You Play to Win the Game. Helu!? Redskins 23, Seahawks 17

Trailing 17-7, Roy Helu took a pitch to the left, high jumped over a guy, landed, and then busted through another dude, and ran down the sideline into the end zone.  Several minutes later, on 3rd and 19, Rex Grossman stepped up in the pocket and chucked it deep to Anthony Armstrong who overcame a pass interference penalty to haul in the winning touchdown.

The win brought us to 4-7.  It felt good to win.  Winning is good.  Winning is the point.  It literally makes me feel a little better about everything to win.  A 2 month-plus losing streak is not good for the soul.  Ending it is good.

And so we hurt our draft status for the time being.  Some fans are devastated by this aspect of the victory.  Seriously?

You want your team to lose 12 games in a row so you can earn the opportunity to draft a 21 year old speculation?  You want to lose so you can get JaMarcus Russel, Ryan Leaf, Jimmy Clausen, Tim Couch, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Andre Ware, David Klingler, or Heath Shuler?  Look 'em all up.  A high draft pick is a wonderful thing until you realize how speculative the whole thing is after the fact.

You can also be a good team, try hard, win, and get Aaron Rodgers late in the 1st round, Tom Brady in the 6th round, or Drew Brees in the 2nd round.

So, as nice as Matt Barkley might look in Redskins jersey, no, I'm not going to root for the Jets this Sunday.  I'm a Redskins fan.

Whatever: Cowboys 27, Redskins 24 OT

Yawn.

No One Likes a Tease: Dolphins 20, Redskins 9

I finally figured out why people hate Rex Grossman.  Its not that he's a terrible quarterback, because he's not.  He can and has performed at a very high level throughout his career.  Even this season for the now 3-6 Washington Redskins.

Yet, fans, commentators, and probably coaches and players hate him with a passion because he is a tease.  He is Lucy the field goal holder.

20 yard crossing route to Gafney?  Nice!  15 yard out to Davis?  Hmm, pretty good!!  30 yard post pattern to Hankerson? Whoa, Sweet!!!  Interception in the redzone after staring at the primary receiver for nearly 4 seconds to ruin the chance to take the lead in the 4th quarter?

Damn it!  Damn it, Rex, you son of a bitch.  I'll jump into the television and strangle you!

We didn't even know Rex was going to play.  Shanahan decided to start him at the last second.  What a mess Shanahan has made of this team.  There is no identity, and no sense of what the Redskins' short term and longterm mission is.  Shanny said younger guys are playing because the older guys are injured.  So is it a rebuild or not?  What was the purpose of 2010?  What is the purpose of 2011?

In the French Connection, the two detectives find the car they're looking for that's supposed to be full of heroine.  They strip it down a little, taking off doors and seats and fabric.  No drugs.  They decide they've got to go further, tear it down, strip it down even further in order to achieve their objective.  Nuts, bolts, metal strips come flying off.  The car is slowly and painstaking unravelled and taken apart, and finally they find the drugs.

I'm hoping Shanahan is doing this to the Redskins.  Tear down to build up.  Way down.  Otherwise, he is hiding his complete cluelessness for the time being.

Shanny Makes This Entry Easy: 49ers 19, Redskins 11

I love doing this blog.  Its kind of fun, but I'm also pretty busy.  So, thanks to Mike Shanahan for making my 1000 word picture.

Beck is terrible.  He only follows one receiver.  He can't recognize the deep routes.  Roy Helu caught 14 super short passes, which broke Art Monk's single game record.  How depressing is that?

Shanahan talked a lot about getting young guys reps, which is as close to saying "rebuild" as its going to get.

I feel bad for London Fletcher.  He shouldn't have to deal with this kind of situation.

And going 3-1 followed by a precipitous drop to 3-5 really sucks, and it sucks even worse because it happened before in 2003.  8 years ago, the 3-5 Skins hosted Seattle, and kept their season alive by doing crazy stuff like going for 4th down at our own 25, and running wide receiver screen option pass to win it.  Sadly, I don't think similar super-desperate acts would work for this 2011 team.