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We didn't blow it.
Four little words. And yet, what hope they give me.
We didn't blow it.
Oh, we had opportunities to screw it up. Some cynics might even say we tried to screw it up with bad snaps, missed INTs, coverage breakdowns (those of you in on the chat know my feelings about Miles Austin. To the rest, let me elucidate: I hate Miles Austin), etc.
But, we didn't blow it.
How nice was it to see the other team miss a FG (Jusssttt a bit outside!)? Get a crucial, crushing holding penalty? Run a stupid, makes-no-sense, dumbass play to end a half?
And yet with all that happening, Dallas still had a great chance to win it. How many times since Gibbs I have we seen a few breaks go our way, only to end up heartbroken at the end of the game or season? Heartbroken because we gave the game away.
We didn't blow it.
Here's the dirty little secret though.
Neither did Dallas.
We beat them. Period. We took it from them. Looked them in the eye and said "screw you", this is ours!
Anyone else sobbing tears of joy during the last Cowboy's possession that we were still bringing the house? "Bend, don't break"? Hell with that. Let's go get 'em. Hard. I couldn't help thinking of the Replacements last night, when Gene Hackman starts yelling with/at Bateman (John Favreau) to "Go get me the Ball, Danny!"
I'm kinda thinking Haslett was yelling at Rak to "Go get Romo! Go get Romo!"
We took it from them.
Sure, there are troubling areas of concern: run defense, sure would be nice to see someone other than Moss or Cooley open, stop throwing the $@#&*(% ball to Sellers, etc. But you know what I'm concentrating on?
We took it from them.
Does any Redskins fan honestly think for half of a second that we wouldn't have blown this same scenario last year? Anyone? That's a reflection on Campbell and Zorn. Period.
Shanahan has work to do. But his attitude last night was that we won, we deserved to win. Not they lost it.
We took it from them.
Looking at next week, the NFL's leading rusher is coming to town, and I'm betting Matt Schaub won't end up with only +/- 150 passing yards either. But you know what? For the first time in almost twenty years, I didn't feel slightly sick to my stomach when our QB dropped back. I actually felt, wait for it..., confident when our kicker came out for a FG. Looking at Shanahan on the sidelines...
We took it from them.
Our D made the plays. 7 points to this year's eventual Super Bowl winner (just ask the media, but not today. Wait until they win a game first), I'll take that. What we saw last night wasn't a defense waiting for the Cowboys to screw up.
It was a defense causing the Cowboys to screw up.
Talked with a "friend" who is a Cowboys fan today. He said, "Man, you guys got lucky that Baron sucks so bad." Sure, sure...
Wait a sec! How 'bout the fact that Rak is frickin' awesome! Did you see the move he put on Baron? If we wasn't held, Romo might be out for the season, Cowboys fans should be thanking Baron, not demonizing him.
Rak took it to them.
And took it from them.
The whole team did.
That was a professional football out there last night, folks. I almost didn't recognize it.
But I couldn't be prouder.
Four little words. And yet, what hope they give me.
We didn't blow it.
Oh, we had opportunities to screw it up. Some cynics might even say we tried to screw it up with bad snaps, missed INTs, coverage breakdowns (those of you in on the chat know my feelings about Miles Austin. To the rest, let me elucidate: I hate Miles Austin), etc.
But, we didn't blow it.
How nice was it to see the other team miss a FG (Jusssttt a bit outside!)? Get a crucial, crushing holding penalty? Run a stupid, makes-no-sense, dumbass play to end a half?
And yet with all that happening, Dallas still had a great chance to win it. How many times since Gibbs I have we seen a few breaks go our way, only to end up heartbroken at the end of the game or season? Heartbroken because we gave the game away.
We didn't blow it.
Here's the dirty little secret though.
Neither did Dallas.
We beat them. Period. We took it from them. Looked them in the eye and said "screw you", this is ours!
Anyone else sobbing tears of joy during the last Cowboy's possession that we were still bringing the house? "Bend, don't break"? Hell with that. Let's go get 'em. Hard. I couldn't help thinking of the Replacements last night, when Gene Hackman starts yelling with/at Bateman (John Favreau) to "Go get me the Ball, Danny!"
I'm kinda thinking Haslett was yelling at Rak to "Go get Romo! Go get Romo!"
We took it from them.
Sure, there are troubling areas of concern: run defense, sure would be nice to see someone other than Moss or Cooley open, stop throwing the $@#&*(% ball to Sellers, etc. But you know what I'm concentrating on?
We took it from them.
Does any Redskins fan honestly think for half of a second that we wouldn't have blown this same scenario last year? Anyone? That's a reflection on Campbell and Zorn. Period.
Shanahan has work to do. But his attitude last night was that we won, we deserved to win. Not they lost it.
We took it from them.
Looking at next week, the NFL's leading rusher is coming to town, and I'm betting Matt Schaub won't end up with only +/- 150 passing yards either. But you know what? For the first time in almost twenty years, I didn't feel slightly sick to my stomach when our QB dropped back. I actually felt, wait for it..., confident when our kicker came out for a FG. Looking at Shanahan on the sidelines...
We took it from them.
Our D made the plays. 7 points to this year's eventual Super Bowl winner (just ask the media, but not today. Wait until they win a game first), I'll take that. What we saw last night wasn't a defense waiting for the Cowboys to screw up.
It was a defense causing the Cowboys to screw up.
Talked with a "friend" who is a Cowboys fan today. He said, "Man, you guys got lucky that Baron sucks so bad." Sure, sure...
Wait a sec! How 'bout the fact that Rak is frickin' awesome! Did you see the move he put on Baron? If we wasn't held, Romo might be out for the season, Cowboys fans should be thanking Baron, not demonizing him.
Rak took it to them.
And took it from them.
The whole team did.
That was a professional football out there last night, folks. I almost didn't recognize it.
But I couldn't be prouder.