So much for the NFC East being the most formidable division in the NFL.
That was the conventional wisdom several weeks ago. That was before the Redskins swept the Cowboys and Eagles, the Browns buried the Giants, the Cowboys lost three of their last four games, plus Tony Romo, Roy Williams and Pacman Jones, and the Eagles came to look ordinary.
The emerging appearance of the division shows the Redskins in firm position to make the playoffs, so long as Derek Anderson is the quarterback of the opposition the rest of the season.
It has become obligatory in NFL circles to note that Matt Cassel has not been a starting quarterback since his days in high school. The “Monday Night Football” announcing crew mentioned this tidbit several hundred times while penning odes to Tom Brady, apparently the NFL’s MVP in absentia this season.
Yet if any quarterback in the NFL looked as if he had not been on the field since high school, it was Anderson.
He had the old turf ball going against the Redskins. The turf ball is a pass that is drilled into the ground maybe 5 yards before reaching its intended target, a receiver who would be standing all alone.
Anderson also established the behind-the-receiver pass and the overthrow-the-receiver pass against the Redskins, which led to a quarterback efficiency rating that plumbed the depths of incompetence.
Anderson went into the fourth quarter with only 40 yards passing, which is almost a statistical impossibility in the pass-encouraging NFL.
But give the Redskins credit. They ignored the dismal performance of Anderson and kept it exciting until Phil Dawson missed a 54-yard field goal attempt with 25 seconds left.
As the rabid supporters of the Redskins noted anew, teams that have great presence of mind find a way to win. And the Redskins are finding ways to win because of a presence of mind that transcends mere X’s and O’s.
The last travel agents in America are now standing by to make all your arrangements in Tampa, Fla., site of Super Bowl XLIII. This is assuming anyone has any cash to spare after heeding the shouts of CNBC’s Jim Cramer, the only television personality with the capacity to make Stephen A. Smith look almost comatose in comparison.
The Redskins and their followers are permitted to dream because nothing in the NFC is as it was expected to be.
The Cowboys are on the precipice of a total meltdown. Coach Wade Phillips has been given the dreaded vote of confidence from Jerry Jones, and diva Terrell Owens is possibly only one more Brad Johnson interception away from gulping down a bunch of mental-health pills.
The Saints are struggling, and the Seahawks have fallen and can’t get up. The Cardinals, of all teams, are on top of the NFC West, and coach Chucky is fashioning a sequel in Tampa Bay.
The Giants are the only team in the NFC that is meeting its preseason expectations, and even the Giants endured the 35-14 no-show to the Anderson-led Browns.
The Redskins, meanwhile, have what amounts to a bye week at Ford Field this Sunday, and no one can take that away from the departed Matt Millen.
Not that anyone would, considering the Lions have lost 13 of their last 14 games.
The Lions have demonstrated that they are beyond the help of even Brett Favre, who reportedly told the Motown crew all the secret codes, passwords and trick plays of the Packers’ offense in the days leading up to the game.
The useful information merely allowed the Lions to hold the Packers to fewer than 50 points.
So the Redskins can overlook the Lions and have a 6-2 record at the halfway point of the season.
It is a fairly remarkable ascent for a team with a first-year coach and envisioned as the dregs of its division going into the season.
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