The More Things Change...

Sometimes all you can say about the Ashburn Circus is "WOW!"  Because while the Ashburn Circus is many things, it is never dull, boring, or fails to entertain.

So the show today kicks off in the morning with the "resignation" of Executive Vice President in Charge of Football Operations and Dan Snyder's Personal Lackey; Vinny Cerrato.  Our initial reaction to the news was "so what?"  Cerrato was only Snyder's lackey/mouthpiece/fall guy.  It was somewhat expected that his job might be in jeopardy when the season ended, so his "resignation" today only comes as a shock because we're not officially in the off season yet.  There are still three football games left to play in the Redskins string.  But we felt that the bottom line was, it didn't matter who occupied Cerrato's position, unless they were Joe Gibbs, they were going to be forced to do the bidding of Synder.

But as the typical airing of the dirty laundry started coming out, we began to think that maybe, just maybe Cerrato was more in charge of the Redskins than we've been led to believe over the past few years.  The (Com)Post had stories of amazing pettiness on the part of Cerrato.  While Snyder was wrong to berate Norv Turner in front of the team as he did you could understand the "rookie mistake" from Snyder and by all accounts, he hasn't done it again.  But for a "football guy" like Cerrato to pull that stunt is just utterly inexcusable.  He knows better.

But the hits didn't stop with the "resignation" of Cerrato or the quick airing of the dirty laundry.  Nope, just a mere two hours after "accepting Cerrato's resignation" the Redskins announced that Bruce Allen was taking over a Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager.  (Alright, fess up, who had him in the pool???) That's right, be still your beating heart, the Redskins now have a designated General Manager for the first time since Charlie Casserly was "resigned" from the position in 1999.  And Allen isn't no greenhorn to the position.  He's the son of George Allen, yes that George Allen.  He was the General Manager in Oakland so he already knows how to deal and coexist with a maniac owner.  And because he was most recently the General Manager in Tampa, the John Gruden rumors are out in full force again.  But if you weren't dropping your jaw yet, in giving his seal of approval to the hire, former Redskins General Manager Bobby Beathard said that Snyder had asked him to come back to Washington.  Yep, Snyder really is interested in "putting the band back together."  But as Beathard also pointed out, Allen's success will depend on how much freedom he has.  Snyder has said that Allen is in charge so we'll have to see.

And make no mistake folks, we think this is good move not only because of Cerrato's own toxic behavior but because as we astutely pointed out on Sunday, nobody should be fooled by the recently improved play of the team.  While the Redskins are playing hard, at best you can call them 3-3 during that span which is what has passed as the norm around here for some time.  Zorn is probably still gone at the end of this season as there is no way you can hire a GM and not let him choose his Head Coach.  That is a recipe for disaster but is Snyder finally learning?  Has he finally realized that if somebody did a job for him as badly as he was doing it himself, he would have fired them?  Go ahead, call us a Snyder Apologist again but the fact that he's willing to hire somebody and publicly state that they are in control is huge.  If the Redskins turn things around in a couple of seasons (it won't be anytime soon folks) Allen will get the full credit for engineering it and all Snyder will get is kudos for staying out of the way.  That's a huge blow to Snyder's ego.

But what has us the most interested in this whole sordid affair is the utter and complete cluelessness of the media in all of this.  While many thought that Cerrato might possibly be let go or "reassigned" within the organization once the season was over, NOBODY had any clue that Bruce Allen would be his successor.  As a matter of fact, once Cerrato's "resignation" was announced, all eyes and speculation focused squarely on Mike Holmgren.  CW was, since the Cleveland Browns seemed to be moving quickly on hiring Holmgren, Snyder was countering by clearing the deck for Holmgren to come to Washington.  That couldn't have been further from the truth since the NFL confirmed that the Redskins were in full compliance with the Rooney Tokenism Rule ten days ago.  That's right, one day after Sean Suisham gacked against the Saints and eight days after Cerrato went berserk on the team bus in Philly, the Redskins were going through the required motions of conducting minority interviews to make the NFL feel better about itself.  And while all of that was going on, nobody in the media was none the wiser and reported on it.  To give you an idea on how today's performance blindsided people, not even the coaching staff knew in advance.

So the question becomes folks, can we really trust the media now when they tell us what their sources say is going on inside of the Redskins Front Office?  We're not saying that the media is just making stuff up a la Jason Blair, but the fact that nobody got the drop on this advance is stunning to us.  This is the kind of secrecy that Caps General Manager George McPhee is well known for.  He should be insanely jealous of what the Redskins pulled off today.  And mind you, the Redskins in the past have not been known for doing things in a low-key, under the radar manner.  They usually have all the subtletly of a Heavy Armor Division advancing in a jungle.

But moving forward now for the Redskins, we have to take a wait and see attitude.  While Snyder may be "hands off" now, will he show the necessary patience for Allen to build him a consistent winner?  What scares the dickens out of us is the prospect of an uncapped season next year.  Heaven only knows what Snyder may do with that but if he allows Allen to use the opportunity to clean house on the roster and start anew, the hope and optimism that has come out of today will be well placed.  However, if Snyder reverts to form and goes nuts signing every free agent he can then it will be more of the same of an 8-8 football team that is teetering on the edge of disaster and semi-respectability all at the same time.

Ticked Off

Ever wonder why Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder tries to “control the message” about his football team by purchasing radio stations and forbidding twittering of his practices? Ever wonder why he doesn't grant interview requests anymore? Wonder why we refer to them as the (Com)Post even when they aren’t brazenly trying to get Democrats elected in the Fascist Commonwealth of Virginia?

Look no further than last week’s two-part Redskins expose that the (Com)Post ran.

Part I was rather harmless and can be easily summed up as high pressure on the sales staff to sell tickets lead to people taking shortcuts by dumping them on ticket brokers. Basically, applying the tried and true methods of Susan O'Malley to paper your house. The salespeople who took shortcuts got what was coming to them and seem to be no longer with the Redskins which only makes sense considering the advertised length of the waiting list for season tickets.

But in Part II the hatchet was brought out by James Grimaldi and he did a job that would make Lizzie Borden blush. We have to think the noted media ethicists at the On Frozen Ombudsmen were on this like the cheap suit the one On Frozen Bozo wears during his blubbering appearances on Washington (Com)Post Live. But we wouldn't know, we've been banned from reading that blog. (Though on a side note, interesting isn’t it that people who bitterly complained about the lack professionalism of a particular institution are so willing to “bed down with them” when it boots their profile. Tells you something about them huh???) And we mention this because you know it is a bad article when the following people jump to the defense of the Redskins in this situation. First of all Steinbog valiantly tries to re-focus the conversation and point out facts that his own colleague can't keep straight. Then Tom Knott tries to inject more sanity into this whole situation. Finally, well documented Redskins hater Peter King has trouble piling on this story.

The whole thing is lead off with the story of a Granny who, after reading the whole article, we learn that quite frankly, has bigger problems than a $66K collection from the Redskins. This woman is more than $100K behind on her mortgage. Will (Com)Post dispatch another writer to pen a similar story about a bank throwing a 72 year old woman selling her lamps to stay afloat out of her home? And it doesn't end there, she has other cruel and heartless creditors calling her all day. Now, the Redskins have gotten credit for backing off but the damage of course has been done.

However, a vast majority of the people profiled by the (Com)Post simply got caught buying more than they could afford. Seriously, are we supposed to feel sorry for a guy like DHS investigator who signed a contract knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the terms? And getting back to Knott’s point; ALL tickets for sporting events are luxury items, whether they're "on the field dream seats" or nosebleeds. Numerous people drop their season tickets because they can no longer afford them. Are these people being taken advantage of by the owners? We think not. As a matter of fact, there were Redskins Season Tickets in our family for over 20 years until the tuition payments our parents were making finally caught up. The tickets were dropped and none of us felt like victims then, or now.

Redskins Premium Seats have long been available to anybody willing and able to sign the contract. Furthermore, the idea of long-term contracts was started by the late Jack Kent Cooke, NOT Dan Snyder. As a matter of fact, the Caps, Bullets, Nats, and Terps do the exact same thing with their premium seats. The idea of contracts is not out of the ordinary the sports world and in many cases, is the catalyst to get a new building built as is the case with the Phone Booth. Revenues from the Club Seats and Luxury boxes are dedicated to paying off the loans taken out by Dishonest Abe Polin to build it.

Now, we're not saying that the Redskins are totally blameless here, for instance
selling to the mentally disabled is another example of the of high-pressure to sell more than anything else. Also given the lengths people go to these days, you're never really sure somebody is telling you the truth about themselves. Furthermore, we don't like the accusations of changing the contracts after they've been signed. That's bad business no matter who does it.

But our favorite are the people willing ping the Redskins for going after a guy convicted of embezzlement. Commonly is it $$$$$ that is being stolen in an embezzlement scheme. So here's a guy who stole $$$$$ from other people to pay for his tickets. This isn't a guy who "fell on hard luck," this is a guy WHO BROKE THE LAW. And embezzlement isn't a crime that is "victimless" or you can commit "without knowing." People had $$$$$ stolen from them by this guy and he knew what he was doing. But the Redskins are jerks for going after this guy while the Nats, who BTW are owed by people lambasted for being cheap SOB's, are praised to the nines for giving him free tickets.

If that doesn't show you the depths of Snyder Derangement Syndrome, then our friends, nothing ever will.

But what Grimaldi does that angers us the most was his challenging the Redskins at every turn in the article. When David Donovan, the Redskins General Counsel, mentioned other NFL teams sue fans who renege on contracts; he went and called the 31 other NFL teams and got some sort of comment from 18 of them to disprove the Redskins point. He even went as far as to call the other local franchises to embarrass Snyder and Donovan. Nate Ewell of the Washington Capitals later “walked back” his comments in the article because he clearly didn’t understand the situation he was being asked about. Given the nature of this article, we have to think that Grimaldi wasn't too forthcoming about the situation he was describing to Ewell which is why Ewell had to walk back from his original comments. (And for the record, the Caps cannot sue Club and Suite patrons at the Phone Booth, Dishonest Abe owns all of those.)

However, when Donovan stated “Everyone that you can find who was unhappy about the negotiation, I could find you 12 where the fan was appreciative and grateful at the efforts we went to to work out the situation.” Grimaldi doesn’t bother to check that out. He also didn’t check out Donovan’s claim about James Nesbitt either. Nope, he took us back to Granny to pull on our heartstrings some more.

Finally about the double dipping charges, it doesn’t bother us because these people reneged on contracts and incurred further costs to the team. The idea that they should get something after being forced to live up to their end of the deal just seems wrong to us. Furthermore Donovan pointed out, getting a judgment doesn’t mean you’ll get paid.

Finally, we're tired of those who say, "yeah the Redskins have the right to do this, but it’s bad PR.” As Peter King pointed out in a roundabout way, club and suite revenues are very likely being used to service the debt on the loans taken out to build the stadium. So of all revenue streams the Redskins have, this one is by far and away the most important because imagine the headlines if the stadium in Landover gets foreclosed upon. Furthermore do we really want to set the standard that you let people filch on their debts because you would look bad trying to collect it? That's a recipe for financial chaos folks and we've had enough of that already.

But with Snyder Derangement Syndrome this bad, it's no wonder he goes to the lengths he does to “control the message" about his franchise. And we can't blame him.

About Monday Night...

First of all, let us say that our brother-in-law is from Pittsburgh; is the tenth of eleven children, currently lives in Laurel, MD, has at least one brother and sister living in Burke, VA with their families, and is a member the Bhawlmuher Branch of the Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Club. (Think last night was bad? Check out what Pittsburgh-Bhawlmuher games look like in Bhawlmuher.)

Our little sister is unfortunately living with an idiot from Pittsburgh and has been converted into a Steelers fan (luckily our older sister has held out and is more than willing to dress our niece in Skins, Caps, Nats, and Terps gear.)

We'd venture it is pretty safe to say that a majority of Pittsburgh fans at the Redskins-Steelers game on Monday night were already living in this area. We can assure you that was the case of the Pittsburgh fan sitting right next to us in the seats that we own. No, we didn't bring our brother-in-law or our other sister's idiot boyfriend with us; we donated our extra ticket back to the Redskins for a tax write-off: http://www.redskins.com/gen/articles/Redskins_Replay_526.jsp.

So yep, through a program that the Redskins set up to help "children in need, people battling life-threatening illnesses, active military members and families coping with a traumatic situation" a fan for the other team got in for free. He certainly wasn't a child in need though being a refugee from Pittsburgh could probably qualify "as coping with a traumatic situation." The same thing happened with our extra ticket for the Saints game too back in September (though was it clearly a child sitting next to us.)

And if you want a real laugh, we got two e-mails in the week leading up to the game from the Redskins telling us that "Due to visiting team and media returns, a limited number of tickets for the game are available." (When we went to the Redskins website to check it out, it was nothing but club and dream seats, the cheapest of which was $275 per ticket and you were also forced to buy a $35 parking pass.)

But as we mentioned earlier, Steeler-Ratbird games in Bhawlmuher are even worse than what you saw Monday night. It is common knowledge that even Baltimorons are smart enough to fleece the Pittsburgh fans for enough $$$$$ to pay for their entire season ticket package in exchange for giving up their tickets to one game. Us Redskins fans can do the same thing with our Dallas tickets (or the Jints/Iggles combination) and this season we had the rare choice of fleecing Dallas fans, Pittsburgh fans, or both. (We'll find out on November 16th how many chose "both" this season.) Though with the Redskins giving Art Monk and Darrell Green their Hall of Fame Rings before the game against the Cowgirls, those Redskins fans that did that will likely be sorry. We upset a close friend (who is a Redskins fan BTW) by refusing to sell him those tickets because we wanted to see Monk and Green get their HOF Rings.

Finally however let us say this, the Redskins were ten times better at dealing with the drunken hooliganism that often mars games like Monday night than the Caps have ever been. Security was in the stands early and often and did not waste any time ejecting people starting trouble before it got out of hand no matter what team's colors they were wearing. For that alone, I applaud the Redskins and cast a wary eye at Ted Leonsis who not only let's these bozos in, but does nothing about them once they are there. Sure, not enough of them were ejected on Monday (out of general principle) but at least those that were filled the Redskins coffers, subsidized Redskins fans, and didn't get to see the game. We find something very satisfying in that.

Gibbs Retires Again

Well, it's the big news around here today, the second retirement of Redskins Head Coach Joe Gibbs.

While there are some who believe that his second stint tarnished his legacy, they forget what a mess the organization was before he arrived in 2004. While Gibbs' record for his second tour of duty was not nearly as good as it was the first time around, neither was the talent Gibbs was given to work with. The fact that Gibbs did as well as he did and his players are all willing to follow him is a testament to how good of a coach he is, even if this record wasn't as good as people thought it would be. He made and won a game in the playoffs with a breaking down Mark Brunell at quarterback. You could see where Gibbs was taking this team and had they put their efforts into addressing their woeful offensive line, IMHO they would have been where they wanted to be in about 2-3 years.

Though above all, Gibbs should be given credit for bringing sanity and stability to a franchise that desperately needed it. Should Gregg Williams take over as expected, that stability and sanity is likely to remain. But thanks to our "diversify or die crowd" there is uncertainty about that because the Skins are required by the NFL to interview minority candidates. So who knows what the search will bring.

But in the meantime, I think Dan Steinberg says it best. Gibbs had nothing left to prove. Even if he came back next season and won the Super Bowl, it wouldn't have made him a better person. And at his point in life, there are things that are much more important that winning football games in the NFL.

It is a perspective we all could use.

Confessions, Arrests Made in Sean Taylor Case

Sean Taylor's body isn't even in the ground yet but his assailants are already rotting in jail.

Kudos to the Miami Police for getting this done so quickly and Thank God his assailants had the decency to confess to their crimes.

Sean Taylor 1983-2007

Picture courtesy of the Washington Redskins.


By now you should already know the tragic news that Sean Taylor has died as a result of the injuries sustained when he was shot in the leg early Monday morning at his home in Miami, Florida.

Words right now cannot express the loss of what was turning into not only an outstanding athlete, but a fine upstanding gentleman. All of the reports about the incident bring up Taylor's troubled past which included arrests, fines, suspensions, and the possibility of jail time. It would also be very easy to link Taylor's death to the still unsolved murder of Bryan Pata last year and the Miami Hurricanes football program.

However those same reports along with Taylor's coaches and teammates also quickly point out how quickly Taylor matured after the birth of his daughter 18 months ago. It is very easy to forget that he was also somebodies son, brother, father, and fiancee and all of those people are hurting very much right now.

Looking around the Internet, I've seen some University of Maryland fans comment on the similarities of this tragedy with the Len Bias tragedy 21 years ago. Two very gifted young men who had their lives and nothing but great opportunities ahed of them saw their lives cut tragically short and left behind misery, grief, and sorrow. For whatever reason, there are certain people who have all the talent in the world and they make the same stupid mistakes that end up costing them their lives at too young of an age. It almost as if some of these guys never learn.

Bias unfortunately didn't get a chance to learn and turn his life around before his untimely death. Taylor however got the message and was doing what he needed to do to turn his life around. He dedicated himself to becoming not only the best he player could be but the best person he could be as well. He moved himself and his family into a safer neighborhood and ended the fooling around that got him into trouble in the past and began to take care of his family. But it looks now as if his past transgressions wouldn't let him go and cut him down in the prime of his life. If you've been to or watched a Redskins game over the past four years, I'm sure you've seen the gold T-Shirts with the burgundy letters saying "FREE SEAN TAYLOR" on the front. Tragically today, Taylor is finally free of his past troubles.

Sean Taylor was only three years old when Len Bias died. One can only hope that now the lessons finally begin to sink in for these young athletes who have the world at their disposal and feel as if they are invincible. If Adam "Pacman" Jones or Michael Vick haven't served as enough of a lesson for young athletes that their actions can have severe consequences in spite of their ability; Sean Taylor, like Len Bias, should.

Sean Taylor Shot, In Critical Condition

As if the Redskins didn't need anymore problems/distractions this season, Injured Safety Sean Taylor was found shot twice in his home earlier this morning.

I'd have to say that this will just about end his season should he pull through.

UPDATE: Taylor is out of surgery but as is often the case when suffering a gunshot wound, he's lost a lot of blood. He's currently in intensive care and according to his lawyer is "clinging to life right now."

UPDATE 2: Last update came from and more info can be found on the La Canfora's Redskins Insider blog.

For The Record

I have to say, these four day breaks in the schedule are a killer when it comes to trying to fill time on your blog. Even if I didn't have a day job, going out and covering watching paint dry practice just isn't my cup of tea. Now I'm not putting down those that do go out to watch paint dry practice but about the only way I would do it on a regular basis if I was a person being paid to do it.

Then of course, there are days like yesterday when there isn't any paint drying practice to watch at all.

Maybe this is why our comrades Mike Vogel and The Peerless went out and wrote about how everything will be fine this season. I don't even have to check, I know they're responding to the denizens of Darwin's Waiting Room more than anything else. However, just on the off chance some of this was aimed at me, let me remind them, I picked the Caps finish fourth in the Southeast and don't think this team will make the playoffs.

Yes, 3-2 is rather nice compared to the nightmare brewing in Atlanta (I saw the end of the game against New Jersey on Saturday night, and let me tell you, that's a loss that will take a long time to get over) and a good start is much better than a poor one. However, there are some very troubling signs from the past two games.

As I mentioned in the Post-Mortem Saturday night the transition game has once again disappeared. We can equivocate and say that the Buffaslugs are an elite Eastern Conference team, but that doesn't excuse the poor showing. Maybe we should lose to the Buffaslugs, but lose by four goals and get outshot by 27?

I also find it interesting that Vogel points out that the Caps are 12 for 12 in the penalty killing department with Boyd Gordon in the lineup and just 10 for 15 without him. First of all, IF El Gordo is that vital to the Caps Penalty Killing success, let's start the Frank Selke campaign right now because he should be a shoo-in. Secondly, this goes to another problem I pointed out before the season started about the lack of depth (though in fairness to all involved, that has more to do with the salary cap system than anything else. The Skins are deep trouble for the same reason, injuries are killing them and the cap prevents them from stockpiling any depth to weather the storm). Finally, Vogel undermines this point when he points out that five games isn't a good sample set for a team's start. Vogel (and others too) thinks you need about 15-20 games in order to get a good read on a hockey team. If that is the case, how you can judge the penalty killing unit and who the vital cog is on that unit after only 5 games seems a little silly.

Then there's the number crunching Peerless (who does a good job BTW) who tells that one game under .500 in October isn't a kiss of death. Yet by Gary Bettman standards, the Caps were one game over .500 in October last year going 4-3-4 and still missed the playoffs. Montreal was 6-2-3 under Bettman (6-5 in the real world, still over .500 no matter how you cut it) Toronto was 6-4-3 (6-7, one game under .500 in the real world, like the Rangers, Ning, and Senators who made the playoffs) in October last year, and they too missed out on the playoffs. Better, yet, at the end of October last year, the Caps, Candiens, and Leafs all had more standings points than the Rangers, Ning, and Senators.

Now this isn't to say that playoff teams and championship teams don't have bad stretches in an 82 game schedule. Anaheim lost 4 games in a row twice last season (only one of those eight losses came in a gimmick) and Carolina lost three games in a row once in 2005-2006.

But the here problem is two fold, it wasn't that the Caps lost last weekend, it was the way that they lost. They were standing around on the penalty kill on Friday night and Saturday they couldn't get out of their own zone. It was a flashback to the play of the past two seasons. If the Caps had played hard both nights and came up on the short end of the stick, most people wouldn't be looking to jump off the bandwagon. What makes it all the more infuriating is what took place the opening weekend. There was no hint of a poor transition game and the Caps were the ones bottling everybody up in their zone. We see the glimpses of just how good this team can be and when they don't do it consistently, you begin to wonder if the team really has the potential some say that it does.

But people are all jazzed up about this season because of the talk from the team that started last April and is all a continuation from last season. For over a year now we've been hearing from the Caps "we're going to make the playoffs" "we want to make the playoffs" "we expect to make the playoffs" but the play on the ice looks to remain the same. If the brass in the Caps front office think they had PR problems with the way last season ended, they'll long for those days if the Caps finish 14th in the Eastern Conference again this season.

Sure, things could "turn around" and we could stay on the three wins out of every five games pace that will yield a minimum of 98 points and safely secure a playoff spot. But performances last last weekend have to be blips on the screen and not the normal run of play.

Fair Is Fair

Last year I took Dan Snyder to task for having the audacity to charge $25 per car for parking at the Redskins-Ratbirds scrimmage in Landover despite advertising "FREE ADMISSION!"

Well, Ratbirds owner Steve Bisciotti is doing him one better, not only is he charging for parking he's also charging for admission to the Redskins-Ratbirds scrimmage in Bhawlmuher.

Yes, I do see the fine print about "all net ticket proceeds going to the Ratbirds All Community Foundation." Operative word is "net" and even if all the $$$$$ is going off to charity, it still takes gonads to charge admission for a controlled scrimmage.

It is bad enough that the NFL charges full price for meaningless and worthless preseason games, but for these franchises to charge any kind of admission for glorified practices is even more outrageous. At least I can get a full tax write-off on the preseason games I have to buy.

Skins Regular Season Schedule Released

Here you go...

September 9th vs. Miami 1 pm

September 17th (Monday Night) @ Philadelphia 8:30 pm

September 23rd vs. New York Giants 4:15 pm

September 30th BYE

October 7th vs. Detroit 1 pm

October 14th @ Green Bay 1 pm

October 21st vs. Arizona 1 pm

October 28th @ New England 4:15 pm

November 4th @ New York Jets 1 pm

November 11th vs. Philadelphia 1 pm

November 18th @ Dallas 1 pm

November 25th @ Tampa Bay 1 pm

December 2nd vs. Loserville...er...Buffalo 1 pm

December 6th (Thursday night) vs. Chicago 8:15 pm

December 16th @ New York Giants 8:15 pm

December 23rd @ Minnesota 1 pm

December 30th vs. Dallas 1 pm

Games scheduled for Sundays beginning on November 18th through the end of the regular season are subject to the whims of the suits at NBC so that Redskins-Jints game in the Meadowlands may start earlier and other games may have their start moved back.

At first blush I don't like the early bye week. As a matter of fact, the Redskins have the first bye week along with Jacksonville, New Orleans, and Tennessee.

Secondly, I'm not a big fan of the Thursday night game just to play a Thursday night game. The only saving grace is that the Skins do not have to travel for that game and are home 4 days before it as well. I'm also not liking the fact that it is against the defending NFC Champions as well. But the Redskins don't have to travel any further west than Dallas

And speaking of the Cowgirls, for second there I thought that the NFL forgot to put them on our schedule...

Finally, after playing three teams on the road (two of them in the division) that were coming off their bye weeks last season (and losing all three games by a combined 82-28), this season the Skins don't play anybody coming off a bye week. Though the Redskins do play four teams (Detroit, Green Bay, Arizona, and New York Jets) who are heading into their bye week and three of those (all but Green Bay) are at home. Our game at Dallas is also four days before the Cowgirls' Thanksgiving home game. Overall I think with the exception of the early bye week and pointless Thursday night game, this is a good schedule. No three consecutive road games, no obscene "bunching" of our divisional opponents either.