By now, we all know that the Redskins had their way with the vaunted and potent Dallas Cowboys, with the Redskins dictating the terms of the game on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams in a game that should never really have been as close as the final score represented. In this case, the tight game that most Redskin Fans expected (but somehow, no one else believed was even remotely possible, considering the line was at 11.5 points at the kickoff) didn’t come after all, other than on the final scoreboard, as Washington took the game to the Cowboys. Hail, Redskins!
However, an interesting thing has happened with Washington’s win… they’ve moved into 2nd place in the NFC East, having the tiebreaker advantage over Dallas… but if the playoffs were today, it wouldn’t matter. Dallas would get to go, and the Redskins would stay home.
Hows that you say? It seems that by some miracle, Tampa Bay and Carolina also have 3-1 records; because of that, other Tiebreaker scenarios start cropping up when it’s time to talk playoffs. Carolina, with a 1-0 division record, wins the NFC South. Tampa Bay, Washington, and Dallas thus get to decide who the two wildcards are… and because there is no head-to-head between TB, Dallas, and our Redskins, we have to (eventually) work down to the point scored tiebreaker… where we have the problem that we’ve kicked a LOT of Field goals instead of Touchdowns. Dallas has scored 120 points so far, with Tampa Bay having scored 101. Our paltry 86 doesn’t cut it in comparison.
Of course, we’re speculating playoff scenarios after only a quarter of the season… and it’s not a fair approximation. The only way that the standings TODAY matter would be if the players suddenly went on strike, the way they did in 1982, causing a playoff lottery system. But this exercise did give me the opportunity to point out THE REDSKINS ARE 2nd IN THE NFC (B)EAST!
Hail to the Redskins!
Good observations… but right now who bleeping cares! We beat the Cowboys in what is the most historic win in our history. We will never, ever have to hear about losing in Texas Stadium! We always can say.. hey.. either put up or shut up..and your last home stand.. you didn’t put up.
About the game, things to remember, relish, and improve. Remember Carlos Rogers not getting made to look like a rookie. Relish Chris Horton looking beyong veteran status, and improve knocking the lights out of TO anytime on the field! Honestly, the only thing to improve is mistakes and please, for the love of hogs, put someone back there that can return punts. Any suggestions on how to make Randle El return better?
Actually, the Cowboys wouldn’t make it to the playoffs as it stands now. The tie-breaking procedures for breaking a three-way tie for the wild-card state “1. Apply division tie breaker to eliminate all but the highest ranked club in each division prior to proceeding to step 2. The original seeding within a division upon application of the division tie breaker remains the same for all subsequent applications of the procedure that are necessary to identify the two Wild-Card participants.”. So the Cowboys could never be ranked above the Redskins (yes, I know it doesn’t really matter at the quarter point of the season, but I just thought I’d throw it out there).
Also, right now you can say the Redskins are the 2nd best team in the ENTIRE NFC…by the tie-breaker rules, the Redskins 3-1 record ties them with Dallas, Carolina, and TB. Because Carolina and Washington are the higher in their respective divisions, it comes down to the conference record tie-breaker between them…where the Skins have the advantage with a 3-1 record vs. Carolina’s 2-1. (Again, I’m just having fun with this at work…I know it’s WAY to early to be even considering this stuff).
I love what you guys do here, I check it all the time, but come on, don’t be so excited about 2nd place in the division. Save all the excitement for when we hit 1st place.
Second thought, I love beating the Cowboys but now that the mighty “super bowl shoe-ins” have lost to the Redskins all the analysts are praising the Giants as the best team in the NFC which is way worse for me than all the talk about the Cowboys before the whoopin.
We get to face the Giants again, in about a month and a half… they’ll be coming our way.
By that point, it may be obvious even to all the Redskins Haters out there (and believe me, there seem to be a lot of them… I mean, 11 1/2 points? Dallas-Washington games are RARELY ever more than 10 on the blowouts. And now we’re dogs to Philly by 6 1/2? REALLY? Even with Westbrook banged up, and questionable for Sunday?)
To get back to Earth, I figured that based on the schedule the Redskins could go anywhere from 5-11 to 11-5, with 7-9 through 9-7 being most likely; we aren’t going 15-1 (the East is too tough for that) but with the 3-1 record we have now, and who’s on deck starting after Sunday, you can go ahead and throw the doom and gloom 5-11 and 6-10 out the window; I’m pretty sure you can go ahead and chuck the 7-9 out too. So every game we pick up against the quality teams still on the schedule (Philly twice, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Dallas, the Giants, Baltimore and San Francisco, if those aren’t just flukes at the moment) means another win over .500… and it only takes >3< of those tough games to get to 11, barring us dropping one of the easier games. And even in the East, 11 probably will get us in, especially if the ones we pick up are against Dallas, New York, and Philly.
Yeah, we could still implode, and end up 3-13, and I’d feel like a shaggy quadruped’s rear for suggesting that we were that good. But I seriously see us being in the thick of it at the end of the season… and as the Z-Man said today, “Our goals are still ahead of us”, i.e., we’re still on target. And our goal is always to hoist a Lombardi. I do believe we may be doing that at some point in the next few years…..
3 cheers for the redskins and zorn. f dallas, very enjoyable game. the homer announcers were silenced and jones looked like an idiot on the sidelines.