Redskin Post Game Thoughts: Scrubs 34 Raiders 14

You knew this was going to happen sooner or later, right? The Redskins were bound to blow up on somebody. They’ve had to swallow too much- too many injured players, too many close loses, too many embarrassing moments - not to eventually explode the way the did on the Raiders yesterday.

The final was 34-14, but it might as well have been 64-14, ‘cause when this one ended the Skins were pulling away in a hurry and not looking back. And okay, maybe these Raiders aren’t going to make anyone forget the Snake and the Mad Stork and Ghost to the Post, but at least they’re better than the no-account Lions team Washington lost to a couple of months ago.

This game also continued the recent trend of the team’s level of play improving as the number or recognizable names on the field decreases. Portis, Haynesworth, Cooley, Samuels…none of those guys came anywhere near yesterday’s win. And for all I care, they can stay gone. Daniel Snyder has worshipped at the altar of The Name Player, the high dollar mercenary talent, for a decade now, and where has it gotten Washington? If these players are so damn good, then why do the Redskins seem to have trouble winning with them on the field no matter who’s calling the plays?

Give me guys like Quinton Ganther and Marcus Mason and yes, Jason Campbell. Just plain old football players who don’t talk a lot and try real hard. Guys who worry more about winning football games than posting on their blogs or wearing silly ass wigs to press conferences. I’d rather go 4-12 with these guys than 7-9 with a bunch of overpaid, underachieving head cases.

Okay, maybe that's not totally fair. Not all the high dollar talent has crapped out. Santana Moss is still hanging in there, and Brian Orakpo is an expensive, high dollar rookie who is starting to look like he might actually be worth every penny. Still, it's the scrubs, the nobodies, and the cast-offs (I include Campbell in this last group, even though technically he hasn't gone anywhere) who are mostly driving this recent push toward respectability. That's got to be driving Cerrato nuts. What's he going to tell Snyder? That this was the plan all along?

The kicker. Seriously.

As if further proof were needed that the Redskins' season has just become a bad one-liner that's drawing no laughs in a mostly empty comedy club, the team responded to its OT loss to New Orleans by cutting kicker Shaun Suisham. Really.

Wow...that'll help turn things around in a hurry. If only they'd done this weeks ago, Washington would probably be chasing Super Bowl glory instead of sniffing around for shreds of its tattered dignity.

Look, I know Suisham missed a couple or three big kicks against Dallas and the Saints. But he also made 85% of his field goals this year, and the Redskins are desperately short of players who were successful in doing their jobs on 85% of the team's plays this year.

This latest move by pro football's most inept front office is simply laughable. It's not like I've got Suisham wallpaper on my desktop, but the guy was definatley serviceable enough to keep around through the last four games of this wretched season. My gut tells me that this is another knee-jerk move by Cerrato, who knows his own neck might be on the block this time, knows he's screwed this team up royally and is desperate to look like he's doing something. I just continue to marvel at how utterly worthless the people running my favorite team really are.

Stormy Monday: Snakebit Skins, VT back to Atlanta, London calling, Bowden's final bow

The Redskins. Jeez. What’s left to say? This is usually the time of year where I’m wondering out loud where the season went, but this year I can’t wait for the offseason to get here- it’s going to seem like a mercy killing. This team is snake-bit in every conceivable way; even when they play great, they find ways to lose. Take yesterday. They get mega-games from Jason Campbell and Devin Thomas, outplay arguably the NFL’s best team all afternoon, open a late 10 point lead…and yet still lose, because a freak play in the first half allowed the Saints to stay within striking distance. Losing has become a habit with the Redskins.That said, I think we’ve learned a few things from the last few weeks: 1.) this team is better off without some of its stars. Yes, I’m talking about you, Clinton Portis. Look, there’s no denying Portis comes to play. But he’s another one of these guys who’s a locker room cancer. The Redskins aren’t demonstrably worse without him, so it’s hard to argue he’s the difference maker his fans claim he is. 2.) The Redskins are probably going to give up on Jason Campbell at the precise point in time where he could be turning corner. Is he ever going to be a superstar? Probably not. But he could be an above average starter if the situation around him would just stabilize (which it probably never well because, hey, these are the Redskins). 3.) Regardless of the reason they’re out there, it’s good to see Thomas, Fred Davis, etc on the field and getting involved. These guys weren’t drafted to sit on the bench. Either they can play or they can’t; it’s time to find out.

BTW, I love the way all of these Saints “fans” who were in the stands yesterday have suddenly emerged from nowhere. I’d say about 60% of them were probably have Steeler jerseys left from last year, Giants outfits from ’07, etc.

The Hokies are going to end their season back where it began in September: in Atlanta, this time against the Tennessee Volunteers in the Chik-fil-A Bowl on New year’s Eve. I absolutely love this matchup. Not to sound ungrateful, but after 17 straight bowl appearances, simply making it to a bowl game alone doesn’t really create much excitement among the Tech fan base anymore. After getting paired up against the likes of Cincinnati, Louisville, and Kansas over the last few years, and having already played in Atlanta twice this season (vs. Alabama and Georgia Tech), VT desperately needed a “name” opponent to generate some buzz for this year’s holiday trip, and by golly they got it. A big time SEC program plus a regional rival in the recruiting wars plus a snotty, easy to hate young coach = a great bowl opponent.

Wow- talk about a rough weekend in the West End. Not only did the Spiders lose to Appy State with 10 seconds left to go in the quarterfinals, but now Mike London has stepped down. He's going to be introduced as the Boo Hoos new coach at a press conference this afternoon. This is a smart hire for Virginia. London is a good X’s and Os coach, knows the UVA culture, and has excellent in-state recruiting ties (that last thing being something that cannot be said of the recently departed Al Groh). Because this is his first FBS-level job, and because the current state of Cav football was nine years in the making, London’s not going into this under pressure to win big right away. Barring an absolute disaster, I’m thinking he’s probably got a solid three years to get Virginia back into the bowl picture. On a related note, how frustrating is it for UR to lose its second head coach in three years to the big leagues? First Dave Clawson builds the foundation, only to leave for the OC job at Tennessee right when it's all coming together. Then London comes in and really puts the program on the map, but bolts for Charlottesville after just two years. It's hard enough just to find one good coach...

He hasn’t fielded a losing team since 1976, when the parents of some of his current players were still in grade school. He’s won 2 national titles, missed 4 or 5 more by a whisker, and- perhaps most unbelievably- once had a streak of 14 consecutive seasons that saw his team win no fewer than 10 games and finish no lower than 5th in either of the major polls. And now, because of a few recruiting classes that didn’t pan out and a handful of 5 and 6 loss seasons, Bobby Bowden can’t coach? Whatever.

The ACC: A season in the dumps

What an absolutely crap year for the ACC. Unlike last season, when the conference looked watery early on but managed a respectable finish (including, believe it or not, a winning head-to-head record against SEC teams), 2009 was basically devoid of redemption. Things started swirling down the toilet from week one (two losses to FCS schools and a narrow escape from a third) and proceeded straight to the septic tank. Just this past week, we were treated to the sorry spectacle of Georgia Tech and Clemson- the two title game participants and, one would think, conference standard bearers -getting mugged by a couple of SEC also-rans.

While the embarrassing losses were piling up, where were the season's banner out-of-conference wins? FSU over BYU? That was a million years ago. VT's narrow escape against Nebraska? Exciting, sure, but hardly a statement type of game. Miami over OU? A head-turner most years; too bad this was the weakest Sooner team of the Bob Stoops era. I might be forgetting a big win or two somewhere, but you get the idea. And to top it off, there's a good chance things could get even worse during bowl season.

I really hate writing this, because I desperately want the ACC to be good. There are long and rich football traditions at most of its member schools; plus I want those conference titles the Hokies have racked up to mean something. But somehow, despite a massive effort to upgrade its football side, the ACC has become the weakest link in the already paper thin BCS chain. One of the biggest jokes about the current system is the fact that the ACC champ gets an automatic bid while teams like TCU and Boise State have to fight over at-large scraps. This year, half the damn conference finished at or below .500 overall. This from a league that qualified a record 10 teams for bowls just one year ago.

Last year, I was able to make a pretty good argument that the perception of the ACC as a weak sister wasn't really grounded in reality, that while there were no national title/Top 5 caliber teams, overall the conference was extremely deep and balanced. No such case can be made this year- the ACC has pretty much earned all the ridicule. Nothing left to do now but hope for a good showing in the bowls and look for some payback next year.

VT Post Game Thoughts: Let It Groh

So the Hokies whacked the Boo Hoos again, 42-13, and Ryan Williams played great, again, and I got to enjoy the spectacle of all my Cav-rooting co-workers coming in all dispirited on a Monday, again...but none of that is what I want to write about for some reason, at least not at the moment.

Is it weird that I’ve been thinking about Al Groh more than the Hokies over the last 48 hours or so? I’m not sure. All I know is that there’s a part of me that’s going to miss watching him on my TV every first Saturday after Thanksgiving. Brow furrowed, teeth clenched, his visible frustration and apparent inability to comprehend what the Hokies were doing to his team came to personify everything I enjoy about beating the Boo Hoos- and dammit, I loved the guy for it.

There was a time, of course, when I didn't have such fondness for Big Al. He split the pros and rolled back into C’ville with quite a bit of fanfare, what with his jut-jawed attitude and “this is how we did it in the NFL” bluster and talk about changing the football culture at ol' Wine'n'Cheese U. And for a short while, it looked like maybe he knew what he was doing. UVA recruiting took off- the Cavs had a couple or three classes ranked in or near the nation’s top 25, according to most folks who supposedly know about such things. After a 5-7 transition year in 2001, the wins started coming, including a 35-21 number over a fast tanking Virginia Tech team in 2003. The tables appeared to have turned; Virginia was the hot new program on the rise, while the Hokies' days as the state's top dog appeared at an end (fair enough if you look at 2001-03 in a bubble, I suppose).

It all came to a boiling head on October 16th, 2004. That's when Virginia, 5-0 and ranked #6 in the country, strutted in to Tallahassee for what was supposed to be their national coming out party, the game where they proved they belonged among the elite. There was even- and I know how silly this seems in retrospect - some muttering in the media about the Cavs being a dark horse national title contender.

Someone forgot to tell the Noles. FSU 36, dear old UVA 3. The Hoos season sputtered down the stretch after that, with 3 more losses in the final 6 games, including an upset loss to Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl. Meanwhile, the Hokies were surprising everyone by winning the ACC their first year in the conference.

And that, really, was that. No one knew it then, but the Groh era had peaked, and the next five years would be nothing but one slow unraveling. Sure, there were a few nice moments on the way down, like a Music City Bowl win in '05 and an unlikely 9-4 run in '07. But neither Groh nor the program ever seemed to recover from that '04 loss to Uncle Bobby; the recruiting trail seemed to cool after that, and assistants kept leaving (in fact Virginia has gone just 32-35 since that night five years ago). By this season, Groh was out of talent and out of time. My guess is the ax was coming no matter what happened against Tech on Saturday.

So off he goes, and as much as I hate the Cavs and as annoying as I found his NFL tough guy act...look, it's hard to feel sorry for a guy with a 4 million dollar buyout or whatever, but I'm not savoring his ignominious end the way I thought I might. See, this was Groh's dream job. It's still hard to imagine anybody giving up an NFL gig, even a lousy one like the Jets, to take the Virginia job, but Groh did. He wanted to be the coach at UVA. He wasn't using it as a stepping stone to some higher paying SEC or Big 12 gig the way a Steve Spurrier or a Mack Brown would. No, he was right where he wanted to be, which was part of what made beating him so much fun. And a big part of why, in a very weird way, I'll miss him.

Redskin Post Game Thoughts: It Should Have Happened

Well, so much for the "springboard" the Redskins were supposed to get from the Denver win.

This certainly wasn't the most frustrating loss Washington has ever absorbed from Dallas, or the most disappointing. Hell, it wasn't even particularly memorable. It may, however, have been the most annoying. Thoroughly outplayed for virtually the entire game, the overrated (as usual) Cowboys did absolutely nothing to deserve the win. But they got it, mainly because the Redskins failed to seal the deal when they had the chance.

In all seriousness, this may have been the gutsiest all around performance of the Jim Zorn era. The Redskins are a pretty weak outfit even when they're healthy, which they most definitely were not coming into the game. And then....down go backups-turned-starters Ladell Betts and Chad Rinehart. And with them, presumably, any chance of winning. Yet with just a few more inches from the offense...a first down here, a kick between the uprights there...it could have happened. It should have happened.

Ah, but now we're back to the same sorry tune we've been singing since, oh, about midway through last season: it's called Another Good Defensive Effort Gets Wasted. Only now we know Zorn isn't the only thing wrong with the offense, don't we? If playcalling was Washington's only or even primary problem, that issue should have been taken care of a few weeks ago when "Bingo" Lewis came on board. And speaking of Lewis, what's this about him only calling passing plays, while Sherman Smith calls the runs? I mean, WTF?

While I admit this game kind of made me want to go out and get a Rock Cartwright tattoo, the truth is there are no moral victories in the NFL. The brutal truth is that this is a 3-7 football team decimated by injuries, virtually at war with its own management, led by a lame duck head coach and facing a six game finishing stretch that includes five teams with winning records. Between coaches coming under fire off the field and players dropping like flies on it, I'm getting pretty curious about just who'll be left standing when this miserable season is over.

UR Stadium Goes Out in Style

THE LAST ONE

I suppose it was fitting that after 81 years, the Richmond Spiders' final regular season game in old-as-the-hills City/U of R Stadium would come down to a make-or-break field goal. Of course, I wouldn't be writing that line if Andrew Howard had missed and the Spiders had gone on to lose to William & Mary in overtime, but that's not what happened. On a day where things didn't always go right for Richmond, we somehow still got the finish everyone was hoping for.

Actually, that money kick was one of only two or three dramatic, out-of-your seat moments Saturday. The Spiders and the Tribe rolled in with two of the nation's nastiest defenses, and things played out pretty much as scripted. There were a whole lot of running plays that went nowhere, a few short passes that didn't go much further, and aside from one out-of-nowhere 60 yard TD strike by the Tribe, not much else. It wasn't a bad game, but the pace was definitely deliberate: both teams stuck with their bread and butter, played for field position, and waited for the other guys to make a mistake.

The Spiders actually made a couple, but the it was the Tribe that made The Big One. With 21 seconds left, W&M was at Richmond's 39 and trying to set up a game winning kick of their own when Justin Rogers intercepted RJ Archer and returned it to the Richmond 47. Two crisp Eric Ward passes later and the Spiders were at the Tribe 31 with 2 seconds left on the clock, and it was time to stick the knife in.

Actually, I should mention that at that moment the kick looked like anything but a gimmie, and not just because of the distance. Howard had missed on 2 of 3 first half attempts, including a twenty-some yard chip shot that had everyone in the stands looking at each other with an exaggerated "How the hell did he miss THAT one?" look on their faces. But that's already long forgotten- all anyone will remember now is that he nailed the one that mattered.

Otherwise, the afternoon offered all the flair you'd expect from an end-of-an-era type event...at least from a place where football has never been all that big a deal, anyway. The announced attendance was 17,527, and unlike at FedEx Field the figure didn't seem to be wildly inflated. This was the largest crowd for a Spider home game in 11 years and the 14th largest in stadium history. Not bad when you remember that, way back in the day before Division I got divided up between the haves and have-nots, home games against the likes of West Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland drew some pretty big crowds. Definitely not your typical UR game, which is usually roomy enough to allow you to basically pick your seat. The downside: parking sucked (we had a healthy mile walk) and the concessions were pretty well pillaged by early in the third quarter.

At halftime we got introduced to the "All Time UR Stadium Team" and even if the loudest cheers were all for names from the relatively recent past, I was surprised had how well balanced the choices were between the modern era guys and the, uh, more mature candidates. Usually this sort of "all time" team is really just a who's who of the last 20 years with a few token golden oldies thrown in, but this one actually had plenty of love for the 60s and 70s, and I think there were a couple of 1940s/50s selections as well.

Anyway, that's that. UR actually hosts Elon in a first round playoff game this Saturday, but as far as ceremony goes, this was the last one. I'm kind of excited to see the new place, but there's no way it'll ever be as cool as City Stadium was.

Midweek Thoughts: Spiders & Gobblers

• I guess at this point there’s not a lot more I can write about the curtain coming down at City Stadium this weekend until after UR and the Tribe actually get it on. I already posted my love letter to the old place back before the season even started, and everyone who cares about FCS football already knows what a big game this is. But as I ran down the Spiders’ All-Time team (or whatever it’s called) scheduled to be introduced at halftime, it hit me that some of the names I recognized from the mid 1970s are well into their fifties now. I still have a few game programs from those days, and the players are all long hair and sideburns and mustaches, and somehow in my head they’ve always stayed that way. Seems weird to think of them as fatter and balder than I am now. Getting old blows.

• So the Hokies are back on the tube Saturday after their week in exile on ESPN360. They’re on ESPN U at 3:30, which is where you wind up this time of year if you’re a decent team out of your conference title race and playing a boring opponent- in this case, NC State. Now, I don’t mean to dis’ the Pack. Their offense has been pretty explosive at times this year, and even though this is only the seventh meeting ever between the two, they’re just one of those pain-in-the-butt teams that seems to get more up for the Hokies than the Hokies do for them. They’ve only played twice since Tech joined the ACC, splitting a pair in 2004 and 2005, but they’ve won in Blacksburg before and despite their record they’re capable of doing it again. So I hope Tech is taking them more seriously than I am. Maybe it’s the fact that my football weekend is revolving around the UR game, or maybe it’s just a delayed reaction to the end of VT‘s 2 year reign as ACC champs, but for some reason I’m just not feelin’ it like I normally do for a late season home game, especially an ACC game. To me, State just seems like “the team we have to play to get to the UVA game.” Like I said, I hope the Hokies themselves are a little more focused.

Redskin Post Game Thoughts: Feelin' Groovy

Maybe it doesn’t mean jack-all in the big picture (how much difference is there, really, between 3-6 and 2-7?) but man, Sunday’s smack down of the Broncos felt gooooooood.

Not only was this Washington’s first win over a team with a winning record since, like, 1973, but the best parts all came from the most unlikely places. Take the way the much discussed offensive line abruptly stopped looking like a drunk, out of shape intramural team and started doing a credible imitation of The Hogs circa 1983- you wanna claim you saw that coming? Or how about Ladell Betts, channeling two parts John Riggins and one part Larry Brown? Or Jason Campbell, spreading the ball around like a wily 10 year veteran?

It was more than a little refreshing to have a week off from swinging at the Snyderrato piñata. Just for a few hours, we got to forget all about ticket ripoffs and wasted draft picks and merchandising scams and cap mismanagement and…well, we got to forget all of it and just enjoy four quarters of solid if unspectacular football.

I'm not listening to any of this crap about how Denver is in a free fall, either- I mean, they are, but...so? When you've looked as inept as the Redskins have for large stretches this season, no challenge is too small, no test too easy. And the way this one started off, it looked like we were in for an afternoon of same ol' same ol'- the Redskins' secondary looked like they'd been crippled by nerve gas or something the way Bronco receivers were burning them deep. But they somehow survived the early barrage, trailing only 17-7 when it could have- and probably should have - been 21-7 or even 28-7. They hung in there, and as cheesy as it may sound, that's no small thing when the cheap and easy fold has become part of your SOP.

Of course there were the usual reminders that these were still the Washington Redskins, 2009 edition. Fred Davis made a pretty nice grab early, then proceeded to drop about 50 balls. Campbell may have been spreading the ball around well, but he still had more than a handful of throws that were wildly off target. DeAngelo Hall almost ruined a perfectly good interception with a brick-headed decision to lateral to a teammate who obviously wasn't expecting it. And so on. Like I said: Redskins, 2009. But overall, this was the team's best across the board effort since roughly halfway through last season.

So now what? Well, I'll be! Look who’s next on the schedule- it’s the Plowboys! And it’s as good a time as any to catch them, I suppose. Wade Phillips’ Dallas teams tend to play well when there’s no real pressure on, but smack them in the mouth a few times and they have all kinds of problems. I think they’ve got a bit of a glass chin, and Washington is coming off its best game of the year, so…upset alert? Well, maybe that’s a stretch. But sooner or later we’re going to win two in a row again, and at the moment we’re halfway there.

Random Sunday Notes: Wasps, Spiders, and Hokies All Get 'Er Done

Dear old E&H won yesterday, finishing up their season at 7-3, with a 3-3 record in ODAC play. I guess that technically this qualifies as a successful season, but I’m still a little disappointed. A lot disappointed. Kind of pissed, actually. Sue me- I'm spoiled. Back in my day, the Wasps were just kicking off a solid decade and half of dominance that eventually netted 11 ODAC titles in 16 years. Playoff bids and undefeated seasons were always realistic goals; at one time the Blue and Gold had the longest active home winning streak in the country for all divisions. But the last conference title was 9 years and 1 coaching change ago, and things have never really been the same since. This year's team had some good buzz after a 4-0 start, but the wheels came off after the Wasps got into conference play. When Lou Wacker left I was hoping Don Montgomery would bring a little of that championship mojo with him from Mount Union, but five years down the line he kind of seems to be just treading water. That's not a knock on the guy, just a fact. Maybe next year...

I was already pretty excited about taking the fam down to Richmond to say goodbye to City Stadium next Saturday (yeah, I know- the Spiders might host a playoff game there the following week, but can I just have my moment, please?), and now, it looks like we’re actually get a pretty kick-ass matchup to boot. UR and William & Mary both come in at 9-1 and, depending on what Villanova does the same day, either all of part of the CAA title will be at stake. It was going to be a fun day no matter what, but having the game actually matter certainly doesn't hurt.

After about 20 minutes of frustration and futility, I abandoned my bid to watch the Hokies and Terrapins on the craptacular ESPN360 and went with the ol’ reliable FM radio broadcast. 360 might be all the rage for you city folk with your ultra fat Internet connections and high falutin‘ ways, but out here on the outskirts of Mayberry, they’re still tweaking this wireless thing, and I never did get more than a couple of plays strung together before everything froze up. Didn’t matter much, as it turned out- the Hokies put this one away early, and by golly they should have. The Terps are friggin’ awful, and it was good to see Tech act like a Top 25 team for a change by going into the living room of an obviously inferior opponent, putting their feet up on the table, helping themselves to drinks and behaving in a rude and vulgar manner.

Fear the Turtle? Okay...kind of. But not much.

After a couple of Thursday nighters, it’s back to regular Saturday business for the Hokies this weekend as they hit the road to take on Frank Beamer’s vacation buddy Ralph Friedgen and his Maryland Terrapins. This is just VT’s second trip to College Park since joining the ACC in ’04. I’m a little annoyed that the game is on ESPN 360; I love our homegrown wireless provider but they’ve been tweaking the system the last week or so and connectivity has been kind of scattershot.

On paper, this is a game the Hokies should take without too much difficulty. But in the nothing-is-what-it-seems bizarro world of ACC football, that never means much. Both teams are entering the stretch run of disappointing seasons, although “disappointing” is a highly relative term in this case. Tech is out of the ACC Coastal race every way but mathematically, and any at-large BCS talk is long gone. There’s still a sixth straight 10-win season and “best of the rest” type bowl bid to shoot for, but there’s no doubt that this year’s team failed to live up to just about everybody’s expectations.

By contrast, the only bowl the Terps are talking about is the toilet bowl, which is where their season started heading pretty much from opening day. The obvious high water mark was an upset of Clemson, while their next most impressive win was, uh…a narrow escape vs. IAA James Madison? Wow. Anyway, at 2-7 they’re just playing out the string, trying to get their younger players some road miles and thinking ahead to 2010. Their offensive line is horrible at pass protection. And they have no running game. And their starting quarterback is (probably) out. And their defense isn’t very good, either. This is without question the weakest overall team Tech has played this year.

But part of the problem with playing a team like Maryland at this point in the season is that they literally have nothing to lose. Whatever mistakes he’s made recruiting or running his program, Friedgen is still a very savvy offensive schemer and a solid game day coach, and with no real stakes on the table he certainly has no reason not to roll the dice more than usual. The Terps also have a lot of freshman and sophomores dotting their two-deep, all of whom are desperate to show that they are part of the solution for next season. This might be a young team, but they’re capable of beating anyone who takes them too lightly. It happened to Clemson, and it could happen to Virginia Tech.

It could…but I don’t think it will. Yes, Tech appeared kind of listless beating East Carolina, and no, they really haven’t looked much like a Top 25 team since beating Boston College way back on October 10th. Plus, I’ve maintained for some time that this is a subpar defense by the historical Lunch Pail standards. But starting an inexperienced quarterback against Bud Foster with no running game to fall back on…I mean, that right there smells like 10 to 14 points off turnovers, doesn’t it? And while the offense appears to have regressed the last month or so, I still think Ryan Williams will get another 100 yarder and find the end zone at least once. The last time I was really confident about a Hokie win I got burned (UNC), but when I look at this game VT has a decisive advantage in just about every area. I’ll give the Terps an extra score for playing in front of the home folks, and I wish the Hokies would find some of whatever they lost after the BC game, but I still like Tech by something like 27-13.

Week Eleven What-the-Hell-Was-I-Thinking Picks

Not sure where the week went, but it looks like its time for my ritualistic public humiliation once again. How long, oh Great Point Spread, how long?

Last week: 5-5 Season: 51-50

___ at Boise St. 31 Idaho _x__
___ at Southern Cal 10 ½ Stanford _x__
___ at Georgia 4 ½ Auburn _x__
___ at TCU 19 ½ Utah _x__
___ at Oklahoma St. 4 Texas Tech _x__

Idaho has had a monster season by their standards, but they still aren’t in the same league as Boise State. Still, 31 points is simply too huge for me not jump on it. USC is out of the national title picture and their PAC 10 hopes are dangling by a thread- they’ll struggle more than they should with Stanford. I can see Jaw-ja being a fave at home, but the Dawgs really haven’t been that good all year, while Auburn has been maybe a tad better than expected- I say the Tigers keep it to a field goal between the hedges if they don’t win outright. The Mountain West offers us one of the weekend's best matchups with TCU and Utah, two teams that are a combined 17-1. TCU wins, Utah hangs around until the end. Mike Leech has had two weeks to get his Red Raiders ready for Oklahoma State, and I think Texas Tech gets the upset on the road.

___ at NY Jets 7 Jacksonville _x__
_x__ at Pittsburgh 7 Cincinnati ___
_x__ Dallas 3 at Green Bay ___
_x__ at San Diego 1 ½ Philadelphia ___
___ at Indianapolis 3 New England _x__



As my Poolmaster Tiny E always notes, the Jags have historically been a cover machine when appearing on the Weekly Pool, so they’re an automatic here (especially getting that phat 7 points!).. Cincy was a nice story in the first half of the season, but weather’s getting colder and things are getting serious, which means its time for the Bengals to start being the Bungles. I hate picking the Cowboys even when I think they’re a smart bet, but damn, the Packers are just sinking like a stone here lately. Speaking of smart, I love San Diego only giving 1 ½ at home. And while everyone’s talking about the Steelers, Colts, and Bengals, New England has been a real quiet 6-2. Maybe the old Brady magic isn’t entirely gone after all

Redskin Post Game Thoughts: Reasons to Keep Watching

I’m a big fan of horror movies, which I guess relates on some level to my willingness to keep tuning in to the gruesome saga of the Washington Redskins week after week. No matter how repulsive the scene, I still have this perverse desire to see what happens next. Make no mistake: no matter what the calendar or the math say, the competitive portion of the Redskins’ season is over. Actually, it’s been over since they got decked by the Lions. That was the moment of truth. There wasn‘t going to be any coming back from that one, no NFL Films-style, gut-wrenching rise from the ashes to save the season. The Redskins offer us nothing but depression and failure at this point- that, and an eight week march to the graveyard where the 2009 edition will be mercifully blown to pieces.

But for those of us who still care, there’s still stuff worth watching:

The Danny and The Vinny-
Is this once-unshakable “bromance” about to hit the rocks? I know Snyder loves his personal stooge, but years of whiffing on draft day and poor choices in free agency have left the Skins with a tissue thin roster dotted with a few aging skill players and little else. Guess what? The check’s here. Cerrato’s recent attempts to throw the hapless Jim Zorn under the bus were really pathetic; outside of Snyder himself, no figure is more despised by the Redskins fan base.

Jason Campbell-
Okay, we all know he’s done. He’ll crop up somewhere else as a backup next year, and that’ll be that. But I really want him to play well from here on out, if for no other reason than to give him a little leverage on his next contract. He’s handled himself with a lot more class than this wretched organization ever showed toward him. And no fair tagging his failure on Cerrato- Campbell was a Joe Gibbs special.

That Third Win-
No Redskins team has ever lost 14 games in a season. I’m never going to be one of those “I hope we lose the rest of them so we can get the first draft pick” types. I always thought that was incredibly lame, the sort of thing a Giants fan might say. A third win would put us at least on par with Norv Turner’s 3-13 offering of 1994. It's all about re-adjusting expectations, people.

Spoiler Time!
What's the next best thing to a successful season? Ruining somebody else's!! The Skins might be out of it, but the Cowboys, Broncos, and a few others aren’t. As inept as our boys have looked, there was something resembling life on display in the second half against the Falcons. If they could somehow put a whole game like that together, just once, AND catch one of these contenders on a really bad day...well, it could happen.

Zorn's Last Stand
Okay, it’s a given Zorn is history, and maybe he deserves to be. He's obviously in way over his head. But it wasn't his fault that he was offered the job in the first place, and it's not his fault the roster is so full of holes. I keep hoping for some grand gesture of rebellion from him before he leaves, something like storming the box and yanking the playbook away from Sherman "Bingo" Lewis or something. If anyone deserves to have the last laugh here, it's Zorn.

VT Post Game Thoughts: A Win's A Win...I Guess

Okay, we got the win. That was the main thing going in, and it's still the main thing four days later. It might not feel as good as the giddy buzz one gets from being a top 5 team, but being 6-3 and bowl eligible for the 17th straight year beats the hell out of being 5-4 and drawing attention for all the wrong reasons.

And yet it was hard to feel but so good about this one. This was a marquee, "prove we belong" type game for the East Carolina folks, and as sometimes happens when teams get a little too jacked up, the Pirates came out sloppy. They lost one touchdown to a penalty, had two promising drives killed by turnovers, and in general looked like a team trying just a little too hard to impress the TV audience. VT was able to control the clock with another huge game from Ryan Williams, came up with a couple of timely plays on defense, and basically did just enough to win the football game.

And...I guess that's the problem, isn't it ? I mean,16-3? Come on- ECU was begging to be blown out here. But Tech couldn't quite put them away; the Pirates were never more than one long bomb from being right back in it. Good thing their passing game was almost comically out of sync.

I'm not usually a big one for style points; stuff like that is part of what makes the current BCS system such a walking septic tank. Ultimately, the "W" is all that should ever matter. But other than Williams and Cody Grimm, there still seems to be a spark missing from this team. I was seriously bugged by the way the Hokies kept coming away with 3 instead of 7 on their better drives, 'cause every time they did they were just inviting the Pirates to stick around. VT got away with it Thursday night, but from a purely technical standpoint I'm not sure the offense played much better than it did against UNC. The main difference was that ECU simply didn't have the NFL-caliber talent up front that the Heels did.

Defensively there's not much to complain about with just 3 points on the board and less than 300 yards given up, and after back to back second half cave-ins against GT and UNC, it was good to see Foster's bunch pitch a second half shut out.

Oh well- at this point in the season, there's probably no use hoping for a major improvement on either side of the ball; we've got a hit-or-miss offense and an adequate (read: not especially good) defense, and that's the deck we'll be playing from here on out. The blowouts Tech hung on Miami and BC look more and more like anomalies in retrospect, and "close fit" games like this one are probably going to be the rule the rest of the way.

Week Ten What-the-Hell-Was-I-Thinking Picks

Yeah, I'm still here.

Didn't manage to get my picks posted last week, but I managed to tread water. And I'm finally over .500...like it matters at this point (I'm pretty sure the High Roller Cup is out of reach by now). As always, my picks here are against the spread.

Last week: 5-5 Season: 46-45


_x__ at Notre Dame 11 Navy ___
_x__ at Penn St. 3 ½ Ohio St. ___
_x__ at Alabama 7 ½ LSU ___
_x__ Oregon 6 ½ at Stanford ___
___ Oklahoma 5 ½ at Nebraska _x__

I should know better than to give double digits to Navy while taking the always unpredictable Irish, but it's late in the season, and I'm living on the edge. Penn State will have its hands full with OSU, but they'll ride the home field advantage for the win. The Crimson Tide looked pretty shaky against Tennessee a couple of weeks ago; too bad for LSU that they'll get Alabama's A-game today. Oregon has recovered better than I ever thought possible from that early loss to Boise State (who would still beat them if they played tomorrow, by the way) and they'll handle Stanford. I don't really have any good reason for picking Nebraska over OU except a vague feeling that Bo Pelini has something waiting for the Stoopsters.

_x__ Baltimore 3 at Cincinnati ___
___ at Indianapolis 9 Houston _x__
___ at Chicago 3 Arizona _x__
___ at NY Giants 4 ½ San Diego _x__
_x__ at Philadelphia 3 Dallas ___

The Ravens have been nothing but good to me all year, so I'll keep riding that train for the moment. The Texans are going to give the Colts enough problems to keep things interesting. Arizona gets a road win against Da Bears, the G-men continue to collapse, and Philly gets a leg up in the NFC East on a vastly overrated Dallas team.

Signs 'o' the times...

Absolutely insane week so far at the day job; not nearly as much time to blog as I need. Hope to be back in the groove in a day or two. In the meantime, here's a great cartoon from the Fredericksburg Star that perfectly sums up the silliness of FedEx Field sign ban. The Redskins, somehow, have become a franchise at war with their own fan base.

VT Post Game Thoughts: They Are Who We Hoped They Weren't

I woke up this morning and felt great for about five seconds. The I remembered last night‘s game against North Carolina, and I started feeling a little sick to my stomach. Life’s little wake-up calls can be like that sometimes.

All season long, I’ve been trying to tell myself that the various things that were troubling me (and a lot of other folks) about this year’s Hokie team- the soggy pass blocking, the off-and-on play selection, Tyrod’s habit of holding on the ball too long, the shaky run defense – would eventually work themselves out. Sure, the Alabama loss was tough, but on a good day the Tide still might be the best team in the country, and VT gave ‘em all they wanted for three quarters. The Georgia Tech loss was tougher, but what can you say- the Jackets played lights out in the second half, and Paul Johnson might be the hottest coach in the game at the moment. Close calls against Nebraska and Duke? Forget about it- hey, the got the “W”, right? Despite everything the Gobblers were 5-2, and they’d pounded Miami and Boston College. That, I kept telling myself, was the real 2009 Tech. That was the team that was poised for an explosive stretch run.

Except it wasn’t. I was seeing the Virginia Tech I wanted to see, and making excuses to fill in the cracks.

So much for that. The Heels exposed the Hokies like no one has in quite some time. Normally the term “exposed” is associated with blowouts, but in this case 20-17 was all the exposure that was needed. We’re talking about a heavy underdog (0-3 in the ACC coming in), with a bubble gum machine offense and a defense that had built up some gaudy stats against some questionable opposition (and been shredded by GT and FSU), coming into Lane Stadium- on a Thursday night no less – and manhandling the Hokies on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

I wasn't especially worried early on- the Carolina offense appeared to be as feeble as advertised, and I figured at some point Tech would stop coming away empty-handed from their trips into UNC territory. But they didn't, and right near the end of the first half somebody started feeding the Heels' O-line its spinach. Once they got the inside running game going, other things started opening up, and pretty soon one of the lowest ranked attacks in the country was grinding methodically up and down Worsham Field like a combine.

As as Tech's offense...well, after a decent start, they got whipped up front too, especially on passing plays. But their job wasn't made any easier by Stiney's transparent play-calling, or Tyrod's willingness to risk an 8 yard loss rather than give up on a play.

A few weeks ago I wrote that, much like the 2008 team, this year’s Hokie club was a scrapper. This was something I based on the fact that they hung in there against Nebraska and Alabama when nothing seemed to be working, and even managed to pull out a win against the Huskers. But like a lot fans today, I’m slowly adjusting to the fact that not only is this team not as good as I thought it was, they’re really not all that good period. They’re essentially one play from .500, and most of the numbers that matter support the idea that this is a strictly mediocre football team.

Coming in to this season, I think most Tech fans felt like an ACC title, a ten win season, and top ten finish nationally were all reasonable goals based on the way last year‘s team finished and the talent coming back. Eight games down the line, those first two items are still mathematically possible but extremely unrealistic, and the third is smoke. Tech still hasn’t secured that 17th straight bowl bid yet, and all of a sudden none of the remaining four games look like locks. There’s a thick cloud of disappointment hanging over this team right now, and it will be extremely interesting to see how the Hokies respond over the last month of the season.

Couple other things real quick:

• It’s a little premature to say that Tech’s Thursday night home game mystique is gone completely, but this game certainly was an uppercut that sent it reeling into the ropes.

• The Ryan Williams fumble: no, I don’t have any idea what the hell Tech was thinking running the ball on third and six with under two minutes to play in a tie ball game, either.

Super-Quick Off-the-Cuff VT Pre-Game Thoughts

Looking at tonight's game against UNC, I think we're all familiar with the Heels' struggles this year. Butch Davis's third season was supposed to be the big coming out party down in Chapel Hill, but it just hasn't happened. Mostly because of a truly dreadful offense, Carolina is an eyebrow-raising 0-3 in ACC play, and to keep from going 0-4 they need to beat Virginia Tech- and beating Tech in Blacksburg on a Thursday night happens, like, never...unless you're Boston College, anyway.

Still, there's a part of me that feels a tad uneasy about this one. The Heel offense may suck, but the defense is another story. It's one of the best in the country, and the Hokie offense, while improved, is still somewhat of a hit-and-miss affair. So there's that to think about. Plus, I'm kind of wondering if the Hokies might not have a little bit of a hangover from the GT loss. They know they lost control of their destiny in Atlanta, and that not only do they need to win out to have a shot at the ACC title, but that even running the table might not be enough. From national title talk to ACC longshot: rarely do teams lose as much in one game as VT lost against the Jackets.

But ultimately I've got to go with the history and the trends here: the day of the week, the venue, the time of year, Frank Beamer's record against Butch Davis, the fact that the 2009 Hokies appear to be a much stronger team at home- virtually every indicator, significant and trivial, points to a Tech win. I wouldn't be surprised to see a close first half, but I think VT gets this one by at least ten points.

Redskin Post Game Thoughts: Less Than Zero

No, seriously- I’ve got nothing to say about the Philly game. I expected an up-and-down performance from the defense and the usual ineptitude from the offense and that’s exactly what the Skins gave us. 27-17, but this thing was over by halftime. Like the opener in New York, the final score was nowhere near indicative of how thoroughly Washington was beaten. Similarly, the team’s 2-5 record- a mark only made possible by the softest five game stretch in the history of the NFL – masks how truly pathetic their performance has been.

I do have some general thoughts on the state of things and where we might be headed, but I’m saving those for after the bye week. For now, I’m just glad to have this damn team off my radar for a couple of weeks. I still love ‘em, but this really is the worst of times.

The Spiders roll, the Wasps roll over, and VT loses without even playing

• Well….crap. The Hokies might not have had a game scheduled this past Saturday, but it still turned out to be a pretty costly weekend. VT got stuck with the two things it absolutely did not need to have happen: a Georgia Tech win and a Miami loss. At this point, Beamer and crew could win out and it still might not be enough; the Boo Hoos of C‘ville were the last realistic roadblock for the Rambling’ Wreck. Better start puckering, because it’s just about time to kiss the ACC Coastal division goodbye. I know, I know- anything can happen in college football, ain‘t over ‘til it‘s over, etc, etc, cliché, cliché. But when “anything” needs to include a GT loss to either Duke or Wake, well…Gator Bowl, anyone?
• 
  
  After needing to stage second half comebacks in their last two games, Richmond rolled over UMass with relative ease, and looks like the Spiders are rounding into form just in time for the stretch run. They still need to deal with Villanova between now and the big finale against William & Mary, but I’m getting pretty geeked for the renewal of the South's Oldest Rivalry and what will likely be my final trip ever to City Stadium on 11/21. The last couple of years have really been amazing; I wish my dad was here to see it.
• 
  
  Emory & Henry dropped their third straight, and now all of a sudden that 4-0 start seems like a distant memory. I haven’t seen the Waspers play this year, and ODAC coverage around here is spotty at best, so I can’t comment too much on why the bottom seems to be falling out. All I know is that it's been a pretty quick drop from "Maybe we can go undefeated" to "We can still win the ODAC" to "I hope we finish above .500". Anybody that wants to chip in with additional info is welcome to do so.
• 
  
  The Redskins are on MNF tonight. Whooo-friggin'-hoo. Hope I've got some toothpicks laying around somewhere to prop my eyelids open. Once upon a time, a Monday night game against the Iggles was an absolute stock-the-fridge, call-in-late-on-Tuesday EVENT. No more. I'll tune in, I'll watch, but really- the spark just isn't there for me right now. It's not the actual losing that's sucked my fanhood dry so much as the knowledge that there's no plan, no roadmap, no leadership in place to guide the Skins out of this mess. There is no real reason to think things will be better next year, or the year after that.