Want to look like a Super Bowl caliber team? Play the Redskins

Redskins 16 - Rams 30

I'm...I'm...hell...I don't know what I am. I guess stunned might be a good word. Stunned but not surprised. I knew the Skins were going to lose the minute the Gano booted the opening kick out of bounds. How did I know? I knew because the Redskins havea history of making bad teams look like Super Bowl contenders. Against the Skins a struggling rookie QB, in this case Sam Bradford, can look like Joe Montana. Against the Skins, a struggling team, in this case the St. Louis Rams (who have won maybe 5 games in the last three seasons), can look like The Greatest Show On Turf.

This game was simply ugly from the beginning as the Rams quickly went up by 14 points. There was some spark in the Skins but a weird sputtering, "there's a short in the wiring" kind of spark. In one of the strangest moments of the game, Clinton Portis broke of a 29 yard run, but then simply fell down as defenders closed on him. Since when did CP, who has been know to throw himself bodily at defenders twice his size in pass protection, suddenly become gun shy? This team is going to make me a crazy person this year. Whether the level of crazy remains the usual "What the F*** are they doing" crazy or ratchets up to true Redskins psychosis is yet to be seen.

At the beginning of the season I felt that the Skins might be an 8-8 team at best. I have to revise that prediction. The Skins schedule leading up to the bye is as follows: Eagles, Packers, Colts, Bears, and Lions. In an alternate universe, the Skins win two for sure (Bears and Lions), maybe take the Eagles, and play well but lose to the Packers and Colts. In this universe it is perfectly possible for the Skins to head into the bye at 1-8. I'd count it as a major miracle if the Skins come away with victories against Chicago and Detroit. If they win against Philly, Green Bay, or Indy, I'm stocking up on canned goods and building a fall out shelter because, face it folks, if that happens, the end is near.