Last year, Washington's clean sweep of the Giants was a curiosity lost amid New York's run to a second Super Bowl in five years. It was some sort of anomaly that Giants fans wrote off in their heads as irrelevant, a bad dream with Rex Grossman impossibly slicing through the same defense that brought the Packers and Patriots to their knees. This year, though, Washington's excellent work against their northern neighbors has produced a close loss and a hugely important narrow win.
That victory last night moves Washington into a playoff chase with surprisingly good opportunities available. As I covered yesterday, Washington's win last night gives them a likely tiebreaker advantage over the Giants in terms of in-division record, and if the Giants slip up once more over their difficult final four games, the Redskins would have a chance to control their own destiny with a win over the Cowboys in Week 17. Washington also holds tie-breaking victories over the Buccaneers, Cowboys, Saints, and Vikings, each of which could come in handy in terms of a possible wild-card berth.
Robert Griffin has rightly attracted plenty of attention for his brilliant play this year, but if you take a look at what's changed for Washington from their 3-6 start to their three-game winning streak, it's not the offense that's made a huge leap forward:
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They have the capacity to completely fall into a funk that will allow points scored in rapid fashion making no lead secure
