Well, what happened on Sunday was awesome. The Redskins / Football Team / Commies exorcised the demons and have made it to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2006. The end of the game was as fitting as it could get for this team. The nerves were through the roof for 60 minutes in a game that inevitably came down to the last play. Our kicker who couldn’t stop messing with his hair sent the kick out to the right. It looked like we were bound for overtime then the football gods decided to bless us one more time doinking the ball off the right upright through the posts to send us to the next round.
I don’t know who made the deal with the devil this year. There is clearly some dark ritual voodoo magic in the air with this team. Perhaps, this is the god’s way of setting everything back into equilibrium after spiraling us throughout hell for the last 20 years. I’m not complaining at all. All I can say is whoever shook the devil’s hand is fucked whenever this rollarcoaster ends. However, I do thank them and would thank them if given the opportunity.
The last drive was exactly what I talked about it the last blog. JD took over and in the biggest moment mangaged to act as if he was playing football in his backyard. He converted on third down to Dyami, threw a pass that we all thought was going to be picked off to Austin, and used his legs secure us a game winning kick with no time on the clock. After Austin’s kick doinked in, he didn’t even react. He just sat there for a few seconds and casually gets up to go shake hands with the other team. Any other quarterback in the league is going nuts there. His composure and level headedness makes little to no sense.
We went on the road and won a playoff game with essentially zero run game. I never thought I’d say this but BRob has entered the hot seat. I can’t tell if he is stilll hurt but I believe that might be the best case scenario for him at the moment. Because well, the guy has forgotten how to run the ball. I strongly stand by the fact that Rodriguez should take over his role for this Saturday. There’s no more time to figure it out or get your groove going again. The confidence and explosiveness just isn’t there. He’s become a liability. It pains me to say this but it is true. I have more confidence bringing in Mariota for a tush push to get one yard than handing it to BRob.
One thing I didn’t see coming was the Dyami Brown legacy game. He showed up at the right time and I believe just played himself into a second contract. If there’s ever a time to play the best game of your career, it is in primetime of the playoffs when 99% of football fans and players are watching. He made a comment post game saying how this was the first time reporters had crowded around him this season. Yeah man, no shit. You’ve sucked all year. If you’d be doing this on the regular, then you’d get more attention.
To no surprise, another player who showed up was Terry. I still cannot believe I put it in writing that I was worried about him earlier this season. Couldn’t have been more wrong on that one. I recommend loading up another Terry yards and touchdown bet this week. Another take I couldn’t have been more wrong on was that Lattimore was going to make our defense better. The guy is a bum and shouldn’t ever be on the field ever. I see little to no chance he shuts down Amon ra.
Terry grabbing his touchdown was the moment I actually thought we were going to win. Somebody out there is going to have a heart attack watching this team go for it on every 4th down. In the moment, it’s always “ Oh my god they are going for it again.” Then, we get the first down and remember we have a phenom at quarterback and it makes more sense. The one thing I do appreciate about the approach is consistency. We nearly Lionsd ourselves but Baker fumbling that ball exonerating DQ for all his decisions. We definitely lose that game without the mess up.
Hearing the MVP chants on the road in a playoff game for our quarterback was not something anyone saw coming at the start of this season. I believe if you could gamble on that, those odds would fall somewhere between +10 to 20000. Goes to show how well our fans traveled down to Tampa. Hopefully, we get to see this again tomorrow. However, with the ticket prices I’ve seen I’m not sure if this is one most fans are going to want to attend.
It would definitely help to get a big showing from our fan base as we are once again on the road in primetime. We’ve got a steep hill to climb. We have to stop an offense loaded top to bottom with weapons. We are currently 8.5 point underdogs. The line has been all over the place. I personally hope the the line goes as far in their favor as possible. I am going to be betting our moneyline no matter what. The better the price the happier I am with the pick. The percent of bets I’ve seen for the game heavily favors the Lions. I am a big fan of fading the public so this works in our favor. It wouldn’t be the first time this season we’ve won under these circumstances.
The amount of injuries they have works in our favor. They’re coming off a bye and were able to get some of their guys back. I wouldn’t have problems with facing David Montgomery if he was rushed back from injury. I am not sure if this will be the case; however, I think it’s safe to assume some of their guys were rushed back so they could be active for the playoffs. On the other hand, we are actually very healthy at this point of the season. We’ll have the whole squad and we’re gonna need everyone.
I think for us to win this one we’re gonna need to score a lot of points. The best defense is going to be long possessions. We’ve seen Goff throw 4 interceptions this year. It wouldn’t hurt if he threw a few more again tomorrow. The possession against the Bucs where we held onto the ball for 9 minutes and walked away with 7 points was a championship drive. If we can put together some of those, our chances of winning go up substantially. Looking at this one on paper, I like the over regardless of how high the number gets. I don’t know if we’ll be able to stop their offense. And if we want to win we’ll need a near perfect game from the offense. I recommend sprinkling on Luke McCaffrey to get in the endzone and grab the first touchdown. He just can’t go through his entire rookie campaign and not get in the endzone.
At the end of the day, we’ll see what happens. I think any fan who is betting on our spread is an idiot. If you take spread and say well at least my bet hit, then you aren’t a real fan. There are a lot of nerves surrounding this game. Probably the most of any sporting event in my life. There will be butterflies from start to finish. We are one game away from the NFC Championship against the Eagles or Rams. We will worry about them after we get out of Detroit with a win. If we can get this game to come down to the last play, then I like our odds. Hopefully, the sketchy dark voodoo magic can power the cardiac Commies through one more game. Regardless of the outcome, it has been a hell of a season. Wishing everyone a great weekend. Looking forward to writing back next week to talk about how we shocked the world.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jason Behnken