HOOS, COMMANDERS BOUND FOR MORE OF SAME?

 So, what do you think … are the odds Virginia doesn’t win 

six games or your NFL Commanders don’t win seven?

Few people envision the Cavaliers reaching the magic 

number to give TONY ELLIOTT his first post-season 

appearance in three years as Hoos coach. Both ESPN and 

CBS projected bowl matchups this week, and neither name

U.Va. … despite a 2-1 start … CBS has Virginia Tech

playing East Carolina in the Dec. 28 Fenway Bowl … ESPN 

projects the Hokies and Baylor in the Dec. 23 Birmingham 

Bowl … How about a Myrtle Beach Bowl between Liberty 

and James Madison U.? Or JMU taking on Miami of Ohio in 

the Cure Bowl? … Or a Pop-Tarts Bowl with TCU meeting 

Notre Dame? … Best game (not including 12-team playoffs) 

could be Clemson vs. Indiana in Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The 

Hoosiers, now with former JMU coach CURT CIGNETTI

 in charge, are 3-0 … having outscored opponents 150-23 

including UCLA 42-13 last time out … at the Rose Bowl. 

Indiana wasn’t expected to win more than five games … and 

picked to finish 16^th in the 18-team Big 10. No telling what 

the final count against UCLA have been had IU not be 

penalized 14 times for 127 yards … Pop-Tarts Bowl? What’s 

next .

IF THE Carolina Panthers are the NFL’s worst team (and 

getting worser) … what does that make the Giants and your 

Commanders … 32A and 32B? Put all the spin you want on 

it but they still played a real stinkeroo Sunday. Think about 

it. For the first time in league history, a team scored a 

touchdown (three in all), didn’t allow a TD … and still lost. 

That would be the New York FOOTBALL Giants … The 

Team Formerly Known as Redskins won 21-18 when

 AUSTIN SEIBERT kicked a team-record seven field goals 

… all but one from chip shot range. Never heard of him? 

Don’t feel like the LONE RANGER.

As best as could be determined … that could very well have 

been Seibert’s 15-minutes of professional football fame. The 

Commanders are his seventh team in five years including 

two stops with the New York Jets … The Browns took the 

stocky 5-9, 214 pounder on the fifth round of the 2019 draft 

(170^th overall) after he set a FBS-record for points (449) by 

kicking only with the University of Oklahoma (2015-18). A 

Browns’ scout was quoted as saying, “I haven’t seen a kicker 

as competitive as he is.” … Seibert got a signing bonus of 

$260,452 … and a four-year contract worth $2.78 million 

from Cleveland. In his first NFL game, he missed an extra 

point in a 43-13 loss to Tennessee … but still wound up 

named to the writers’ all-rookie 2019 team despite going 30 

for 35 on conversions.

Cleveland had enough of Seibert one game into the 2020 

campaign when he missed an extra point and 40-yard FG 

in a 38-6 loss to Baltimore … Since then, the native of 

Belleville, Ill., has been waived five times by four 

different teams. He has appeared in 31 NFL games but, 

until joining the Commanders, none since Oct., 5, 2022 

… In 2023, Seibert spent 14 days with the New York Jets 

practice team and another nine days with New Orleans’ 

reserves before re-signing with the Jets Dec. 27 for 11 

months without getting in a game. Washington brought in

the 27 year old Sept. 10 to replace CADE YORK who 

missed field goals of 47 and 56 yards in the opener 

against Tampa Bay … Against the Giants Seibert’s 

longest was 45 yards. He connected from (in order) 27, 

45, 26, 27, 29 and 33 yards before booting the game-

winner from 30 as time ran out.

What else do we know about Seibert? Well, he had been 

practicing his craft by kicking 20 to 30 balls a day at a 

pine tree next to his house and, when he lined up for what 

proved the walk-off winner, “I said to myself: ‘Just hit the 

tree.’” Seibert told reporters later … Wednesday (Sept. 

18), he became the 27 Washington player and seventh 

kicker to be named NFL Special Teams Player of the 

Week … Only running backs DICK JAMES(Dec. 17, 

1961) and LARRY BROWN (Dec. 16, 1973) have 

scored more points (24) in a game for Washington … Oh, 

and the league record for field goals is eight, set 

by the Tennessee’s ROB BIRONAS against Houston in 

2007. Quite a character, he was uncommonly accurate 

during nine seasons with the Titans, making 83.7 percent 

of his field goal attempts and all but two (of 317) extra-

point conversions (99.4 per cent) … Released by the 

Titans after the 2013 season … despite making 25 of 29 

field goals … James Robert Douglas Bironas died in 2014 

in a one-car crash … a few months after marrying country 

and western singer/songwriter RACHEL BRADSHAW, 

daughter of Terry. Bironas was 36.

Finally … from the Seeing Is Not Believing Department 

of YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! … After each 

game Commanders PR bangs out all kinds of information 

including what it considers the players most deserving of 

our applause … And, there, among QB JAYDEN 

DANIELS, RB BRIAN ROBINSON JR., and Seibert is 

… BENJAMIN ST.-JUSTE …So, he did force a fumble 

that killed a NY drive … and he was shown leaping to 

knock a pass away from MALIK NABERS … who 

otherwise caught 10 passes for 129 yards and a TD to 

become the youngest player in NFL history (21 years and 

49 days) to have at least 10 receptions and 100 yards (or 

more) plus one TD in the same game … A rookie, who 

was the Giants’ top draft choice, Nabers was simply too 

fast, too quick … OK, too good … for St-Juste, assigned 

to watch him in man coverage most of the game … In 

fact, on fourth and 4 from the Washington 22 with little 

more than two minutes remaining and the scored tied, 

Nabers was wide open inside the 10 ...and dropped a pass 

from DANIEL JONES … Talk about luck! Seibert 

presently gave the Commanders a victory they probably 

didn’t deserve.

Until next time …