There’s not much left to say about the Burgundy and Gold’s season at this point; we all know the same thing. Mike Shanahan’s return to head coaching status in the NFL has not gone particularly well or as planned. What’s the saying? “Same old Jets”?
But at least the drama is gone, for now anyway. I’m not sure if the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will become a loss that becomes an omen; the kind that sinks a team into a morass. They are "game" almost every week, and particularly after a monstrous outing. So there’s no reason to think they’re going to come unglued, but there is reason for remain realistic.
According to the product that Shanahan and Co. have put on the field, one could argue, they could have a worse record. And, one could argue, their record could have been better, but regardless, whether they won a few more close ones or lost them; they would not be a different team. They are a slow moving dinosaur that still has cunning and a will to survive, but one that has too few teeth to be taken seriously by it’s foes.
So, perhaps it’s better, even though more painful, this team lost this week. Because, with the quick-fix direction Shanahan and Allen have chosen, each win corroborates the misdirection that is their heading. In the new NFL, ineptitude and futility are the friends of the aged; Ashburn needs to get younger ASAP. I can only see the fortunes of Ashburn changing, when the methodology changes.
When you look at New York, Philadelphia, and Dallas, you realize pretty quickly, how far behind this franchise is to their divisional rivals. Vick, Manning, and Romo are quarterbacks that are entering their prime years, that fact alone keeps Washington in a precarious position. Unfortunately, for the Burgundy and Gold the mountain that Donavan McNabb must climb continues to grow. The question you have to ask; can McNabb get ahead of the tectonic movement? I’m not overly confident next year’s expedition that apparently will be led by McNabb will be able to get out of base camp.
