The State of the Skins

Once again, we have reached that point.  To Washington fans, this is all too familiar:  The Redskins start off hot outta the gate, start to sputter around mid-season, only to nosedive during the homestretch.  And apparently, I'm not the only one who believes this.  Not only is it awful (and gut wrenching), but oh so fuckin predictable.  Every year the same ole bullshit!  But today, I will not rant. Nope.  Today, the day before gameday, we're gonna take the temperature of the DC region.  I am rather curious to know what's out there.  Aren't you too?  Good!  Let's take a little ride...

First stop is to TV Land...or better yet, the network's sports site.  This is a clip of cbssports.com handicapping San Francisco's looming visit to Washington.  This is the most impartial treatment The Skins are gonna get from the National level press corps.

Any astute Redskins observer can regard the above statements as a pretty acurrate analysis of where the team is at right now.  These are challenging times for The Burgundy and Gold.

Nationally, there are a few other observers out there that have offered some reasonable analysis of the team.  The sports xchange also questions whether the team will slide.  And Dan Graziano of ESPN's NFC East blog comments that The Skins' recent struggles are due to a thin offensive line.  Pretty much everybody else is looking at the score of the Buffalo game and laughing.

Now what's the local take?  These Washington Post columnists provide a glimpse: Jason Reid says that now is the time for Coach Shanahan to lead.  Tracee Hamilton has a sober assessment of the talent level of the team.  She observes that there is still work to be done on the roster.  I happen to agree with the analyses offered.  Washington ain't there yet, but that's certainly no excuse for poor performance.  It's up to Coach to do something.

Here is the outright criticism.   Dan Daly of The Washington Times is not wearing rose-colored glasses anymore.  Rich Tandler of the Real Redskins has taken issue with the personnel switch.  Rick Snider of the Washington Examiner believes a Snyder intervention is in order.  You should get the idea by now.  These are some of the voices that are sick of seeing Redskins seasons unravel like flimsy thread.  Yes, once again, we are at that point of the season.

With all of the aforementioned considered, a big Washington Win followed by a road trip to Miami, capped off with Dallas Week could have the season turn on a dime.  Yes, anything is possible.  But for this to be a year that's different from the same ol'-same ol', beating the San Francisco 49ers would change the death march immediately.  Only one more day 'till we find out.