Washington Redskins: Brief Celebration of Fairy Tale Season

All of Washington Redskins’ head coach Mike Shanahan’s changes and his insistence that his way was a good one since the start of his tenure here have culminated in a gratifying manner. What could be better for RedskinsNation than beating the hated Dallas Cowboys at home, in “football weather” against a full (and quite rowdy) crowd for the NFC East Division title? The players on the team have said that they have been playing during this seven-game win streak for each other. This title win is the “happily ever after” in a fairy tale 2012 season.

From the time that this team first stepped on the field against the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, while possibly afraid to say it out loud, I maintain that real Redskins’ fans knew something truly special was going to happen this season. Through multiple injuries and discouraging losses, Washington persevered and, at least in the locker room, confidence that they could “get it done” never waned.

The players have said as much recently and, while one would think that it’s simply the status quo for them to say publicly that they believe in their team, their coach and their system, these players evidently really do. It helps that their head coach Mike Shanahan believed in his team early on and said to them: “You are a lot better than you think you are.”

No doubt sticking with their “one game at a time” mentality now that they’ve achieved the particular goal of getting into the postseason, these Redskins must now look immediately to a difficult playoff game against a very good Seattle Seahawks team here next week. But after the win Sunday night, coaches and players seemed to actually allow themselves a few minutes to enjoy it. Head coach Mike Shanahan did not go immediately to questions during his post-game presser but instead gave a short opening paragraph.

“I’m really proud of our football team,” he said. “For them to fight for seven weeks to put themselves in this position just says a lot about who they are and what level they’ve played at for about seven weeks. That we accomplished our first goal is really a tribute to the character of the guys in that locker room.”

This team really has shown what they can do, despite injury, despite what people say is a lack of talent, IF they truly play for each other as a team. Shanahan has always preached character and for this team at least, it means everything.

“Notice when we talk about character and you put character with people that have ability and a team that plays together, then you have a chance to do some special things,” Shanahan said when asked about his guys playing as a team. “For them to fight back after that 3-6 start and have the resolve how they are going to work through it says a lot about who they are and what level they played at the last couple of weeks.”

Really and truly, when one considers what rookie quarterback Robert Griffin, III has accomplished since arriving in Washington, no one should be surprised that they have landed with the NFC East championship. He said, after that discouraging loss against the Carolina Panthers just before the bye that he was going to come back a better quarterback and he did. He said that the team would make the playoffs and they have. In bringing that kind of drive and confidence to Washington, he could be as much responsible for this team believing in itself as his head coach is but he will never take credit for it

“I think everybody believed in what we had already,” Griffin said in his post-game press conference last night. “It was just about going out next game. When your back is against the wall, it will make that come out in you. Everybody stepped up big, and changed their mindset after the bye week. It was one game at a time. We took that cliché to the max, because we knew we had to win every game and we couldn’t rely on anyone else to help us get to the playoffs and win our division. We went out and did that.”

This journey from a 3-6 record before the bye to a 10-6 record to the NFC East Division title was certainly a team effort. But the players that have been here a while and have witnessed the change in the team recognize Griffin’s part in it.

One of the things so gratifying about this win and this season is seeing long-time team members like veterans wide out Santana Moss and tight end Chris Cooley finally get to “that place.” Moss was downright giddy after the game and it was awesome to see.

“Dance,” he said laughing after the game. “I’ll just dance. I don’t know how to… I just was happy, man.  Seriously, man, trust me… you just don’t know. You put so much into this and, to accomplish nothing, sometimes you just have to sit and wonder. But just to finally have the one that we have, I’m going to enjoy it but I realize that we’re closer than we’ve ever been.”

Moss and Griffin were seen congratulating each other late in the game and watching it, one could see Moss saying something to the rookie. RGIII was kind enough to share something of what they talked about with the press.

“He echoed what most of the veterans have said,” Griffin said when asked what Moss said to him after the game. “That I haven’t been here for the long haul yet, neither has Alfred, or a bunch of the rookies, but those veterans appreciate what we have been able to do this year, and what we have been able to do since the bye week. They have been through some harsh times and some bad times. He thanked me, and I never want to take credit for anything, but he said I brought the team there. He appreciated that and that we were going to keep it rolling.”

I loved middle linebacker London Fletcher’s answer when asked how he felt about winning the NFC East division title.

“How do you think that feels?” He said (rather incredulously). “It feels great, man. Victory is ours. We accomplished one of our goals. Just being able to get this franchise a division title, something that hasn’t happened since 1999 and it feels good. We’ll be having a home playoff game. What we’ve been able to accomplish this year, these last seven ballgames… Our men just focused in and were able to doing something great.”

It might be a stretch to say that linebacker Rob Jackson made the biggest play of the game but not by far. RedskinsNation was watching — terrified — while the Cowboys pretended to rally for a lead change and potentially the win. With 3:06 left in the fourth quarter and the score at 21-18, Dallas quarterback Tony Romo was trying to engineer an effective drive that could have given them the lead with little time left for Washington to score. He sent a floaty pass toward running back DeMarco Murray in the left flat. Jackson had the duty and he came in from his coverage, flying to the ball, jumped up in front of Murray and made the interception. Seven plays later, with the help of time outs and penalties from the Cowboys, running back Alfred Morris ran the ball into the end zone for a score.

“It feels good, man,” Jackson said after the game. “It feels good. We let it be known the first time [they beat Dallas] wasn’t a fluke.”

By the time the Cowboys got the ball back after Morris’ score, there was only 1:09 left to play and, between effective defense from linebacker Chris Wilson, cornerback Josh Wilson and linebacker Perry Riley, that was, as they say, “all she wrote” for Dallas. Jackson’s play was huge.

Thus, a fairy tale ending of becoming NFC East champs is the story of the Washington Redskins 2012 regular season. The game was played – and saved — with good execution overall by the offense, defense and special teams (notwithstanding kicker Kai Forbath’s first missed field goal of the season) the way it should have been. What could be better?

Defensive end Kedric Golston is in his seventh year with the Redskins (drafted in 2006 in the sixth round) and knows well both past glories and past tragedies of this squad. Of all of the long-time veterans on the team who decided to speak with reporters after last night’s game, I would bet what he said comes pretty close to how most of them feel.

“I’ve been here through 4-12 seasons and the bad times and almost being the joke of the NFL” Golston said after the game. “To do this with this group of guys — the old and the new — from Lorenzo [Alexander] to Reed [Doughty] to Stephen [Bowen] and Niles [Paul] and back, to the old with Santana [Moss]… I was thinking before this game about some of the great players that I’ve played with and how I’m looking to enjoy this as much as I am. With the Cornelius Griffins [with the team from 2004 – 2009] and Randy Thomases [with the team from 2003-2009] and those guys that did a lot for this organization and didn’t get a chance to experience this… I’m looking to have them be a part of this and thinking about all that this organization has been through the last ten years. It’s good to be here. We’re going to enjoy this one, but we understand it’s just the beginning of the ultimate goal. We’re here now, and we’re going to take it one game at a time. I guess we’ve got Seattle here at four o’clock on Sunday.”

During Monday’s press conference, Mike Shanahan was asked if the teams’ practice schedule would be any different now that they are in the playoffs.

“We’ll have a normal week,” he said during his press conference today. “We’ll have normal preparation because playing on Sunday gives us a chance to have two days of preparation and you treat each day like you do for the regular season so that’s always a plus. The following week it would be a day less preparation. Hopefully, we’re in that situation.”

This is actually good to hear. What the head coach has done recently has worked well enough that the Redskins are now the 2012 NFC East Champions. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Onward and upward.

It would be hard to imagine a better way to close out the 2012 season for this club, for these fans, for this city and even for the league. Now… let’s see what 2013 holds for all of them. Happy New Year, RedskinsNation.

Hail.