Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins at Eagles)

Well today the way I look at it we had some positives and some negatives. The positives are why we won the game but the negatives could just have easily been the reason we lost the game. And I'm honestly still getting adjusted to how different this team looks from what we've been accustomed to seeing these last few years. I'm enjoying this win until midnight and then it's on to next week, and if we expect to beat the Packers we have a lot of work to do.

Stephon Heyer is getting a weekly spot in this thread, and it's mainly because he's such a 50/50 guy. He has his bright spots, like blocking good on some plays, and then he has his negatives, like holding guys who he just isn't talented enough to block, and his false starts, which always come at bad times.

And the offense needs work too. The running game was working today, but McNabb didn't capitalize in the second half. 3 points over the last 3 quarters usually means a losing effort, but we had a huge first quarter which gave us the cushion we needed. Consistency on offense is what we need. We aren't going to win like this every week. We got lucky when Kolb had to come in for Vick.

Defense did good today but I would've not liked to see Kolb waltz down the field at the end there to score a touchdown to bring it closer and make that final drive actually worth something.

Carlos Rogers, well what else is there to say? You catch that ball and game is over. I don't know why he has such horrible hands. I don't know who he needs to take lessons from, but something needs to be done. Time to bring back Stickum?

It's not even worth mentioning Mike Sellers anymore. If Mike Sellers and Stephon Heyer are gone in the offseason I won't be complaining. They are almost permanent presences on this list. Stephon isn't for lack of effort, he's just not that good, and I feel his negatives outweigh his positives. And Mike Sellers is in the same boat. Everything that used to be a positive about him is now such a negative.

If only Los could catch

Stupidity: Some Skins "fans" are really out there with their expectations and criticisms. While some may have valid points I think we are overlooking the fact that this team is in rebuilding mode from a decade of crap. That takes a while. We should be absolutely thrilled our team is .500 and 2-0 in the East. Well done Skins.

Agreed. The main problem with some folks comes down to expectations.

I almost threw something at the TV when our boy wonder OC started calling plays for Banks on 1st and goal from the 3, after Portis and Torrain had been gashing the Eagles D for about 6 yards per carry to that point. Young Shanny still leaves a lot to desire on Red Zone play calls. Here's a hint - if the opposing D has shown no ability to slow the running attack, GO SMASHMOUTH when it's 1st and goal inside the 5!!!

Yep. Shanny Jr. is good at designing plays, but not at calling them.

Huge win.

But as far as smack goes, the failure of the Redskins for the last 5 years at least to EVER ice a game on offense. It kills me. DMac going out of bounds. A false start. Missed WIDE OPEN short passes. A long bomb when we just need 7 yards. And then the shanked punt everyone KNEW was coming. Come on! A few more yards and we take a knee on Philly's home turf. Instead, we're plagued with negativity and doubt. We get that first down and everyone feels better, even with all the same stats.

Good call JW. What the heck was up with Bidwell's shanks? Was he hurt? I thought this guy was suppose to be the consistent punter to solve our woes.

Good call JW. What the heck was up with Bidwell's shanks? Was he hurt? I thought this guy was suppose to be the consistent punter to solve our woes.

That was Hunter Smith. I don't know if Bidwell has scandalous pictures of Bruce Allen hidden away or what, but clearly he has a choke hold on this job.

Stupidity: Some Skins "fans" are really out there with their expectations and criticisms. While some may have valid points I think we are overlooking the fact that this team is in rebuilding mode from a decade of crap. That takes a while. We should be absolutely thrilled our team is .500 and 2-0 in the East. Well done Skins.

:food-smil:goodjob:

Huge win.

But as far as smack goes, the failure of the Redskins for the last 5 years at least to EVER ice a game on offense. It kills me. DMac going out of bounds. A false start. Missed WIDE OPEN short passes. A long bomb when we just need 7 yards. And then the shanked punt everyone KNEW was coming. Come on! A few more yards and we take a knee on Philly's home turf. Instead, we're plagued with negativity and doubt. We get that first down and everyone feels better, even with all the same stats.Great post, well said. If I want to get my heart rate up it should be from running around the block, not sitting in front of the Skins game.

Thanks KS & DMac

Agreed. The main problem with some folks comes down to expectations.

I will admit I do have a problem reigning in expectations. Part of it is seeing coaches come in in their first year coaching a team and making a huge turnaround. Mike Smith of ATL and Tony Sparano of the Dolphins come to mind. Sean Payton comes to mind as well, taking the Saints from 3-13 in '05 to 10-6 and an NFC championship game in '06. The Jets impressed under Rex Ryan last season as well.

This league today has seen a lot of teams make quick turnarounds in their first year of coaching and part of it is the reason why expectations run so high in the first year of new coaching. I would love to see a playoff run this season but at the same time I have to know that we were so bad last year that I can't just demand it to happen. And this 3-4 looks more and more like it's going to take time.

One of the reasons I was so optimistic about the 3-4 this season is seeing the transition the Packers made. I believe they switched to the 3-4 before last season began and they made a huge leap and were one of the statistically better defenses last season despite it being the first year of their transition. So I felt like if they could it why not us? Seeing our defense get shredded the last two weeks before today has definitely reigned in my expectations but I don't want to believe it's going to take 2-3 seasons before we can be a great 3-4 defense. We definitely don't have all the personnel we need for it right now but we have improved from last week to this week. In the end it doesn't matter, we have been inconsistent from week to week, but in the end winning games hides inconsistency and bad play.