Bostonian B&G
September-15th-2006, 10:51 AM
Just posting some of my Redskins thoughts for your consideration:
I am totally bummed out. Bummed the F out. Like all of you, I've been pumped all preseason, watching us make big pick-ups like Lloyd, Randle El, and Carter. After we signed Saunders, I figured we were legitimately on the path to the NFC Championship Game, what with our playoff success last year.
But now, at Week 2, I am exhausted with the Redskins. More than that, I'm disgusted. I'm not saying this just because we lost against Minnesota. It was a close game against a pretty good team, and while we didn't play terribly, we simply didn't get it done. Fine. One loss. What bothers me, though, is the future. Looking at our tough schedule, with so many serious issues, I can't imagine how we're going to manage to make the playoffs this year.
Is it me, or have we been fed line after line of crap this offseason? I'm not a Gibbs hater; I don't think I know more than him. But our coaches have made statements that've been so glaringly absurd, if they weren't so respected a group, they'd certainly be stoned for them:
This "2% of the playbook" nonsense? I'm sorry, but I think that's a load of crap. "We're saving everything for the regular season, for Dallas, for 'when the games count', for the 'stretch run', etc." That's bogus. If you're a good team, you come out of the gate and shut out Tampa Bay on the road. You destroy a lousy Raiders team on the road, like you should. You beat a tough Giants team in the 4th quarter - on the road. You don't make excuses for why your team looked so unimpressive at home in front of the most adoring, raucous fans in the NFL.
After the loss, "We saw a lot of good things," said the coaching staff. Really? Because I saw an unaggressive team that refused to seize the game in the second half. I saw Mark Brunell throwing it away - in the RED ZONE. I saw Ladell Betts being largely ineffective. And I saw our secondary being absolutely TORCHED by a pedestrian receiving corps. After a totally deflating loss like that, I want to see some concern from our coaches. I don't want to hear about diminished positives and moral victories. I want to know why our team came out unprepared to play - at home - against a team we should have (and needed to) beat given our grueling schedule. I want to know why Al Saunders and his lauded offense only went deep twice - especially when it looked like it was working. I want to know why we made FOUR visits inside the 10-yard line - and didn't use T.J. Duckett ONCE. I want to know why Chris Cooley, "Captain Chaos", was the invisible man. How come nobody could answer those questions?
What's another line we've been fed? How about the ongoing faith in John Hall? I know it's too late to do anything about it - and I'm not calling for Novak - but did anyone, for one second, believe the confidence spoken by the coaches at any point during the offseason? All about a guy who's been so frail during his Redskins tenure, he's become a kicker who can't kickoff? A kicker who is incapable of consistency beyond 40 yards? Tell me, what's to be confident about? Obviously, chip shots and pulled hammies aren't what we need. Kickers are paid to do two things: nail long-distance, clutch FGs; and kick touchbacks. And we have a guy who we've known - for a long time now - is incapable of both. When addressing him, I think what the coaching staff is trying to mask is the fact a guy like Hall is better than say, Ola Kimrin or Jose Cortez. Fine. I agree. But don't feed me these lines about how Hall's so great, so reliable, so healthy. Hall isn't any of those things. It burns me every time I have to watch Gibbs profess these lies.
I wasn't surprised when we came out tepid against Minnesota. How could anybody expect a team who did absolutely nothing in the preseason to come out and be successful? Who among us really believed we were going to come out with offensive fireworks? It was totally unplausible. I understand the exhibition games don't count, but when have you ever seen a coaching staff openly throw the preseason (which, yes, is exactly what we did)? This, to me, was a boneheaded, embarrassing move. I'm in shock it came from the Hall of Famer.
Now, we have Dallas on deck. Severely pissed-off Dallas, dealing with the stigma of an opening day loss, having been embarrassed by us twice last year, AND a QB controversy to boot. We have to go nito Texas and play them with a secondary utterly lacking in depth (how was this ever allowed to happen?) Dallas should scorch us. Nothing suggests the Redskins' secondary can keep up with Dallas' passing game whatsoever. We plan to pressure Bledsoe? Have we managed to create a pash rush thus far in preseason, or against Minnesota? Carlos Rogers (who isn't as bad as people are making him out to be) on T.O.? Kenny Wright on Terry Glenn? It's absurd! It should be a debacle. Us, with our screen passes and battered Portis, trying to keep up against a Dallas team who needs a victory more a lot more than we do, playing at home, and with the time-bomb of T.O. ticking on their sideline? Frankly, I don't think we stand a chance.
Now, for the hope.
I hope I'm wrong. I HOPE I'M WRONG. I hope, that on Monday morning, I can come back to ExtremeSkins and be wrong about EVERYTHING I've written in this post. I hope that Gibbs and the coaching staff can prove me to be just another ignorant, unknowing fan who couldn't help but expect a Dallas loss, being just a clueless observer from afar. I hope that's what I am. And I'll root for the Skins loudly just like I always do, today and tomorrow, 16-0 & 0-16.
But damn, don't I have reason to be in a funk?
I am totally bummed out. Bummed the F out. Like all of you, I've been pumped all preseason, watching us make big pick-ups like Lloyd, Randle El, and Carter. After we signed Saunders, I figured we were legitimately on the path to the NFC Championship Game, what with our playoff success last year.
But now, at Week 2, I am exhausted with the Redskins. More than that, I'm disgusted. I'm not saying this just because we lost against Minnesota. It was a close game against a pretty good team, and while we didn't play terribly, we simply didn't get it done. Fine. One loss. What bothers me, though, is the future. Looking at our tough schedule, with so many serious issues, I can't imagine how we're going to manage to make the playoffs this year.
Is it me, or have we been fed line after line of crap this offseason? I'm not a Gibbs hater; I don't think I know more than him. But our coaches have made statements that've been so glaringly absurd, if they weren't so respected a group, they'd certainly be stoned for them:
This "2% of the playbook" nonsense? I'm sorry, but I think that's a load of crap. "We're saving everything for the regular season, for Dallas, for 'when the games count', for the 'stretch run', etc." That's bogus. If you're a good team, you come out of the gate and shut out Tampa Bay on the road. You destroy a lousy Raiders team on the road, like you should. You beat a tough Giants team in the 4th quarter - on the road. You don't make excuses for why your team looked so unimpressive at home in front of the most adoring, raucous fans in the NFL.
After the loss, "We saw a lot of good things," said the coaching staff. Really? Because I saw an unaggressive team that refused to seize the game in the second half. I saw Mark Brunell throwing it away - in the RED ZONE. I saw Ladell Betts being largely ineffective. And I saw our secondary being absolutely TORCHED by a pedestrian receiving corps. After a totally deflating loss like that, I want to see some concern from our coaches. I don't want to hear about diminished positives and moral victories. I want to know why our team came out unprepared to play - at home - against a team we should have (and needed to) beat given our grueling schedule. I want to know why Al Saunders and his lauded offense only went deep twice - especially when it looked like it was working. I want to know why we made FOUR visits inside the 10-yard line - and didn't use T.J. Duckett ONCE. I want to know why Chris Cooley, "Captain Chaos", was the invisible man. How come nobody could answer those questions?
What's another line we've been fed? How about the ongoing faith in John Hall? I know it's too late to do anything about it - and I'm not calling for Novak - but did anyone, for one second, believe the confidence spoken by the coaches at any point during the offseason? All about a guy who's been so frail during his Redskins tenure, he's become a kicker who can't kickoff? A kicker who is incapable of consistency beyond 40 yards? Tell me, what's to be confident about? Obviously, chip shots and pulled hammies aren't what we need. Kickers are paid to do two things: nail long-distance, clutch FGs; and kick touchbacks. And we have a guy who we've known - for a long time now - is incapable of both. When addressing him, I think what the coaching staff is trying to mask is the fact a guy like Hall is better than say, Ola Kimrin or Jose Cortez. Fine. I agree. But don't feed me these lines about how Hall's so great, so reliable, so healthy. Hall isn't any of those things. It burns me every time I have to watch Gibbs profess these lies.
I wasn't surprised when we came out tepid against Minnesota. How could anybody expect a team who did absolutely nothing in the preseason to come out and be successful? Who among us really believed we were going to come out with offensive fireworks? It was totally unplausible. I understand the exhibition games don't count, but when have you ever seen a coaching staff openly throw the preseason (which, yes, is exactly what we did)? This, to me, was a boneheaded, embarrassing move. I'm in shock it came from the Hall of Famer.
Now, we have Dallas on deck. Severely pissed-off Dallas, dealing with the stigma of an opening day loss, having been embarrassed by us twice last year, AND a QB controversy to boot. We have to go nito Texas and play them with a secondary utterly lacking in depth (how was this ever allowed to happen?) Dallas should scorch us. Nothing suggests the Redskins' secondary can keep up with Dallas' passing game whatsoever. We plan to pressure Bledsoe? Have we managed to create a pash rush thus far in preseason, or against Minnesota? Carlos Rogers (who isn't as bad as people are making him out to be) on T.O.? Kenny Wright on Terry Glenn? It's absurd! It should be a debacle. Us, with our screen passes and battered Portis, trying to keep up against a Dallas team who needs a victory more a lot more than we do, playing at home, and with the time-bomb of T.O. ticking on their sideline? Frankly, I don't think we stand a chance.
Now, for the hope.
I hope I'm wrong. I HOPE I'M WRONG. I hope, that on Monday morning, I can come back to ExtremeSkins and be wrong about EVERYTHING I've written in this post. I hope that Gibbs and the coaching staff can prove me to be just another ignorant, unknowing fan who couldn't help but expect a Dallas loss, being just a clueless observer from afar. I hope that's what I am. And I'll root for the Skins loudly just like I always do, today and tomorrow, 16-0 & 0-16.
But damn, don't I have reason to be in a funk?