The Washington Redskins came for their match with the New York Giants without any sign of expectation or excitement. The event was held at the New Meadowlands Stadium at East Rutherford, New Jersey. Apart from their lack of gusto, they also lacked support for their starters. The one prominent figure who made his appearance with the team was Donovan Mcnabb, quarterback. It seemed as if they were not expecting things to go their way early on. Had they been conditioned into that attitude because of the sequence of losses they had suffered so far in the games? Their defense lineman was also absent. He had not reported for practice for that match and was benched for the game. What was easily detected was the absence of support for the starters and the fact that defense lineman had been dropped from the players because he did not come for practice the Friday before.
It was a sweep of 31-7 for the New York Giants, the fifth victory in a series that they had so far won over the Redskins. The defeat of the Redskins was the eighth one out of the total of 9 games that they played for this season. Their play was as unmotivated as their entrance was and eventually, even the performance of quarterback Donovan Mcnabb was affected as he was repeatedly foiled and tackled by rookies of the New York Giants. As for the Redskins’ defense, none existed. The team could only stand and watch New York Giants’ 265-pounder Brandon Jacob hurtle back and forth on the playground. The only resistance they offered to the offense of the New York Giants was to futilely wave their hands as they watched touchdown after touchdown being made.
From the very start of the game, the Redskins were lacking in focus and were not playing as a team. The New York Giants made two touchdowns early in the game. This was followed by a third. The trend was never reversed for the rest of the game and the few touchdowns managed by the Redskins were the result of occasional lapses in the New York Giants’ defenses.
You could see folks getting restless at the lack of enthusiasm that the Redskins met the volley of their opponents. The New York Giants dominated the play from beginning to end. And the New York Giants’ team looked like excited little children running energetically all around the field. There was little opposition due mainly to the absence from the game of defense lineman Albert Haynesworth who had not reported for the last team practice and was therefore disqualified from playing.
With this victory, the New York Giants are now up on the roster and are shoulder to shoulder with the Eagles. As far as the Redskins are concerned, the season may as well be over. None of their forthcoming games will be played with any further improvements in their rating in mind. They will all be just a part of the job.
The game last Sunday was one of the worst ones for the season as far as the spectators were concerned. Although everyone was more or less expecting what happened to happen, people were expecting to see some effort from the under dog team. But it seemed that the Redskins had grown tired of playing for defeat all the time. Doc No: 1103-FB-ULT20-ornblk