Quarter Point of the Season

The Philly game started off beautifully and then just turned ugly when McNabb could no longer convert any passes. However, Jim Haslett's bend-but-don't break game plan worked wonderfully, forcing nickel and diming down the field. Yes, LeSean McCoy had a huge game receiving and DeSean Jackson or Jeremy Maclin couldn't get anything deep. Look for other defenses to immediately copy that strategy from here on out. Jackson's and Maclin's fantasy stock will decline while McCoy's and Brent Celek's value goes up.

2-0 in the division is something to be quite proud of. Blowing a 17-point lead against the Texans and losing to the formerly lowly Rams are not.

Regarding the two divisional wins... The Cowboys found a nice rhythm in defeating the Texans. They are sure to be much more fired up facing the Skins in Arlington. The G-Men looked sound defeating the previously undefeated Chicago Bears. Ahmad Bradshaw, in particular, other than his arrogant fumble, was very impressive. The Giants games will be tough matchups for the Redskins.

Counterpoint to the downside of losing to Houston and St. Louis... Houston is an explosive team that will likely be playing in the playoffs. The positive side of that game was seeing all the offense on display. The long Fred Davis play, which failed in Philly because McNabb put too much on it, was a thing of beauty, executed to perfection. St. Louis appears to be rallying behind their rookie QB Bradford. He put together impressive back-to-back games against both the Skins and then the Seahawks. The Rams could notch 7-8 wins this season. It's still a game Washington should have won but instead lost by two touchdowns.

Remainder of the season...

Packers - Aaron Rodgers has plenty of playmakers around him and the Packers are a cut above the Redskins. The Redskins would be lucky to pull this one off, despite being at home.

Colts - Manning, Wayne, Collie, Dallas Clark. The Colts have the second highest scoring offense in the league so far. If conditions are bad at home, it favors the Skins. Otherwise, the defense will be challenged to keep Manning and squad under lockdown. But perhaps like the Houston game, McNabb can lead a shootout win.

Bears - Cutler leading the Martz offense with Urlacher and friends leading the defensive charge. Another tossup. The Bears looked tough in their first three wins but were dominated by the Giants Sunday night with their 10 sacks. Unfortunately for the Skins, they have to travel to Soldier Field.

Lions - Jahvid Best and Calvin Johnson are explosive but probably aren't enough by themselves. I'm counting on the Skins to win at Detroit.

Outlook - Likely 1-3 coming out of this stretch. 2-2 would be very good. These aren't easy teams.

Dallas win

It was a funny experience watching the Sunday Night Football game online while also getting scoring updates in the iPhone with the Yahoo! Sportacular app.

Case in point. I'd previously paused the stream so I was about a minute behind. At the end of the half, Dallas has the ball and looked like they might drive down for a half-ending FG. Then I get an alert that Washington is up 10-0. Meanwhile, the stream is showing that with less than 30 seconds left, Dallas still has the ball. Down to 11 seconds, Dallas still had the ball. At this point, I thought the Sportacular alert must have been wrong. Then down to 4 seconds left and I could only guess that there was going to be an INT return for a TD.

Meanwhile, Tashard Choice catches the ball in flat on the last play of the half so I'm still perplexed on what might happen. Until DeAngelo Hall (player!) comes over to stand him up and strips him. Beautiful!

Very ugly on offense. A lot of kinks to work out. I would have preferred to see Fred Davis more involved. He definitely needs to be involved in the passing game when there's no quality WR depth after Santana Moss.

Changes

As previously foretold, Zorn was fired after two years and no playoff appearances.

It's wonderful to have Cerrato gone an have real football men making the decisions. People may knock Shanahan and Bruce Allen every which way (no championships after Elway, the Bucs had a mixed record during Allen's tenure) but the bottom line is that they are both fine upgrades over Zorn and Cerrato.

Second year receivers

Fred Davis is turning out to be a fine tight end. He has really stepped it up in Chris Cooley's absence. Regular 2 TE formations next year is a must.

On the other hand, although Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas are playing larger roles, they still have to be considered major busts. Two thoughts on these big young receivers:

(1) DeSean Jackson - the Skins passed on the speedy Cal receiver/PR twice. Kelly and Thomas will always be compared to the Eagles' second rounder. He has made a huge impact as a big play guy, had 900+ yards last season and is over 1000 this season with double digit TDs. Hard to see either guy turning into a 1000 yard receiver next year.

(2) Rod Gardner - 'Nuff said.

Bruce Allen

Hurray! Anything is better than Vinny Cerrato. Of course, a new owner would be ideal but that's not happening.

It's nice that Allen has the old family ties to the organization, at least for sentimental reasons. That won't have much bearing on Bruce Allen's effectiveness in his job other than his heart will be completely in it. Big question is how much he can educate Snyder on what a professional football organization should really be.