You want to know what the worst part of last night's Washington Redskins' blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was? No, it wasn't the fact that LaRon Landry reportedly made a fool of himself. Not to defend Landry, because there's no forgiving spitting in someone's face, but Landry's in-game bravado is questionable even when the Redskins win. We didn't flip out at him then, so we shouldn't flip out at him too much now.
Instead, the worst part of last night was this: the Redskins had a bye last week! Somehow, despite having an extra week to prepare for a team that was going to come after them after losing at home in Week 4, the Redskins looked like they had no idea what to expect. Mike Shanahan had two weeks to come up with a game plan that made sense. He came up with a monstrosity of one.
To his credit, Shanahan took the blame for the lack of a game plan, and it's worth noting that the players deserve equal blame, if not more, for their inability to execute. But all this talk about how the Redskins fired the Eagles up is misplaced. Philly didn't come up with their game plan 10 minutes before kickoff. They came up with it during the week, and the Redskins, despite having more time to prepare, were completely confused.
Today's must-reads from around the SB Nation network:
- A recap of Georgetown's win over Tulane last night, from Casual Hoya.
- Eagles-Redskins coverage from the other side: Bleeding Green Nation and SB Nation Philly.
- You want to see pictures of sad Redskins fans, don't you? If so, SBNation.com's Sean Keeley has you covered.
- Who gets keys to the palace after last week for the Wizards? Bullets Forever has the answer.
- In a Russian article, translated by Japers' Rink, Alex Ovechkin asks where he would be without Alexander Semin.
- Did the Nationals talk to Royals star Zack Greinke? Federal Baseball has the dirt.