Pat's Scandal Erased to Save the League

The Pat's won three of the past four Super Bowls by three points or fewer. Their wins were all gained by last-minute field goals. None of those wins were decisive, like the Colts cleaning the clock of the Bears last season.

So it is appropriate to ask whether the Pats' illegal filming of D signals helped them win those Super Bowls. It is obvious that it did, as why on Earth would they videotape, and risk sanctions, if it did not help them win games?

I had hoped that Goodell would have investigated this more fiercely, but he decided to destroy the tapes that Belichick had compiled.

Goodell is being a good businessman, as the revelation that three of the past four Super Bowl wins might have been tainted would potentially destroy the Golden Goose.

Still, I am with Easterbrook:

The situation with the National Football League is a lot worse than people realize, and the only one who seems to grasp this fully is commissioner Roger Goodell. You don't issue emergency orders backed by threats on Sunday morning of a game day, as Goodell just did regarding the New England Patriots' files of cheating information, unless the situation is a lot worse than people realize.

Why is the situation worse than people think? Because the NFL is on the precipice of blowing its status as the country's favorite sport. The whole NFL enterprise is in jeopardy from that single word: cheating. It's the most distasteful word in sports. And now the Patriots have brought the word into the NFL.

Winning Is Not Everything

I never thought I would say that winning is not everything. But in the wake of the Michael Vick dog fighting guilty plea, the Patriots' cheating scandal and the chain-gang that the Cincinnati Bengals are fielding I feel proud to be a Skins fan.

Since Sean Taylor's incidents a couple of years ago we have been scandal-free.

This means a lot to me, honestly. Even if we don't win we are fielding a character team with character coaches.

Philly Fans Don't Deserve Donovan McNabb

Since the 1999 season the Redskins have started eight different quarterbacks and made the playoffs twice. In that same time-frame, Donovan McNabb, whose first season was in 1999, led the Eagles to six playoff appearances, five division championships, four conference championship games and the Super Bowl.

In addition, McNabb is a classy guy and a good role model. What franchise would not want him as their leader?

Philly.

Philly fans boo him the minute he is not perfect. My jaw dropped in amazement last season when McNabb threw a bad pass and the stands at the Linc erupted in boos. At that point, the Skins were still starting Brunell and I thought how wonderful it would be to have McNabb at QB and why on Earth are they booing him.

McNabb was booed by fans when he was picked 2nd overall by the Eagles, which had to be incredibly difficult personally as he was only 21. Yet he retained his dignity and produced big time for the franchise.

Today he is being pilloried for his comments on an HBO show in which he said that African-American quarterbacks are more scrutinized than White ones. There is even talk on ESPN.com that this will be his last season in Philly post those comments.

What McNabb said was not at all confrontational. He honestly answered a question that was posed to him. The reactions of Jason Campbell and Vince Young (and Young took a big Wilbon hit for being honest) countered McNabb's view. But those QB's don't play in Philly. I am not alleging that Philly is racist. To the contrary, I think they are very quick to turn on their quarterbacks and team in general. If McNabb were White they would probably be doing to same stuff. But he is not, and there is a history, however long ago, about football fans not loving African-American QB's and Donovan probably can't get those draft day boos out of his head. If I were Donovan McNabb and shouldered a winning franchise for eight years and heard boos and sensed no fan loyalty that matched my effort and performance I would much more pissed than he is. I am not so classy.

Here in DC we have an awesome new QB we are all behind and he is African-American. He is like the coming of the Messiah. What is sad is that Donovan should have been welcomed equally, or more so, in Philly as his talent and character are excellent. Philly fans did not give Donovan what he deserved. I don't know that it is racial or just bad Philly temperment. If the Skins had a QB who delivered as much as McNabb did I think, and hope, that we would give him respect and the benefit of the doubt.

Analysis: What Might Happen Monday Night

The Skins D, reeling from ranking second to last against the long pass last season, is playing three men deep to avoid that humiliation again. That can work, but even the terrible Fins found a successful passing place in the 10-20 yard range.

We won the game, but let's realize that we almost lost it despite the fact the the Fins are terrible, they have a new coach and that game was our home opener.

They almost beat us by expoiting that middle seam. The Skins' linebackers need to drop back quicker if it is a pass play.

I have my fingers crossed.

The G Men Go Two and 0

Brett Favre showed that there is still a lot of ammo left in his gun as he led the Pack to a 35-13 victory over our division rival Giants.

The Giants are now 2 and 0, the Cowboys are still playing Miami and the Skins meet Philly tomorrow night in a division game. If the Skins win tomorrow they are at worst tied for the division lead with the Cowboy, assuming that the Skins win.

Jason Campbell seems to be the real deal. The Wa Post had an interesting story on him that shed some light into his personality and his relationship with classy QB Donovan McNabb.

The Thin Burgundy and Gold Line

The Skins pulled off an overtime win against the Dolphins, and that is better than losing, but this game left Skins fans with much to fret about.

It should have been a slaughter: a home game season opener with loud fans against a team that went 6-10 last season and has a new coach and a new quarterback who is 37.

A couple passes that Santana Moss dropped could have changed the game. And Brandon Lloyd, in the end zone, did not want the ball as much as his defender did. Carlos Rogers again disappointed with missed tackles and a 15 yard penalty, and Fred Smoot played a good game overall but couldn't haul in the interception.

Kudos to Rocky McIntosh, who was always committing or near the tackle. Rookie LaRon Landry also had a good game, one of his tackles is pictured above.

The Fins couldn't run or throw the long ball but found a vulnerability on the ten yard pass and exploited it for most of their gains. If the Skins are going to play Cover-2 then Fletcher needs to channel Urlacher and get back quickly on the play action pass and cover the mid-middle. He covers the run great, but not so well the pass.

But the nightmare of all Skins fans, and what we had been worried about, was the fragile O line that has no depth. We tremored in the preseason when undrafted free agent Stephon Heyer took over at LT and Jason Campbell was alsmost out for the season as Heyer blew his coverage.

Today, early in the second quarter RG Jon Jansen was carted off the field. Cooley, the Skins number two catcher last year, then had to play the rest of the game blocking and only had one catch. That is like Antonio Gates or Tony Gonzalez being out of the passing picture. Nightmare.

J la C of the Wa Post flagged this vulnerability. So did the stats Gods at Pro Football Prospectus.