Smoot Lays the Smack Down (Redskins vs Cowboys)

Look, even when the guys on ESPN (or any other network) are saying positive things about the Redskins, I just don't care to listen to it when all I'm doing is waiting for next week's game...which I hope is a merciless blowout of the Seahawks.

Instead I'll just subject myself to another week of "Whither the GOP now?"

"That play on 4th and 4? What was that? First, the decision to even go for it and then the actual playcall?"

Yes. If you have to call a timeout to find out whether or not you want to go for it on 4th down, you better have something really ingenious cooked up.

Don't all coaches have a killer play for 4th and 3-5?

Portis was wide open underneath on that play by the way, but Campbell was zeroed in on Moss who had no chance for the first down marker anyway.Agreed. Campbell had tunnel vision on Moss for too long and that ruined the play. Moss had ZERO chance of converting. Portis would have been a difficult touch pass, because he was only about 2 yards clear of the D-linemen, but I would have liked Campbell to look somewhere other than Moss

I think it was not a bad call to go for it on 4th down. The cowboys got the ball back and we couldn't stop them. Why think we would have stopped them from the 20?

As for the play--hard to say (outside of the obvious fact that it failed). JC did not throw right away. He got pressure up the middle. Then he went to Moss and it was too late. Zorn said that the play was designed to Santana, but that JC should have come off of him after the initial pressure. Not sure what the other options were or if they were open. But again the lack of pass pro disrupted things, which is a problem in a timing/rhythm offense.

Andre Carter I was your biggest fan on this site, before you even signed with the team and last year you proved me right. But this year? I don't know man, you're just not getting it done. The only difference between Carter last year and Carter this year is that those sacks are becoming pressures in which the QB can get rid of the ball. This is because:

1) No pressure from non-Carter DL players allows QBs to slide away from Carter's pressure.

2) Man coverage schemes that allow the Quarterback to pick out where they are going with the ball presnap and throw it there when they feel pressure.

Carter's sack totals are down, but we can't confuse that with him being ineffective. We've gotten a lot of pressure on Quarterbacks and that's mostly his doing. I agree that he did not do a whole lot tonight.

i was at the game. Carter was doubled alot. its Taylor, and the rest of the crew that are totally not getting anything done. the 2 biggest problems are the o line, who keeps getting pushed around. and Smoot. he simply cannot cover in man to man. and for the first time, Zorn looked alittle shaky. that challenge was down right brutal. the use of timeouts at the end of the first half. and the play calling

I don't know. I just need a reprieve from all the football talk (other than here of course), and then have people on air revert to old "standbys" like "Danny is a meddler. He wants to buy a Super Bowl" And then I have see these same people in the cafeteria.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Bottom line is there's nothing that can be done but wait for the next game. So I'd rather just wait for it, without having to be reminded constantly about the last loss.


Yea....don't forget ESPN will show a 30 second clip of a Skins win and talk for hours about how the rest of the league did on the same day but god forbid if Dallas wins. I bet if someone has the nads to watch ESPN you will see high lights all week mostly about the Dallas win. I also bet they show the game atleast twice on the NFL network.

Agree w/ SS take. I'll add:

JC looks slower for some reason....slower than many other young QB's like Flacco, Ryan, Romo, Edwards, Rodgers. He's just not too mobile and that might be his achilles heel. He's gotten alot better in his pocket presence but he still not there. Don't get me wrong our Oline wasn't good last night, but JC didn't shine either. JC needs near perfect protection to be really good. Most QB's can be pretty good w/ near perfect protection.

Defensive Line: No pass rush

Playcalling: Let it rip a little bit. If John Madden keeps repeating that we need to loosen up the Defense we probably do. No more 3 yard outs if they're not giving it to us.

Defense: Played pretty well. Our O didn't help out one bit.

Home Field Advantage: We have absolutely no home field advantage, because we lose at home quite often. Good teams don't do this.

It is what it is: We're a below average offensive team. The #'s show this. We're 10 games in. I've been worried that we can't put up points against bad teams only to hear...a win's a win. It is, but, that's why I was worried. We can't score points. We are also a very good defensive team.

Yea....don't forget ESPN will show a 30 second clip of a Skins win and talk for hours about how the rest of the league did on the same day but god forbid if Dallas wins. I bet if someone has the nads to watch ESPN you will see high lights all week mostly about the Dallas win. I also bet they show the game atleast twice on the NFL network.

Yeah, they opened with the Skins/Boys game on Sportscenter this morning and 90% of the "analysis" was about how much more comfortable Romo looked in the second half...

Look, even when the guys on ESPN (or any other network) are saying positive things about the Redskins, I just don't care to listen to it when all I'm doing is waiting for next week's game...which I hope is a merciless blowout of the Seahawks.

Instead I'll just subject myself to another week of "Whither the GOP now?"

Haha. I'm right there with you on both points.

To add to your first post:

Home Field Advantage: Ummm, where is it? We've lost 3 out of 4 at home. It's so tough to win on the road in this league, if you can't take care of business in your own house, you're not going far.

Pass Rush: Demetric Evans is better than Jason Taylor. Plain and simple. Everyone can look at past statistics and accolades, blah blah blah. Demetric leads the team in sacks and is better against the run. I don't know if Taylor is still injured or if he's just lost it, but he doesn't deserve to be on the field right now.

4th Quarter Defense: With the game on the line, they run Marion Barber down our throat 11, yes ELEVEN straight times, and we can't stop it at all. You're playing at home against your archrival in a game you've dubbed "must win," you know exactly what's coming, and you can't stop it? Embarrassing. The D has been our strong suit overall, but that was a sad showing to end the game.

On a side note, I've seen a few comments about Buges not being in it. Our O-line starters have been around long enough to know their assignments. Buges not mentally being 100% for a few weeks has not caused this regression. Age and quickly diminishing skills have.

When I look at our bad O-line and lack of pass rush, I can't help but think of how we used our 3 top picks on pass catchers, and two of them can't even make it on the field.

I'm not going to sit here and call Thomas, Kelly, and Davis busts because obviously they're not.

People who start threads complaining about Sharpe, Marino, etc. having no respect for the team and then that same person saying the game is over with the Redskins down just 4 with nearly 8 minutes left to play Seriously? You start a whiny thread about how no one loves us and then you give up. Maybe before you start asking others to respect the team, you should too. Let's not forget we've come from behind plenty this year.


To the first point. You're right, you can't call them busts. That would imply some ability to predict the future, which we cannot do, but we can deal with reality in the present. Kelly can't get on the field, I think Davis probably could do something but I am basing on that on pure speculation since he has not done anything, but Thomas is a liability when he is on the field. He not only doesn't help, he actively hurts the team. He couldn't manage to line up on the LOS on one play (ever think of looking to the side judge and getting the signal Devin?) which cost the team an 8 yard gain on first down (from 2nd and 2 to 1st and 15) and then he dropped a 3rd down pass on the final drive that would have at least extended the drive. Hopefully he will turn into the #2 receiver on this team (but I'm starting to think the law of averages is against us ... how likely is it that 4 or 5 receivers from the 2nd round turn out to be really good?). The point, though, is that while it is premature to call him a bust it is not premature to point out that he seems incapable of doing simple things like lining up properly. And this game is not the first time that he has demonstrated a general lack of football IQ (not to mention ability ... right now about all I know he can do is run a 40 yards pretty fast). With Thomas it does not look like a question of the coaching staff being unable to get him involved in the offense, it is that he is fundamentally incapable of contributing (if you want to blame someone I guess we can point to Stan Hixon) but I have trouble blaming any coach for the type of mistakes the Thomas has repeatedly made this season.

To the second point. AMEN!!!