The Redskin Report

The cross roads have been reached. It is time for the Redskins to choose their path. A loss such as the one they suffered on Sunday could be the beginning of a slide right out of the playoffs or it could be the wake up call this team needs to make its move in the NFC. We’re still six days away from seeing which directions this team takes.

You don’t lose a game like that without having some kind of hangover. It was a devastating, heartbreaking game. Controversial calls aside, it doesn’t get much worse than that. But losses like that happen. It’s how you react that determines what kind of team you are.

Obviously we won’t know anything until the Raiders game in 6 days, but the early signs are good. In all of the post game interviews you didn’t hear players whining about calls or blaming the refs. They all took responsibility of the loss. That’s a positive; all the whining and complaining in the world isn’t going to move the game from the loss column, so they have to accept it.

Handling the loss well is good, but it’s how they react in practice and on Sunday that will tell the true story. In all likelihood we’ll see another close down to the wire typical Redskin game. The Redskins could continue to go up and down and stay competitive in the playoff race. But what I want to see, what I think a true contending team would do is come back home and lay a pounding on a beatable Raiders team.

We’ve seen glimpses of the team the Redskins could be, now is the moment to realize that potential. If the Redskins are going to put it all together, now is the time. The NFC East is there for the taking, it’s up for the Redskins to seize the opportunity. It all starts this Sunday.