Before I begin doling out jolly feel-goods and compliments, let's get this out of the way. I am not a Washington Redskins fan. Period.
Despite being from the D.C. area, I feel no loyalty whatsoever to the pathetic gold-and-burgundy excuse for a football team that Dan Snyder has put together. There hasn't been a Redskin on my fantasy football squad for nine years because it's impossible to trust them. Simply put, I would rather sponge bathe the Hogettes than watch Jason Campbell on a weekly basis as he hurls the ball downfield with less force than a ferret's sneeze.
But, wow, did they prove me wrong this week.
The Redskins pulled the biggest win of their otherwise disappointing season out of their collective asses Sunday, beating the once-deadly Denver Broncos at home 27-17, thanks in part to a little trickery, a back-up running back and a perfectly placed injury.
And it couldn't have come at a better time.
Washington snapped its four-game losing streak by scoring 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, giving the team its first win since Oct. 4 at Tampa Bay. The Redskins also finally crossed the 17-point plateau, becoming the last team in the NFL to score that many points in a game this season. Boy, they sure sucked.
So, what happened that so drastically altered their fortunes on Sunday?
Running back Ladell Betts scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 1-yard run with 2:44 to play. Rushing in place of the injured Clinton Portis, Betts had the Redskins' most effective ground output of the year against the league's eighth-ranked rush defense. Everybody rub your eyes on cue.
Sure, the Broncos played the second half without quarterback Kyle Orton and had to rely on Chris Simms and his once-ruptured spleen to direct them to victory, but give Washington a little credit for creativity.
Midway through the second quarter, punter Hunter Smith launched a 35-yard touchdown pass to fullback Mike Sellers on a fake punt, tying the game up at 14. (As a side note, Smith, who rushed for a touchdown in the season opener against the New York Giants, has accounted for as many scores as Portis.)
Through its first eight contests, this team would methodically hand off to Portis twice, suffer through an incomplete Campbell pass, then punt. So the recent trickery was beyond a refreshing change of pace.
Coincidentally, this monumental — I use the word quite relatively here — victory came on the heels of the Redskins' announcement that they had revised their sign policy, allowing fans to carry any signs into their stadium, a month after banning them.
The prohibition had come shortly after a noticeable increase in signs calling for Snyder's firing permeated throughout FedEx Field, becoming more prominent than perverts at a Miley Cyrus concert.
If you're the owner of this year's biggest disappointment short of anything named "Watchmen," you should accept that criticism will come, especially given that your only football experience prior to buying the Skins in 1999 came via fantasy sports. Snyder, a man who sued elderly season-ticket holders unable to make payments due to the recession, has alienated the once-devoted Washington fan base consisting of overweight, drunk men shouting "Cheaters never prosper!" for 60 minutes. (True story from when I attended a game with one of my best friends. First and last time I went to FedEx, by the way).
Yet, this win over Denver, a team that started out 6-0 and was the darling of the league, might just help the Redskins' supporters forget all about the losses to Detroit, the lawsuits and the Urkel glasses. Maybe they'll even start writing signs that say "Eagles Suck" and not "Snyder Sucks."
And with a few trick plays and some good old-fashioned luck on their side — provided that Betts continues to run wild and Smith keeps defenses on their toes — the Redskins could turn a few heads in the second half and shake up a deep NFC East.
That is, so long as Snyder doesn't institute a ban on creativity in the process.
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Alex Prewitt is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu.
