Redskins Reality Checks: The future is looking murky

The Redskins have everything to play for on Sunday at FedEx Field with the Giants coming to town. So why does it feel like they might be better off just forfeiting?

I can’t remember a time when a team’s record and playoff positioning were so completely incongruous with the feeling surrounding the team. With four games left, teams in the thick of the playoff standings can have all sorts of different vibes.

There are years when a team has largely outperformed their record, and there’s hope for a late playoff push. There are years where a team has underperformed their record, so there’s hope they will put it all together for a late playoff push. There are years where a team has really struggled but is rounding into form, and just might have enough time to make things interesting.

And then, of course, there are the years where it seems pretty obvious that the team has no shot, and the only goals are to evaluate as many young players for the following year.

This year’s Redskins’ team is in a situation I have never seen before. One could say that they really ought to be 7-5 or 8-4 this season. The NFL essentially admitted that Hopkins should have had a chip-shot field goal for the win against Houston. The Redskins also very easily could have beaten the Colts in Week 2. The crazy thing is, a win on Sunday could easily put them back in first place in the NFC East.

And yet, when their third-string quarterback hands off to their third-string running back, running behind their fifth-string left guard and fourth-string right guard on Sunday, they will do so with the majority of the fanbase highly doubtful that the playoffs should even be mentioned in any discussions of this team for the rest of this season.

Some Redskins fans will be rooting for whatever it takes to get Bruce Allen and Jay Gruden fired, and will not mind enduring four more losses this season to make that happen. Others can’t ever bring themselves to root against their team, so they will apathetically, half-heartedly cheer for the Redskins to make a late-season run, but will know in their heart that it’s extremely unlikely. And other fans genuinely believe that Mark Sanchez can do enough, and the defense can return to early-season form, and the Redskins can squeak into the playoffs and maybe get Colt McCoy back in time to put up a good fight in the playoffs.

Given all the possibilities, and all the mixed emotions surrounding this team, we’ll take a little detour as part of this week’s Redskins Reality Checks.