The Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles came into Saturday night’s prime time match up with a lot on the line. For the Redskins it was a shot to put the Eagles out of their misery and grasp the division title guaranteeing a home playoff game. The Eagles on the other hand had a chance to extend the battle for the division title and buy another week to get a home playoff game.
Washington came out with a level of confidence that fans have seen in flashes from but not consistently. It was very clear from the game’s start that the Redskins were on a mission and they were relentless in accomplishing that task. Not once in the game did it appear that the moment was too big although there were a couple of times when one might have thought, “Here we go again… same ‘ole Redskins.”
At the coin toss the Redskins deferred and must fans might have thought it was a good idea for them to put their defense on the field in the hopes of setting the tone for the game. It actually didn’t go very well however… the Eagles came out and set a tone of their own. Philly quarterback Sam Bradford & Co. got the things that have been working for Philadelphia in previous weeks going; finding wide out Jordan Matthews on a crossing route, hitting tight end Zack Ertz and driving the ball right down the field for a first-strike touchdown.
The Redskins would go three-and-out on their first drive, looking jittery and without a rhythm. The game almost had shades of that Monday night game against the New York Giants when the team had never got much going.
Despite the bad start, a missed extra point and an ill-advised kneel-down from a QB Kirk Cousins mental lapse, the Redskins stayed the course, determined to seize the moment and achieve the goal they had set before them at the beginning of the season: clinching the NFC East title and a playoff berth.
“It was great” Head Coach Jay Gruden said during one of his later press conferences. “You know it’s another road win for us. This is a great team we played, and [we] overcame some stuff, man. I think, I’m proud of this football team. All throughout the season we’ve overcome some ups and downs and just stuck together. There were some moments in this game when we could have burrowed our head, but it was great to get a victory and clinch the NFC East.”
The Burgundy and Gold displayed not just physical toughness on the field but also mental toughness. Especially when considering that the team opened up its season with a very strange turn of events that found itself with a young, unproven quarterback in Cousins and lost 13 players to season-ending injuries. That’s a lot of adversity to overcome and yet they managed to do just that.
“I don’t know if a year ago the team could’ve handled some of the adversity we faced,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “[General Manager Scot] McCloughan did a great job bringing in leaders, bringing in talent. It’s just a hungry team, man. We heard the doubters, we heard everybody, we heard people talking, but what we did, we just kept our head down and kept working. It all paid off.”
The identifying mark of success for the Washington Redskins is more than just one coach or one player. It’s not even about a belief in what is being brewed and about the guys buying in. It’s about the assembly of men that are just flat-out skilled football players, that are willing to come together as a unit and that will march to the beat of one drum.