Redskins: First we were all “Guys, we did it!” then we were all “Haha, jk, nevermind.”

Sunday’s loss was just a heartbreaker. No other way around it.

October 23, 2012; 7:14 AM • by Beth Petty

Do you know that thing where you can make fun of your family members but if someone else does you go totally ballistic? Yeah, well, evidently that applies to your family…and the Redskins.

Somehow I have managed to go to school with all New York Giants fans. You tell me how I can go to a Virginia law school and be surrounded by Giants fans! I don’t get it either, but I’ve become really good friends with some of them, which is fine because they aren’t Dallas fans (obviously). I had drinks with them on Saturday night, and they bashed the Redskins a little bit. OK, I get that we have historically been low-hanging fruit when it comes to making fun of a football team, but I got super defensive. Then I realized that, for most of my life, I’ve only been surrounded by fellow Redskins fans. Clearly, I’m a little provincial. And I know I make fun of them all of the time, but I do it out of love, people! I guess I’ll give the Giants friends credit though: they all made the wise decision to tread very lightly around me on Monday morning.

Sunday’s loss was just a heartbreaker. No other way around it. Throughout the game, I received phone calls and texts from concerned friends and family members who were checking in on me to make sure I hadn’t had a stroke. First we had that touchdown pass to WR Josh Morgan taken away due to the illegal shift called on TE Fred Davis. Then Davis had his season-ending injury later in that drive. But we managed to keep the score tied at 13-13 in the first half.

Then the second half happened. So did turnovers. The Giants had a 20-16 lead, when RGIII managed to mount another late game comeback. My favorite play of the game was that amazing 4th and 10 scramble he did, finally connecting with TE Logan Paulsen for the 1st down. I mean, wow. WOW. Then he had a 24-yard running play. THEN RGIII ultimately found Santana for a 30-yard touchdown and we retook the lead 23-20 with 1:32 on the clock. And we were all “Guys, we did it!” Then we were all “Haha, jk, nevermind.” Giants QB Eli Manning found Victor Cruz for a 77-yard reception for a TD. We still had 1:13 left in the game, and RGIII is so good that we actually thought he may be able to do it again. The turnovers got the best of us, though, and Santana fumbled on the drive. We came up short, 27-23, losing our first division game of the season. On the plus side—if there is a plus side—at least New York is going to have to reconcile their two division losses. Maybe hope isn’t lost for us.

But what almost ended me was not Cruz’s 77-yard reception or Santana’s fumble to ice the game. No, no, I’m getting used to those types of crushing blows. But I was not at all prepared to hear the news that Joe Gibbs, yes, FORMER REDSKINS HEAD COACH JOE GIBBS, delivered an inspirational pre-game talk to the DALLAS COWBOYS. And on top of that, the Cowboys went on to win against Carolina, leaving us all alone at the bottom of the division. Wow, that’s just salt in the wound, Universe. We can recover from blown pass coverage, but I don’t know if we can recover from this one.

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Positives

RGIII is. so. incredibly. good. #Griffining may be a stupid name, but I’ll get on board with it because anything is better than #Tebowing. I know we say this every year, but, guys, seriously, next year, the Redskins are going to be incredible.
OK, losing Fred Davis is going to be rough. But Chris Cooley! He’s back! He’s single! And he’ll be practicing in Richmond next summer! Let me be the first to invite you all to the Petty-Cooley wedding that will totally, definitely be happening now.
Obviously, we need to convert in the red zone. But having a kicker who can get us three points when we can’t convert is a nice change. So I’d be willing to give Kai Forbath a “kai”-five for his performance.

Negatives

Fumbles. Interceptions. Heart attacks. All were present in the second half of Sunday’s game. Three turnovers in three consecutive drives plus that Santana fumble to seal the deal. Heart attacks and heart breaks, I guess.
So many injuries. Garçon is out at least another two weeks. LB London Fletcher pulled a hammy and is questionable for next week. Davis was moved to IR. This does not bode well for the five, count ‘em, five, division games we have left this season.
Our secondary is just terrible. Admit it—we all kinda suspected that 1:30 left on the clock was waaaayyy too much time to give Eli Manning and his offense to comeback our comeback, right?

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Up next: The Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh is coming off a win against Cincinnati, which moved them to .500, but I’m still hopeful we can take them on Sunday. I’m actually super stoked about seeing Griffin with Cooley in the game. He’s a great blocker and a fantastic receiver. And like I needed another excuse to break out my “Chris Cooley is my Life Coach” sweatshirt.

Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that we don’t see any more devastating injuries next week. The Steelers, too, have been plagued with injuries, so we’ll just have to keep an eye out to see who will actually play on Sunday.

For now, I’m going to put Taylor Swift’s “We are Never, Ever Getting Back Together” on repeat and mope around until Sunday when I will, inevitably, get back together with the Redskins.