Burgundy and Gold Chronicles: Redskins Week 1 History

September 9, 2022

by David Earl

Recapping a Little History Heading into Week 1

As we enter year one and week 1 of the newly named Washington Commanders inaugural season, let’s take a trip down memory lane of the 5-time world champion Washington Redskins. This once proud franchise had many hills and valleys during its 87 years before officially retiring in July 2020. In this series, I’ll focus on memorable seasons as those teams headed into week 1. I won’t limit them to all the positive seasons either, as there are some frustrations that have stuck with this fanbase for a long time too. Here are some that stood out – I know there are many I left out. After your trip down memory lane, what moments did I leave out?

• The First of Five: The path to the Washington Redskins’ first world championship, earned by beating the Chicago Bears 28-21, saw Redskins great  Sammy Baugh begin his Hall of Fame career in his first NFL season. Leading the league in most passing categories, his 335 passing yards as a rookie in that championship game (or any playoff game) is a record not yet broken by a rookie still to this day.
• Worst Loss of Franchise: Before winning their second championship in 1942, the Redskins entered week one of the 1940 season unaware that the eventual end was to suffer one of the worst lopsided losses in league history. The championship game against Chicago that year saw a bloodbath result of 73-0 as Washington turned the ball over 9 times (including 8 interceptions) and were outgained in total yards by a ratio of more than 2:1. Chicago owns, still to this day, the most team rushing yards in a playoff game, with 382 yards versus Washington’s embarrassing 5 yards.
• Rivalry Was Born: During the late 1950’s Clint Murchison Jr placed a bid to start a franchise in Dallas only to have George Preston Marshall’s attempt to block this move. Only after Clint purchased the rights to the fight song “Hail to the Redskins” did Marshall cave, which then led to the birth of the Dallas Cowboys in 1960. Needless to say, the rivalry began to take shape heading into week 1 of the 1960 season . The Redskins beat the Cowboys 26-14 in week 3.
• NFL Legend Takes the Reigns: Expectations were high entering week 1 of the 1969 season after the Redskins hired coaching great Vince Lombardi after not having had a winning season since 1955. Lombardi not only answered the call on the field by delivering a 7-5-2 record, but he also left many personal impressions, such ashis relationships with Larry Brown and Chris Hanburger.
• Over-The-Hill-Gang Era Begins: Prior to entering week 1 of the 1971 NFL season, the fans watched an out-of-the-box obscure coach George Allen trade 5 of his draft picks for veterans. This began a very unorthodox way of managing a franchise that led to a 67-30-1 record, playoff appearances in 5 of his 7 seasons plus a Super Bowl birth in 1972. Probably his greatest asset among the fans was his immense hatred towards the hated Dallas Cowboys.
• Kilmer Wasn’t Such a Saint: The 1975 season opened up with Billy Kilmer throwing 4 touchdown passes in a blowout win over Archie Manning and the New Orleans Saints. Hall of famer Charlie Taylor played a dominant role, hauling in 2 TDs as well off of 6 receptions.
• Strike Couldn’t Derail 1982: An offseason marred by a player’s strike and Joe Gibbs encouraging the players to remain unified, this team entered week 1 more prepared than most expected. After heeding Joe’s words and running their own camps during the strike, Washington rolled through the league on their way to its first Super Bowl championship and began the Golden Era in Washington.
• Speaking of 1982: The championship run started with a comeback win over division rival Philadelphia Eagles. Down by 13 in the third quarter, Joe Theismann engineered a comeback win throwing 2 touchdown passes to help lead to the 26 yard field goal by eventual league MVP Mark Moseley in overtime for the 37-34 win.
• The Legend of Doug Williams Began: To begin the run towards the franchise’s second Super Bowl victory and Doug Williams‘ eventual MVP performance in the big game, Washington opened the season against the Philadelphia Eagles. After an injury to starter Jay Schroeder, Doug came in to lead the Redskins to a 34-24 victory against one of the league’s best defensive units. Doug’s storybook ending started off with a glorious bang!
• Best Team Ever?: 1991 was one of the greatest seasons ever for the Redskins, and sadly their peak started off with a trouncing of the Detroit Lions 45-0 on Sunday night prime time TV. This game was truly a foreshadowing of things to come that season on their way to a third and final Super Bowl championship.
• Dark Ages Began: While the 1999 season ended with a division title and a playoff win, no one was aware of the future that would come under new owner Daniel Snyder entering week one. The crumbling foundation of this once proud franchise began in 1999 as Snyder tried to overturn a trade for Brad Johnson and just progressively got worse as an owner and a boss. His tenure in Washington is a prime documentary waiting to be filmed and it won’t be one that shines any positive light on this owner.
• RG3…RG3…RG3: One of the very very few glimmers of hope in the Snyder ownership came week 1 of the 2012 season against the New Orleans Saints. The eventual rookie of the year winner was fantastic, throwing for 320 yards and 2 touchdowns, including an 88 yard bomb that lead to one of RG3’s iconic poses.