Football is a sport rivaled only by baseball in the sheer amount of cliches used by even the most casual of fans. The sport is full of "gym rats," "hustle guys," and "reals pro's pro's," as wordplay makes it much easier to describe something than actually thinking of a logical and accurate description.
One of the most commonly thrown around cliches is referring to an important game as a "must-win," as if there are games that really don't matter.
For the Redskins, Monday's game fits all the common criteria for a "must-win." The team is coming off an impressive season last year, and has a chance to prove themselves against a consensus Super Bowl pick early in the season. A win could prove that unlike 2012, last season was not a fluke. The unfortunate aspect of the Redskins situation is that this is the first game of the season. It's not preferable to start the season with the pressure so high.
Team injury reports have become so purposefully vague that they're essentially cliches. Because of cases like Tom Brady being labeled at questionable/probable almost every week of his career, the NFL decided to remove "probable" as one of the terms to define weekly player injury. For the Redskins, injuries could prove to be crucial to the game, even before the first snap.
Both WR Josh Doctson and RB Matt Jones are listed as "questionable," with Jones having the more optimistic outlook, as Doctson has been out since August with an achilles injury. Without Jones and Doctson, Kirk Cousins is going to have a much harder time taking advantage of a weak Pittsburgh secondary.
Cliche or not, this is an important game early in the season for Washington. Not only is it important to start the season with a win, but division wise the Eagles and Giants both won their openers.
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