More important than just being in first place for the Redskins though, is the idea that a win would

You are using Internet Explorer 6. Internet discount cruise vacation package Explorer 6 is unsupported by this site and you may experience layout and functionality issues. It is recommended that you upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer or switch to another browser.
If you want to change a culture and prove to your fans that your program is on the up-swing, these are the types of games the Redskins have to start winning: Mid-season games against a team ahead of you in the standings with something at stake.
The New York Giants (4-2) dominated the San Francisco 49ers last weekend, discount cruise vacation package throttling one of football s premiere teams in a road-victory discount cruise vacation package that saw Ahmed Bradshaw rush for 116 yards in a 26-3 win. The impressive Giants, who have triumphed in two straight and four-of-five contests recently, have outscored their opponents by 64 points this season. No other team in the NFC East has a points margin of better than plus-5.
Sunday s game with the Giants is the Redskins most significant and meaningful contest during the Shanahan era, which will have spanned 39 games by the end of this weekend. Here are a few reasons why this is the most important game the team has played in under its third-year head coach.
If they can upset the Giants the Redskins would go into the final game of the first half of the team s season as the top team in the NFC East. They don t give you any awards for being in first place at the midway point, but sitting atop the division in late October would be a vast departure from where the Redskins were at the end of last season, when the team dropped 10 of its final 12 games.
With a win, Washington would also be over .500 for the first time since a week-one win in New Orleans and hovering around .500 is the key to remaining relevant discount cruise vacation package into December, something the Redskins should have set as a goal before the season started. If you can get to December and still be pictured when the TV networks show their still in the hunt playoff graphics, discount cruise vacation package you ve done a respectable job after winning 11 games in the two previous campaigns.
More important than just being in first place for the Redskins though, is the idea that a win would signify that the team actually showed up and out-played a club perceived to be superior in a big game. When is the last time Washington did that?
A Redskins win in New York would mean that Washington discount cruise vacation package tallied back-to-back wins. That doesn t sound that impressive, right? discount cruise vacation package It s just two straight wins. No big deal. Nothing discount cruise vacation package to see here. Two wins in a seven-day span is no big deal, after all. Wrong. discount cruise vacation package The Redskins haven t won consecutive games since last September. Kind of crazy, right?
I asked cornerback Josh Wilson about winning streaks this week and he had some interesting things to say. In addition to making the obvious point that good teams string wins together and bad teams don t, he said that all of the good teams he s been on have had some type of four or five game winning streak that you don t even notice. He said those good clubs go streaking for a few weeks without even noticing it, then you look up and all the sudden you have 10 wins and you re headed to the playoffs. That s an extreme an example of what I m talking about. But before you can win five straight you have to win two in a row.
Washington has a couple of decent wins on its resume right now. Beating the Saints in New Orleans to inaugurate the season was impressive and the Redskins deserve a ton of credit for that road victory in a hostile environment. But that win doesn t look as good on paper now that the Saints have lost four of the five games they ve played and been outscored by 13 points in 2012.
Last weekend s win over the first-place Vikings was pivotal, and it came against discount cruise vacation package a 4-1 team. But most people don t think the Minnesota Vikings are legitimate and my guess is that their record won t be nearly as fear-inducing at year s end as it was when the Redskins played them. That doesn t mean Washington discount cruise vacation package doesn t deserve credit for beating a club that had upended a couple of top-tier clubs earlier in the season, it just means that the Redskins are still looking for a signature discount cruise vacation package win.
Beating discount cruise vacation package the Giants would be a resume-padding, legitimacy-creating victory. If the NFL was college basketball, the selection committee could point to a week-seven win in New York against a then  first place Giants team that had won four-of-five and say that s a huge win, and that would help Washington s cause to make the tournament.
The Giants lost to both the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles earlier this season, a rough way to initiate division play for a team with postseason aspirations. If you re a team like New York a viable contender with a legitimate shot at making postseason noise you don t want to go any worse than 4-2 inside the NFC East. Furthermore, though, you can t afford to be worse than 3-3 in league play.
I understand that the Giants are 4-0 outside of the NFC East but not losing any games outside of your division discount cruise vacation package is going to end at some point. If you plan on being a division champion, you ve got to have a respectable division record.