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Slow Down Chicken Little

Despite the fact that it is hot enough here to get your steak done medium rare right off the hoof out in the field across the street from my place, I have been spending a fair amount of time outside this week. You see, I have been watching the sky. No, I am all that interested in clouds. Not a weather bug and there have not been any wild storms to view either.

Nope. I have been watching for The Fall.

I was sure it was coming too. It has been predicted everywhere I go on the internet this week and as we all know the internet is never wrong.

Just like it wasn’t wrong last year when it declared our boys done at the bye, right? Or how it said that the read option wouldn’t work in the NFL, right? Or how Andrew Luck was certainly the NFL Rookie of the Year, right?

Funny thing about the internet…it doesn’t know any more about how the future will play out than any of the rest of us. Turns out all the information out there is written by humans and, in the end, it is all just someone’s opinion. And opinions are like certain smelly portions of the human anatomy…everyone has them.

So here is mine. Opinion, that is.

We didn’t look bad Monday night, all things considered. Is it frustrating to take yet another one on the chin from those punks from the City of Brotherly Love (has there ever been a more ironic nickname for a city? Seriously?) and in prime time to boot? Yeah, it is. But it isn’t the end of the world as we know it.

Sure, Vick looked better than Griff did and the Eagles offense was impressive. And yeah, our defense didn’t exactly out play expectations and prove that college offense is a gimmick that won’t work in the big leagues with the big boys.

No, Vick isn’t a better QB than Griff. He is just a QB who has gotten to actually play ball with his fellow offensive teammates for the last four plus months rather than spend his time rehabbing from an injury that not so very long ago was a career ender rather than just a season ender. He also had the benefit of running an offense that no one has really seen before at this level. We have a bit of experience with that here in DC don’t we? Funny how our own medicine is always the hardest to swallow.

Speaking of offenses no one has seen…we don’t have one anymore. Not only is there a year’s worth of film on Kyle’s work of art there are a number pretty good knockoffs out there. It isn’t novel or new anymore and now defenses have had 8 months to look at it, study it, dissect it and it doesn’t scare them anymore. They still may not be able to stop it once it gets lubricated like it was at the end of last year but for the moment the grease job is lacking. Until we get this ride off the rack down at the Quickie Lube it isn’t scaring anyone. But given time, it will.

And of course there is the elephant in the room…Griff’s first half showing. Nasty stuff for sure.

Do I think he is 100%? Hell no. But I think he is about as good as he can get without playing and there is the issue. Everyone has said if he isn’t 100% he won’t play but what if he can’t get to 100% without playing? What then? Oh, I can hear you out there yelling at me that this is the dumbest thing you have ever heard or I have ever written. Maybe both. How can he have to play to get to 100% you ask?

Simple. The last part of this journey is in his head, not his knee. He has trust issues with his body. Anyone would after just one episode of ACL surgery and this is Griff’s second. In 4 years. Tell me that would not mess with your noodle. It would mine, $25 million contract and Heisman Trophy or no.

Griffin needs to play to get past this and he needs to do it when the bullets whizzing by his head are real. This won’t get fixed in a yellow jersey on an Ashburn practice field and anyone who thinks it will is kidding themselves. He looked better in the third and fourth quarters Monday than he did in the first and he will look better this coming Sunday than he did this last Monday.

So while I am not surprised that the interwebz thinks the sky is falling, I can’t say that I am surprised that it isn’t splattered all over my front yard yet. I sort of expected it to stay where it is. It only gets bluer from here folks.
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