If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Rex Grossman played pretty well yesterday. But that can't actually be the case. There's no way that Rex Grossman stepped in and performed adequately, ney admirably, in a near victory over the Cowboys, right?
If you just arrived on this planet, and had no knowledge of the Redskins quarterback situation, Grossman wouldn't have looked very much like a backup quarterback yesterday. Of course, you would also be wondering who that #5 guy was that called the coin flip that didn't play at all, but that's an issue for a different time. The reality is, as hard as this is for me to say/admit, Grossman gave the Redskins an excellent chance of winning the game yesterday.
Sure, he had a couple turnovers which led to Cowboys points, but when he absolutely needed to make a play, he came through. The touchdowns in the end zone, the two point conversions; maybe he didn't get all the plays the Redskins would have wanted him to make, but he made all the plays they needed him to.
So, was Mike Shanahan right to bench McNabb? This whole thing reminds me of LeDecision. I don't disagree with what Shanahan did in benching McNabb, I just think the whole situation could have been handled better. McNabb just simply wasn't playing well enough to keep a strangle hold on his starting job. With Grossman playing the way he did yesterday, we can probably say goodbye to Donovan.
Shanahan might not have earned any fans in the Redskins locker room with how he played this whole thing out, but I can guarantee that Grossman did. He is definitely not the quarterback of the distant future, but he may prove to be the quarterback of the immediate future for the Redskins.
Must reads from around the SB Nation network.
- Bullets Forever kicks off Gilbert Arenas tribute day with an article about what Gil meant to the blog.
- Testudo Times with the latest in the Ralph Friedgen, ummmm, let's go with saga.
- Federal Baseball says that the Nationals would have pulled the trigger on a Zach Greinke trade if the pitcher was willing to come to the district.
On tap today at SB Nation D.C.: Mike Prada on D.C.'s collective 17 game losing streak. Jack Anderson on whether or not the Redskins have improved at all under Mike Shanahan.