It’s the NFL dead zone when sports media feeds us empty calories of fluff news of non-events about our favorite teams. Most of it is trivial. Our own Redskins comes to the rescue by teasing us with their preview of the first quarter of the 2016 season.
These are posts I captured on the official Hog Heaven Facebook page along with some thoughts about each game.
Steelers at Redskins: The NFL Network tabbed Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown as the preseason No. 1 and the No.3 fantasy players of 2016. The ‘Skins haven’t beaten the Steelers this century. In 2012, Robert Griffin III led the Redskins to an opening game upset of the Saints. Can Kirk Cousins do the same against Ben Roethlisberger? Win or lose, I expect to see an improved team in Washington.
Cowboys at Redskins: If we can beat the Cowboys in Dallas with Colt McCoy at quarterback, we can beat them in Washington with Kirk Cousins starting. Stay healthy DeSean Jackson. Stay Healthy. Please!
Redskins at Giants: A team signs a new coach and spends big dollars for a boatload of free agent veterans expecting immediate success and a playoff run. That hasn’t worked in Washington since George Allen in 1971. It won’t happen for the Giants this year either. It takes most of a season for all those new guys to jell as a team. A healthy Victor Cruz paired with Odell Beckham, Jr. could expose the Redskins deep. But will Cruz be healthy?
Browns at Redskins: Robert Griffin III passed through here and he left a lot of baggage behind. Browns at ‘Skins will be the proof game for a lot of fans about who was “right.” A segment of fans will root for RGIII over the Redskins to prove something. We don’t understand those people. The Redskins gave Griffin every chance to succeed. The Browns won’t be as patient.
Kirk Cousins is in a far better situation on a team that believes in him, a locker room that backs him, in his third year in the same offense fit for him and playing in a contract year. He has done the one thing Griffin has never done, finish a 16-game season healthy.
But we get it with Griffin. Hog Heaven was the first blogger to tout Griffin to the Redskins in December 2011. Most people never even heard of the man back then. (We don’t get a lot of Big 12 games in DC.) We saw in Griffin a player who might transform the quarterback position. In 54 years of watching Redskins football, we never saw anything like RGIII in 2012. And then the injury happened and everyone — the front office, the owner, the coaches, the Griffin family and the fans — screwed up. It was appalling.
Hog Heaven has moved on. You should too, if you haven’t already. But this is the game we are most curious to see. Success will be harder to find for Griffin than it will be for Cousins, but I do want to see him make it…except on Sunday, October 2, 2016.
See most of Hog Heaven’s thoughts about the Redskins on our Facebook page. “Like” us there for the most current updates. If you are on Twitter, please follow @SkinsHogHeaven.
HTTR!
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