All week long the press and the Washington Redskins organization worked hard to make everyone believe that running back Clinton Portis was not going to play against the Dallas Cowboys. The game was at FedEx Field, in front of 90,000-plus white-flag waiving fans (actually, it was probably 75 percent Redskins fans and 25 percent Cowboys fans).
I read as many articles on the game today as I could, and one particular caught my eyes. The writer explains how Portis was the last one to exit the tunnel. Out he came, with the crowd roaring, carrying an American flag. He flew out of the tunnel like a bat out of hell, no signs that he had a strained MCL in his knee that was supposed to keep him sidelined for the game. Heck, it kept him sidelines for the entire week of practice.
On Tuesday of the week, he was 50/50. On Thursday, he was basically inactive, still not practicing, and every Redskins writer basically ensuring that Portis was out for this game. Then, all of the sudden, Portis looks ‘great’ in the pre-game warmups. He’s spinning and twisting and running and jumping. Oh my golly. It was a miracle. Clinton Portis is healed! He’s well again! His knee is fine.
The crowd roars when they see him leaving the tunnel. He is actually going to play, they thought. And on the first drive of the game, he ran for 26 yards, helping the Redskins get an early 7-0 lead. After that, the Cowboys defense kept what looked like a very healthy Clinton Portis in check, and they didn’t see Cowboys territory for the rest of the game.
I am positive the Redskins were a bit dishonest about the condition of Portis. And it is unfortunate the press did very little to shine some truth onto the matter. All we hear is how tough Portis is, how much heart he has, and how much strength he has to play that game.
But really, all it boils down to is a big hoax from one of the biggest jesters in the NFL. Nice one, Redskins. It backfired.
Blackout Dallas
FanSided
Nolan Wirtin'
The Smoking Cuban
GMen HQ
Inside the Iggles
NFL Mocks
Riggo's Rag
I warned you a week ago that Zorn likes to play Belichick-like games with the injury reports. To be fair, he was clearly injured and he did play only a limited role like they said he would. He didn’t play nearly as much as he would normally have played and he wasn’t the same player he’s been in past games.
He was also always listed as questionable and never downgraded to doubtful; they just made it *seem* like he was doubtful from their comments. I think they were cute and they were playing games to make it seem more dire than it was, but I don’t think they violated any rules.
Hey Landry
Wasn’t there a link here one time to a radio interview with Portis, where a former player was calling him out about being out of shape and lazy, always sucking the oxygen on the sideline after 1 play
Seems some players, Portis, Burress come to mind that just plain don’t like to practice and milk a small injury until gameday then bust out like nothing happened
It’s probably true what the fromer player was saying about him
Who cares now there is not excuses accept Disney World… JK
You sure did read it here. Portis punked out. He got punked
Disney World. hahahaha/
I may not like wade phillips but he isnt stupid either im sure he had the defence prep for portis. now is it too much ask that the defence plays the way they did for the rest of year?
You know what guys… I am 100 % with going for that 4th down … ill explain why…
1. Marshmallow showed that he has some balls… Zorn goes for 4th and 2’s in the first quarter… so you know what .. we will go for a 4th and 2 in YOUR house and force feed YOU your own medicine!
*If you guys don’t like this call… then zip your mouths when preaching for Bill Cowher, because this is the type of thing he will do every time and I for one …LOVE IT!
2. He knew the Redskins A. couldn’t get off of our massive (now HEALTHY) O line and B. even with an opportunity, they did not want to tackle MBIII any more!
3. Remember last year when the Giants were ready to throw in the towel? They goal line stood the Skins and then like a fright train they barreled to the Super Bowl…CONFINDENCE!
By going for it and making it … This gives our Struggling O line the Confidence to believe in them selves again… Confidence can make a bunch of (good) players become a (GREAT) team… The Giants proved that last year….
Wade did the Absolute right thing… and I think it will pay massive dividends to the remainder of our season…
I HATE ZORN
i dont know why but i couldnt stand him before he even got the offer for the Redskins job, there is something about that guy just the way he looks and talks i feel like he just thinks who he is and i really think he is just a sniveling little bellicheat in the making, which sucks for our division but oh well…… who cares if they lie about portis’ injury, i mean i was shocked and a little nervous at first but i mean i feel like you have to prepare for everything and a lot of teams are sneaky about injuries
IRON MAN i hope you are right about our O-Line, I was all about signing Flozell but this year it seems like he is just happy he got his guaranteed money and just isnt playing as well as he has in the past, his ridiculous amount of false start penalties were tolerable when he was playing at an elite top level but now it drives me nuts cuz he isnt even doing anything lately, but they did play well last night, no penalties in the 4th quarter, penalties are what will kill us this year seriously, this is why the giants won last year, they had only 72 penalties the entire season, lowest in the league, we have way too many and it KILLS us, thats why Wade needs to step up and strike some fear and discipline in our guys cuz if we cut back even just 50% of our penalties we would be dominating games
Quick question guys…
If we tie with the SKins and have the same Div. record i know it goes to conference record. But if that is the same… Does it go to margin of victory?!?!?!
Cuuuuz if it does,,,, we beet them by 4 and they only beet up by 2…
Im not sure if that is the way it goes…but somone let me know…
Confused also about that because if we tie but beat the Steelers is that some type of tie breaker? Landryhat did you see on the big run on the kickoff by the Redskins how Mike Jenkins was out there and back away from the guy blocking him. Im really starting to think this guy dont like contact need to light some fire under him.
By the way, having actually been at the game, I can tell you that there’s no way the stadium was 25% Cowboys fans. I don’t think even the dreaded Steelers hit the 25% mark though they may have come close.
Don’t get me wrong; you Cowboys fans showed up in respectable numbers. But the stadium was overwhelmingly Redskins fans with maybe a 5% Cowboy fan base. Your presence was definitely felt, but it wasn’t overpowering like the Steelers fans were.
I also don’t think that playing up the Portis injury failed by the way. I think it gave the skins an advantage for the first drive of the game, and then the Cowboys adjusted. That’s to the Cowboys credit. I think it worked to their advantage it just didn’t help enough. Obviously.
And he WAS injured by the way. They may have played some games with the media about his status, but there’s no way a healthy Clinton Portis gets 15 carries in a critical game where the Redskins are leading for 3 quarters of the game.
Ironman..
playoff tiebreak rules…
1)head to head
2)division win %
3)common games %
4)conference w/loss
Boys..Skins tied in first 2..#common games..
Boys 3 and 2….Skins…4 and 1..The difference is Arizona..
Skins are ahead of us…
bevomav is correct. If you’re ever unsure you can always look up the standings on espn’s web page. They generally update their standings section within minutes of the game’s conclusion and the teams are ranked by each division so you can always see where you stand in the NFC East.
Listen to u cowgirls complain about portis faking the injury….first of all….EVERY TEAM has done it…every team still does it, and it was the skins first time…so stop bitching.