Without setting foot on a football field Sunday, the Redskins once again find themselves atop the NFC East with a little breathing room to boot.
While Michael Vick imploded in Rex Grossman-like fashion, throwing four interceptions in the Eagles’ loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Giants’ woes at home continued with a loss at the hands of a suddenly dangerous Seahawks team.
Like the Redskins, the 2-2 Cowboys were also on bye, licking their wounds after a memorable meltdown against the Lions.
Who cares if it’s simply due to mediocrity? The NFC East is wide open and the Redskins are right in the thick of things.
Shockingly it’s Rex Grossman who has yet to perform at a Rex Grossman-like level. He’s been far from perfect, but the Redskins quarterback has yet to stink up the joint. In addition, the defense is ranked sixth in the NFL, and Mike Shanahan appears to be hitting a lot of the right buttons in his second year with the team.
“It didn’t take long to feel that this is a very solid group both from a character standpoint as well as a playing standpoint,” he said.
With a pivotal game upcoming against the Eagles, Washington is in a position to put some real distance between it and a surprisingly weak division. However, a loss would certainly reignite the skeptics who predicted the Redskins to finish near the bottom of the league.
Sports
Even now, the Redskins’ 3-1 start is far from convincing for various reasons. Maybe you aren’t comfortable with Grossman at quarterback or perhaps the ghosts of futile seasons past have kept you on the fence.
And those concerns are understandable. After all, we’re talking about a quarterback whose M.O. has been a steady stream of turnovers and a team that’s rarely able to piece together a playoff run.
Yet Shanahan has emphasized over and over just how different the Redskins are this season and not just from a personnel standpoint. He was brought in to create a new mentality, and slowly but surely, it’s beginning to take hold.
“What’s happened in the past really doesn’t relate to what you are right now,” he said. “I think our football team is really concentrating on this team. This is a new team and we have a lot of new players … Hopefully, we can create our own identity, and hopefully, it will be positive.”
If they continue to win, it certainly will be positive. Washington is already in the catbird seat in the NFC East. Sure, it’s early, and we’ve witnessed many a late-season swoon, but if the Eagles continue to plummet, Tony Romo can’t pull himself together and the Giants keep struggling against bad teams like the Seahawks, the Redskins should be in the playoff picture come December.
In years past, that rosy outlook would breed a sense of complacency in the locker room, but not with Shanahan. He demands more from his players, and so far, the return has been fruitful.
“We have some guys that are passionate about what they do and have a great work ethic,” he said. "They go out there every day and try to improve because we know nothing is perfect, but when you have that type of mindset and that type of attitude, you have a chance to do some good things. They know there are going to be some tough times and you have to fight through those tough times. If you don’t, you won’t last.”
