I want to start this article in the spirit it should be written: celebratory. WASHINGTON WON THE NFC EAST!!!! They beat a division rival on the road, in a primetime game with HUGE stakes on the line. WOW! Based on the last 20 years, this team does not do that often!

Hey man...twice in 4 years! That's 50% of the time!

Short of the miracle season of 2012, things have not been good in Washington and, looking back to the beginning of the season, things didn't look good then either.

I love being right, I love predicting how things will go, but I am so glad I was wrong this year. I was sad that RGIII, everyone's favorite Subway spokesperson, would not see the field this year unless there was some medical emergency. I still had my doubts about Jay Gruden. I was concerned the new GM Scot McCloughan, was going to be a distraction because of his wife's gaffe on Twitter . I was convinced that even though they had made a few upgrades to their defense, this team would finish dead last.

Tony Romo will have an excellent post-football career as a consultant on turf comfort and roof design.

"There's no way they would compete in the NFC East!" I thought. The Cowboys were one suspect play away from the NFC Championship last year! The Eagles now had 3 great running backs and the Giants had Eli and arguably the best wide receiver in the league! Washington was toast. But then...a little bit of luck and awful play helped this team at the most opportune time. The heavily favored Cowboys lost their loud-mouth, crybaby wide receiver Dez Bryant for a good chunk of the season and then, lost Tony Romo, the best crappy quarterback of all time, for the majority of the season. They went into a tailspin, at one point losing 7 games in a row. Romo even tried to come back in hopes of saving the seemingly lost season...only to get hurt again. I try not to take joy from other's pain and heartache, but when it's Cowboys fans making a million excuses for their lost season, I revel in it.

The Giants...well...with one of their best defenders losing part of his hand to a fireworks mishap and never addressing their lack of depth at O-line, WR or RB they were not expected to be great. They were still the Giants though, they had Eli and they had Odell Beckham so they were dangerous and despite all the deficiencies, they lost half a dozen games in the final minutes of play. They could have run away with the division.

The Eagles...well...all those fancy free agents never really gelled and the team under-performed. Their QB play was not great, DeMarco Murray never got going running the ball, and their defense played when they wanted to. Let's not forget they were bludgeoned on Thanksgiving by the Lions, embarrassed on a Sunday night contest w/ the Cardinals and earlier in the season lost to the Cowboys after Brandon Weeden came in to replace Romo.

Washington was the only team with any sort of consistency in the NFC East, and even they weren't that good. They only played 3 teams with a winning record, and in those games, they looked woefully outmatched. It was a weak division, but who cares! A division title is a division title! Let me remind everyone that the Seahawks made the playoffs at 7-9 a few years ago and then beat the defending Super Bowl champion Saints in the Wildcard round. This game really put Marshawn Lynch on the map.

I'm so happy that my team beat the odds and proved predictions wrong. Maybe McCloughan is a drafting/free agent guru and was able to improve this team with only a few tweaks. Maybe Jay Gruden is a pretty decent coach and not just a poor replacement for the person Snyder really wanted: John Gruden. More importantly, I thought that my desire to see RGIII resurrect his career would make me want to hate Kirk Cousins. It reminded me a little of the dilemma I felt when Brady took over for Bledsoe; I could still root for a team with a new QB replacing the "savior of the franchise," and my personal favorite player. Let's talk about Kirk Cousins for a moment.

Cousins has had an incredible season. After a lackluster start, he's rebounded in a big way. He has broken a handful of records for Washington; most 300 yard passing games, most consecutive games with a passing TD, highest completion percentage and he's close to breaking the season yardage record. Not only has he proven to be a decent Quarterback, he's shown to be an effective leader, motivating this team to perform well and shake off mistakes. That last part is vital: Washington has a track record of falling apart after one mistake. Not this year though. Cousins made one of the biggest bone-head plays in recent history when he took a knee with 6 seconds remaining before half time in a close game against the Eagles. This could have been devastating. Kirk rallied the team and managed to throw two more touchdowns to put the game out of reach.

My brother is a huge Bucs fan and got us the tickets for this one. It would have been rude of me to gloat after Washington came back and won :)

This season was extra special for me because I was able to attend 2 games this year. I got to see Kirk Cousins personally lead his team over the Bucs after being down 24. It was bad, Washington looked awful in the 1st quarter. My brother was gloating silently as his team trounced mine. In the end, Washington managed to pull off a stunning 31-30 victory, the turning point in their season.

Not pictured: Odell Beckham's ridiculous hair

I also was able to take my dad to see them beat the Giants. I got amazing seats, too (I won a trivia contest at work). That win was fantastic because Giants fans are two things: smug and obnoxious. They were so sure they were going to win and there were a TON of them at Fed Ex Field that rainy Sunday afternoon. But they would go home two things: Drunk and grumbling about losing as they shuffled out of the stadium.

I was screaming "GET OUT OF BOUNDS!!!" at the TV. He didn't listen.

Could this be another year where Washington does little in the playoffs? Absolutely, but this team SEEMS different. They've found a tenacity that has been lacking in years past. There was a point in their match up against Dallas (their last lost by the way) when DeSean Jackson tried to do too much. He fumbled a punt at his own 10 yard line with only a few minutes to play. The Cowboys, because their sole purpose in the NFL is to break my heart, scored a touchdown to take the lead. I hate them.

In years past, this team would have rolled over and died. No fight, no passion, they would have turned the ball over on downs or a dumb fumble or pick. But this team was different. Our boy, Kirk lead the team down the field and then threw a perfect dart to DeSean Jackson. This team had some balls! And DJax got the ultimate redemption, he atoned for his mistake...which you could tell was eating him up.

Yes, the Cowboys ended up winning the game on a ridiculously long 54 yard field goal, but this game showed that the sins of the past we're not going to be repeated. This loss was the catalyst for a 3 game winning streak, and if Washington goes into Dallas this Sunday and wins, it'll be 4 in a row to close the season.

"Overpaid players with questionable morals and work ethic??? SUPER BOWL BABY!!! No, the name's not racist!!!! It's an honor to an entire race of people I've never met!"

How do you define how most, reasonable Washington fans feel right now? Well, first off, most Washington fans are NOT reasonable, they think this team is Super Bowl bound every year an they overvalue the players. As far as the ones who are grounded in reality, this is a sign that MAYBE this team is finally on the right track. This isn't a 2012 make-the-playoffs-based-on-smoke-and-mirrors gimmick, this team got hot at the right team and beat the teams it needed to beat. An early playoff exit is going to serve as a reminder that this team is merely average and in any other division wouldn't have been in the playoff conversation. Going from 4-12 last year to 8-8 possibly 9-7 is a huge improvement though and this team should be proud of themselves. I'm proud of them...for the first time in a long time. This year had very few face-palm moments once McCloughan's wife simmered down and Cousins took the reigns of the team. While we're talking about the change at QB, I gotta say it was impressive to see RGIII handle his demotion with class. You know the guy was dying to be playing, all competitive athletes have that fire. There were no weird "leaks" to the media, there were no players calling each other out on social media. This team seems like it's FINALLY learning from it's mistakes. Washington knew they had an important game to win to guarantee a playoff spot and they did it. They played with a chip on their shoulder. Is the what it feels like to root for a functional football franchise? Whoa...feels weird. I like it!

GGR Sports

That Unfamiliar Feeling: Washington Football Success