Redskins Reality Checks: Team facing most important week of the year
By Tim Payne
Amid the swirl of negativity surrounding the Redskins this season, they face potentially their most important week of the year as the team travels to Green Bay and then Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder head to the league meetings.
This week, the Washington Redskins won their game, but lost the TV ratings battle in the 1:00 time slot to the Ravens. That had been totally unthinkable in D.C. for my entire lifetime. But it’s yet another indication of just how dire the franchise’s situation has become.
To make matters worse, Trent Williams dropped the hammer on Bruce Allen in a sweeping interview with the Washington Post on Thursday. In a long string of embarrassing events and results for the beleaguered team president, the situation with Trent Williams is rapidly becoming the ugliest and most damning. Add that to the utter debacle this season has been both on the field and in the eroding fan base, and it’s hard to imagine how Dan Snyder could talk himself into keeping Allen around beyond this season.
As Kevin Sheehan pointed out this week on his podcast, Snyder fired Vinny Cerrato at the December League Meetings back in 2009 before hiring Allen. It would be just like Snyder to attempt to make the splash move while at the league meetings, so as to vault his irrelevant franchise back into the spotlight while all his peers are gathered. As I’ve pointed out many times, this team cannot and will not ever make sustainable progress until Bruce Allen is ousted.
But, just as it usually happens with bad organizations, right when you think things are lining up for real change to happen, something gets in the way and the status quo reigns. Enter the Dallas Cowboys. On Thursday night, they looked so bad in losing to the Bears and falling to 6-7, they gave Redskins fans that glimmer of hope that the team could pull off a late-season charge to win the division. It’s a totally ridiculous pipe-dream, but it’s becoming less and less ridiculous with each clap of Jason Garrett’s hands. If the Redskins somehow pull off an unlikely win in Green Bay this weekend, they will be two games out of first place, with three games to play… still an extremely outside chance, but still a chance.
But would that be the worst-case scenario? Is the mirage of an outside chance of a playoff run enough to save Bruce Allen after the ten years of failure and embarrassment he has inflicted on the franchise? You’d like to think not. But this is Dan Snyder making these decisions, so buckle up. I tend to think the ONLY thing that could save Bruce Allen at this point is a playoff berth, but some connected people in D.C. media believe that a win against the Packers this week might be enough to help Allen convince Snyder that they are “close” to building that elusive “contender”, and that Allen just needs more time. If that is true, then a win in Green Bay would be catastrophic.
Only time will tell, but I’m going to take this week in Green Bay as a win-win scenario for the Redskins. Lose, and you might get a Bruce Allen ouster as early as next week. Win, and the improbable playoff chances remain alive for this young core of very likeable players.
So with that in mind, it’s time for this week’s Redskins Reality Checks.