Smoke Signals: 'Portis plays it safe' edition

Four Redskins made the Pro Bowl, rewarding the franchise for that silly “vote the Redskins ticket” Pro Bowl campaign they launched almost as soon as the season began. The players voted to the Pro Bowl are LT Chris Samuels [his 4th straight and 6th overall], TE Chris Cooley, TB Clinton Portis, and FB Mike Sellars. It’s ironic that the terrible offense put 4 players in the Pro Bowl and the good defense put nobody. I guess MLB London Fletcher just can’t get to Hawaii unless he buys a ticket. I really thought this year might be his year. Fortunately, the awful Shaun Suisham did not make it as a kicker. This is Cooley’s second Pro Bowl, Portis’ second Pro Bowl [and first with Washington] and Sellars’ first Pro Bowl. 

Four players were selected as alternates: safety LaRon Landry (first alternate), linebacker London Fletcher (second), right guard Randy Thomas (second) and receiver Santana Moss (third).

Jason LaCanfora speculates about Mike Holmgren, soon-to-be-departed Head Coach of the Seattle Seahawks coming east to Washington to either coach the Redskins or serve as GM/President of the team, with Jim Zorn staying on as Offensive Coordinator in the first situation or Head Coach in the second. We’ll see. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is close with Holmgren and if a head coaching job opens for Holmgren this offseason, the Dallas job would be a much better choice than Washington. If I can see that, I’m sure Holmgren can, as well. 
The Redskins have had trouble in 4th quarters lately. The defense couldn’t get off the field in the 4th quarter against the Ravens, allowing Baltimore to seal the win. The defense couldn’t get off the field in the 4th quarter against the awful Bengals, allowing Cincinnati to seal the win with a 16-play drive.

“I was thinking about this last night, and there’s really no good way to say it, but the truth is we’re just not making the plays at crunch time,” defensive tackle Lorenzo Alexander said. “We stop ‘em for three, three-and-a-half quarters, but when the fourth quarter comes around, and we’ve got a chance to win, it seems like we go in the tank for some reason.

“The calls are the same, the players are the same, but we just haven’t been getting it done. We have a chance to give the ball back to our offense, and we just don’t do it. They [opponents] just seem to turn it up and we seem to stay at that same level, like they want it more than us. I know that’s not true, we want it, but that’s just the way it looks when you see the results.”

No doubt that has been a problem, but I think being outscored 38-0 in the first quarter of the last 3 games has been a bigger problem. If Washington can just avoid falling way behind opponents early in the game, these 4th quarter last stands wouldn’t be necessary.
Portis doesn’t want to stir up any more trouble around Redskins Park, at least not in the media. Here is a summary of his remarks on The John Thompson Show earlier this week:

*Portis basically said he wants Jim Zorn to return in 2009:

“Hopefully there isn’t a major shakeup and we don’t have to elarn a new offense,” Portis said.

*He said Zorn has not lost the locker room:

“For Coach Zorn, there was a lot of pressure coming in, from the way he came in getting the job to the 6-2 reocrd to the expectations being sky high and then all of a sudden, we’re 7-7 and the feeling is ‘Oh, Coach Zorn lost the team.’ He didn’t lose the team.”

*On not getting the ball on third-and-goal from the 1-yard line:

“As a team and as a coaching staff, everybody believes in everybody on the field and when a guy gets an opportunity to make plays, we have to find a way to convert. I don’t think giving Mike [Sellers] the ball on goal-line was a bad idea.”

*Portis was semi critical of the pass protection for Jason Campbell:

“What we got to do is protect better. … Truth be told, [the offense] is a work in progress. We’re still leanring the offense. … We have to find way to protect Jason better and get through the next two games.”

Pretty vanilla stuff. The Redskins’ gain in the media’s loss.
The Redskins are not going to make the playoffs, but technically, they are not mathematically eliminated yet. [That won't happen until after the Eagles demolish them on Sunday.] Here’s the latest breakdown of Washington’s playoff chances:

Washington Redskins

Need to beat Philadelphia and win at San Francisco.

Atlanta Falcons

Must lose at Minnesota, and to St. Louis at home.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Must lose to the Norv Turner memorial duo of San Diego, and Oakland at home.

Chicago Bears

Must lose either to Green Bay or at Houston (or both, of course).

Dallas Cowboys

This is the really complicated one. If Dallas loses to Baltimore, they must also lose to Philadelphia in the final week of the season, which — if the planets have aligned and all the other improbable events above have taken place — puts the Skins in the playoffs with the Eagles.  
But if Dallas TIES Baltimore in the last game at Texas Stadium, it becomes necessary for the Cowboys to beat the Eagles to send the Cowboys and Redskins to the playoffs. Any other result and the two 9-6-1 (or 9-5-2) records knock the Redskins out.

Philadelphia Eagles

See “Washington Redskins” and “Dallas Cowboys”.

It ain’t gonna happen, folks.
Rich Tandler compares Washington’s incredible instability at Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator and QB over the last decade to the incredible stability at all those positions for the Philadelphia Eagles, who have had Andy Reid at Head Coach and OC, Jim Johnson at DC and Donovan McNabb at QB all that time. The difference in results speaks volumes. Check it out.