The Over and Under
By Mark Solway | September 18th, 2007
The Over and Under Monday night games are tough; they are televised to a national audience. Road games on Monday night are even tougher. Add to this the fact that the road trip took the Redskins to one of the most hostile environments in the NFL and our win should get us at least a little respect. Imagine my shock to wake up Monday morning and hear that the Eagles are a horrible team. All week long, I’ve been hearing how strong they are. How agile and quick Donovan McNabb is even when he is not playing at 100%. I have tried to figure out just where this derogatory attitude towards my team comes from but it just does not make sense. Thanks to the magic of Wikipedia, I found the following definition of underdog: \x93An underdog is a person or group in a competition frequently in electoral polictics, sports, and creative works, who is popularly expected to lose.\x94 The popular opinion of the Redskins is that we will lose. Obviously, that is no surprise. Hence, we are the underdog. We hear it on every channel, every Sunday. I personally like the theory of being the underdog. It motivates the team and the players to silence the media. However; the reality of being one stinks. I hate hearing the deprecating remarks constantly. I scream at the television and cringe when I know an analyst is going to be breaking down our upcoming contest. I know what this prophet is going to say, I know where the break downs always lead. It continually leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The media just angers me. I would use the word upset but it goes beyond being upset. It makes me want to take action, to do something to get these men the respect they deserve. Our game was not perfect. There were several instances where things looked out of sync. But we did win the game. We won the game based on our ability to exploit Philadelphia’s weaknesses. That is what football is all about. Our defense hit hard, covered well, and kept Donovan McNabb out of the end zone. They did not score ONE TOUCHDOWN. Do we get credit for that? NO Our offense moved the ball, converted on 3rd down and even when we failed to do so, we still called the right plays to get it done. The pieces of a playoff team are in place and they are starting to work. I heard someone from the local media this morning say that our team gets no respect from national media. And that makes me a little angry, what makes me even angrier is seconds before I heard the commentary of this same personality and his cohorts. They had no respect for our team either. Next Sunday we began again. Same story, same outcome I hope. We are only 3 point favors over a torn up Giant team that is coming to our house to…
