We nearly saw the downside of Zorn being aggressive in late-game situations with the Campbell fumble. The ball took a nice bounce away from a few Lions and Jon Jansen was able to pounce on it.
London Fletcher knew where that fourth-down play was going better than most of the Lions did. The stop was reminiscent of Sean Taylor leveling Patrick Crayton in Dallas to clinch the Brunell to Moss game in 2005 in Dallas.
After the game, Greg Blache said that the performance of his defense was like "the South end of a North-bound skunk." Why don't you tell us what you really think, coach?
There are two surprise inactives for the Redskins—Chris Samuels, who has "something in his knee" according to WTEM and Chris Horton, who has a lingering ankle injury.
The recently-acquired Mike Green will start in Horton's place and the only other active safety is rookie Kareem Moore. Stephon Heyer steps in for Samuels.
Ladell Betts, Shawn Springs, and Cornelius Griffin also are inactive along with Colt Brennan (third QB), Malcolm Kelly, and Chad Reinhart.
I'll go into the implications of the absence of Horton and Samuels when I crank up the live blog at about 12:30.
Hello and welcome to the Real Redskins live blog of the Redskins-Lions matchup. Whether it's a blowout or a nail biter at Ford Field, we'll be here from beginning to end.
We'll get started at about 12:30 and kickoff is scheduled for 1:00.
The blog will appear in the window below. You can make comments in the box in the bottom of the viewing window.
Your comments are most welcome, but please be advised that this is a blog and not a chat. Relevant comments and questions that help deliver the narrative of the game will be posted; not all of them will be.
Ryan O'Halloran gives a detailed breakdown of how the Redskins are getting pressure on the opposing quarterbacks, even though the team's sack total remains low.
On Yahoo! Sports, Charles Robinson says that Clinton Portis is putting up "MVP-type digits".
Om offers a reality check for those who will be unhappy with anything less than a blowout of the hapless Lions. "This isn't an established winner hitting its midseason stride and battling for playoff seeding," he says. "This is a team not quite halfway through their first season under a rookie head coach."
Joe Gibbs was 12-0 against the Detroit Lions. He beat them early in his career and he beat them late. He won close games and he won blowouts.
The streak was in its greatest jeopardy on November 3, 1990 with about ten minutes left in the third quarter in the Silverdome. Barry Sanders had just broken up the middle for a 45-yard touchdown and the Lions had a 35-14 lead. Redskins QB Stan Humphries had set up the touchdown run by throwing his third interception of the day. Humphries had had started in place of an injured Mark Rypien so when Joe Gibbs looked down the bench he saw third stringer Jeff Rutledge. He told Rutledge to start warming up.
Rutledge quickly led the Redskins on a 63-yard TD drive that pulled the Redskins within 14, but the Lions got three back on a field goal on the last play of the third quarter. It was 38-21.
Then Washington got two strokes of good fortune. First, Eric Williams sidelined Lions quarterback Rodney Peete after a hit. Second, Wayne Fontes got brain lock. OK, Fontes getting brain lock wasn't good luck; it was one of the natural advantages of playing against a Wayne Fontes coached team. Regardless, during the entire fourth quarter, when just a couple of first downs strung together would have clinched the game for the Lions, when he had Bob Gagliano was at quarterback, Fontes did not once call the number of his emerging superstar running back, Barry Sanders. Through three quarters, Sanders had 10 carries for 100 yards. When the game ended, Sanders had 10 carries for 100 yards. Unbelievable. After a Chip Lohmiller field goal that made it 38-24, the comeback began in earnest.
With 8:41 to go, Washington took over at its own 20 and moved smartly down the field, taking seven plays to score, a drive finished off with a 34-yard TD pass to Gary Clark. Detroit could only manage to burn two minutes off the clock and punted with 3:24 left. Washington got the ball at its own 15. Rutledge converted three third downs in moving the ball downfield, completing 8 of 12 passes, the last to Clark moving the ball to the Lions 12. Washington called its last time out with 24 seconds left. The Posse of Clark, Art Monk, and Ricky Sanders was having one of its best days ever, on the way to combining for 32 catches for 432 yards. So it was going to be four shots to the end zone to tie the game, right?
But Gibbs had seen something in the films that somehow made him think that the slow and not-so-nimble Rutledge could score on a quarterback draw. Rutledge seemed to take forever to make his way to pay dirt, but he did and the score was tied.
Each team had a possession in overtime before the Redskins started their game winning drive. The big play was a 40-yard Rutledge to Monk connection on third and fifteen at the five. Nine plays later, Lohmiller was perfect from 34 yards out 9:10 into overtime and Washington had a 41-38 win.
