Thomas Boswell
Thomas Boswell
Columnist

One key to success: Hope your competition is as bad as the Eagles

Video: The Redskins go to 4 and 6 with a dominant performance from RGIII. The team has a quick turnaround this week as they look towards the Thanksgiving Day game against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Redskins have been on the wrong end of this Franchise Quarterback Arrives experience much too often. They’ve seen the Eagles get Randall Cunningham and then, in 1999, Donovan McNabb. The Cowboys unveiled Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman. The Giants came up with Phil Simms and Eli Manning. In the last 40 years, the Redskins have never had a young quarterback who made division rivals think, “He’s a nightmare for a decade.”

It’s cruel but true that one of the best things that can happen to any franchise is for one or two of its division rivals to turn putrid. “Regime change” may be the most ominous phrase in the NFL, a league where stability wins and discontinuity just daydreams.

Grading Robert Griffin III

Grading Robert Griffin III

Each week, let us know how the heralded rookie will play and then grade his performance.

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For 20 years, the Redskins have illustrated this misfortune, never able to settle on one coach, one method or one long-term quarterback. Now, they have Griffin to build around on offense, and perhaps Morris, who wore a T-shirt that read: “Believe None of What You Hear and Half of What You See.” Beyond that, they don’t have much else yet. They can lose at home to the Panthers — or almost anybody else.

But, in the Eagles, they may have a talented-on-paper but disintegrating team on their schedule twice a year. And what about the Cowboys? Dallas is 5-5 but staggering with quarterback Tony Romo. His 13-13 touchdown-to-interception ratio is a tip that he’s probably more part of the problem than the solution. Are the Pokes headed in the Eagles’ direction?

On Thursday, RGIII, with his 12-3 touchdown-pass-to-interception ratio and his 613 yards rushing (a 981-yard pace) returns to his home state of Texas for his first meeting with the Cowboys. Whether it’s opening day in New Orleans or his first trip to the Meadowlands or this introduction to the Eagles, when was the last time that Griffin didn’t rise to the stage that was provided for him?

The Redskins have many miles to go. Just as those jerseys on Eagles fans tell a story, so did those burgundy-and-gold jerseys in the FedEx crowd. There may be more No. 10 Griffin jerseys than all others from the Redskins’ active roster combined.

Many others point backward, to former players or those who are past their primes — No. 28 (Darrell Green), 21 (Sean Taylor), 21 (Deion Sanders), 30 (LaRon Landry), 47 (Chris Cooley) and 26 (Clinton Portis). Even those like No. 89, Santana Moss, who made a gorgeous catch on a 61-yard touchdown pass, and No. 59, London Fletcher, who had 12 tackles, are in their last productive period. And some, like No. 98, Brian Orakpo, who is now missing more games with the same torn pectoral muscle, are worrisome.

But after this game, the Redskins didn’t seem like a lost team, a franchise that doesn’t know what happens next. That team is the Eagles.

In just four days, the Redskins will learn whether the Cowboys are headed in a similar direction.

For previous columns by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/
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