I didn’t get a chance to watch much of the Redskins debacle yesterday. (Skins lost twice in two years to the Lions? Really?) From the reports, it seems that the big thing was the benching of Donovan McNabb. His replacement, Rex Grossman, promptly fumbled on his first play. Um, really, Kyle Shanahan?
Look, I’m no McNabb fan. I think the Redskins should have passed on him, opting instead for a young quarterback of the future. But as long as Dan Snyder owns the team, we’ll keep getting these over-the-hill, highly paid players -Deion Sanders, anyone? – and finishing out of the playoffs.
At least the ‘Skins won’t lose next week – they have a bye.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
You’ve used the phrase “winning ugly” several times in recent weeks about the ‘Skins. Sunday they lost ugly.
The frequency with which we heard about the ‘Skins “winning ugly” is part of why I’m not surprised by Sunday’s result. Any football team is allowed to win ugly every once in a while. But when it’s happening week after week? That doesn’t point to a team that’s improving, that points only to a team that’s winning by accident.
Silence: Could be worse. At least the defense looks good. Unlike the Cowboys, who seem snakebit in every phase of the game.
But, as a Bears fan, I’ll tell you that unless McNabb needs an iron lung, there’s no way I’d let Rex Grossman see the field. That guy is a disaster waiting to happen.
Perhaps they could be worse, Steve, but I am loathe to compare them to the Dallas Cowboys, favorably or otherwise. The Cowboys are a perennially-overrated slow-motion train wreck that plays out over 17 weeks every season. They’re a myth told each year by a media that seems too overwhelmed by memories of Tom Landry and how many jerseys the franchise has sold to notice that they’ve only won a single playoff game in more than ten years, and I think it speaks volumes about how low the Washington fanbase’s expectations have fallen and just how removed the team is from being serious about being competitive in the NFL that we’re perpetually obsessed with this ghost story we tell ourselves around the campfire every pre-season about the most-furious and depressing rivalry in all of professional sports.
I remember when the Redskins-Cowboys rivalry actually meant something. But it’s been a mighty long time since it has. The biggest difference between then and now? The owners.