Deja Vu

If I had known that I would end up watching the exact same game for two days in a row, I wouldn't have turned on my TV this afternoon. Yesterday, the Indiana Hoosiers played soft defense, inept offense, and put up one score in a blowout road loss against the Wisconsin Badgers. As I type, the Washington Redskins are playing soft defense, inept offense, and have only put on one score in a beyond-blowout road loss to the New England Patriots. While the games are quite similar to each other, what happens down the road will be two entirely different things.

For the Hoosiers, the future is simple: the entire coaching staff should and will be liquidated and athletic director Rick Greenspan will make yet another amazing head coach hire (Bobby Petrino, if he decides to skip on the Atlanta Falcons). The Hoosiers' offense should stay essentially the same for next year, assuming James Hardy doesn't chase the money into the NFL Draft. Kellen Lewis will still be the quarterback, and most of the rest of the supporting cast will remain. The defense will have a slightly different look because Tracy Porter will be heading off to the pro level, but most of the other starters will remain the same.

The key difference for the Redskins is that, while IU has only three games remaining this season, the Redskins have 9 more games. There will be a lot of demoralized people in the Redskins' locker room after their 52-7 loss, but there will also be a lot of angry people. The first one is going to be the unofficial leader of the team, London Fletcher. Whenever this team needs a pep talk, he is the one to deliver it. I also think that, after watching his team throw up all over the field, Joe Gibbs will be angrier than he has ever been his life. It doesn't matter how good the Patriots might be, no NFL team should ever give up 52 points and provide absolutely no answer.

Maybe next week, with the Hoosiers playing Ball State and the Redskins playing the Jets, things will look a little nicer.