Speaking Of Monday Night Football...

[Lord Jim]

Next Monday...

The NFC Eastern Division Leading Washington Redskins...

With the proud record of 5-6...

Take on The Lowly 3-8 Dallas Cowboys in their house...

Must see TV...

Now how can a team, with a losing record, eleven games into the season, possibly be sitting on top of their division you ask?

The answer is simple...

Because the competing teams are the New York Giants, (also with an equally impressive 5-6 record, but because of the tie-breaking formulas of the NFL they are in second place) The 4-7 Philadelphia Eagles, and the afore mentioned lowly Dallas Cowboys at 3-8...

I read an article a couple of days ago that had the headline: "The NFC East: The Division No One Seems To Want To Win"...

And yet, someone must....

I've done a little "strength of remaining schedule" analysis between the 'Skins and the Giants, and it definitely favors the boys in Burgundy and Gold:

Of the teams the Redskins face in their last five regular season contests, not one of them currently has a winning record (with the Patriots and the Panthers behind them, their nightmares are in the rear view mirror):

Cowboys, 3-8 (twice; very odd to have both Cowboys games scheduled so late)
Eagles, 4-7
Bears and Bills (both 5-6)

The Giants, on the other hand, face three teams with winning records, including the undefeated Panthers (who reamed us a new one a couple of weeks ago) and the red hot 8-3 Minnesota Vikings...

I have to believe that the Giants will lose at least one of those games, so it's entirely possible, (indeed likely) that 9-7 will be good enough to win the NFC Eastern Division title...(In fact 8-8 might even do it....)

And that's what makes next Monday night's game so critical...

Of the five remaining games, I think this is the one we are most likely to lose...The Cowboys may be out of it, but they always get up for the Redskins, especially when we're playing in Dallas...(The year the Cowboys went 1-15, guess who that one victory was against?... )

We could lose that game, and still win the Division, (assuming the Giants lose at least one of their 5 remaining games) but if we win against Dallas in their house, it will give an enormous lift to the team going into the last four games...

A one, and a two:

[Joe Guy]

Maybe if the Redskins changed the team name they would play better...

[Lord Jim]

[Long Run]

2010-11 Season:

The Seahawks made history by becoming the first 7–9 team ever to make the playoffs and then did it again by becoming the first to win a playoff game [over defending champion Saints], racking up 31 first downs and 474 yards, including a 67-yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch late in the fourth quarter. This marked the fifth consecutive year a Super Bowl champion failed to win a playoff game in the next season.

It was the start, sort of, for Seattle's good years. Maybe the team that plays in Washington will have the same success.

[Lord Jim]

Thanks for posting that Long Run...

I had a recollection that a team had fairly recently won their division and advanced to the playoffs with a losing record, but I couldn't remember which one...

I remember saying at the time that I thought that was outrageous...

If a team "wins" their division with a losing record, then that division shouldn't even be able to field a team in the playoffs...

Let the next highest team in the Conference with a winning record take their place, as an additional "wild card"...

However, in light of the current situation this year (as Hillary and Barack are fond of saying) "my views on this have evolved"...

[wesw]

I don t watch football anymore, too brutal for me these days....

...but the world champion Golden State Warriors are 19-0.

I haven t watched a basketball game yet either, but I did catch the last 5 innings of Game 5 of the 1970 world series the other day...

[wesw]

... I think brady may have surpassed staubach as the greatest QB ever tho.

neither of them are RG3 but.....

sorry jim, but as a one time dallas fan, the redskins suck, they suck, and john riggins is the suckiest sucker of them all, him and the SuckyHogs he rode in with (well, rode over the cowboys with would be more accurate)

oh, and mark mosely sucks too.

I would make fun of theisman but I still feel bad for him from when Lawrence taylor broke his leg.

oh yeah, you really should change the name to Warriors, or something more respectful....

[Lord Jim]

john riggins is the suckiest sucker of them all,

Well wes, to make a comment like that, you obviously haven't been partaking of that low-dose LSD...

You've clearly been indulging in full-strength four-way window pane...

ETA:

I would make fun of theisman

I'd beat you to the punch on that one wes...

I can't stand Theisman....

Total candy ass; I'm a Jurgensen and Kilmer man...

As for Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks, I'm a Clint Longley fan...

Yes, he beat us on that bizarre pass completion on a Thanksgiving day many years ago....

But after that he punched out that Dudley Do Right Staubach, which redeemed him in my eyes...

Way to go Clint!

[TPFKA@W]

I thought it was Thursday Night Fotbul now?

[Lord Jim]

I thought it was Thursday Night Fotbul now?

Both...

Now there's both Monday Night and Thursday Night football...

Both on ESPN...

Nothing like the original glory days of Monday Night Football that we remember as kids...

On ABC with Howard, Frank, and Dandy Don....

[wesw]

oh.....

I almost missed that edit of yours.....

it always annoyed me that bradshaw called his own plays but staubach wasn t allowed to call his own plays.

[Guinevere]

Sunday night football, too!

If the choices are Dallas, Washington, or the Giants, I'll take soccer instead

[Lord Jim]

They were a great combo...

Gifford playing straight man to Meredith and Cosell's shtick...

People who didn't even like football would tune in on Monday nights just to watch the three of them go at it...

Howard Cosell knew absolutely nothing about football...(the one sport he did know something about was boxing...he was a great ringside announcer...the famous phrase, "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!" was uttered by Howard Cosell...

(After a pummeling fight between Larry Holmes and a no-name fighter named Randall "Tex" Cobb, Cosell announced that he would never do another boxing match...)

My mother, who never had any use for football, would watch just so she could bitch about Howard Cosell...

He was "The Man America Loved To Hate"...

The original MNF was a stroke of marketing brilliance from one of America's greatest 20th century marketing geniuses, Pete Rozelle....

Digression ahead:

The original MNF got the kinds of ratings and audience share on a bad night between two going-nowhere teams that can only be drooled over today by teams playing in anything this side of The Super Bowl...

The Super Bowl... that was another Rozelle creation...the guy single handidly created an unofficial new American Holiday built around the sport he promoted...A sport that was running a very poor second to baseball, with an average franchise value of around a million dollars, (in some cases less) when he took it on at 33 in 1960... by the time he retired 29 years later in 1989, you couldn't buy an NFL franchise for less than 100 million.....today you couldn't get even an awful team for less than 500 million...

(Well, okay, maybe you could get the Cleveland Browns for 300 million... )

Returning to the original topic:

Don Meredith, unlike Cosell, actually knew something about football, having played nine years (seven as a starter) as QB for the lord give me strength Dallas Cowboys... (Meridith had played for the Cowboys, Gifford had played for the Giants...you can well imagine that we Redskins fans always felt that the announcing team was stacked against us every time we took the field on MNF...)

That was real "chemistry"...

The pompous, verbose, know-nothing, combined with the folksy down-home redneck who isn't a dumb as he appears, and poor Frank having to herd these two cats....

It made for great television...

[Lord Jim]

What didn't make for great television was Howard's short-lived variety show in the mid-seventies...

I think he was trying to be the next Ed Sullivan...

(Like the world was hungering for a next Ed Sullivan...)

I remember him introducing The Bay City Rollers as "the next Beatles"...

That's a level of hyperbole that would embarrass Donald Trump....

[oldr_n_wsr]

assuming the Giants lose at least one of their 5 remaining games

Hopefully the Jets can help you out.

MNF was great back then.
IIRC the Super Bowl not named the "Super Bowl" until after Super Bowl III?

And I believe Howard Cossel died very lonely and bitter. Sad.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Although the leagues' owners decided on the name "AFL-NFL Championship Game," the media immediately picked up on Hunt's "Super Bowl" name, which would become official beginning with the third annual game. Roman numerals were first affixed for the fifth edition, in January 1971

Well remembered, oldr

[Big RR]

I used to love MNF; it was my only chance to see some of my favorites teams since the NY stations broadcast only Giants and Jets games (and I don't even think the season had a bye week then). Many times I got so tired of Cosell I turned down the sound and listened on the radio.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Well remembered, oldr

Thank you, now if I could remember stuff that is important. at least more important than football if there is such a thing

NY stations broadcast only Giants and Jets games (and I don't even think the season had a bye week then).

No bye week and only a 14 game season for much of their run.

[Big RR]

One thing I do recall is that, in the mid-60s, neither team would sell out the stadium and the games were blacked out, opening up for other games to be broadcast (kind of like and NFL and AFL game of the week). But this eventually stopped and all that was broadcast were those two teams.

[oldr_n_wsr]

And who could forget the Heidi game. Interrupting a football game would never occur nowadays.