The Washington Redskins defeated the Dallas Cowboys 28-18, in the last game of the NFL regular season, on Sunday night. This was the 7th straight win for the Redskins, after starting the season at 3-6. While Redskin quarterback Robert Griffin III, who is headed for the Pro Bowl, had a pedestrian game with 100 yards passing and 63 yards rushing, running back Albert Morris had a big game. Morris, another Redskin rookie who had a great year, rushed for 200 yards against the Cowboys. The Cowboys were trying to come back at the end of the game, but they couldn’t stop Morris, or when it appeared they would, a hit to the head of RG3 kept the Redskins’ last drive going.
The win puts the Redskins in the playoffs for the first time in 3 years. They will be the host for the high scoring Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. The other NFC wild card matchup will be the Minnesota Vikings visiting the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night. The Vikings just beat the Packers this past Sunday, and knocked them from the top 2 teams in the conference, and the first round bye. Now they will play for a third time this year. Each team won close games at home, in the first 2 games. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson needed 206 yards to break Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record, but he ended up 9 yards short. Peterson has over 400 yards rushing in the 2 previous games against the Packers this season.
In the AFC, the Houston Texans fell all the way from the #1 seed, where they have been all season, to the 3rd seed, after losing to the Indianapolis Colts 28-16 on Sunday. So now the Texans will host the Cincinnati Bengals this Saturday, in the first game of the playoffs. The Colts, who were the story of the season, after losing their head coach, Chuck Pagano, for most of the season to leukemia treatment, improved from 2-14 last year to 11-5 this year. Quarterback Andrew Luck proved to be a great first pick in the NFL Draft this year,
The top seeds in the NFC are the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers respectively. The Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots moved into the top 2 seeds in the AFC, with the loss of the Texans. Those four teams will have the week off, then play the winners of the wild card games next week.
Today was also Black Monday in the NFL for head coaches. Seven head coaches and 5 general managers were fired today. The only coach with a winning record this year was Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears. This one surprised me a little. The Bears did slip toward the end of the season, after starting 7-1, but they narrowly missed the playoffs, with a 10-6 record. The other coaches to get canned were Norv Turner of the San Diego Chargers, Ken Whisenhunt of the Arizona Cardinals, Pat Shurmur of the Cleveland Browns, Chan Gailey of the Buffalo Bills, and Romeo Crennel of the Kansas City Chiefs. Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles, who was the longest tenured head coach in the NFL with 14 years experience, was also let go.
In a bit of a surprise, the New York Jets decided to keep head coach Rex Ryan, after a 6-10 season, but they did fire general manager Mike Tannenbaum. After losing 28-9 on Sunday to the Bills, I figured Ryan was gone. I also wonder who the Bears are thinking about signing as head coach, that would be an improvement over a 10-6 season, with a lousy offensive line. These 7 teams all have thoughts of optimism for the future, but only time will tell what will happen.
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