Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.sports From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Early loss to Cardinals leaves Redskins in playoffs fix Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:13:22 EST Message-ID: \SE D;SPORTS;PRO FOOTBALL \HD Early loss to Cardinals leaves Redskins in playoffs fix \BY Tom Knott \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES It keeps getting back to the first Phoenix game. The Redskins never should have lost in Phoenix. That loss haunts them now. That loss will haunt them the rest of the way. Instead of being 7-2, one game behind the first-place Cowboys in the NFC East, they are 6-3 along with the Eagles, only one game ahead of the Giants. As hard as it is for the Redskins and their supporters to accept, no one is going to catch the Cowboys. Four of the Cowboys' seven remaining opponents have losing records: the Rams, Cardinals, Falcons and Bears. If the Cowboys win just those games, they will have a 12-4 record. Are the Redskins going to win six of their last seven games to tie the Cowboys? No. Are the Eagles? No. The Giants would have to win their last seven games to finish with a 12-4 record. Not likely. Say goodbye to Dallas. Bye, Dallas. Yesterday, Joe Gibbs said, "Dallas, to this point, hey, they're up there. From what I can tell, they're on a real roll." The Redskins, meanwhile, are in a fairly tenuous position. Given the inept way their offense is performing, every game is a struggle for them. As bad as the Seahawks are, the Redskins couldn't shake them until Terry Orr's touchdown catch in the fourth quarter Sunday. The first half was about as bad as it gets in the NFL. When John Kasay missed a field goal from extra-point range, you knew you weren't watching high-quality football. Considering the team's injuries and Mark Rypien's limitations, the Redskins are staring at a 10-6 season. Gibbs has taken a peek at his team's remaining schedule and sees any number of potential setbacks. "You look at our schedule and you go, 'goodness gracious,' " he said. "We're going to have to have some fantastic performances from our guys in the coming weeks." So you think the Redskins won't have any problems with the Cardinals when they come to town Nov. 29? Go ahead, count that game in the Redskins' win column if you like. Now the hard part. Find another victory on the Redskins' schedule. The Raiders? Maybe the Raiders. Only two of the Redskins' seven remaining foes have losing records: the Cardinals and Raiders. Four of their remaining seven games are on the road: the Chiefs, Saints, Giants and Eagles. Let's say the Redskins split with the Chiefs and Saints and defeat the Cardinals. If so, the Redskins would be 8-4 with a three-game stretch before them that would determine their postseason fate: at the Giants, home to the Cowboys and at the Eagles. It's not difficult to envision the Redskins losing two of those games. A 10-6 record would put the Redskins on the edge. Last season, the Falcons made the playoffs with a 10-6 record. The Eagles did not. You know what happens if it comes down to 10-6. Now that "further review" has been eliminated from the NFL vocabulary, the scariest term in professional football is: "mathematical possibilities." There are so many "mathematical possibilities" in professional football that whole think tanks are devoted exclusively to comprehending them. The "possibilities" are not only endless but convoluted. One of the tie-breaking procedures, I believe, is which team has the most living grandmothers on the players' maternal side. Gibbs has tried not to think of what could be in January. He just hopes to have five relatively healthy offensive linemen for Sunday's game in Kansas City. "To me, we're in the thick of things [for the playoffs]," he said. "To me, it's the next week we're concerned about. The way I look at it, we're 6-3 and play at Kansas City next. It's a great challenge. Then we turn around and play at New Orleans. I think, until the last three or four weeks, that's how most coaches do it." Of course, all this could have been avoided if Rypien had not confused Robert Massey with one of the Posse in Phoenix. Massey, if you recall, is the fellow who intercepted two passes and returned them for touchdowns as the Rypien-led Cardinals overcame a 24-6 deficit. As Washington endures its virtually ritualized gnashing of teeth each week, wondering what to make of the Redskins, you can condense the team's fortunes to one sweltering afternoon in Arizona. The Phoenix game, people. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM