Shanahan Decision Not to Take Out RGIII

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Shanahan is also questioning his decision. Let's hope they both learn from this and that there is no long term injury to his knee.

Please don't misunderstand my stance. I would have preferred to see Cousins, but I'm simply acknowledging that Shanahan was between a rock and a hard place once Griffin asked him to give him a shot to win the game for him.

---------- Post added January-6th-2013 at 10:27 PM ----------

Ok, that's all well and good, but what happens the next time? He went against his better judgement and trusted RG3 on this injury and got burned. They need to do a better job of developing that trust if this is how it's gonna go. You gotta earn that trust.

Agree. Maybe Griffin needed to see it not work out. I think it is a process and we are still early on in their relationship.

[Sticksboi05]

Then someone who is NOT the coach needed to make a medical decision. Otherwise, I'm OK with a coach who trusts his franchise QB. Listen, if Griffin completes one or two of those third down passes and we hobble to a 17-13 W or something, everyone is applauding his guts and leadership and Shanahan's willingness to stick with his guy.

Once again, I'd rather these two forge a bond and develop a trust for one another during a season in which we are far too undermanned and banged up to win a championship. That's more important over the next decade than squeaking past Seattle.

In this same city we just went through seeing another phenom, Stephen Strasburg, be shut down for the team's stretch run and first playoff appearance in franchise history. Did he want to play? Hell yes. Did he let everyone know he wanted to pitch, yes. Did Rizzo care? No. Why? Because athletes don't always know what's best for them long-term. Do you think Stephen feels he cannot trust Davey because he backed Rizzo's decision? I think he trusts him 100%.

[justice98]

MRI tonight...gulp. I don't have a good feeling about this.

The MRI after the original injury where I saw it wrapped around Ngata's back gave me a better vibe than this one. It's like, can you get lucky twice in a month?

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Well, you're forgetting that doesn't matter if RGIII's knee is torn to shreds. Luckily, he was able to walk off on his own from this blunder.

I guess I don't believe it's likely that a knee injury is going to jeopardize his career. I think he is talented enough to be a great QB even if he can only scramble once in a while.

[WheresRickySanders83]

The MRI after the original injury where I saw it wrapped around Ngata's back gave me a better vibe than this one. It's like, can you get lucky twice in a month?

Agreed. I'm prepared for the worse.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

The MRI after the original injury where I saw it wrapped around Ngata's back gave me a better vibe than this one. It's like, can you get lucky twice in a month?

I agree...I think we will hear some bad news. Luckily he has plenty of time, along with the rest of our injured team, to recover and rehab.

[A_SKIN_OR_DIE]

There is no i in team then. If there was 4 hot girls wanting to have sex and i had no condom but a store was one block away. Girls keep yourself busy till big daddy gets back. Safe sex.

[SAli457180]

So, you bench your franchise QB when he's telling you he's OK and risk alienating him after all the positives during the season? I think Shanahan was in a tough spot today.

I understand that Shanahan was in a tough spot, but the point is to win the game. RG3 is definitely a competitor, but sometimes you have to do what's best for the team as well as the franchise QB.

[Ynot]

Terrible Play Calling. Morris had 8 carries first 2 drives and only 8 carries for the rest of the game. If they had ran him like they did in Dallas we would be headed to Atlanta.. Dominate right side of the line and hardly went back to it.... That first drive no read option they were pitches and straight runs. THey never proved they could stop him. I would have run it 3 times both times we had the call inside the 10 until they proved they could stop me. Plus after they score we come out and pass there was still 7 minutes on the clock. Gibbs and others would have said Hogs hitch it up we are going to run it down their throats..

Big Concern for Next year will be, Have teams figured out RGIII passing game....100 yards last two games. and. Can he stay healthy. Missing deep balls and taking to long to release on deep balls. Lets pray for his health and growth of Kyle... He was a sitting duck.

That is why Cousins should have come in sooner so they could run the ball and use the stretch plays and have him as a sitting duck as RGIII was since they did not want to roll him out it seemed....

We had them were we wanted them and let them back in by not running the ball down their throats.. Team had an incredible Effort even RGIII blame goes to the coaches on this one...

[TD_washingtonredskins]

In this same city we just went through seeing another phenom, Stephen Strasburg, be shut down for the team's stretch run and first playoff appearance in franchise history. Did he want to play? Hell yes. Did he let everyone know he wanted to pitch, yes. Did Rizzo care? No. Why? Because athletes don't always know what's best for them long-term. Do you think Stephen feels he cannot trust Davey because he backed Rizzo's decision? I think he trusts him 100%.

I don't know about their dynamic or relationship so I would have to trust you. I personally thought the Nats handled that situation horribly, but we can take that over to The Tailgate.

---------- Post added January-6th-2013 at 10:36 PM ----------

I understand that Shanahan was in a tough spot, but the point is to win the game. RG3 is definitely a competitor, but sometimes you have to do what's best for the team as well as the franchise QB.

So the point is to win the game when it comes to your QB's psyche, but it is to think long term when it comes to his knees?

Again, during the game I was expecting to see Cousins, but I'm not the guy who has to look Grffin in the eyes and tell him I believe in him for the next several years. He might have been wrong, but Mike had a tough choice to make. That's all I'm really attempting to say.

[NLC1054]

It's easy to say "Well we should've pulled him!". We don't have perspective. We don't have information, we don't hear the player saying he can play, we can't hear a doctor on the sideline saying "he can play, but I'm not sure he should play". We don't have, basically, minutes, to make one decision---ONE---that could positively or negatively effect the entire outcome of a potential Super Bowl winning season.

It's not a decision that is to be taken lightly, which is precisely what is happening in this thread. It is the height of pure ridiculous bull**** to assume that Mike Shanahan was "scared" to bench RG3, or that he cow-towed to his stubborn rookie quarterback instead of doing what is right for him. It plays into the narrative that has been disproven time and time again---Mike Shanahan has an ego, Mike is stubborn, Mike's going to stick with his guy no matter what even when the whole world is screaming at him not to, Mike's going to do what he wants when he wants how he wants.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wondering if Kirk should have come in or not. What's wrongheaded and, quite frankly, stupid, is making assumptions about what the coach did or did not think. To be blunt; most of you mother****ers couldn't coach a dog to roll over, much less manage a football team. And yes, I realize that the previous statement makes some things I've said on this forum hypocritical, but when it comes to things like Haslett's defense, I try (and perhaps fail) to have perspective and try to figure what he was thinking, look back at historical precedents, see what other teams that run similiar systems to our have done that we could be doing with some level of success.

(And I will gladly eat crow and say these last three weeks Haslett has called his ass off, and while I'm not entirely sure I want him to stick around, I still think he deserves the opportunity to...compete for his job, shall we say.)

Remember when Philip Rivers was just the jackass who ran his mouth off all the time and had never done anything of note? And then he tore his ACL, and came back the next week and played on it, and suddenly the narrative morphed from "Philip Rivers is a bigmouthed jerk" to "Philip Rivers has guts and determination." One certainly could argue that the Chargers best chance to win the game would've been to put the back-up in, and Rivers certainly didn't play his best game. But that decision by Philip Rivers (and Norv Turner) was praised, even though they loss. (I'm aware that there was actually some blowback from this as well, which is why this is pretty much a lose-lose proposition).

Then flash forward. Remember when Cutler sprained his MCL in the NFC Championship Game? Remember how he tried to come back in and play on it, but after not being able to make a go of it, Lovie benched his (despite his protest)? And yes, Hanie had a good game until B.J Raji picked him off for a touchdown. But remember what was basically the entire narrative of that summer, about how Cutler was a wimp for not trying to play through the pain (which he did) and not trying to take a shot (which he couldn't), and how he was a ***** and couldn't hang and it was just another reason he'd never be elite?

Hell, just last night, Christian Ponder couldn't throw the ball at all with an elbow injury, and Vikings fans still bad mouthed him for not showing up and playing. Remember how Joe Webb couldn't orchestrated any sort of offense whatsoever? And this was despite the fact that in limited action, Joe Webb had actually looked like a capable back-up and a dynamic football player when Ponder had gotten hurt the year before.

People say "do what gives you the best chance to win."

Here we have three cases in which coaches did what they thought gave them the best chance to win. All three lost.

In one case, Philip Rivers could barely move, could barely plant and throw, but Norv Turner decided to keep him in the game, even though he had a healthy Charlie Whitehurst on the bench.

In another, we have Jay Cutler trying to play on a bad MCL, not being able to play as well, and ultimately getting benched by Lovie Smith even though he wanted to play. Also note that the second string quarterback was not Caleb Hanie, but Todd Collins, who promptly came into the game and sucked so bad they thought it was a better idea to put the third string guy in and leave themselves without an emergency quarterback. Hanie proceeded to play a pretty okay game, but threw what was pretty much a game ending pick six, and his quarterback was ridiculed the entire offseason for pouting on the bench.

In the last case, we have Christian Ponder trying to give it a go in practice all week, but before the game, Leslie Frazier decided not to play him at all. Ponder gets immediately criticized for not playing in the game despite literally not being able to throw the ball, and to top it off, their back-up Joe Webb comes in and sucks it up.

I introduce a new, rare idea into this discussion; sometimes, there is no right and wrong decision. Sometimes, every decision you look at sucks. Yes, Kirk had a great game versus the Browns. But he did not have such success against Atlanta. In fact, Kirk (and I say this with much love to Kirk) threw two picks in a game we could've won in that game. Kirk's half-a-game-winning-drive with RG3 versus the Ravens was aided largely by two absolute laser throws, on a bad knee, with little ability to plant, from RG3.

Those decisions are not easily made. Every possible pro and con has to be weighed, and you don't have a whole lot of time to do it. If RG3 was out there, it was because Mike thought he could play, and the trainers said he could play, and because he thought Robert gave the team the best possible chance to win. It turned out he was wrong.

Coaches in these situations, no matter what they do, always seem to be wrong. I don't mean to just cherry pick three recent examples, but as I've heard the arguments for why Mike was a buffoon to even consider letting RG3 stay in the game, I kept thinking of examples of this kind of situation, and these were the three freshest in my mind. Each coach was in a similiar position with their star quarterback injured, each coach made a different decision, and each coach ended up losing the game.

Blindly and ignorantly screaming "It doesn't matter, RG3 shouldn't have been in the game!" ignores a lot of factors, and those who say that it would've been the right decision no matter what...well, just refer to that whole "couldn't coach a dog" thing.

[Skinz4Life12]

Agreed. I'm prepared for the worse.

even with a torn ACL, can he not be ready for next season?

[PigskinPhat]

Hindsight is 20/20. If Shanahan had put in Kirk and we still lost, everyone would be saying he shoulda stuck with RG3, who wanted in. Give it a rest!

[Skinz4Life12]

There is no i in team then. If there was 4 hot girls wanting to have sex and i had no condom but a store was one block away. Girls keep yourself busy till big daddy gets back. Safe sex.

LOL post of the day.

[WheresRickySanders83]

even with a torn ACL, can he not be ready for next season?

I'm not sure...don't know enough about about the topic.