There is a telling hint in the way that the Washington Redskins won five games in their first seven outings with Alex Smith, before dropping three of their last four. The Redskins won a certain way. A strange, unorthodox way. They won ugly.
In a vacuum, winning ugly works. It’s still winning, after all. But in the NFL, finding a simple way to win isn’t good enough. That method has to be sustainable, across a number of years. The teams who sustain success, and the ones that establish themselves as blue-bloods, are the ones remembered most.