Redskins Roundup: Week 15 Victory Monday

Written by Thomas Threlkeld on Monday, 10 December 2012 10:30. Posted in Washington Redskins

Associated Press/Patrick Semansky

The Washington Redskins defeated the Baltimore Ravens 31-28 in overtime at FedEx Field yesterday. If you want to know how, why and what it means, READ THIS.

As you probably know by now, Redskins QB Robert Griffin III suffered a right knee injury during the game. Have a look at the play in which he was injured. Here is the latest news on Griffin's knee injury, which is being called a sprain. Here is more on RG3's MRI exam. Here is what RG3 had to say about the injury after the game.

Who stepped up for the Redskins yesterday and who did not? Find out by reading Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down.

In today's must-read, Dan Daly writes about how the Redskins rose "from the dead with a victory for the ages."

This was one of those “Where do you begin?” games. This was one of those games Washington Redskins fans might be re-living for decades, depending on how the season turns out. When the first names that roll off your tongue after a victory are Kirk Cousins and Richard Crawford, you know you’ve seen something special. And when it happens against the esteemed team just up I-95, the Baltimore Ravens, it only makes it better. ...

Somehow, though, they got from there to here: Washington 31, Baltimore 28, in overtime. And the reason they got from There to Here, when you stop and think about it, is probably the same reason they’ve gotten from 3-6 to 7-6 (with all kinds of possibilities still ahead of them). After a bye week in mid-November, a team that had been finding ways to lose started finding ways to win — winning big, winning small, winning freakily, but winning.

You won’t come across a stranger, more glorious victory than this one.

Rich Tandler points out that even though the 2-point conversion has been around in the NFL since 1994, the Redskins had never used one successfully to tie a game in the last two minutes of a game. Until yesterday, when Kirk Cousins tied the game at 28 to send it to overtime.

Another strong game for another rookie, TB Alfred Morris:

Alfred Morris had another strong game with 23 carries for 122 yards and a touchdown. It was his third straight game over the 100-yard mark and his sixth of the season. He broke the Redskins record for rushing yards by a rookie last Monday night and he extended it today. The sixth-round pick now has 1228 rushing yards on the season.

However, Morris lost a fumble for the second straight game. And he's not happy about it:

“That’s just unacceptable. I hold myself at a higher standard,” Morris said. “I definitely don’t use it for fuel. I’m just a hard runner. That’s what I am. I’m a workhorse. If anything, fumbling makes me mad and I learned a long time ago I can’t play angry. That’s just not the type of person I am. It only hurts me more.”

The Redskins have won four in a row for the first time since weeks 2-5 of 2008. If they can beat the Browns in Cleveland on Sunday it will be the team's first five-game winning streak since the last five weeks of the 2005 regular season, when Washington went from 5-6 to 10-6 and a wild card berth.

John Keim writes Redskins players are impressed with rookie backup QB Kirk Cousins:

"Cold as ice -- like they used to say about Larry Bird," Redskins receiver Joshua Morgan said of Cousins. "He was like nothing was going on. ... Once he hears the play call, he starts thinking like a mad scientist. [Receivers coach] Ike Hilliard said it best: He's like a human computer."

Rick Snider notices some old fashioned fan excitement over the Redskins these days:

With four straight victories and three mediocre opponents remaining, fans are remembering 1982 to 1991, when the team seemed to own the late-season stretch.

The diesel horn in the parking lot is back. Bands clad in burgundy and gold play live music amid tailgaters. The upper deck of a cavernous stadium is filled once more. These things haven't happened regularly since the Redskins left RFK in 1997....

FedEx is filled with Griffin jerseys, the NFL's No. 1 seller. The crowd of 81,178 stayed to the end instead of leaving when Baltimore moved ahead 28-20 with 4:47 remaining. Fans knew Griffin still could rally the Redskins. When he was hurt scrambling, the crowd waited for Kirk Cousins to make a play, and he did -- an 11-yard touchdown pass and conversion run despite having no time to warm up.

Brian McNally credits the special teams with making big plays in the second half and overtime to win the game.

Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam

A couple of quotes about RG3's injury from this Dave Sheinin article:

“He’s like, ‘Just get me up, get me to the huddle — quick, we gotta hurry,’ ” tight end Logan Paulsen said. “So I got him up, and then I realized, man, he could barely walk.”

And from RG2:

Griffin’s father, Robert Griffin Jr., answered a reporter’s question about the extent of his son’s knee injury in a text message: “Knee better than yours and mine.”

I have no information on the right knee condition of RG2 or Dave Sheinin, but I think that's intended to pass along good news.