Impressive or Unimpressive?

The Redskins beat Detroit 25-17 to improve their record to 6-2. Impressive.

Washington could not put away the worst team in football until there were 39 seconds left in the game. OK, maybe Shaun Suisham’s 42-yard field goal with 1:56 left iced it. Unimpressive.

Jason Campbell was 23 for 28 for 328 yards. Clinton Portis rush for over 120 (126) for the 5th straight game. Santana Moss caught 9 passes for 140 yards. The Redskins had 439 net yards in total offense. Exceptional. What makes the triumph truly remarkable is the fact that if it wasn’t for a Moss’ 80-yard punt return for a touchdown, they could have lost. Nothing special, maybe just lucky.

Stats wise the defense didn’t play poorly. Detroit completed just 2/12 3rd down plays, only had 57 yards net rushing while passing for 274 net yards. Of course, 81 of those passing yards came on a 4th quarter drive that cut a 12-point lead to five.

Impressive stats usually are for losers. Points are for winners and the Skins scored over 20 points for the 3rd time this year, all wins. They did this while resting many of their walking wounded including their best offensive lineman, Chris Samuels and their best defensive back, Shawn Springs. Hopefully, everyone will be ready for Pittsburgh next Monday night.

So it goes. The Redskins had the ball for over 10 minutes more than Detroit, but couldn’t put the Lions away.

This is the yin yang of Redskins football. They do a lot more right than wrong. So they are winning more than losing. Who would not always trade an infuriating loss to St. Louis for the exhilarating triumph over the Cowboys? They are a pleasure to watch most of the game. Then they make you squirm in your seat at the very end.

Remember -- a win is a win. Hey, at the beginning of the year people would have been overjoyed with a 4-4 record.

The Redskins would take the same outcome when they host the Steelers because they know it is not important to be impressive. Or perfect. Winning cures everything.