up the season in this week’s Sixpack. Like many of you I am sure Landon Collins Jersey , I have been battling a little illness, so I will keep this somewhat abbreviated. When my dad asked me about when it was coming out today (it’s a bit late), he was inquiring about the eulogy. On one hand, that has been typical of season-ending Sixpacks in the past, offering up some words to help put the season we just witnessed to rest. On the other hand, we have already used this space this season to celebrate the moments we did have and we kind of came to grips with the season-ending nature of things a while ago. It kind of sets up more of a bigger-picture collection of thoughts, in the hopes I can find one or two positive points to make as we look forward to yet another Offseason On the Brink. Alright, let’s at least get off on right foot before we descend into the lower layers of the hell with which Redskins fans are all too familiar.I started the season by being over-the-moon about the strength of the Redskins defensive line. Jonathan Allen and Da’Ron Payne are going to continue to form one of the better d-line interiors in the league. They are beastly, strong and relentless. We also learned they can’t do it all by themselves. We learned that teams could run around this wall of ours instead of trying to ram through it (which a team or two did). The Redskins still have youth in the secondary and we are sure to see a new look at linebacker in 2019, with recent picks Ryan Anderson and Shaun Dion Hamilton readying themselves for increased roles. In short, the Washington defense is a positive heading into the 2019 season, even by the loosest definition of “positive.”We have used many a pixel debating the future of Jay Gruden, and I have been somewhat firm in my position that the head coach is not where our problem lies. The Redskins organization is again embroiled in chaos and confusion. After eight short months, Dan Snyder jettisoned the team of execs that had been hired to help save him from himself. Bruce Allen continues to drive this 18-wheeler at breakneck speed towards embankments, cliffs...and other 18-wheelers. All indications are that Bruce and Dan are barricading themselves inside Redskins Park to ride out what they have deluded themselves into thinking is a short-term crisis. There are few things more insulting to the intelligence.You know, it wasn’t like the Redskins were 3-13 or 4-12...at 7-9, there was room for an argument to be made by the club that a second straight year of improbable injuries and misfortunes kept the team from achieving its goals. Even at that, wasn’t 7-9 a pretty reasonable expectation for the Redskins performance in 2018? I mean, none of us would have wanted to hear it, and none of us here would have let it slide, but the team could have at least made the argument. Instead, Dan Snyder began cleaning house both on the field and in the front office—and he did it in a way that seems to allow him to point the finger at everyone but himself. I am not going to rehash my #FireBruceAllen argument, mostly because it is a universal refrain amongst us all at this point. The fact that Bruce Allen still works for the Washington Redskins is a pile-driver to the nuts of the Redskins fanbase.Before going out on the sour note this season calls for Youth Preston Smith Jersey , here are the things I am looking forward to in 2019: Derrius Guice, a healthy offensive line, Jeremy Sprinkle’s year-over-year progress, facing off against Kirk Cousins in Minnesota, playing at Lambeau Field and the chance to see Adrian Peterson continue to make his march to the Hall of Fame while showing our young roster the way. There are others, but these would be my top ones. From a pure football standpoint, there is reason to think this team could improve from what we have seen this year. Once again, it would be reasonable to expect less injuries than we experienced this season, because of, you know, math (there is no way we can take this kind of injury punishment three straight years, right?!?). It should also be noted that once again, we are relying on math and optimism as we look to the next season (not exactly the Patriot Way).I heard that Dan Snyder is confused by the backlash from the fanbase. This kills me. The only guy who has been here long enough under the Dan Snyder tenure to perfectly understand the backlash is DAN SNYDER (first use of caps). We are stuck with this guy forever and it would be awesome if he ever got a freaking clue. After milking the Redskins fanbase for every available penny, he finally ran out of Redskins fans to pilfer, so he has gone into the business of milking opposing fanbases. We spent the beginning of last year’s offseason with a message in this space and on our weekly podcast that things were going to start feeling really different, in a bad way. It was evident from the beginning, with one of the least-attended home openers we have ever seen. (By the way, we are still live every week, but no longer on Facebook—we are on YouTube Live, and here’s the link to our channel. If you’ve been looking for the official Redskins podcast of Hogs Haven, now you know where we went!) Even when we won in 2018, it didn’t really feel that great. Any true Redskins fan that made it to FedEx had a crappy experience, surrounded by fans of other teams...en masse. The locker room went sour Womens Jordan Reed Jersey , we ran out of players and it only exacerbated the root of the true problem with this team...a root we have no power to remove. Dan Snyder won’t fire himself, and his reluctance to rid the organization of yet another failed team president only underlines his failure as a businessman. He thinks we should just be happy to have fought hard for the seven wins we got. There’s always a point where any fanbase is going to appreciate the rebuilding and “almost-there” nature of an up-and-coming squad. That ain’t what these Redskins are. Sure, they could get lucky and make it farther next season. Sure, they could hit on a few draft picks, but the rotten core of this organization has a way of rotting anything it touches. What more sign of rottenness do you need than a stadium FULL of Eagles fans? I am happy that Snyder was able to spend his holiday time at FedEx with the only people on earth that want to spend even one second with him: Eagles fans. I hope he stayed until the end to hear them chant and roar. I hope he stayed long enough to really drink in the toxic atmosphere he created. Given the manner he has run this team so far into his stewardship, my guess is he saw a sea of green as, well...a sea of green$$. The race is on to see how much worse Snyder can make things. It is actually impressive how he always manages to come up with a next-level trick to add to his villainous repertoire. Retaining Bruce Allen is just the start, y’all. Just give Dan a few weeks into the offseason...he’s reinvent himself and his story. It’s up to us to continue to point out that this emperor not only has no clothes, he is constantly trying to pants the whole lot of us (joke’s on you Dan...I don’t wear pants). I wonder how far the league will let a guy like this go...Snyder is no longer turning people off of the Redskins—he is turning people off of football. He’s killing the product in one of the biggest media markets in the world. That has to get somebody at the league office involved at some point? Maybe...maybe not. Either way, I’m flying my #FireBruceAllen flag and readying for what could be a rocky offseason. I don’t see things getting better at FedEx even if the team was to win some games—we won some games this year and still it was a very negative place. Strap in everyone...luckily, these aren’t uncharted waters for us. Shit, we could give a tour of this territory with a blindfold on. The same blindfold Dan Snyder didn’t have the decency to give us before he executed our favorite sports team.Looks Like Someone Has a Sixpack of the Mondays We don’t duck reality here at Hogs Haven. As we inch closer to the beginning of the 2018 season, we also inch closer to what at least feels a little like that monster at the end of the book that Grover has been warning me about for decades. For Jay Gruden and the Washington Redskins, the monster has been at the beginning of the book. At 0-4 in season openers under Jay, the Redskins have been losing to that monster. Granted, two of those seasons saw winning records (you know how I feel about ties), but getting off to an 0-1 start four straight years can’t be the best way to go about it. As I name my “pivotal moment of the 2018 schedule” (patent pending), I just can’t help but think it is coming sooner this year than I have typically seen it.My goal today is to introduce a few topics that we can get some discussion around and take to the show tomorrow night in the basement. It is somewhat foolish to even wonder if winning the opener is really that big of a deal—it is. When you only get sixteen chances to bring home a win, every one matters. On that front, here is a question that touches a topic we bring up every winter: when are the most important regular season games played? I think we can dispense with some of the more simplistic answers to this question—we know our schedule and we know (for the most part) the personnel we will face. Think of this in two parts: a) when do you most want be “hot?” and b) when do you most need to be “hot?” Maybe the answer is the same. (Also, this would be a great time to section off a three or four game stretch that you think is the most important one of the year.)This begs the question: what kind of team have the Redskins put together? We are clearly not returning champs looking to pick up where we left off after a big season. These kinds of teams are generally capable of collecting 10 or 11 wins regardless (irregardless, even) of whether or not they win the opener. You might even say these kinds of teams (think New England Patriots) are capable of “giving one away” and recovering well enough. No...the Redskins are not this kind of team. Washington can’t afford to give a single thing away (except second round picks, which are given out at Halloween instead of candy at Redskins Park).It probably bears mentioning that this conversation isn’t about when we would choose to lose a game. We would choose never. It isn’t about which games we would choose to win. We would choose them all. For the purpose of this conversation Womens Dustin Hopkins Jersey , try and imagine that the Redskins won’t be going undefeated this year. I know...difficult. The point is that the NFL season is a minefield that teams have to navigate. Some teams can survive hitting a mine early. Most can’t survive hitting one late. To the casual observer, it almost seems like the Redskins are actively seeking these mines every year and doing jumping jacks on top of them. Assuming for a moment that Jay Gruden has improved his minesweeping abilities, is this Redskins team built to survive early losses? I hope you were covering this sentence up as you were reading that last question, because—spoiler alert—the answer is NO. Jay Gruden and Alex Smith seem pretty damn happy together. The offensive line in burgundy and gold is going to prove they belong in the top third, if not the top five, of OL’s in this league. The defense is as young, hungry and talented as we have seen...ever during Dan Snyder’s stewardship. The skill positions on offense are stocked with talent and promise. The position coaches on the sideline are as good a group of coaches as we have seen since the Joe Gibbs staffs. I believe this group—as a whole—needs early validation. This is not even about proving to the fanbase or to other teams what they are all about. I think this Redskins team feels good about themselves right...this...very...second. That feeling has to be validated—for themsevles—with a win as soon as possible or we risk watching that feeling vanish like a fart in the wind. There are no recent memories of stellar Redskins play in games that matter that much for these players to call up. There is no break in this schedule for the players to look toward and rely on for a stretch of games where they will be favored...at least not the way it lays out currently. Everything that can be good about this season and beyond has to be manufactured out of the gate. Despite having recently watched a team crawl out of a 3-6 hole to finish 10-6, let’s all be real honest about being a successful comeback team in the NFL. It is one of the hardest things to do because there is generally a reason why you are losing, and that doesn’t typically change that fast in such a short season. When the good times aren’t rolling, something needs to happen to get the rolling started. That is why I am breaking with my trend over the last handful of years and saying that the Pivotal Game of the 2018 Season is the opener, on the road in Arizona. No, the Cardinals are not favorites to make it to the Super Bowl, but yes, they can give us everything we can handle. Jay Gruden has never been able to open a season and have some positivity blow through town from week one to week two. Given I have also called this “The Year of Jay Gruden,” let’s just say he needs this 2018 ride to open with a bang. I understand that the bulk of our divisional schedule is later in the season. I understand that you want to be peaking before the playoffs (if you are lucky enough to be in contention). I understand that history is littered with great September teams that turned out to be terrible December/January teams. I don’t care about any of this today. I am arguing that this Redskins team absolutely MUST win its opener, and that it will be a pivotal moment. In addition to being a road game in-conference, which checks two huge boxes in terms of “extra value” wins, getting off to a 1-0 start will allow these players to do something no Redskins team under Jay Gruden has ever done: look at each other in the locker room after week one thinking, “You know what...maybe we were right to be so confident in who we are. Maybe this year is different like we have been telling each other all summer.” You can argue it is a little lazy to call the “next” game the most important, but I’m also talking about doing something we have failed at doing for the last four years. If and when we break that trend, I do very much believe we will be witnessing a pivotal moment, because we will be combining confidence with talent on the front side of the grueling year. We can examine my record briefly on this tomorrow night...with what I expect will be some tough football talk from Kevin and T—let’s just say they aren’t bashful about stating...uhhhhh...opposing viewpoints. Clearance NFL Jerseys