After talking with Dustin about this for a little bit my opinion on this one has kind of mellowed. Whenever I see a good team like the Patriots on our schedule, I tend to cringe because I prepare myself for a blowout of epic proportions. New England is good. Washington is not. Ergo, New England should hammer the Skins into a pulpy mess. Therefore, when I see a score like 34-27, you would think that I would not be too upset with that result. We played well, right? Actually, I'm not. I'm more upset about a loss like this...or I'd be upset with a win even. Why, do you ask? If we can play point for point with the offensive machine that is the New England Patriots, how come we are 4-8?
When 9-3 teams play 4-8 teams, especially 4-8 teams that are prone to turnovers and not very good offensively, you would expect the 9-3 team to have their way. Yet, for some reason, outside of a 4-S play in the 1st quarter, Grossman played well (Good Rex?). For those of you know not familiar with Caputo's Corner football lingo, a 4-S play is a sack, strip, scoop, and score play. I should have trademarked that before Apple decided to tag it onto their latest iPhone. Oh well. Se la vi. We did the same thing in a game in 2009 against the Saints (the year they won the Super Bowl). We dominated the play for 3 quarters and 13 minutes. Shaun Suisham had a 23 yard chip shot that would have given us a 33-23 lead and put the game on ice. He shanked it left and Brees had 2 minutes and 80 yards to tie the game. I guess you can figure out the rest. New Orleans won in overtime. That loss was hard because we were so close to beating a team that at the time was 12-0. It would have been a nice feather in our cap in an otherwise uneventful 4-12 season where our biggest highlight was the hiring of a Bingo caller to call plays.
I understand that teams sometimes catch lightning in a bottle and can play really well against good teams that they really have no business playing well against. On the other hand, good teams can play down to the level of their competition and lose games that they have no business losing (just ask Baltimore). However, a professional football team should never do this. Professional teams have to give the same level of effort no matter the opponent, no matter the circumstances. Sure they all say the right things in front of the cameras, but talk is cheap. You have to perform. It doesn't matter if it's the Patriots or the Rams. If we can play 4 full quarters against the Patriots, then we should do that ever week. If we have, I can almost assure you we'd have at least 8 wins right now.
Now, I know we are not good. We are not a 10 win team by any stretch. I called for 4-12 from the start. However, it is frustrating to see us play well like this because it shows that we do in fact have the potential to be a good team. Unfortunately, we did not play up to that potential all season. It takes a good team like New England for the team to finally say to themselves, "OK, we need an A effort here." Well, they gave it, and they almost won. Now, if they give that A effort against the Cowboys or Eagles or Dolphins or Bills or Jets, do you think we lose any of those games considering how those teams' seasons have gone? Speculation to be sure, but all the more reason why we need to stay the course down the road. Snyder has to see that this team has the potential to be very good in the next few years. Stockpile picks, resolve the QB mess, and make sure the D is solid. We'll be fine.
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