Evening star., 1941-11-24
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Suicide LIST
Sinks Skins
Leemons,F ,Fronck Share
Sturdom as Breaks
EIude Bough & Co.
By BILL DISNIER, Jr.

after all, a case of hoping against
hope that somehow the Redskins
might overcome overwhelming odds
and retain their Eastern champion
ship?
Wasn't their surrender of the sec
tional title foreseen as far back
as last spring, when release of the
194l schedule showed them to have
suicide stretch run, with the
Dodgers, Bears, Giants and Packers
to be met on successive Sundays?
And didn't that belief grow in
creasingly inevitable with the loss,
one by one, of such key players as
Bob Hoffman, Wilbur Moore and
Dick Todd-all members of one
backfield in the Redskins two-team
system?
Maybe we're poor judge of
human nature. but it seemed to us,
coming back on the train from New
York last night, that the Redskins
weren't too stunned by the Giants
2O-l3 victory, realizing that the
cards had been stacked against them
from the start. and their hands had
grown worse with subsequent deals.
Odds Always Against Skins.
We don't mean to imply that the
Redskins weren't bitterly dlsap-
pointed by the outcome of yester-
days game up at the Polo Grounds
game they fought their hearts
out to win and in which they had
3-point lead with less than S min
utes to play.
But the fact remains that even
if they had won, the road ahead
still would have been rocky, with
the Western title contendlng
Packers coming here next Sunday
and needing victory to stay in the
running with the Bears. The Red
skins. had they beaten the Giants
might have whipped the Packers
and the Eagles and gone on to win
the Eastern championship, but the
odds were against 'em, just as they
have been all season long.
There were some who were prone
to criticize Coach Ray Flaherty
lOCdS lOI 4Al 1hASA W
attempt the extra point after the
Redskins first touchdown yester-
day. Ki missed it and-as it de-
veloped-it became a big point not
to have. For had the Redskins
been leading 14-10, instead Of only
1910 midway the last quarter, the
Giants would not have called upon
folI rno1 u-t1irh
tied the score at 1913, thereby
forcing Sammy Baugh to pass from
deep in his own territory in
desperate gamble to recapture the
lead. That pass, as you know,
boomeranged disastrously when ALL
League End Jim Poole intercepted
it on the Redskins 6-yard line to
set up the winning touchdown.
SO-Yard March Fatal.
Flaherty's critics should remem-
ber. however, that Aldrich has
booted extra points before this sea-
son and that, at converting. ne was
considered as dependable as Bob
Masterson or Joe Aguirre, the teams
regular placement kickerS.
To us, it seemed that the Redskins
lost the game when they permitted
the Giants to stage an uninter-
rupted 8O-yard march just after
Washington had taken the lead, Tor
Aguirre's kickoff forced the New
Workers to start from their own 20
and the Redskins should have held.
But old Tuffy Leemans, looking
better than ever, passed and ran
the Giants straight down the field
to the Redskins 81, from which
point Cuff dropped back for his
3-pointer. The turning point OF
that drive came when a 5-yard
offside penalty against the Red
skins gave the Giants a first down
on their own 46-a break capital
lied upon on the next play when
Cuff cut back into the center lane
to take Leemans' pass for another
first down on Washingtons 36.
Cuffs game-tying field goal came
three plays later.s
From an unbiased standpoint, It
WaS the most interesting game the
Redskins had played all year, with
the tide fuctuating after a score
less first half in which the Indians
outplayed the Giants only to have
several breaks go against them. The
first Of these was a 15-yard penalty
for holding, which nullified Andy
Farkas' 49-yard return of one OF
George Franck's punts to New
York's 37-yard line. A second came
when the usually reliable Ed Justice
dropped one of Baughs passes right
in his hands when he was wide open
on the Giant As, and still another
was when Kay Eakin openly held
Bob McChesney on pass play, only
to go unpunished by the officials.
Officials Again Negligent.
The most damaging, however,
came when the Redskins were down
on the Giants II. Seeing a New
York lineman offside, Aldrich
snapped the ball before the right
signal was called, thinking the
Giants would be penalized five
yards. But again the officials ne
elected to see the rule violation and
the Skins took 13-yard loss when
Bob Seymour recovered the free ball
back on the 80.
Leemans was forced to share the
new sectional champs honors with
Franck, for Minnesota's 1910 all
America looked all of that as he
scored both Giant touchdowns on
Identical plays - naked reverses
around the Redskins right end.