Week 12: Vikings 17, Redskins 13: Knee Jerk Reactions

Football's regular season is heading down the home stretch! Before I let rationality cloud my judgment, here are my knee-jerk reactions from the eleventh game of the season:

 Not From Today, but Might as Well Be

Game and season. We need to go 5-0 and pray for a wild card spot. Our first drive was a thing of beauty, but everything else on offense was sad. Then, not being able to stop Toby Gerhardt on defense and give our offense one last shot was excruciating.

If the Packers pass the Bears for 1st place, and the Saints take the #1 Wild Card spot, we will need to pass that Giants, Bears, and Bucs to get a playoff berth. If things go well later this afternoon, we could still only be 2 games back, with 2 cracks against the Giants, and 1 against the Bucs. So start putting your energy into supporting whoever plays those teams.

• Interim coaches in their first game seem to always win right? Unless it's Terry Robiske and the Redskins...we are always the exception....
• I keep forgetting to plug this, but I have been doing a weekly livechat on www.TBD.com. A few Skins bloggers on there and not too crowded, so you can definitely get your voice heard.
• So much for gold pants.
• How does Joey Galloway go from being our '#2' receiver to getting cut? Shouldn't there be a backup role in-between? 
• I can't get over the Galloway thing. Just an awful signing, reinforced by poor production, and then the stubbornness of keeping him in the starting lineup. He has been the 2nd worst receiver in the league, with the only bright side that we targeted him slightly less than other receivers in his ballpark of awful. Just about anyone would have been better, and we completely missed the opportunity to develop a young player or two wit hthe playing time/role.
• Devin Thomas
• Brandon Banks is still great, but was apparently limping during the week. I'm assuming he's taking his pain meds and toughing it out. I wonder if we will see him anywhere close to 100% before the end of the season. 
• Banks is our only chance of scoring. 
• Jeremy Jarmon doesn't exist. 
• Our d-line sans Fat Albert cannot stop the run. If we cut him, we need to find some better guys up front this offseason. 
• Not sure what else to say about the defense. Not a great game from 'Los, but he was hampered by a hammy. The faced a conservative game plan and stopped a Peterson-less offense, meh.
• Silverback had a phenomenal game controlling Jared Allen, who is a monster. He's made his share of mistakes this season, but I think a pro-bowl caliber season is in store as soon as next year.
• Santana Moss was awful. I see he was battling an injury or two, but dropping passes is not okay.
• Cooley was awesome on that first drive and then...? Silence.

A Little Something to Cheer You Up - Found This Looking for a Game Shot

• I don't even know how to get excited for the Giants game next week.

(McNabb image courtesy of VikingsPost.com, cheerleader image courtesy of nfl.fanhouse.com)