Smoot Lays the Smack Down (Redskins vs Cowboys)

It's not that we're 6-4 instead of 8-2 or 7-3. It's not even that we've lost two in a row at home in ugly fashion. It's the fact that we had a chance to BURY our archrival with a regular season sweep in front of a home crowd and wasted the opportunity. We gave our hated rival their season back. That to me is just flat out nauseating.

Yeah, that's what makes this so hard to take and makes me f**king SICK!

I'm sorry but no one on this site or any smart Redskin fan should bitch about the defense. The offense constantly keeps sending them out on the field yet they ALWAYS keep the game close. They gave up 14 points to a very very good offense. It's painfully clear we can't rush the passer. But Blache and his guys should get more credit. They are doing it with smoke and mirrors.

AGREED.

This is not a great defense. It's a good defense that is playing over its head.

Here's my take on the game..

Linemen (both O and D): just like everybody said, we really need to work on it.. I just hope to death that FO will finally draft some Oline and Dline in first draft day.. We just cannot depend on veterans anymore, we have learned it firsthand last year and this year.. Maybe FO have some kind of learning-disablity or something.. Dline annoys me the most, not even one sack? Come on, FFS

Play-calling by Zorn: I do not think it's Zorn's fault.. He can't do anything if his players doesn't execute well, especially when O-line isn't protecting JC.. However, I do wonder why he doesn't call shotgun formation often..

Shaun Alexander: I don't get it, why is he in #3 spot? Is Rock really that bad in practice? There is a reason why nobody signed him after he was released.. And we are seeing it firsthand :doh:

DeAngelo Hall: He made a good impression in his first game as Redskins.. If he continues to do well, on and off field and in locker room.. Then this might be great thing for us..

Defense: Defense played great, several hard hits by our secondary.. Until 4th qr, where Barber ran through us.. We simply got manhandled in 4th qr..

Jason Taylor: I'm beginning to going back to my first opinion when we traded for him; he is not worth our 2nd rd pick.. Granted, he was injured and might still be.. But Evans played better than him last night.. I will continue to wait on this one..

Chris Horton: I'm going to keep giving him spotlight, he is going to get a big contract someday.. And I'm so buying his jersey someday.. Yes, he was the one who gave up a TD to a rookie TE.. But it was tight one, Romo threw a good one..

Regarding Rock - Maybe it takes him 10-15 yds to get up to speed.

AGREED.

This is not a great defense. It's a good defense that is playing over its head.

I know I say this alot, but it's especially true of our defense - the sum is much better than the individual talent of it's parts. They are not great, but if we could find a pass rush, they could become great.

Casey Rabach and Randy Thomas - I hate calling out Randy Thomas because he's one of my favorite Redskins, but him and Rabach need to step up. Ratliff was working you guys all game. I think I may jump on the SS bandwagon of dumping the entire o-line this offseason and starting all over.

Ratliff is really, really good. I mean he flat out beat Jason Ferguson out of a job as a rookie, and god only knows how many sleepless nights Parcells and Jones spent at night dreaming of having Ferguson at nose.

With that said, we went into this game full well knowing that Ratlifff vs. Casey Rabach was a total mismatch, and we still couldn't stop him. Which, given his position on the field, is pretty sad. I think it's safe to assume that Zorn, Smith, and Bugel underestimated his skill, and that won't happen again in the future.

AGREED.

This is not a great defense. It's a good defense that is playing over its head.We won't be a great defense until 1) We develop a consistent pass rush, and 2) LaRon Landry learns how to diagnose route combinations and end up in the right place. We need him to play like a top five safety for this defensive scheme to work, and right now that scheme is not working.

The Cowboys also beat us up on the edge in the EXACT same way that the Patriots did last year. The fact that it took over a year for someone to copy that blueprint against us is frankly astounding.

(because Dallas has played us four times since that Pats game, and their coaching staff is just full of mental midgets)

If you are going to run on us, your receivers need to make good blocks, and the Cowboys receivers did yesterday. Of course, they could have called Owens for holding about 5 times, and didn't, but you've still got to be able to overcome that.

6-4, following a 6-2 start, not where we want to be but not a terrible position to be in either. The one thing we knew with Gibbs' teams is he know how to get them to play down the stretch, we don't know that about Zorn. We're playing in a fierce division where every game counts. We're now 2-2 in the division. Credit to the Cowboys for doing what they remarkably failed to do last time these two teams met, put the game in Barber's hands.

Ok, let's get to it

Offensive Line I wouldn't be surprised to see a near clean sweep of the line starting next year with Geisinger, Rinehart, and Heyer in for Rabach, Kendall, and Jansen. The Cowboys' D Line is good, let's not forget that, but we can't be that bad, can we? What I'm most worried about, and if it is the case then it's actually completely understandable, is that Bugel's heart and mind just aren't on football at all anymore. And without the leadership and guidance he's always offered to the line they seem lost. I think Buges is gone after this season.

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.

Jim Zorn Look, I don't want to fall in to this trap everyone else seems to be and forget that you're a rookie NFL head coach. So I want to cut you some slack, but I think maybe you forget you're a rookie head coach and you're trying to fool people when you're only fooling yourself. You've done great things but it also boggles my mind how you operate sometimes. That play on 4th and 4? What was that? First, the decision to even go for it and then the actual playcall? Plus our two minute offense is pretty weak.

All that said, I think I'm starting to understand what your gameplan for year one was, focus on taking Campbell to the next level. I think you've done a good job getting him there, now you have to help him even more by getting other guys up to speed. I'm not going to sit here and call Thomas, Kelly, and Davis busts because obviously they're not. Halfway through their rookie year and people want to call them busts? If they're the same three years from now that's fine but don't call them busts quite yet. However, we need to start getting them more involved.

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.

Cowboys Fans Sandtrapjack, etc. Another mod may override me, but I'm telling you right now I don't want to hear from you all week. You didn't have the balls to show up on this site after the first game so don't come gloating now because I will ban you for a week. This is one of those times I will freely flex my mod muscle for my own gain.

Fred Smoot Lovely tackle early on TO when you flipped him over. After that you look overwhelmed. Are you hurt? Because you and AC look like you're playing at 33 RPM while the rest of the players out there are at 45 RPM (anyone still have vinyl records by the way?)

All in all a tough loss. And now, per my usual ritual, I won't be watching ESPN all week. I never watch ESPN after a loss until we win again. As you can imagine, it's especially challenging for me.

Thomas has potential, he just has to grasp the pro game more. Kelly might turn out to be the new Taylor Jacobs. Next season will tell the tale on these guys, but I am not holding my breath as to them making a mojor impact.

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.

Good points on AC. I think he's playing well, the sacks just aren't coming. As you say, you can't confuse the lack of sacks for him being ineffective.