Undefeated, Barely

The Redskins are 3-0, as the radio announcers for the Redskins remind us, for the first time since 1991, the last year the Redskins won the Superbowl. Columnists like Mike Wilbon have said Mark Brunell is a new man, playing much better now, than a year ago, when, it was suspected, he had an injury that left him unable to throw deep passes.

Yet, the Redskins, after going up 17-3, slowly let the Seahawks back in. It was 17-10, then 17-all. The Redskins had the ball with a little over a minute to play, and right away, a pass meant for Clinton Portis grazed his fingertips, and was intercepted. The Seahawks marched to within 47 yards of the field goal, and asked Josh Brown to win the game for them. He had already nailed a 52 yarder earlier, though he had missed a 47 yarder as well. Clearly, the distance wasn't a problem.

The kick went up and had the length and...hit the left upright and bounced back. No good. A few inches to the right, and the positive accomplishments of the Redskins, nearly flawless in third down attempts at 13-18, many of them 3rd and 7 or longer. The Redskins controlled the clock. Brunell looked good. Yet, they still nearly lost it in regulation. Had they done so, none of the achievements would have been lauded. They would have said they let it slip away.

That's the funny thing about wins and losses. Essentially, this game was a toss-up. Yet like elections, the team will use it as a positive, try to use it to finally play consistently well from start to end. The defense, until the last quarter, had been effective keeping the powerful Seahawks offense at bay. With Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander, the Seahawks can put up points in a hurry. Despite the defense having been highly ranked over five years, the media doesn't give the Redskins defense their due.

To be fair, Brunell made some impressive throws in overtime to give Nick Novak, former Maryland kicker, a chance to win in overtime. He had muffed an earlier field goal attempt which was blocked by the Seahawks, but was able to redeem himself at the end, making a 39 yarder.

So the Redskins are 3-0, and that's worth something. Yet, it's the most tenuous 3-0 ever. The first game, against hapless Chicago, playing with rookie Kyle Orton, because Rex Grossman got hurt again, mustered a 9-7 win off three field goals. The second game had the Redskins down 13-0 to hated Dallas at Dallas with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, before two deep passes to Santana Moss dug them out of a hole to a 14-13 win, and the defense came in to close, to prevent a field goal. This week, Washington was the one that withered a lead, and almost let the Seahawks come up with its own last minute heroics.

If the Redskins are to make a serious run, they need to score at least 20 points a game, and be able to keep a lead. The defense is still good enough to prevent most teams from going on a track meet, and making the Redskins play catch up. That's good, because the offense is still not potent enough to score as prodigiously as the now potent Giants or Indianapolis, which finally had Peyton and Harrison and Edgerrin clicking on offense, after relying on the defense (the Indy defense!) to win the first three games. At this point, Eli has been the better fantasy QB, tossing up more yards and touchdowns than brother Peyton. People expected Eli to be good, but not this quickly, not this year.

Forgive me if I don't think it's real yet. The Redskins are looking like Carolina of two years ago, that was able to squeeze out one close win after the next, but that kind of winning is prone to injuries. It's amazing the defense operates so well given that Lavar barely played the game. Makes you wonder what's going on with Gregg Williams. But as long as the defense keeps stymieing offenses, who's to argue?