Monday, November 27, 2006

The Sad Thing Is That The Redskins Are Still Alive

           

The Skins beat the NFC South leading Carolina Panthers yesterday.  And why not...they've beaten the Jaguars and Cowboys this season.  Oh, and lost to the Buccaneers and Titans [which now doesn't seem so bad].

The ugly thing is that the Skins are still right in the thick of the playoff chase.  Yeah, they are.

The NFC playoff picture shows the Giants and Panthers at 6-5 and leading the wildcard race.  Trailing them are the Vikings, Eagles, Niners, Rams and Falcons at 5-6. 

Washington [4-7] is just two games back of the wildcard lead with five weeks to play.  Seems impossible and it kind of is.  Until you remember:

-The Redskins own the tiebreaker with the Panthers due to that win.  Somehow breaking even with them is a reasonable goal.

-Next week the Redskins host the Falcons.  Atlanta has lost four in a row and are 5-6.  A win there, and the Skins tie with Atlanta and own the tiebreaker.

-After that, the Redskins host the Eagles.  Philly has lost Donovan McNabb for the season and are reeling a bit.  Washington hung tough in their earlier meeting....and if not for three huge plays given up, had a shot.  A win here puts them even with the Eagles [5-6].

-Then the Skins go to New Orleans.  That's a tough one.

-On Christmas Eve, the Skins deal with the Rams.  The Rams are 5-6, so a win there could open up a key tiebreaker.

-The last game is at home with the Giants.  Have you heard anything about their little skid of late??? 

Of course it's a tough run and one, frankly, the Skins haven't shown an ability to run off.  But if this team gets hot like it did last year....they are capable of beating all of these teams.  If so, they'd own the tiebreaker with the Panthers, Rams and Falcons [they already lost the tiebreaker to the Vikings and would own splits with the Eagles and Giants]. 

Hey, ya never know.

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