The Redskin Report

Well, this week the Redskin’s faltered against the San Francisco 49ers to finish a season with great early results in the most disappointing fashion possible, 8-8 and out of the playoffs.  It’s the second time since the Redskins were “Good” that that’s happened, where the Redskins were outstanding early and lousy late to finish 8-8.  In the meantime, the Cowboys began an implosion that may last into next season; if so, we may be seeing the end of the Cowboys for a few years.  We also see the end of our Pigskin Pick’em, and we’ve got some winners, but before we get to the BIG winners, we should give the Kudos and Props for the other categories.

This week, I’m going a little different; we’re doing the Upset Pick of the Week first.  To me, the biggest upset of the week wasn’t who WON a game, but by how big they won.  Oh, sure, Washington losing to San Francisco was an upset, but it wasn’t a huge one.  Bigger that way would be Minnesota beating the Giants, or Miami beating the Jets.  Bigger still is Indy over Tennessee, but bigger than those are the POINTS that some of the winners scored (even in games they were expected to win, but it would be close).  But I can’t easily use those game; sorry, San Diego over Denver is a POINT victory, and I can’t track that, so I have to go with Indy over Tennessee, seeing as how that was a “close” game with a huge point difference.  Kudos to cooooooley, Veretax’s pick, Star City Sportzkatz, Fletchskins, Tidewater Picks, chris horton hears a who, lostnbigD, stuck in the ‘tah, BRAGGIN-RIGHTS, Texas Redskin, and Pizzatown for picking Indy; I’m not sure anyone thought it would be that big of a point difference, but there you go; you get my final 2008 Kudos, folks!

This week was a good week for most players, with 11 points being the most commonly done point total; a couple of players did better, however, wtih 12.  A. Fishman’s picks, coooooooley, and El Guapo all scored that magical 12 point total, earning weekly Props.  Congrats, guys.

Last, but definitely not least, are the season leaderboardwinners for the 2008 season… and it was an exciting finish.  Going into the final week, our leader had a commanding lead, but he didn’t have a good week at all, while the 2nd place player had an excellent week, taking ALMOST all of the margin… but it was only ALMOST all.  Our first place winner, with 161 points, is Hot Stuff Coming Through.  He’s closely followed by LAST years winner, A. Fishman’s picks, with 160.  Dallas’s total ineptness to the Eagles cost Star City Sportzkatz a tie for third, as did Seattle’s loss to Arizona for chris horton hears a who; both finished in a tie for fourth, one game behind our third place winner, cooooooley, who finished with 159 points; they finished with 158.  The “Billdoza” line is set at 6th place this year with 157 points; I figure most very good players will beat me, the rest will be close.  7th place went to El Guapo, with 156, 22209 came in 8th with 155, Tidewater Picks came in 9th with 154, and rounding out was Texas Redskin, with 152.  All told, our top 11 players were within 10 points of total victory for the season, and our top 16 players were within 16 games (one week).  Notably, our winner from two seasons ago, we want dallas, came in 12th, with 150 points.

Lee has promised prizes to our top three winners… and I want to congratulate them again:

Hot Stuff Coming Through, #1

A. Fishman’s Picks, #2

coooooooley, #3.

Props for our season winners!  HAIL!  You guys will need to contact Lee with your info so that he’ll be able to send you your prizes. From Lee – please leave a comment on this post with a valid email address and I will contact you for details to get your prize out. Or you can email theredskinreport gmail com

This week, the Redskins were officially eliminated from the playoffs even as they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in a must-win game for the Eagles, putting a serious blow in the Eagles chances.  Throwing out a defensive gem, the Redskins dominated the Eagles, and guaranteed that Jim Zorn will have a record no worse than Joe Gibbs in Gibbs rookie season, and a 3-3 split in the NFC East.  Too bad that we muffed the Cincinnati game and the St. Louis game; if we could have pulled out those two games, we’d have just clinched a playoff berth, and both of those were games we could have and should have won easily.  That kind of mirrors this week’s picks in the Pigskin Pick’em… coulda, woulda, shoulda, but no playoffs for some players.

This week’s player of the week props go to coooooley and Tidewater Picks with 11 picks; that’s a good week when a number of minor upsets pulled quite a few players off their “A” game.  Three others were nearly as good, with 10.  Special notice to Tidewater picks; he didn’t get his picks in before the Thursday game, so he only had 15 games to go, and he picked Philly (cooooooley picked Washington).  Regardless, both earned this week’s Weekly Player Props!

This week’s Upset Pick of the Week is an easy one… with all the doom and gloom in Redskins Nation the last few weeks, especially after calls for the firing of Jim Zorn after last weeks debacle, Washington’s defensive domination earned Washington Upset Pick of the Week honors; hey, if Jason Taylor could have performed like that all season, we would have a substantially better record.  And if everyone except cooooooley, Texas Redskin, Pizzatown, Veretax’s Picks, stuck in the ‘tah, and Sundayisforfootball had picked the Redskins, they’d have a better record, too.  But those are the folks who did, earning Upset Pick of the Week Kudos.

 What with the shakeup in weekly records the last few weeks, we’ve had some juggling in our season league leaderboard.  While Hot Stuff Coming Through has nearly cemented his season victory with 152 points, last year’s winner A. Fishman’s Picks has gone from also-ran to a somewhat shaky second place with 148 picks; the reason his position is somewhat shaky is because there is now a three way tie for third, at 147, between Star City Sportzkats, cooooooley, and chris horton hears a who; any of those could easily move into second with an exceptional week.  In addition, even those four may not get second or third, as two more players are just a single game back at 146, and could easily jump into second or third with a good week.  However, those are our current season leaders, and deserve their props this week!  Remember that there is but a single week left to play, so get in it to win it and finish strong!  Oh, and from my family to all of the rest of you in Redskin’s Nation, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah.  Next week comes the big announcement of our season winner!

The old saying is that on any given Sunday, any professional football team (except Detroit, but then I did say PROFESSIONAL football team) can beat any other team.  Last Sunday, if Detroit had played our beloved Redskins, we would have proven that even Detroit could beat a team… but instead, we lost to the next worst team in the league, the lowly Bengals, effectively ending any chance for a playoff spot.  In all the wailing and gnashing of teeth (well earned over the loss to the Bengals, but not in general for many of the other losses), a lot of folks are losing sight of something that most folks took for granted prior to the season…. the Redskins are a 7-9, 8-8, 9-7 team.  Most folks figured over-under was 8 (Vegas had it at 7.5 prior to the season).  And guess what?  That’s exactly the season we’re looking at even if we came at it from being one of the best teams early in the season.  It’s not time to jump off the wagon, and it’s not time to throw the Redskins under the bus.  This season wasn’t supposed to be a playoff season, it was supposed to be a rebuilding season.  In that same thought, we’re starting to finally have people be eliminated from ultimate victory in the Pigskin Pick’em now, even as some move up into contention.  This week’s big winners, cooooooley, I miss Schroeder to Bryant, Fletchskins and Star City Sportzkatz, were able to garner 12 point weeks when most players fell into the 9-10 win range, which greatly increased the “playoff chances” for at least two of them.  They deserve their player of the week props for week 15!

Upset pick of the week was pretty upsetting; I don’t even need to tell all of Redskin nation what that game was.  Two folks were pessimistic enough to see this upset coming, earning them Upset Pick of the Week kudos, I miss Schroeder to Bryant and Fletchskins (hmm, maybe that’s how they got the 12s?)  At any rate, Kudos to them for the upset pick of the week.

There’s a bit of excitement near the top this week in our season standings; Hot Stuff Coming Through fortified his position with 11 wins, stretching his lead back to three games with two weeks left, at 143.  A. Fishman’s Picks and chris horton hears a who, tied in second, both only picked up 9 wins, allowing the rabid horde below them to tighten the series for the final two weeks; in the meantime, Star City Sportzkatz 12 win week allowed him to tie A. Fishman’s Picks and chris horton hears a who with 140 points for the season, for a three way tie for second.  Four other players are within 4 points of one of the coveted spots, as well, allowing room for a late season surge, but they still need help in order to steal one of those coveted spots, though it’s starting to look like 1st place is in the bag for Hot Stuff Coming Through.  Kudos to all four of our leaders, and don’t forget to get your picks in in time for the Thursday night game!

I want to apologize for the lateness of this update; I’ve been travelling over the weekend, and am a day behind in nearly everything.  Well, here it is in Week 14, with the Redskins having fallen to 7-6 and nearly out of playoff consideration; it will take a Gibbsian late season string to pull out the playoff berth that seemed a certainty just a month ago.  But just as the playoffs in the NFL are starting to take shape, with teams finally starting to clinch berths, we now have a serious “playoff” picture emerging in our Pigskin Pick’em contest.

A. Fishman’s picks led the way this week with 13 picks, a simply outstanding run, and possibly cementing him one of the three coveted winning berths.  However, chris horton hears a who, stuck in the ‘tah, Fletchskins, and I miss Shroeder to Bryant all managed to post 12 win weeks, keeping the game close.  Quite a few players managed to pull out an 11 as well, but for this week, Props to A. Fishman’s picks for his weekly win!

Upset pick of the week is a near no-brainer.  The Giants have looked like world beaters, and the Philadelphia Eagles have looked like the world… so you expect the World Beaters to beat the world, and the Giants to rip Philly…. funny way the ball bounces, though, as Philly pulled up a win that kept their playoff dreams alive.  A few players predicted it, lostnbigD, Veretax’s Picks, and Terp4Life.  Kudos to these guys for the upset pick of the week!

Last, but not least, we have our season leaderboard.  Last year at this time I started the final leaderboard, with all the players listed so that for all posterity they could be shown; I thought about doing it, and said, nah, I’ll post the final leaderboard at the end of the season, so we’re going to stay with the top three players (or at least the top three SPOTS).  For the umpteenth time, Hot Stuff Coming Through is ensconced on our leaderboard… however, the top has seriously trimmed, as his starting to be commanding lead shrunk to a single game as the standings at the top became much tighter.  Hot Stuff Coming Through now leads the pack with 132 points, followed by A. Fishman’s picks and chris horton hears a who, both at 131.  Separation from the “pack” is 3 games; that can be made up, but time is starting to get low.  Twelve people are within ten picks of the leaders, but they need to pick up the pace to get one of those prizes!  Props to our leaders, and remember to get those picks in!