Ladies and Gentlemen: Start the Bandwagon

Conflict and adversity build character and oftentimes build winning football teams. After losing their star defensive player to death and then their starting quarterback to injury last year, the Redskins rallied 5 weeks in a row and made the playoffs. Now, after losing Joe Gibbs and going through the vagaries of learning a new offense under a rookie head-coach, the Redskins are winning again. Do you see a pattern here?

A part of me wants to give Sean Taylor credit for these remarkable four wins. Without his death, would the Redskins be playing with this same sense of urgency or strength of character? Last year's Redskins, aside from making the playoffs with a 40 year old quarterback, had to grow up in a hurry and bond as a team under horrific circumstances. My sense is that the same reasons why the Redskins won last year after Sean's death (toughness, strength of character, maturity), are the same reasons why they're winning this year.

I think it's hard to suggest otherwise. Having lost 4 defensive starters, and playing on the road against the 6th ranked NFL offense, the Redskins could have easily dropped this game, especially after beating Dallas last week. But instead of rolling over against a very good Eagles team, the Redskins delivered a gutsy performance which reminded me of the Patriots in all honesty.

I know everyone is giving Coach Zorn credit, but I'm talking about Clinton Portis and his associates here. Portis was Sean Taylor's best friend, and the two of them played together at the U. After Taylor's death, the Post reported that Portis made "leaps and bounds in his maturity" and turned into a much more serious person (both on the field and off). And considering how gruesome and terrible Taylor's death was, do you blame Portis for growing up in a hurry?

It's not that I discount the role or function of Coach Zorn throughout this resurgence. It's just that I believe the Redskins have grown up since Taylor's death and now they're playing smash-mouth football in his honor. Think of it this way: Sean's death forced the Redskins to grow up and realize that by winning and kicking everyone's ass on the playing field, they would be honoring their friend's memory in the best way possible. After-all, almost all the Redskins who played with Sean are still on the team. And they have undoubtedly adopted a new, sobering approach to winning.

So combine a new attitude towards winning with a Coach who shares many of the positive and none of the negative attributes of Joe Gibbs, and I think you have a formula for success this season.

Now, let's think about the things that went right yesterday, and how this season could get even better:

- The play of Jason Campbell, Clinton Portis, the injured defense, and the kicker were utterly crucial to their destruction of the Eagles yesterday. Suisham made three field goals from 40+; Campbell still has no turnovers after 5 games; Portis ran for 145 yards; and the defense stepped up without 4 of their starters. To beat the Eagles, a division rival, on the road, was therefore pretty special.

- The coaching, time-management and play calling abilities of Jim Zorn are clearly an improvement from Gibbs last season. Instead of wasting our timeouts halfway through the 3rd quarter or unnecessarily challenging plays, Coach Zorn is playing it cool and awares. Maybe he learned something from Mike Holmgren after all those years?

- In no particular order: we have an easy three games in the hopper followed by a bye-week, the rest of our NFC East games are at home, and the Redskins are now 4-1 after 25% of the regular season. Do you think any other team has a better situation than the Redskins right now?

I said it last week so I'll say it again this week: the official Redskins bandwagon is now coming out of the garage and preparing itself for operation. Stay tuned for more as the season unfolds....