The Redskins will stamp themselves as a legitimate contender, winning in tough places; slaying top quarterbacks and emerge with swelling confidence heading into the final month. The question will become: wild card or division title?
Or
The Redskins will be exposed; done in by top quarterbacks and will limp into December hoping there’s enough time to recover for a playoff push. And this question will shadow their final five games: is this Joe Gibbs’ final month?
Either way, the Redskins enter a pivotal stretch of their season, with five road games in the next seven, starting Sunday at Green Bay. And of those seven games, five are against teams that currently have winning records.
“Nothing’s gonna be easy this year,” Redskins end Phillip Daniels said.
It never is. But they haven’t endured such a stretch since 2002 when they played six road games in an eight-game stretch. They went 3-5 en route to a 7-9 finish, which means nothing as far as 2007 is concerned.
A handful of teams face, or are in the midst of, a similar stretch: New England, San Francisco, Chicago and Cleveland. Denver plays six of eight on the road; Baltimore is in the middle of a four-road-games-in-five-games stretch.
For the Redskins, this portion of the schedule will dictate their postseason chances. If they can win three of these games, they would take a 6-5 record into the final five games — three of which are at home. Three more wins could equal a playoff berth.
“To be a good team, you have to win on the road,” Redskins receiver James Thrash said.
The hard part in this stretch is that they’ll be facing experienced quarterbacks; Dallas’ Tony Romo would be the least experienced. Others they’ll play: Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Chad Pennington, Donovan McNabb and Jeff Garcia.
But the Redskins enter with confidence, helped by a road win last December in New Orleans and one in Philadelphia in Week 2.
“Hopefully we can continue that down the stretch,” Daniels said.
And if the Redskins want to win, they’ll likely have to be led by their defense and ground game, their two most consistent aspects of both units. They played physical Sunday — not just Mike Sellers — a mindset that translates well on the road. Playing on the road, too, requires a certain bond.
“We’re trusting each other,” Redskins defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin said. “We’re playing for each other. The closer a team is, the harder they play. We feel we’ll be good.”
They’re about to find out.
