Game 12: Redskins (7-4) vs. Giants (10-1)

vs.

Out of the box: the rematch and is it big as the New York Giants come to Washington to play a 1pm ET game. For one team it is steady as she goes, gunshot wounds notwithstanding and for the other, if the playoffs are to be part of this season, they need to win.

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The story so far: after the Redskins got their hip hip hooray back on last week after two games off as rookie head coach Jim Zorn vanquished his mentor. Now it is back to bidness as the fifth of six division games is here. The Giants are unquestionably the class of both the NFC Beast and the NFC and no one is giving the Redskins a chance. We got em right where we want em.

The week began with the Redskins releasing tailback Shaun Alexander, I and at least a few other Redskins fans had been concerned that head coach Jim Zorn had signed Shaun with the intent to release or demote Ladell Betts and after not letting Shaun get a touch in his and coach Zorn's alumni return to Seattle last week coach Zorn showed he understands the business of football.

And Redskins fans welcomed back defensive tackle Ryan Boschetti (op. cit.), Washington had cut Ryan at the end of camp, he was an undrafted free agent in 2004 and is a favorite of defensive coordinator Greg Blache. With Cornelius Griffin and Kedric Golston hurting Ryan could get in the game this week (op. cit.).

At this point I have said it and I will say it again, Jim Zorn has been good for Jason Campbell, and you can count me among the Redskins fans that thought they would not work well together. Jim Zorn has been good for Jason's development as a quarterback and Jason has embraced the offense. Is Jason ready to join the ranks of elite young quarterbacks? I don't know, is Eli Manning already there?

On another topic, what's up with Shaun Suisham? His kickoffs have been shorter and he has missed reasonable field goals the last two weeks, a 46 yarder that was short against the Cowboys and a 43 yarder that clanged off the crossbar against the Seahawks. Granted these are long field goals, you normally expect a guy to miss wide from that range, not short.

Finally, your stat of the day, with 54 more yards, only John Riggins has more rushing yards as a Redskin than Clinton Portis (op. cit.), Clinton is sitting on 5822 with five games to go this season and a long term contract, John Riggins' franchise record is 7472, Clinton would have to experience a huge dropoff in order not to break this record as soon as next year in 2009 and if not then definitely in 2010.

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Curly R aside: Sean Taylor. He will be inducted into the Redskins Ring of Fame today (op. cit.) and Washington needs to retire Sean's number. Historically the Redskins have had an aversion to retiring numbers, with Sammy Baugh's number 33 the only officially retired number. Dan Snyder has none of that pressure as owner, it is his team and he needs to make it official, we all know there will be no more number 21s on this team. Ever.

All this week we read about the legacy, the people close to him and how and what the team did to move on. Yes it is true this is all a business and Sean's death should not overshadow the death of other unfortunates but it does. And that tells you everything you need to know about what football means culturally to this city and the country. If you don't get football then this may not make sense to you but then again you also likely won't be reading this.

The Washington Post has maintained a special Sean Taylor section since he died. It is full of reflections at one year.

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Oppo research: it is tough to see this game any other way, the Giants are going to be a tough customer today. Going into this game the Giants have the league's number one rushing attack at better than 160 yards per game and the number five overall offense. On the defensive side it does not get much better, the Giants have the number five overall defense, the number seven passing defense and the number six rushing defense.

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Trainer's table: injuries are going to be a problem at this point, the Redskins came out of the Seahawks game with beaucoup injuries on the defensive side of the ball: defensive end Andre Carter, linebacker London Fletcher and defensive tackle Kedric Golston all got hurt. Andre and London went in for MRIs and Kedric was on crutches all week. Short of doubtful, the team is calling London quote unlikely unquote though he is out of his walking boot, and by Friday Andre was walking around in pain.

Linebacker Marcus Washington, an increasingly paradoxical combination of late career frailty and incredibly hard hitting, is out for a second consecutive game, he got a high ankle sprain in the Cowboys game two weeks ago.

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Gameplan: after prepping sixteen gameplan segments so far this year (five preseason, eleven regular season) it is getting hard to be original. This is the place where most analysts will try and get into the weeds of matchups and strengths and weaknesses, if you are a Redskins or Giants fan, you know exactly what needs to happen without my telling you: on offense the Redskins need to get Clinton Portis rolling, they have to account for Justin Tuck and keep him off Jason Campbell and find a way to get downfield to Santana Moss more than once. At this point the Redskins have established a pattern, they do not play well against solid defenses, see also the first Giants game, the Steelers game and the second Cowboys game, the only three games this season the Redskins have not managed 300 yards of total offense.

On defense the Redskins have to find a way to hold the league's top rushing attack with a complete bruiser in Brandon Jacobs, in check and get some pressure on Eli Manning. The Redskins secondary is healthy but the linebackers and defensive linemen are not.

Bottom line, it could be a long day.

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My take in 60 words or less: in the first game of the season I picked with my head and took the Giants to win and was right. Now with the Redskins in third place behind the Cowboys I have no choice but to vote my heart and hope the Redskins can force the Giants to play down to their level and pull out the win.

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Washington Post / AP preview, Gameday (PDF), the Zorn Zone, injury reports, Redskins projected starters. SkinsCast weather, it's going to be shitty weather. Broadcast coverage, most of the country will be watching this game.

Other previews:


Enjoy your day, enjoy the game, I will be attending this game courtesy the neighbor we call Tony Almeida, and I will be tailgating with my good friend Mark Newgent of Redskins Examiner and the one the only Rich Tandler of Real Redskins and author of The Redskins A to Z Volume One: The Games, the story of every game played from 1937 to 2001.


This is a gameday open thread.



NFL helmet logos from here.