Five Things I Want to See the Redskins Do

THE ONE THING I WANT TO SEE:

Stop coaching scared so the team can finish a damn game after a strong start. Dare I say, run up the score a little before throttling down. The Skins let 3 teams (NY, GB, Arizona) off the hook with timid 2nd half efforts. But for Neil Rackers miss, all three would have been losses.

We won the Arizona game, "almosts" don't put an asterix next to a "W." With regard to the GB game, I didn't see the coaches screw things up or get timid. The players screwed that one up royally. Moss dropping a 50+ yard bomb in the 2nd half, or fumbling one for a TD on a reverse, cost us that game and neither play was conservative.

The coaches definitely could get more aggressive, but I don't think conservative coaching is to blame for more than 1 loss. They could have coached the best game of their lives against New England and we still would have gotten beaten. They could have coached the NYG game differently, but that's the only game where the coaching arguably cost us a game.

1: Pass to open up the run. Our O-line is decimated, they can't block, especially with 8 in the box. We need to use quick throws to get the defense on their heels a bit allowing us to effectively rush the ball. We seem to be slamming our head into a brick wall over and over again.

2: Let Campbell play. Will he make mistakes? Sure. Will he make big plays, yep. I feel sheltering him too much will destroy his confidence. I'm sure he wasn't the first one in and last one out all offseason just so he could be handcuffed. Let him play.

3: Mix up the defense. While I'm fine with Cover 2 being our base defense, it seems like we very rarely bring any extra pressure. I've been very impressed with our front four this year, but mix it up. I'd like to see Landry coming up the gut, from what I understand he was great at picking his way through traffic and getting to the QB at LSU.

4: Stop coaching scared. We need to a certain extent, throw caution to the wind. You can throw and be aggressive without being reckless. High percentage passes, try using the middle of the field, use more WRs. Lloyd made a good grab and made a great move in NE, and he didnt get another look the rest of the game. I don't care who steps up, but ARE seems to be gimpy and Moss has been terrible.

5: Mix and match running backs. Something seems wrong with Portis. I'm not sure if it's injuries catching up to him, hard running starting to affect his performance and thus his career, etc. I love how physical Portis is, but we all know in the NFL running backs don't exactly have a long shelf life. Betts seems to be better at running down hill, but has problems blocking and fumbling. Portis is great at blocking, etc. I would like to see them share more snaps, even if its just to help Portis heal up for a bit.

6. Consistency. As I've said over and over. We play up AND DOWN to our competition typically. Not a good sign. We should play regularly consistent, not up and down. We don't know what our team is, because every week it's a new team. This is something the coaching staff must fix if we want to go to the playoffs.

3: Mix up the defense. While I'm fine with Cover 2 being our base defense, it seems like we very rarely bring any extra pressure. I've been very impressed with our front four this year, but mix it up. I'd like to see Landry coming up the gut, from what I understand he was great at picking his way through traffic and getting to the QB at LSU.

It's hard to complain about the defense, but I agree. We seem to be playing the prevent defense this year....in every game. I'd like to see a little less predictability. But, if the defense doesn't have another NE game, I don't care what kind of scheme they play in.

yeah SGG. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the D, but I really don't trust our D line to get consistent pressure vs decent Olines.

yeah SGG. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the D, but I really don't trust our D line to get consistent pressure vs decent Olines.

Neither do I. As I said, it's very hard to complain about the state of our defense. I'm just not sure that we will be able to employ this deep cover 2 scheme in all of the remaining games. I'd like to see us mix it up and add an element of unpredictability. Besides, if a team is going to score, I'd rather have them do it in a play or two than to chew up the clock and keep our defense on the field.

1) Try an occasional special teams play (example: Direct snap to Cartwright in a punt formation, run right. B Mitchell was good for 20 yards every time during Gibbs 1)

2) Bring S Taylor closer to the line of scrimmage. 15+ yards over the top of R Moss every play! Just switch it up already. Put him 8 yards off line, at snap Springs blitzes from blind side, and Taylor meets R Moss (er.. the opposing WR) at the 4 yard mark and knocks his block off! (I hope that's legal within the 5 yard contact zone?)

3) Run more JC from shotgun. If cb plays off our wr, quick slant. If cb is pressing, pump and go. Next play, inside handoff to Portis (Dallas & NY have used this play effectively against us for years!)

4) Use middle of field with wr's more. We run all our deep passes on the sideline, and JC isn't accurate enough to make the play consistently. If our wr is one on one, have JC put a little air under the ball where the wr has some room to run under it.

5) Show more emotion on the sideline. Get the guys pumped up and excited to make a play. Our kick off return team seems to do this (I was there Sunday against the Pats and saw a million of them) but for the most part we fail to add the little extra juice.

Far and away the most signicant is my #1 item. In four years of Gibbs 2, how many times have we faked a special teams play, tried a surprise on-sides kick, used an athletic QB for a draw or bootleg, etc? Let's start playing to WIN the game!!!

1) Try an occasional special teams play (example: Direct snap to Cartwright in a punt formation, run right. B Mitchell was good for 20 yards every time during Gibbs 1)

2) Bring S Taylor closer to the line of scrimmage. 15+ yards over the top of R Moss every play! Just switch it up already. Put him 8 yards off line, at snap Springs blitzes from blind side, and Taylor meets R Moss (er.. the opposing WR) at the 4 yard mark and knocks his block off! (I hope that's legal within the 5 yard contact zone?)

3) Run more JC from shotgun. If cb plays off our wr, quick slant. If cb is pressing, pump and go. Next play, inside handoff to Portis (Dallas & NY have used this play effectively against us for years!)

4) Use middle of field with wr's more. We run all our deep passes on the sideline, and JC isn't accurate enough to make the play consistently. If our wr is one on one, have JC put a little air under the ball where the wr has some room to run under it.

5) Show more emotion on the sideline. Get the guys pumped up and excited to make a play. Our kick off return team seems to do this (I was there Sunday against the Pats and saw a million of them) but for the most part we fail to add the little extra juice.

Far and away the most signicant is my #1 item. In four years of Gibbs 2, how many times have we faked a special teams play, tried a surprise on-sides kick, used an athletic QB for a draw or bootleg, etc? Let's start playing to WIN the game!!!

You play a lot of Madden, don't you?

One thing Iwould like to see is Mike Sellers actually make a decent lead block. Or any kind of block for that matter. If he's going to whiff like he has been, we're better off with Yoder in the game.

I would also like to see more disguises and variations from the defense. You can't do the same thing 60 times a game all year long.

You play a lot of Madden, don't you?

Never played Madden, but I am passionate about the Redskins. Like most on this site, I'm a little too fanatical.

As a side note, being a CT guy, I rarely get to see a Redskins game live. From a friend, I got tickets 6 rows off the field, right behind the Redskins bench, 2 years in a row. Great view and well worth it, but the two games were preseason #3 last year (41 - 0) and game 7 this year (52 - 7). Talk about going from pre-game elation, to post-game denial.

Now, back to reality (work)

My list is a lot like the others.

1) Fundamentals. The fumbles, missed blocking assignments, and overall lack of enthusiasm and exceution on offense is downright pathetic. For a Gibbs coached team to be making these kind of mistakes all the time is pretty awful. This must be first and foremost. We'd at least be 5-2 if not for miscues, maybe 6-1.

2) Get WRs involved. Between Lloyd, Moss, and Randle El, how much money do we have tied into our WRs? And they have ZERO tds? It's a joke. My two best friends are Giants/Eagles fans and they rub this in my face all the time. It's embarassing. I say give McCardell and Caldwell a chance. They have better size than our current unproductive midgets, and plenty of experience to boot.

3) Blitz a little. At least on 3rd down. I know with the exception of the NE debacle our D has been great. But this weekend against a bad Jets offense and a brand new QB, I think we could have have some success with a few good blitz packages.

4) Find ways to mix things up with Portis and Betts more. Ladell was great last season. We've got to find ways to get him involved (screen passes anyone? I haven't seen a good screen since the Philly game). I refuse to believe a guy who had 1000+ yards in 9 starts last year has suddenly turned into a dud.

5) Finish. Again, if we could close out games we'd be 6-1. This to me is a combination of coaching, fudamentals, and the 5 inches between our players' ears. I don't know exactly how to solve this one, but our $10M/yr coaching staff better figure it out.

I'm really pleased with the defense thus far, but frankly I've had it with the offense. Gibbs has clearly lost his touch. We're midway through season 4 and he can't get it together. Offense used to be his forte.

Sorry if this seems negative, but I've really had it with our continuous offensive struggles.