Opening Day

Twelve years after he last roamed the sidelines for the Washington Redskins, Joe Gibbs directed a group of modern-day players to a grinding, 16-10 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yesterday before a franchise home record crowd of 90,098 at FedEx Field. For Redskins, That Old Feeling [washingtonpost.com]. In the NFL opener for both teams, the coach who stunningly retired in 1993 won his first regular season game since his return to football as the Redskins overcame a disastrous third-quarter turnover, their own offensive liabilities and a Buccaneers defense that gave up 291 yards but only one touchdown.

Here in DC, the pundits are boasting of the return of "smash mouth" football and an attacking (not read-and-react) defense. That's all well and good, but I was at this game, and the Redskins were lucky to win. They should have been up by several touchdowns, but failed to put the ball into the end zone. If you take away Clinton Portis' first run from scrimmage (a 60-plus yard TD), there's not much left except a great sack on the last play of the game to keep the Bucs out of field goal range.

It's been the same 12 years since the Redkins were a good football team. With or without Coach Gibbs, the wait continues.

 Posted by glenn