WASHINGTON — Have you ever felt better about a 2-3 team in your life? There are no moral victories in the NFL, but for a team picked to finish last in their division, and ranked at the bottom of most national rankings, two wins after five games is a step in the right direction. Redskin fans have a reputation for being a bit bipolar. When we win a game, the beer flows like wine and folks start talking about home field advantage during the playoffs. When we lose, the discussion becomes, “Is it time to put in the backup QB?” and/or “FIRE EVERYONE.”

The 2015 Washington Redskins aren’t going to win the Super Bowl — in all likelihood they won’t make the playoffs. That shouldn’t concern you. The goal for this season was not to become the best team in football, it was to change this team’s culture and to become competitive and (I can’t believe I am about to write this word) competent. Are we there yet? Not quite, but in five games this season the Redskins have battled, displaying a toughness and resilience that had been severely lacking for the better part of the past decade.

This season will continue to have its ups and downs. Let’s try to stay balanced, take the good with the bad, and remember the words of Fred Jung, “When you’re up, it’s never as good as it seems, and when you’re down, you never think you’ll be up again, but life goes on.” Here are your best and worst moments of the Skins first five games.

Best Moments:

Cousins leads a game-winning drive, hits Garçon for touchdown to beat the Eagles. Two weeks after his first wire-to-wire victory since 2012, Cousins led his first game-winning, last-minute drive. Is Cousins the best quarterback on this roster? Absolutely. Is he a great NFL quarterback? No way. Cousins is serviceable and that is exactly what this team needs right now. Cousins allows McCloughan and Gruden to evaluate other aspects of the offense and he gives the team a chance to win when the defense performs well.

With any luck Cousins will be the perfect quarterback to help bridge the gap between the futility of the 2013-14 teams and the Redskins eventual legitimacy in 2016-17, then it will be time to invest in another quarterback — one who will inherit a much stronger surrounding cast.

Matt Jones 3-yard touchdown seals win versus Rams. When a third-quarter Rams touchdown cut a 17-point league down to 7, it seemed all but inevitable that the Redskins would roll over and give the game away. This is what they had done throughout the past two seasons. The Redskins next drive went nowhere, but the defense held strong for two possessions before the Redskins went run heavy and pounded the ball down the field, capping a long drive with Jones’ second touchdown of the day. The next day fans were talking about winning the division. At the time this win gave the Skins eight wins in the past 994 days. Dustin Hopkins hits a 52-yard field goal as time expires to force overtime versus the undefeated Falcons. Forget the conclusion of the game for a moment. How incredible was this sequence of events? The Skins drove 46 yards in 24 seconds to hit a game tying field goal AFTER a gut-punch touchdown by the Falcons. The game goes down as a loss, but this team has showed that they will compete with anyone. Isn’t that all we have been hoping for these past few seasons? Redskins cut Kai Forbath and, former second-round pick, David Amerson. Nothing against Forbath and Amerson, they made some nice memories in Washington, but their swift dismissals signified the first real sign of change with this team. Underperformance will not be tolerated. It doesn’t matter if you are the most accurate kicker in Redskins history or a second-round pick — there is no job security — if someone can do your job better than you can then you better update your resume. Sidenote: how nice has it been to see kickoffs sailing out of the end zone like a real NFL team? Almost makes you forget about out paltry coverage unit. Waking up on Sunday morning and not seeing a leaked report. This one is number one in my heart. We have experienced five weeks of Sunday mornings without leaked reports, anonymous sources, and Ashburnghazi speculations. Sorry, Washington Post. I don’t miss spitting out my coffee like Mugatu reading about Skins drama from Jason Reid every Sunday. It’s a breath of fresh air to have this season revolve around football. Throw in the fact that we see fewer cutaways to RG3 in street clothes each week and it makes 2-3 feel 5-0.

Just think how long it would have taken to write a list of five good moments from the 2014 season.

Worst Moments:

Kirk throws a pick-six to lose in OT to the Falcons. Ryan Grant slipped and the protection slid the wrong way, regardless of the dynamics of the play, no excuse can save us from the inevitable Good Kirk, Bad Kirk dialogue which is sure to follow any interception-laced game. This is who Kirk is, a mediocre NFL QB with an average arm, decent fundamentals, and no short-term memory. He will keep slinging it ad infintium. Jarvis Landry houses a punt return in the 4th quarter of a 10-10 game. In week one we all thought the Dolphins were going to be a good team — they aren’t and that game will be a loss that haunts this team if they find themselves competing for the division later in the season. I don’t know how many seasons it will take for me to stop expecting every punt to end in disaster, especially after… Tres Way’s punt is blocked by Giants running back Rashad Jennings for a safety. Here we go again. Special Teams debacles and another embarrassment on national television, we have grown accustomed to these calamities. When the other team gets a safety to start the game it just feels like an ambush, ask Peyton Manning. Two plays earlier, a borderline offensive pass interference penalty was called on Jordan Reed negating a 33-yard pass to Chris Thompson and rest of this game felt like a walk to the gallows. Desean Jackson tweaks hamstring on first deep ball of the season. This was a sign of things to come. We could field a pretty strong team composed entirely of players who have been on the injury list this year. That list doesn’t even account for guys on the season-ending IR like: Junior Galette, Niles Paul, Shawn Lauvao, Logan Paulsen, Duke Ihenacho, etc.

The one positive to come from all of these injuries is that it has forced the maturity of role players like Jamison Crowder, who now appears to be Kirk’s favorite target.

The moment the second quarter ends. The Redskins have been outscored by 32 points in the second half of games this season. They have led at halftime in four of their five games. If you want to scare Jay Gruden dress up as the 3rd quarter for Halloween this year. The Skins must become a better 2nd half team if they plan on playing meaningful football through November this season.

Two months ago we didn’t know who our quarterback would be, our head coach was the Vegas favorite to be the first NFL coach fired, our GM’s wife was terrorizing reporters on Twitter, and it seemed like 0-14-2 was a reasonable record to aim for.

If someone would have told me then that after five games the Redskins would be 2-3, only one quarterback would take a snap, Alfred Morris wouldn’t have a touchdown, and there would be little to no drama coming from Redskins Park, I would have said that Scot McCloughan is the alchemist of anarchy. 2-3 has never felt so good.

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