Honestly, ES Should Probably Be Shut Down....

[kleese]

Ok, not literally, I guess. If the goal of a message board is to vent, then everything on here right now is fine. But if the goal of a message board is to have intelligent/balanced discussion about a team/sport, then it's pretty clear that that isn't going to be happening anytime soon around here.

I'm no aplogist. Just a realist.

Reading the board, you see outrage at losing to the Rams. It's as if it is our birthrite to beat them.

Let me point out a few things:

--The Rams were 1-15 last year; we were 4-12. There really isn't a big difference there.

--The Rams probably have a talent level approaching ours...this is something people don't want to hear, but it's true. If you think the Redskins are vastly more talented than St. Louis, you are either on crack or a Redskins homer that overrates the team's potential...or both.

--The NFL has no carry-over from one week to the next. Losing or winning against Team X seems to have no effect on losing or winning against Team Y.

--The Redskins have been a bad organization for 18 years. More specifically, they've been a putrid joke for the past two years, both on and off the field.

--The new regime has a huge mess to clean up; our personell does not match the scheme on defense...it's going to take quite a bit of time to get it right.

--We have significant holes all over the roster thanks to stupid decisions of the past. Impossible to fix these in one (or even two) off-seasons and even more impossible to fix them in-season.

Here's my take...

Week one gave us all some false hope. The Redskins had a nice gameplan that night, executed well, and played off an emotional home crowd. I think the coaching staff got the team to overachieve a bit and dig down for a win.

Unfortunately, your talent eventually catches up to you....the coaching staff certainly deserves blame for the Rams loss mainly because the team seemed to take the field a bit unprepared early...and that is on Shanny and crew. But to assume that the Redskins SHOULD beat ANYONE is silly.

We aren't good people. We've been AWFUL since midway through the 2008 season. I think the moves we made this off-season made us a bit better and will hopefully help the rebuilding process, but we were so bad that there was simply no way to fix it all at once.

I think we'll see a mixture of what we've seen through the first three weeks all season long. Our obvious holes will get exposed at times like they did against the Rams, and at other times, I expect the staff to put together a really nice gameplan and come through against a superior team like they did against Dallas.

This is not a playoff team. If that was your hope, then you are going to be wildly disappointed this year.

For me, I'm taking each game as it's own individual test. I am MUCH more concerned about the state of the franchise AFTER the 2010 season than I am about the standings THIS year. We passed the tests against Dallas and I actually think we passed the test against Houston as well. We failed in St. Louis yesterday...a poor showing, no doubt.

But that is to be expected..it will probably happen again this year (probably more than once).

At the same time, I do expect us to pull out some surprises as well.

This season is all about stability....before we can get good, we need to simply get the organization back on the right track.

Sports fan are, by nature, impatient. And that's fine. But reality should always play into the equation. And the reality for the Redskins is that the ship was not sinking....it was sunk. It was stuck in a mudhole at the bottom of the ocean. Shanny/Allen were brought in to first raise it back to sea level, and then get it sailing.

We are still in the process of simply getting it out of the mud. It's going to take time.

[Skinz248]

Great post I couldnt agree more!

[Thinking Skins]

Just what I've been trying to preach all offseason.

[Old Bay]

I definitely agree with this. I hope your post can help cheer some folks up.

[wrecker]

That was a great philosophical post. The reason why this board has become a vent board is because you could have made this same post for most of the last 15 years.

[HRNY4ZRNY]

Intelligent take on this.

I was mad now Im over it.

My only problem is with the 3-4 defense. I think the 3-4 is a better D when you have the right players. problem is it takes years to assemble a great NT great LB's and so on.

With us trading for McNabb I dont think we have years to wait for it to start working.

Also if McNabb doesnt resign we will have to start Rex Grossman or a rookie or some weird FA.

All of those options suck.

[Old Bay]

That was a great philosophical post. The reason why this board has become a vent board is because you could have made this same post for most of the last 15 years.

Whilst true, it's really not fair to put that onto this staff whenever they're trying to clean up that 15 years worth of a mess.

[aREDSKIN]

We are still in the process of simply getting it out of the mud. It's going to take time.

Well, we've been in the mud since 1999 and perhaps longer than that. How much time to you suggest skin's fans wait?? The level of INCOMPETENCE top down this franchise has bestowed on it's fan base year after year game after game borders on criminal.

[wrecker]

Whilst true, it's really not fair to put that onto this staff whenever they're trying to clean up that 15 years worth of a mess.

I agree, but how many more staffs is it going to take?

[Monkfan63]

I knew we were going 6-10, but i think the talent on this teamn should be able to beat last years Rams. Other than tha, this team won't sniff a Super Bowl for 3 years minimum - that assumes SHanahan makes theright personal moives, sometbhing I seriouly doubt he will do.

[brianm23]

Let me point out a few things:

--The Rams were 1-15 last year; we were 4-12. There really isn't a big difference there.

--The Rams probably have a talent level approaching ours...this is something people don't want to hear, but it's true. If you think the Redskins are vastly more talented than St. Louis, you are either on crack or a Redskins homer that overrates the team's potential...or both.

--The new regime has a huge mess to clean up; our personell does not match the scheme on defense...it's going to take quite a bit of time to get it right.

--We have significant holes all over the roster thanks to stupid decisions of the past. Impossible to fix these in one (or even two) off-seasons and even more impossible to fix them in-season.

This is not a playoff team. If that was your hope, then you are going to be wildly disappointed this year.

We are still in the process of simply getting it out of the mud. It's going to take time.

Great thread.

I agree with you 100% and wished people would quit being so unrealistic about their team and players. I wanted the highlight the couple points that are key for people to realize.

[TomE]

The nutshell has been delivered.

Good post, Kleese

[Thinking Skins]

Intelligent take on this.

I was mad now Im over it.

My only problem is with the 3-4 defense. I think the 3-4 is a better D when you have the right players. problem is it takes years to assemble a great NT great LB's and so on.

With us trading for McNabb I dont think we have years to wait for it to start working.

Also if McNabb doesnt resign we will have to start Rex Grossman or a rookie or some weird FA.

All of those options suck.

While I think you should adapt your philosophy to your players, I don't think we should solely reject the 3-4 defense just because we don't have the right players RIGHT NOW. We need to go out and draft (or sign because Snyder probably won't draft anybody) the guys that fit the scheme.

[thebluefood]

Well, we've been in the mud since 1999 and perhaps longer than that. How much time to you suggest skin's fans wait?? The level of INCOMPETENCE top down this franchise has bestowed on it's fan base year after year game after game borders on criminal.

This. Though I didn't have the highest of hopes going into the season and I know a new coach will bring some growing pains...but we let the Rams drop 30 on us. There's no excuse. I'm sorry, but you can't justify that.

Now, I hope that this is a preview of things to come for the Rams so
1.) It won't make this loss so bad
2.) I kinda hope Sam Bradford succeeds.

But, as it stands right now, this one hurt and it hurt bad; not just because we lost to the Rams, but because I saw this crap coming.

[Rob Mexico]

Guys...this staff hasn't even been her for a year. Stop freaking out. Give them time to put it together. I believe you have to give a new staff AT LEAST 2 years. I know it sucks but we do have some smart people running the team now. Give it time.