Game 13: Redskins (4-8) vs. Eagles (6-6)

vs.

A clash of the titty titans I say. The Redskins get another shot at the Eagles in Washington, er, Maryland Sunday at 1pm. When last we met, the Redskins sucked and died in a cold rain. In the three games since then, the Redskins have sucked, looked great and looked great then sucked. Meanwhile in Philadelphia, Dono blew out his knee, they lost to a better team and damn Jeff Garcia is huge. Sharing the love, WaPo points out

Only the four NFC division leaders have winning records.

And the Eagles are not one of them. The wild card situ right now in the NFC is this: there are four 6-6 teams and two are above the line. It's time to play spoiler! Spoiler is fun, like the NIT of the NFL.

As Hogs Haven says, losing now would force the Eagles to need a lot of help to get to the playoffs. So go and beat them already! My gods, enough with the old man bit and the GM bit, there's a game this week. And anyway the Ozzie Newsomes and Bruce Allens Rich McKays Bill Polians of the world must be plentiful right? Have a look here and see how many coaches are listed as a co-GM. It's almost every team. I leave it to you to figure out where the smarts are in those relationships. The GM question is beside the point. Cerrato = cerrado.

Curly R aside: Is there a single brave soul in the Court of The Danny? Is there anyone that can tell him he's the problem? Could someone tell him he can make tons of money, have a good team and be loved (yes we'll forgive you) if he just gets out of the way? No one but Hannibal Lecter is going to come and GM for this team with this guy's psychotic history and maybe that would be good because Dr. Lecter would get Dan to eat his own face.

It's almost irrelevant to talk about statistics at this point. Go here if you want to slice and dice. This is a division game between struggling teams, pure and simple. Sometimes this is the best football, other times it's like watching monkeys fling shit at the zoo. Brandon Lloyd is starting, Adam Archuleta is sitting, Shaun Suisham is missing blah blah blah. Alls I know is Donte is on my fantasy team and I'm leading the league so let's have the Redskins show up big on offense shall we say *wink wink*

The big news of the day is that Ladell Betts got a contract, 5 years, up to 11 million dollars. This is a great move by the Redskins and highlights how bad the Duckett move was. They had four years and still didn't know how good Ladell could be. Duckett will be allowed to go and now I just hope Ladell keeps his intensity because he is the starter. Ladell and Jason Campbell are going to be playing together for a few more games and I hope they take that seriously.

Expect potential Eagles scapegoat Jim Johnson to throw the kitchen sink at Jason. Howard Bryant in the Post is right: how Jason handles blitzing defenses from here on out will go a long way to determine whether he's a keeper. An NFL quarterback has to read the defense, guess where pressure will come, identify the hot reads and try and look downfield, all in about three seconds. Wouldn't it be funny if Jason's near-term success turns on whether he can execute a short-range, controlled passing game?.

Speaking of Jason, am I the only paranoiac wondering if the switch to Jason came as late as it did because The Danny would have had to pay Jason a contract bonus, presumably for snaps, percentage of plays or starts? The Danny lays out big money but once you are under contract he's a cheap SOB, see also LaVar Arrington who thinks the union's all mobbed up.

LaVar Arrington testifying on Capitol Hill on December 7.
Not pictured: LaVar's withered chickenleg. Photo Chris Greenberg / AP.

And whaaaaaaat? The Eagles have a salary cap problem? Only 12 million under the cap? Sounds like a great story until you read that the Redskins are less than one million under the cap.

The Redskin Report FYI. Aren't you Mr. Helpful.

Wilbert Montgomery and I will be attending this game together. This makes 15 of the past 16 Redskins-Eagles games Wilbert Montgomery and I have attended, regardless of venue. Our streak goes back to 1999.

This is a gameday open thread.