Would You Have It Any Other Way?

Hope you already have your tickets for the Giants game. If not, they're going to cost you plenty; I'd say up to $1,000 apiece from scalpers. This will be the biggest game ever played at FedEx Field -- and isn't this the scenario we all hoped for when Joe Gibbs came back?

All the conditions are in place for a perfect storm of a game: It's against a divisional rival, the hated Giants (though hated a little less now that Parcells is in Dallas); it's to keep alive the chase for the playoffs; it's the final home game of the season. Seriously, when was the last time the Redskins had something to play for this late? (Other than Spurrier's tee time. . . . )

For the many years since Gibbs left, this franchise has been meandering, lost in a flurry of promises for instant turnaround from high draft picks and big-name free agents who have been busts on arrival. So it's fitting that Gibbs would be coaching a game like this. He's the front-porch light of the franchise over the last 25 years. Not Riggo, not Darrell, not any of the owners -- not as much as Joe Gibbs.

This is what Gibbs was brought here for (twice now): to make the games big. We see Gibbs standing resolute on the sideline, the ice to Joe Bugel's fire, and in that snapshot our minds wander back to their first time around, and, of course, we think of the Blues Brothers saying: "We're putting the band back together. We're on a mission from God."

Welcome to December then, the month Joe Gibbs owns. Over his career Gibbs is 38-14 in December. He's 3-0 this month. He beat the Rams and the Cardinals, and decapitated the Cowboys. You really think he won't beat the Giants?