MoxSync

When the final whistle blew Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field after Washington beat Philadelphia 38-24, it prompted a lot of slightly new feelings from Redskins fans who at the beginning of the year, didn’t see the team as a playoff squad. Now, with an NFC East title under their belt heading into Sunday Night Football against the Cowboys, it was natural to think back to the last time the team made the playoffs in 2012, with Robert Griffin III at the helm.

“What the Washington Redskins have done this year is not too short of miraculous. Last season ended with four wins, the second-worst record in the NFC, a dysfunctional RGIII quarterback situation and a head coach on the hot seat after his rookie year. Eleven months later, though, they’ve gone from worst-to-first and are headed to the playoffs,” Tiki Barber said Monday, during his CBS Sports Minute segment. “It took a lot of help from an injury plagued and hapless NFC East, but the Redskins are division champs.”

In 2012, Griffin was leading his guys on an improbable six-game tear that won them the division as well, albeit with a far more exciting brand of football that many people had never really seen before, particularly at the pro level. It took overtime to beat the Ravens at home that season and again, the season closed out with Dallas.

Steinberg: How Lord of the Rings took over the Redskins’ locker room

Question is: which is the bigger surprise playoff team? Last year, the Redskins finished the season 4-12. In 2011, they were 5-11. In 2015, they highest they can finish is 9-7. In 2012, they were 10-6. It’s hard to determine whether Griffin’s ascension to glory was a more improbable run than Cousins’s Han Solo-like Millenium Falcon approach to the game. (“She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.”)

Advertisement

Let’s take a look at some of the jumps, statistically between both years.

2011-2012: Jumped from 26th to fourth in offensive points and 16th to fifth in yards. On defense, they actually got worse, going from 21st to 22nd in points allowed and 13th to 28th in yards allowed.

2014-2015: Jumped from 26th to 14th in offensive points, 13th to 17th in yards. On defense, they went from 29th to 17th in points allowed, and dropped from 20th to 24th in yards allowed.

Of course, there is still one more game to be be played in Week 17 of this season, but barring a freak score, you’ve got a decent idea of the improvements or lack there of from year to year. It could come down to whether or not you believed that Griffin would be a star in this league, at the time.

“The best Washington Redskins regular season in 21 years ended as it started: With the team’s fans eagerly awaiting the next unexpected surprise,” Washington Post columnist Jason Reid wrote on New Year’s Eve of 2012, calling owner Daniel Snyder the biggest winner that season. “The franchise’s future appears bright because the Redskins hit the jackpot when they drafted Griffin. … Clearly, Griffin helped to improve Snyder’s image one victory at a time. Redskins fans were happier this season than they have been since Joe Gibbs clutched his third Lombardi Trophy. Happy fans tend not to dwell on past mistakes (Jim Zorn, Albert Haynesworth, Steve Spurrier, etc.) and live in the present. That’s great for Snyder.”

Advertisement

I asked the Twitterverse which season was the bigger surprise and the response was pretty split.

@clintonyates For me 2012 b/c I was never a believer in Shanahan. Elway made him.

Predictions-wise, the story becomes a little bit more interesting. At NFL.com, 0 of 8 experts had the Redskins winning the NFC East. 6 of 8 had the Eagles, with two others taking the Giants.

At Bleacher Report, the prospects were very bleak for 2012. “The Robert Griffin III show comes to Washington, and while the on-field play will be better, the record won’t be. As RG3 and his new targets learn to play together, there will be bumps and bruises along the way facing an incredibly tough schedule and a young playmaker at quarterback,” their preview said. It also had the Eagles taking the division crown. Over at Sports Illustrated, of the nine experts, only two picked Griffin to win offensive rookie of the year, which he did.

Redskins might be cautious this week, but Dallas game isn’t meaningless

We all know how bad the prognosticators were on the team this year. “Sporting News and Pro Football Weekly were the most optimistic, projecting a 6-10 finish. In Sporting News’s power rankings, the Redskins were listed 27th overall, and 14th in the NFC. PFW ranked the Redskins 28th overall and the second-worst team in the NFC,” Jake Russell wrote back in July.

Advertisement

It’s easy to think that because it ended up being his only really solid year, that everyone expected Griffin to be great that season. Such was not the case. And with Cousins becoming such an unlikely charismatic leader, in the moment we tend to view what’s most recent as most surprising.

One season featured an incredibly exciting run after the bye week. The latter featured and an incredibly mediocre run after the bye. One had an old coach maybe finding his way back to glory. The other has an Arena League guy finally figuring it out. According to the wide-ranging and not always accurate statistic of “strength of schedule” the 2012 gang certainly had a harder road. This year’s team will not win a game against a team above .500.  But if this year’s team manages to actually win a playoff game, we’ll certainly have an answer.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLumw9Jom5xlo6W8s8DSZpmon1%2BsvXB%2Bj2psaGliZIBye8yoqZ5lmaK9s7vBmpmlnV2nsqW%2FyqKlrGWiqrtuwM5mq6GdXaW5osXOn52sZWJlfnN5zqtka2hhanw%3D