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You can't help but love this guy...HAIL!

[URL="http://www.redskins.com/news/newsDetail.jsp?id=20251"]Extreme Fan Writes[/URL]:

Know what I've learned this week? That if you confidently and publicly project "A or B," life will undoubtedly leap out from behind a tree and smack you upside the cranium with a resounding "C." It's hard to look real prescient when life does that.

[URL="http://www.extremeskins.com/portal"][/URL]
Picking my way through the smoking debris field last week after the Dallas game, I talked long and loud about how the Washington Redskins were at a crossroads. If they were unable to resolve their inability to throw the ball effectively down the field against the Houston Texans, I wrote, we'd probably see young Jason Campbell starting at quarterback against the Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday, and a new Redskins era would officially begin.
Well...I was wrong. Not in the way I thought (and hoped) I might be, but wrong nonetheless. The Redskins didn't resolve their downfield passing issues, but we are most assuredly [I]not[/I] going to see Jason Campbell starting against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. Nor should we.
A few words to Mr. Mark Brunell:
You, sir, came up large. I'll admit that up to around 10-for-10 or so, I was focusing as much on the throws you were [I]not[/I] making as the ones you were. I'm sure you know the "go downfield!" drill by now. But, round about 15-for-15, as I watched you place pass after pass precisely where it needed to be, precisely when it needed to be there, I finally found it in myself to just shut up and watch--something that, as those who know me will attest, does not happen very often. Or last very long.
Fact is, you played your backside off, and did so in the face of some of the most withering criticism I've ever seen leveled at a good man. It's one thing to have a good day throwing underneath to guide your team to a desperately needed win. It's entirely another to have an [I]historic[/I] day. One that I suspect Redskins fans will appreciate more as time goes by.
So for all of that, and for doing it with the utmost class, you deserve unqualified kudos. You have them--plus a newfound level of respect--from this humbled scribe.
That said (you knew it was coming)...NFL teams don't get to savor regular season wins, even historic ones, for more than a day or two. Why should we, their faithful legion, be any different? There are some obvious "Yeah, but's" to deal with regarding the 2006 Redskins heading into Week 4.
Here are three that leap to mind:
1) Yeah, Mark Brunell was bloody-armed glorious and deserves proper respect for crashing the NFL record book&but, the aforementioned down field passing game remains, as before, something of question Mark (sorry).
If Jacksonville swarms Clinton Portis and keeps him more or less contained, and jumps the short stuff, will the Redskins be able to make them pay over the top? Will all those swing passes and delayed draws that sustained drives and scored points against Houston be enough to win against a Jacksonville defense that, in the last two weeks, has shut out the defending champions and held Peyton Manning's Colts offense to 14 points in Indy? If the Redskins fall a couple of scores behind, will they be able to play catch-up when the Jags pin their ears back and come after the quarterback?
2) Yeah, it's a Joe Gibbs team and there is every reason to expect it will clean up its collective act over the course of the season...but, can they overcome the crippling [I]penalty[/I] problem soon enough to deal with a team like Jacksonville? It's one thing to overcome multiple 1st-and-20's and 2nd-and-18's against the feckless Houston Texans. It's entirely another to overcome them against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
If the Downfield Passing Watch is Issue 1 with Redskins fans this week, the Penalty Problem should be 1A. The Redskins will simply [I]have[/I] to get that solved, and do it right soon. Jacksonville, and New York on the road after that, will prove a whole lot less forgiving than the Houston Texans in that regard. Some teams you can beat despite your mistakes. Other teams will leap out from behind a tree and smack you upside the cranium with them.
3) Yeah, the defense looked like it was starting to come together against a Texans passing offense that came into the game off a pretty good showing against Indianapolis...but, what about the Redskins pass rush? One sack and a handful of pressures against the tackling dummy that is David Carr, behind one of weakest offensive lines in football, was not what we were hoping to see.
The Texans had zero discernible running game to take pressure off their passing game, yet still managed to move the ball and convert third downs. Max protect or not, with a still-shaky secondary behind them, the Redskins front seven will need to pressure guys like Byron Leftwich and Eli (to say nothing of Peyton) Manning on a regular basis, or it's not hard to envision some long afternoons ahead.
There are other concerns, yes, but every team has some. From where I sit, if the Redskins can overcome any one of the three listed here, given the strengths they do have, they'll be a team that will scare some people.
It's not all that surprising that the Redskins started slow, given the circumstances. Clinton Portis, at least until the passing game finds its legs, is clearly the key to the offense. Perhaps to the entire team. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?
Plug a healthy Clinton Portis into the opener against Minnesota, and it's not unreasonable to think that game wouldn't have come down to a missed field goal at the end. It's not unreasonable to think that the spark and swagger Portis brings to this team would have been enough to put them over the top. The Redskins could easily have been 2-1 this week, and things would look a whole lot different today.
But, turns out life was behind that blasted tree, with a devilish grin on its mug, and had something else in mind. So, instead they're 1-2, and a very tough Jaguars team could well send the Redskins to New York at 1-3 to play a rested (I hate the bye week) Giants team looking to right their own ship. That's pretty tough sledding this early in the season, particularly for a team that not only had, and has, playoff hopes, but came into the year thinking realistically in terms of home field advantage in the playoffs.
With all that in mind, there's plenty to be concerned about this week. No doubt about it. But there's also something else, something I hope most Redskins fans took from the Houston game. If you'll indulge me a moment more, let me throw a quick reverse "yeah, but" at you:
Yeah, there's plenty of legitimate "yeah, but's" to contemplate this week...but, in aftermath of a crucial win--a potential season-saving one in which NFL history was made--it's also easy to see the promise. To see the forest for the trees.
And the forest doesn't look all bad.
On defense, Shawn Springs will return in the next few weeks. That return will pay dividends. Newcomers Adam Archuleta and Andre Carter will continue to find their niches and rhythms within the Gregg Williams scheme. For the past two seasons, Williams and his defense have been the backbone of this team, adapting to changing personnel and situations along the way.
Despite the comparatively rough start in 2006, it's hard to imagine that they will not continue to tighten the noose as key players return to duty, others become more comfortable, and the awakening offense helps out by keeping the [I]other[/I] team's defense on the field.
Then there's the offense. Forget next week for a moment. Forget the unresolved down field passing issues. In fact, since we're talking forest for the tress here, forget this [I]season[/I] for a moment. What we saw against Houston was an Al Saunders Redskins Offense movie trailer. Coming Attractions and all that jazz.
He moved people around. He misdirected. He ran when we thought he'd pass, he passed when we thought he'd run. He orchestrated 500 yards of offense with one metaphoric hand (you know which) tied behind his back. And, even knowing the Redskins were not going to throw downfield, Houston was utterly unable to slow them down.
The Texans may be a bad defense, but they're an NFL defense. It would be a mistake, and grossly unfair, to dismiss the Redskins' offensive performance last week as purely the result of a weak opponent. What we saw was the hint of something special.
Does that mean we'll we see more of the same come Sunday? Probably not, at least not to that extent. But after last Sunday, to automatically think that, with Clinton Portis back in the saddle, the Redskins offense is [I]not[/I] going to pull its weight would be a mistake. And the effect of that on the whole team should not be underestimated.
The win last week--not just the "W," but the way it was achieved--gave the players in the locker room a tremendous boost of sorely-needed confidence. How do I know that? Because it gave ME one, and I'm 30 miles away. Hell, I got a fine confidence contact high just [I]thinking[/I] about it.
The offense, clearly, worked. The quarterback, clearly, did his part, and then some. The engine that drives the offense, Clinton Portis, is back with a vengeance. Think this Redskins team is not a very different animal today from the one we saw limping off the field in Dallas two weeks ago?
The obvious question for the next couple of weeks will be whether the renewed swagger in their collective step will be enough to keep them needing another heroic late-season surge to get where they want to go.
Well, to get [I]too[/I] far ahead of myself here (not to mention risk being loud wrong in successive weeks), the thought has definitely occurred to me over the past couple of days that maybe, just maybe, it's not the Redskins, but the Jacksonville Jaguars striding confidently through the forest this week, pop in their step, feeling pretty good about things, and blissfully unaware that just up ahead something may be crouching in silence behind a tree, sporting a devilish grin...waiting. Hail.