This is an instructive snapshot of the NFC East, Jan.11, 1987: Jay Schroeder, battered, bedraggled, in a daze, after the Redskins fell to the Giants 17-0 in the NFC title game in East Rutherford, N.J.
It was a bitterly cold day, the wind swirling every which way, a typically unreasonable winter day in the Northeast that lent itself to elementary football: blocking, running, tackling.
There was nothing fancy about the game. There was no complexity to it. The Redskins and Giants beat on one another for 60 minutes, as the awful weather conditions dictated, and the stronger, more physical team prevailed.
There was no shame in that for the Redskins. They were a quality team in the 1986 season. They were smart, efficient and tough, a reflection of coach Joe Gibbs. The Giants were all those things, too, only more equipped to cope with the non-negotiable elements of the winter in the Northeast.
This fundamental history lesson appears to have gone unnoticed by the presently employed brain trust of the Redskins. Steve Spurrier is a product of the warm-weather SEC, where the playing conditions are usually hospitable and more amiable to an X-and-0 master.
The Redskins have added big-play speed to their roster. They have added the kinds of players that reflect the football personality of Spurrier. He is not consumed with the third-and-2 play, which is why Stephen Davis was only too happy to skip town. Spurrier embraces the 60-yard play at the risk of missing the obvious. He is content to work with the quarterback and let the rest of the football business take care of itself.
It seems a dose of blind faith is necessary with this geographically challenged team following the grim procession of breakdowns in the first two games of the preseason.
The Redskins are hardly about the details. They don’t know the snap count half the time. They don’t know where to be on the field half the time. They are careless with the football. They don’t block very well. They can’t stop the run. They inspire no confidence.
Even when there is cause to be somewhat hopeful, you just have this feeling that it is going to turn bad in a hurry. The Redskins kick a field goal and close the deficit to three points. The opposition responds with a kickoff touchdown return. That is, in a way, just perfect.
Yes, this is only the preseason, and a certain amount of disorder is to be expected before the roster is pared to its regular season limit.
But this preseason also is about the Redskins purging their unprofessional habits. We already have had one season with Spurrier, and it was an eye-opener for everyone. He had trouble with the basics, starting with learning the names of all his players.
No, Spurrier is not big on details. At least that is the impression he likes to convey. The joke is cute if the team is not burning timeouts in the first quarter and taking one dumb penalty after another. The joke then assumes the quality of an indictment.
The Redskins struggled to conserve their timeouts last season. The game would be barely under way before the Redskins would be calling their first timeout because of some confusion or another. Then the quarterback would go to the sideline to discuss it all with Spurrier, and the Redskins would reel off a scintillating incompletion or 2-yard gain.
By the end of the first half, with 40 yards or so to go to get into the scoring position and precious seconds left on the clock, the Redskins would be out of timeouts and unable to mount a drive.
You are looking for these types of telling details in the preseason. You are looking for a hint of professionalism. The wins and losses do not matter. A good number of the anonymous souls taking up space on the field in the fourth quarter of these early preseason games will be applying for unemployment checks in September. Lose all the preseason games. That is not the point.
The point is the small stuff, the unexciting stuff, the stuff that kept Gibbs up all night.
Gibbs knew the deal in the NFC East. Although he cut his football teeth on the West Coast, Gibbs adapted to the football climate here, because he knew all his pretty plays were liable to be held hostage by the elements in the last half of the season.
With these Redskins and this coach, the focus is on the sizzle, as opposed to the boring essentials that are undermining them.
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