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The Washington Redskins take on division rival New York Giants at the New Meadowlands Sunday. We asked Andrew Furman to answer a few questions about the G-men for us. Andrew covers the Giants for Ultimate NYG on the Bloguin.com network. Our answers to Andrew's questions are posted on Ultimate NYG.

Redskins Hog Heaven: The Giants' line is as banged-up as the Redskins' line. Please give me a capsule of who the 'Skins will face Sunday. Will the Giants be more successful on the ground or in the air behind that group?

Ultimate NYG: William Beatty LT, Kevin Boothe LG, Rich Seubert C, Chris Snee RG, Kareem McKenzie RT. Yes, it is possible David Diehl or even possibly Shaun O'Hara could play, but we are hoping for the following week.

The Giants pass protection has been better than the run blocking with this unit.

RHH: I haven't read past the Brandon Jacobs headlines. I gather he was benched, and then he threw stuff at fans. What's going on with him?

UNYG: Ahmad Bradshaw deserved the (first-string) job, and he has been extremely productive, hitting the hole faster and manufacturing yards too when there are no holes.  Jacobs was pissed at the coaches, but he had to suck it up that he was no longer the alpha.  In Week One of the 2009 season, he got hurt and has not been the same since.  He is playing better as of late.  Enter all of the Ahmad Bradshaw fumbles, on top of the myriad turnovers, and [Giants head coach Tom] Coughlin did the right thing by putting Jacobs ahead of him.  Interestingly, by Jacobs not starting in the first 10 games, it has kept him healthier.  So he has 'relatively' fresh legs for this time of the season.

RHH: What's the status of receivers Hakeem Nicks and Steve Smith? Will they play Sunday? If they do, will they be full-go?

UNYG: Smith practiced. We'll be doing cartwheels if he plays. Nicks is at least another week.

RHH: Who are the MVPs on offense, defense and special teams? Who is the Giants unsung hero?

UNYG: Until he got hurt, the MVP on offense was Hakeem Nicks.  He was stirring the Offensive Coordinator's (Kevin Gilbride's) drink by giving the Giants their first true X Wideout since Burress went down.  The 2009 #1 is going to one hell of a pro, assuming he can stay healthy.

On defense, it is Osi Umenyiora.  He is playing hurt too, but he was a big reason why the Giants ran off 5 straight.

On Special teams, I'd vote for the rookie, Jason Pierre-Paul.  He is a menace.  Big and fast.  Opposing players have already been running away from him.

The Giants unsung hero?  I'd vote for Shawn Andrews if he did not get hurt himself.  He has given the OL a lot of depth.  Two heroes who people know about but who still quietly get it done consistently are Steve Smith and Justin Tuck.  Smith is Eli Manning's security blanket.  Tuck is the guy who makes impact plays routinely.

RHH: I am a fan of East Coast smashmouth Beastball. The Giants are the epitome of that type defense. How do the Redskins attack them?

UNYG: Get after the Giants linebackers in space.  It used to be that Chris Cooley would roast us alive, but now the Giants have a terrific set of Safeties, so you can't go there.  But you can isolate the RB out of the backfield on the linebacker and get some success because the only one who has range is Michael Boley, and he seems to make mental mistakes.  A second way to go after the Giants is to take advantage of their Cover-2.  I hate it.  Your receiver can sit down over the cornerback before the safety and get space for easy opportunities.  And if we are playing off coverage, the easy WR screen is there too.

RHH: What concerns you about the Redskins?

UNYG: The Redskins honestly do not concern me.  What concerns me is that the Giants offense is decimated at OL and WR.  You have to understand that the Giants are 7-4 but beat themselves with sloppiness and turnovers in 3 games, so they could realistically be as good as 10-1.  The Giants are their own worst enemy.  If the Giants do not turnover the ball, they win the game.

RHH: Your game prediction and score?

UNYG: Justin Tuck gave a rousing Halftime speech and the Giants beat the Jaguars 18-3 in the second half.  So I am looking for that to carry forward and for the Giants to play inspired football.  Giants 26 Redskins 16.

BONUS Question: Are Giants fans still misspelling that other team's name as Jest? Has their fan base grown from a few boroughs to Greater New York?

UNYG: I always rooted for both NY teams in all sports.  But I would trade 16 Jets wins for 1 Giants win.  I have some dear friends and close relatives that are Jets fans, so I root for them when they are not playing the Giants.  The Jets and Rex Ryan are merely awakening some dormant fans who have always been Jets fans.  I'd love a Jets-Giants Super Bowl because the G-men would win.  The Jets have no pass rush, and if they let Eli sit back there he'll torch them.  So the Jets will have to blitz Eli to get to him, the veteran OL will pick it up and Eli will actually do well that way too.

Redskins Hog Heaven answered questions about the Redskins for Andrew. Visit Ultimate NYG to see if you agree with our responses.

Go take a look. We'll be here when you get back.

There were a couple of issues in this game that hadn't surfaced to date with the defensive unit.  A banged up Carlos Rogers allowed three consecutive completions for first downs before he left the game with a hamstring injury.  London Fletcher read more than one running play wrong, and not just when Adrian Peterson was the running back.  Phillip Daniels might have had his best game of the year.  The pass rush returned, to a degree, after a three week absence with 8 hits/hurries and 2 sacks.  Lorenzo Alexander made a number of bad reads on bootlegs by Brett Favre, none more costly than the very last play before the two minute warning.

Mostly though, the problems with the defense in this game were entirely predictable based on the rest of the season to this point.  This was true of the Redskins strengths as well.  They got off the field on third down short yardage runs using the same formula as always: Albert Haynesworth penetrates decisively and immediately, then someone else makes the hit at the line for no gain.  London Fletcher still shut down the opposing tight end, Visanthe Shiancoe.  The Redskins got a high number of three and outs in the second half.  In five consecutive drives, the Vikings had one first down play, and that drive lasted just four plays before the punt.  

The story of the game was two-fold: way too much first and second down success for the Vikings which didn't only keep them out of third and long, but out of third altogether, and Brett Favre held the ball when he could have forced it in all pressure situations but one, and that ended remarkably harmlessly.  Favre didn't do anything to beat the Redskins in this game, but likely even one mistake would have given the Redskins their window of opportunity.  In hindsight, the missed opportunities for the Redskins came on the offensive and special teams ends.  The defense did alright, but the word of the day would seem to be disappointment: 17 points against isn't too bad, but both TD drives were long ones, and while the defensive stand after the McNabb INT was big, the Vikings were able to add the third long drive that they needed to in order to win the game, this time to close it out at the end.

Adrian Peterson continued to be a stud in the first quarter of this game, but on the first play of the second quarter, he became the next casulty on the long list of players the Redskins defense have knocked from the game, and did not return.  Toby Gerhart was mildly effective as his replacement, on no play more so than a 3rd and 1 middle dive where he got the first and scored behind strong blocking.  The Redskins had no answers for screens or bootlegs.  Favre was not effective the two times he booted to his left, so they merely needed to keep contain to the right side to bottle up this part of the passing game.  For whatever reason, Lorenzo Alexander kept buying the run fakes when his number one responsibility is Favre.  Then on the last play of the game, he followed the tight end Shiancoe when Reed Doughty had already taken that responsibility, and Favre got his longest run in three years.

Screen defense continues to be a problem for this group.  The Vikings threw two screens to their backs.  The second one was sniffed out well by the Redskins.  The first one went for 34 yards to Peterson because no one in the pass rush sensed it was coming, and the Vikings executed the blocking perfectly.  If you went to the three long, crushing Vikings drives, you could probably pin the first one primarily on Kedric Golston and Rocky McIntosh, the second on Lorenzo Alexander and Carlos Rogers, and the third on Philip Buchanon and Alexander.  I wouldn't say that is an exhaustive list of everyone who made a mistake on the Redskins defense, but it's a mix of repeat offenders (Golston, McIntosh), and guys you'd normally expect more from (Alexander, Rogers, Buchanon).

The other big deal in this game was that the safeties were used fairly interchangeably with LaRon Landry on the mend, and Kareem Moore probably did more strong safety "stuff" and less free safety "stuff" than Reed Doughty did.  Moore was primarily responsible for the Sidney Rice reception in the third quarter, reading run and heading to his gap on a run action pass, then trailing Rice on the play in coverage.  For once, however, the safeties weren't the major problem.  This game was all about the front seven: when it played well as a unit, the Vikings went on a streak of five consecutive offensive drives.  When it didn't play well, they couldn't get off the field.

From a defensive perspective, this game is only remarkable in the way that it all went according to plan.  Both teams looked bad on offense in terms of the number of procedure penalties they took, and neither line protected the quarterback.  Both quarterbacks protected the football pretty darn well.  Minnesota was able to generate some semblance of a running game, although if the Redskins had played more disciplined and took away the easy passes, it wouldn't have resulted in points.  This game didn't feature a lot of great throws by the two legendary quarterbacks.  It was a game where tackling meant a lot, both teams had some success with the blitz, and the game was decided in the second half by the relative merits of the passing game.  Pass defense has been the overall weakness of the Redskins this year, more than any other facet of football.  Pass offensive has been the overall weakness of the Vikings this year.  We can just look at those numbers and get a good picture of which team was able to win this game on the margin.

Brett Favre was 15/23 for 172 and 0 turnovers, about 7.5 yards per attempt with better than 65% completion.  That's not quite 2009 Favre re-incarnated but it's average in a limited capacity.  The Redskins were going to have to either make Favre a non-factor, or make him and his struggles the story.  The disappointment is that, even though they were able to limit the points against them, the Redskins did neither with Favre.  No matter what has already been written about this game, this was not a different Vikings team.  It was not a different Redskins team.  Its not a bend but don't break defense.  It was a unit that kept the Vikings under control, but not out of the end zone.

The Redskins remain a defense-first team.  In this season, when you ignore the critical field position game that has been such a variant this year, a single interesting stat emerges.  The Redskins are 5-0 this year when the defense allows one touchdown drive.  They are 0-6 when the defense allows at least second touchdown drive.  Turnovers have helped the Redskins allow fewer touchdowns, but nothing has correlated to wins and losses for this team quite like touchdown drives against.  The Redskins were likely a single play away from winning this game, a play which was obviously not made.

In 2005, I believed that the Redskins were good enough to make a push for the postseason sitting at 5-6 at the end of November.  In 2007, I didn't know that the Redskins were good enough, but believed that only a single team on the remaining schedule provided a real issue in terms of making the postseason.

It's different this year.  Those were good football teams who had underachieved to be sub-.500 at the end of November, and so while it was difficult to see how so much could go right down the stretch, I was able to point out that those teams were at least good enough to push for the postseason.  This 2010 team isn't in the same class as those teams.  The cold truth is that both Jim Zorn teams likely had better defenses than last season, and we're looking at a potential reality where both offenses in the Zorn era were better than this offense.  The special teams units generate as many points as the offense this year, which is why the defense has more points to work with than last year.

Right now, the 2010 Redskins offense ranks above the 2009 offense.  Barely.  2010 Donovan McNabb ranks above 2009 Jason Campbell.  Barely.  Two meetings with the Giants await.

I'll say this: in terms of an all or nothing scenario, this 2010 team has an opportunity to do something amazing and end up winning the NFC East because the division leaders both have four losses.  Neither the 2005 or 2007 teams had any opportunity to reach that level.  For this team, 5 wins and just a bit of help from a pair of Eagles opponents down the stretch put the Redskins in the postseason.  Put as simply as possible: at 10-6, the Redskins would hold all tiebreakers within the division (Philadelphia cannot hold the common opponents, conference, or divisional tiebreakers against Washington in any outcome where the Redskins come back to tie the Eagles).  What the Giants do in their other three games is irrelevant if the Skins win out.

So that's how a team inferior to both the 2005 and 2007 teams could end up hosting the game.  As the Vikings game tape shows, there's not enough talent here to make a push for the postseason.  At least not when looking at the big picture.  There might be enough to beat the Giants on Sunday.  Then we can talk.

The Redskins offense was dreadful in the second half of this game.  They got 45 yards to Anthony Armstrong on a blown coverage -- Donovan McNabb did almost everything he could to throw it out there, unfortunately, he just waited a bit too long to throw the football.  If he had seen FS Madieu Williams from the snap, he would have seen his eyes on the flat and his feet standing flat footed and would have been able to anticipate Armstrong being wide open.  As it was, we should be satisfied that McNabb saw Armstrong in time to make that completion with Kevin Williams bearing down on him.  I can't tell you where Armstong was in the QB progression.  My suspicion is that he was the second guy.  McNabb got the ball to him and got 45 yards on the play.  Hard to complain that you didn't get more than that when the offensive line didn't execute a simple stunt pickup and that the QB didn't see him running open immediately.

Outside of that play, the Redskins had two gains over 4 yards in the half, and collected one other first down.  That was a 3rd and 3 play where they managed three yards on a mismatch: K. Williams on a corner.

What was the difference between the first half (when the offense was good) and the second half?  It was the much-maligned third down offense.  The Redskins were bad on first and second downs all day, which is completely predictable when your longest run goes for four yards.  The average third down attempt in the first half came from 4.25 yards shy of the marker.  In the second half the average third down attempt came 8 yards shy of the marker.  While that's a significant reason that the conversion rate was so low in the second half, the Redskins averaged 10.1 yards per play on third down in the first half, and then 1.3 yards per play in the second half.  Of the seven first half plays of 10 or more yards, 5 came on third downs.  Of the two second half plays of 10 or more yards, none came on third down.

The other difference between the halves is that the tight ends were very involved in the first half.  In the second, Minnesota took away Cooley and Davis first, and put pressure on McNabb second.  The Redskins didn't complete a pass to a receiver more than five yards down the field in the second half, with the exception of the Armstrong play.  You have to credit the Vikings for taking away the things the Redskins were doing well in the first half.  Then blame the Redskins for not coming up with something else that would work.  The number of receiver drops (4) in this game created an ugly result, evidenced by the numbers above.  The Redskins offense, blocking and all, would have produced excellent results in the first half if not for the drops.  In the second half, the drops simply compounded an offense that couldn't find anything that would work.

Offensive Line Play

The interior offensive line did a really poor job generating any lanes in the rushing game.  Lichtensteiger, Rabach, and Hicks were all equally responsible for this issue.  Will Montgomery came in for an ineffective Hicks after just two drives.  He did pretty well at right guard again, but didn't exactly solve the lack of push in the middle.  The edge blockers -- Cooley in particular, but also Trent Williams -- did a nice job getting push on the edge to open up the cutbacks.  The backs, specifically James Davis, did not execute and take advantage of these lanes.  Jammal Brown missed multiple run blocks, sometimes not getting the linebacker even with good position.  Consequently, the Vikings were able to shut down the run with just their front seven.

Kory Lichtensteiger was the weak link in pass protection (at least, after Artis Hicks went out) allowing a sack and a half, and a number of additional pressures.  What wasn't the fault of Lichtensteiger was the missed stunt pickups, where Letroy Guion and Kevin Williams did nearly all of their damage.  Oftentimes, Trent Williams and Jammal Brown just weren't aware that their outside shoulders were about to be attacked by looping defensive tackles.  That led to late chases around the outside, and swinging gates in both B gaps, hanging the guards out to dry.

Receiver Play

DL stunts, by their nature, give the quarterback time to hit his drop and throw off a hitch step.  It's not the fault of the offensive line that the Redskins couldn't get open from their three receiver sets.  Santana Moss played well in the first half up until his bad drop and made a number of good adjustments on the ball, but after the interception that hit him in the face, Moss definitely mailed it in on more than one occasion.  On one hand, it demonstrates how important Moss is to the pass offense.  But on the other hand, it shows that Moss can still get disinterested and just not work hard enough to help his team.  In the second half, Anthony Armstrong was open whenever he wasn't doubled, and it just didn't matter.  When Moss isn't doubled, teams have problems with him.  Schematically, Armstrong is tougher to get the ball to.

I can't begin to answer why Moss came out of the half so unwilling to sell his routes to the defense, I can just tell you how much it hurt McNabb's performance.

Quarterback Performance

Donovan McNabb made a couple of bad throws on his first throw of the second half (forcing a throw across his body to Cooley through Kevin Williams), and the final throw of the game (deep pass to Armstrong which he threw to the safety).  More or less, the rest of his day was pedestrian and efficient.

I continue to feel that the way the Shanahan's corrected the reads system at the bye has helped McNabb.  Whatever we were running in the first half of the season...I was confused as how that was supposed to work.  That wasn't a professional passing game, that was a gimmick passing game.  I feel like we have a much better offense now, and that McNabb is playing a lot better and is throwing more accurately because the passing game has an engine: we use the tight ends in so many different ways over the last three weeks that it's taken some pressure off of both the offensive line and the quarterback.  That's good.  That's very good.

The pressure on McNabb in the second half broke down his game a little bit.  It didn't force him into his mistakes, but he was caught looking at the rush once or twice -- and who can blame him?  McNabb was pressured, hit, or sacked on 7 of 14 dropbacks in the second half, and on two of the other seven, McNabb missed a downfield opportunity by giving up on the downfield action to try to find a spacier part of the pocket.  That made for a very rough half for McNabb, while at the same time, the Redskins defense was doing a lot of Brett Favre's job for him.

Overall, I thought McNabb played well, but a disproportionate amount of his plays were made in the first half.  Chris Cooley could have gone for 100 in the first half easily, but clearly, the Vikings took his presence more seriously in the second half.

Rest of Season Outlook

Although the raw efficiency of the first half offense could have fooled me, this still looks like a team that is trying hard to find something it can do really, really well.  Despite Keiland Williams' recent success, the coaching staff doesn't appear sold on him as a runner, using Brandon Banks as a wildcat back and giving James Davis twice as many carries with half the playing time.

The offensive line has played at a better level than it did in this game most of the year.  Stunts have given our tackles issues.  One of them is young, so it's okay.  The other isn't under contract past this season.  The nice thing about this game is we executed better with just the five guys up front than we have in past games, and that allowed the Redskins to do a lot of empty backfield stuff for the first time this year.  Minnesota adjusted to it in the second half, but I think those empty backfield sets might have some promise in the last five games if our line can hold up.  We're going to need to develop some better route combinations out of them to use them to the extent of their promise.

The dropsies shouldn't be an issue going forward because they weren't an issue coming in.  They were just an example of another way the Redskins have failed to execute offensively when their season was on the line.

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Dexter Manley remarked on the John Riggins Show last week that Vince Young's childish outburst vindicated Charley Casserly who was widely criticized by the sports media for selecting DE Mario Williams over Young for the Houston Texans in the 2006 NFL Draft.

That's a good point, but it won't sell in Texas. Young is still a hometown hero in Houston and he might have thrived there by being so close to his momma and all. Williams is a Pro Bowl defensive lineman for Houston.  The Texans chose him over Young to better defend against Peyton Manning. The Texans are 2-8 against the Colts since drafting Williams.

Houston would not have done better with Young. Tennessee is 3-5 against Indianapolis since 2006; Young's personal record is 2-4 against the Colts.

I like Casserly's thinking in building a foundation by selecting a top drawer defensive lineman over a quarterback. But linemen like Williams don't give the immediate payback that comes with drafting--and starting--a skill position player like Young.

The New York Jets picked left tackle D'Brickashaw Furguson with the fourth pick, right after Vince Young, of the 2006 Draft. They were already ripe for the 10-6 season that followed, but only now are they serious threats to reach the Super Bowl.

The Cleveland Browns picked left tackle Joe Thomas in the first round of the 2007 Draft. They went 10-6 that year when QB Derek Anderson caught lightning in a bottle. They've only won 13 games since.

The Washington Redskins drafted Chris Samuels in the first round of the 2000 Draft. Samuels would be named to six Pro Bowls, but Washington finished 8-8 in each of Samuels' first two seasons. The 'Skins finished 2009 at 4-12 in spite of the efforts of rookie DE/LB Brian Orakpo who was selected in the first round of last year's draft. Washington sits at 5-6 with first round pick Trent Williams on the line. Williams is Washington's first real attempt to strengthen the offensive line since 2000. 

There's no one lineman on offense or defense who can propel a playoff run the way a single back can. Outstanding lines are no assurance a team will make the playoffs. Yet, no team will even sniff the Super Bowl without excellent lines. 

Quarterbacks are no guarantee of success, either. Five years after Casserly made his pick, we still debate whether he should have taken Young. Nobody debates the merits of linemen.  

That's a quandary for GMs like Bruce Allen. The Redskins need offensive linemen. There is no immediate payback for picking one in the first round, especially when they have so few draft picks to use. Linemen picks are a get rich slowly strategy. Picking skill players is a get rich quick strategy. Picking lineman can get you fired sooner.

How Allen negotiates that course will teach us a lot about how to, or how not to, run a football team.    

Do you suppose the gods of football sit around the scheduling table with the script writers from Mad Men and think up ways to add melodrama to the season? I'm sure of it. They must. How else to explain the theater that is the 2010 NFL?

Two of the league's gold plated coaches, Mike Shanahan and Jeff Fisher, are both struggling with 5-6 teams. The Redskins brought their quarterback mess to Tennessee and left it with the Titans.

Fisher had a well-publicized blowout with his quarterback, Vince Young, after the Titans-Redskins game. It seems to have unhinged the coach. Young is out for the season with a thumb injury, another casualty of the Redskins defense, but Fisher acts as though he would have benched him.

He should be having second thoughts after division rival Houston Texans shutout the Titans 20-0 Sunday. Do you think Shanahan went away from the rushing game in Washington's loss to the Vikings? Well, Fisher put the Titans game in the hands of rookie quarterback Rusty Smith instead of premier rusher Chris Johnson. 

Smith threw three interceptions on 31 pass attempts for a QB rating of 26.7. Johnson rushed the ball seven times for five yards. Johnson was outgained by his back-up Javon Ringer who gained 27 yards on four carries.

See what I mean? Unhinged. 

My friends at the Total Titans blog called the team's effort "uninspired." This leads to my theory that entire teams are collateral damage when coaches go to war with their quarterback.

Sadly, we experienced this in the two weeks between Shanahan's pull of Donovan McNabb in the Detroit game the Eagles blowout at FedEx Field. The Minnesota Vikings offense was in a season-long slump while Brett Favre waged his passive-aggressive conflict with coach Brad Childress.  Favre isn't long for the Vikings, but the team fixed the immediate problem by firing the coach. Favre then had his best game of the season, unfortunately against us.

In the aftermath of the Fisher-Young blow-up, those retired athletes on the NFL Network and the talking heads at ESPN predicted that Young would lose in any conflict with a high-stature coach like Fisher. Hold your horses, cowboy.

Fate dealt Young a stronger hand when the Titans lost to the Texans. Jeff Fisher was damaged as much by how the Titans lost as by the loss itself.  Young quarterbacks with winning records can find new homes faster than high-stature head coaches who make less money than they do. It makes no difference if that quarterback is a super hyper-emotional man-child.

Think it's unheard of to fire a long-established head coach that took your team to the Super Bowl? Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen fired Mike Shanahan who took his team to two Super Bowls. I never thought that would happen.

There's no certainty Jeff Fisher would win a him-or-me showdown with Bud Adams, unless Fisher defines "win" as anywhere but Tennessee if Young stays.

Washington could be quarterback shopping after the season. How about a swap of Donovan McNabb and Carlos Rogers to Tennessee for Vince Young and Cortland Finnegan. We know Finnegan can take a punch and he has 13 career interceptions.

Redskins Hog Heaven doesn't advocate that. We aren't even predicting it. It is, however, a GMs job to explore such possibilities. In a Mad Men season, who's to say it won't happen.

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Ex-Redskins of the Week: Rock Cartwright, Special Teams, Oakland Raiders, Shaun Suisham, Kicker, Pittsburgh Steelers

In the first ever tie for Ex-Redskin of the Week, Redskins Hog Heaven gets to show some love to a fan favorite, Rock Cartwright. Rock was never flashy. He will never make the Hall of Fame, or even the Redskins Ring of Honor. But in his eight seasons in Washington, we were sold on his passion more than his running skills.

Cartwright's passion caught our eye in the Football News Now story Cartwright Takes Blame For Raiders Loss to Dolphins. Um, right. Cartwright's critical miss on a low-odds punt block was the single-biggest cause for the Raiders' 33-17 blowout loss to the 'Phins. It's not as if Cartwright had a gaffe that took points off the board.

Cartwright holds himself personally accountable and treats his every play as a game-changing event. That's what makes Cartwright as solid as his name implies. And it's why he is named our co-Ex-Redskin of the Week.

Shaun Suisham was not good enough for the Dannyhan era, but he had the good fortune to land on his feet on the Pittsburgh Steelers Roster. The change of scenery may be the change of fortune he needs. Cut twice by both Washington and Dallas, Suisham won the job to replace Pittsburgh's suddenly sucky kicker, Jeff Reed. Suisham rewarded the Steelers by going four for four in field goal attempts against the Bills, including the overtime-game winner.

It's hard to make talent decisions for sports teams. The Redskins, for all their struggles over two decades to field a balanced, deep, talented roster, have had and let go of some talented role-players. Suisham had trouble with deep kick-offs, but made 18 of 21 field goal attempts in 2009. Now he's closer to a Super Bowl with the Steelers than he would have been in Washington.

So here's to Shaun and everyone else who keeps the faith and stays ready for that next opportunity when teams, or life, deals a setback.

Ex-Redskin of the Weak: Devin Thomas, Wide Receiver, New York Giants. 

OK. We know what this is really about. Devin Thomas did not appear for the Giants in the Jaguars game, but he has the inside knowledge of how to beat out Washington CB DeAngelo Hall. PU-lease

Redskins Hog Heaven was critical of the LaVar-bashing a few years back during Arrington's messy divorce from former friend, Dan Snyder. Thus, we are not going to sink to snide remarks about what Thomas knows about the Redskins' playbook. But the Giants, who have a genuine need for wide receiver help just now, reached deep when they claimed Thomas off waivers last week.

As a Spartan grad, I hoped Thomas could find some measure of success elsewhere, if not on the Redskins. Thomas couldn't stick with the woeful 1-9 Carolina Panthers, who made a quicker decision about DT than Mike Shanahan did. Thomas had one appearance for the Panthers with nothing to show for it. Alas, Thomas is closer to ex-Spartans Charles Rogers's career trajectory than to Derrick Mason's. That's just weak.
    

Point after: Shaun Suisham is a candidate for the NFL.com GMC Never Say Never Player of Week 12. Sure. Go ahead and vote for him. We'll be here when you get back. 

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November 27 marked a sad anniversary for Washington Redskins fans. Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor lost his fight for life that day in 2007, the victim of a gun crime committed in his own home in view of his family.

Redskins Hog Heaven grappled with how to mark the anniversary. We decided it was time to let it go and move on. On of our readers called us to account for that. His inquiry included a personal statement about Mr. Taylor that was better than anything I could have said about the man.

Akhil Gogia is a 20 year old student who grew up in Taylor's Ashburn, Virginia, neighborhood. He graciously agreed to let me publish his recollection of Taylor the neighbor. Here is Akhil's story in full:

"First of I just want to say that I love this site and its the best place to get my skins news but I just have one complaint. I just feel that today something should have been written about Sean Taylor. Maybe I am just late to get over his death but for me it really hit home.

"I live right down the street from where Sean use to live in Ashburn Va. I met Sean Taylor for the first time one Halloween when I was in high school and I went trick or treating at his house. He was just such a humble guy. Me and a few of friends all had redskins jerseys and one of my friends didn't so he ran down the stairs to is Benz and took out his game day jersey and signed and gave it to him. Sean didn't even hesitate to give it to him. He talk to us for a good 30 minutes, signed some stuff and let us take pictures of him. Honestly looking back I think it was really rude of us to make him stand out for so long but he never made us feel like that.

"I also ran into him a few times here and there around Ashburn. The other time that I fondly remember running into him was alongside Loudoun County Parkway. I guess he was running there working out and staying in shape and even in the middle of his workout he stopped and said Hello and talk to me for a few minutes. With all that said I just feel something should have been written about him today, that's all. Thanks for keep the burgundy and gold nation up to date!"

Thank you, Akhil for sharing this new and different insight on the man. 

Taylor came to the Redskins with a degree of mistrust of the media. By 2007, he began to open the door to his personality in a few interviews. His statement about football players being paid a king's ransom for a kid's game was artfully spoken and revealed substance we did not see on the field. All that is left are memories of the player, visions of what might have been and recollections of neighbor kids that shares the Taylor most of us never knew.