Toxic curse.
One post about Robert Griffin III last week and that’s what happens to him on his very next outing. It didn’t do Alfred Morris and the rest of the Redskins much good either in their playoff game.
But RGIII was the main… well can’t exactly say beneficiary
can I… sufferer of that post, after he hobbled his way through the final game of the regular season still fit enough though to help Morris run the Redskins into the playoffs as NFC Easy Champions.
The rookie quarterback wasn’t the player he was before the injury but like in that last game he was functional enough to get away with it, until that hit in the first quarter just before the second touchdown – to make it 14-0 to the Skins. After that it wasn’t the same player, something all, well nearly all of us could see. Yes hindsight is 20/20 but I’m thinking Stevie Wonder wouldn’t have had trouble with this one.
What made it even more obvious than just the laboured, painful to watch, hobbling Corluka style, designed runs but the passing that was shot to pieces as the knee just didn’t allow him to perform. Little dink offs are OK until the defence figure that’s all that is coming.
Yes give him the touchdown play to assess things but by half-time it was the last we should have seen of RGIII on Sunday night.
The second half was pretty damn horrible to watch even before his final act. The buggered up snap and then that heavily braced knee going off on that odd angle followed by RGIII just lying there.
Brought back memories of two past Skins quarterbacks. Joe Theismann back in 1985 being sacked by Lawrence Taylor – “Most Shocking Moment in History”, “The Hit That No One Who Saw It Can Ever Forget” – and Doug Williams in Super Bowl XXII in ’88, when he twisted his leg during a sack.
For Theismann the broken leg was the end of his career. Williams was lucky he sat out while Jay Schroeder was sacked but came back to lead the Skins from 0-10 to a final score of 42-10, taking the MVP title along the way. First and only black QB to win a Super Bowl. Back when the Skins used to win these things.
Just have to hope that RGIII has some of that luck and the leg can heal. Though how long it can stay that way? With the way he plays and the way the coaches have him play. When he’s a major source of rushing yards he’s going to be hit and being who he is hit hard and if that knee is flaky now how long can it last?
Will the coaches have learned from this? Will the player? Body can only take so much and it’s taken quite a bit already and this is just his first season.