Redskins-Lions Game Reviews

Offensive game planning and execution was just horrible by Kyle Shanny. Poor, poor job starting with him, then Oline, then McNabb. I think the TEs, WRs, and RBs are playing the best with the talent they have...

We should be getting better as the season goes on and we are not especially with the QB and Oline play.

3 down is just atrocious...simply horrible. Im sorry but the second half of last season we played better on offense and thats not saying much. The last 3 games (1-2) we easily could have loss all 3 and im putting it all on Kyle, McNabb and the O line. Defense has played relatively fine, they keep us in the game.

Tripp, your'e assessment is better than any of the talking heads on TV or the fat fingers in printed articles. You are a little to complicated for me, maybe I'm getting it, maybe I'm too old to understand, but it's all good.

I don't agree wholeheartedly on the O-line. I think the problems all start with Heyer, Hicks, Heyer, Lictensteinenbergeresqquezinstine, Heyer, Rabach, and Heyer, and will not end until we get someone else. (Read NFL Draft 2011). And I forgot to mention that I really do not like Heyer. Rabach is a close, very close second to Heyer. Over half this line is not NFL caliber.

Tripp, your'e assessment is better than any of the talking heads on TV or the fat fingers in printed articles. You are a little to complicated for me, maybe I'm getting it, maybe I'm too old to understand, but it's all good.

I don't agree wholeheartedly on the O-line. I think the problems all start with Heyer, Hicks, Heyer, Lictensteinenbergeresqquezinstine, Heyer, Rabach, and Heyer, and will not end until we get someone else. (Read NFL Draft 2011). And I forgot to mention that I really do not like Heyer. Rabach is a close, very close second to Heyer. Over half this line is not NFL caliber.

Bottomline is Heyer, Hicks, Lickinwhater would not be starters on 95% of other teams period.

Rabach clearly is and has been an issue in the past, and probably would be considered a below average center by scouts.

Our Oline is clearly the weakness of this team and will continue to be until we add better talent specifically in the interior. Jamal Brown not being healthy has hurt us a great deal.

I think the OL is a problem. I also think it's far and above what we witnessed last year. Part of that is because Rabach is playing better (more because of an epically bad 2009, 2008, and 2007), part of it is because there's an actual interest in playing guys who fit an ideal scheme rather than just playing the best five players we could acquire without putting in actual effort. Most of it is because Artis Hicks, if nothing else, has started all 8 games at RG. At this time last year, we had 4 different RGs already. Number 5 was a game away.

McNabb has fairly decent protection, which is to say that protection is not the 1a problem with this offense. I don't think we protect at a level sufficient enough to facilitate an elite passing or rushing offense. I do think we got dominated on the line of scrimmage by the Lions. But I think the OL has outperformed the RBs and QBs on offense this year.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't fix the problems and try to upgrade at C and RG, and expect Trent Williams to bounce back from a game where he clearly didn't handle KVB as he was expected to. We need more out of the OL than we got vs. the Lions. This comes a week after Julius Peppers and Israel Idonije went nuts against us. There is room to improve.

But even if there is no immediate improvement, the offensive skill players need to play better and produce more. They are the ones not producing any touchdowns. They are the underachievers on this unit.

I fear that we've let McNabb take so many hits (forget sacks) to this point that we're seeing indirect effects of that pressure in his play. But the quantity of hits on McNabb isn't occurring because of poor OL play, it's occurring because the scheme requires the QB to make plays under duress and frankly, far too often.

You could argue that improving the front five might make it easier and more sensible to run the football, and that running the football would result in fewer hits on McNabb. That's all true. But it's also a chicken or egg argument. We throw too much so McNabb gets hit a lot and then he doesn't produce because he's getting hit too much. Or we have to throw as much as we do because that's where our offensive capabilities are and we're losing that capability because we don't have any balance in our offense. Pick your explanation. We just have to change something.

In essence, you have the inconsistencies in protection throwing off McNabb's timing in the offense, and you have McNabb's timing throwing off the consistency in the protection.

I think the easiest way out of this circle of offensive death is to rely on the running backs for improved protection (namely, don't release, McNabb doesn't even see the RBs anyway unless there's a protection breakdown...usually caused by a back releasing too early), and improved running. Unless the RBs raise their level of play, the lack of continuity between McNabb and the OL is destined to continue.

I think the easiest way out of this circle of offensive death is to rely on the running backs for improved protection (namely, don't release, McNabb doesn't even see the RBs anyway unless there's a protection breakdown...usually caused by a back releasing too early), and improved running. Unless the RBs raise their level of play, the lack of continuity between McNabb and the OL is destined to continue.

I agree that the backs improving with recognition of when/how long to stay in and block vs release will help the offense as will improved running but in order for the running game to improve Kyle needs to call more runs.

(after watching the game again)
I think the No.1 way to improve the offense/passing game is for McNabb needs to choose and hit the checkdown route more often.
After watching the game i repeated saw the short receivers open.
I've noticed this all year long, McNabb has a tendency to turn down the open short route and look downfield.
But, the result is often that whatever he was looking for downfield doesn't happen or McNabb doesn't anticipate correctly and the result is a late throw a sack or an incompletion.
It appears that McNabb isn't in rhythm with the design of the play and that rhythm taxes the pass protection past their threshold.

Imo the solution is simple:

"Get what you can get as fast as you can get it"
-Andy Reid (said to McNabb in regards to the running the offense, many years ago at a miked up Eagles training camp)
I think McNabb needs to get back to that mantra: quickly hit the 1st open receiver.

In essence, you have the inconsistencies in protection throwing off McNabb's timing in the offense, and you have McNabb's timing throwing off the consistency in the protection.

I think the easiest way out of this circle of offensive death is to rely on the running backs for improved protection (namely, don't release, McNabb doesn't even see the RBs anyway unless there's a protection breakdown...usually caused by a back releasing too early), and improved running. Unless the RBs raise their level of play, the lack of continuity between McNabb and the OL is destined to continue.

I just really think when it comes down to Oline, RB and WR we simply just dont have enough talent offensively to be consistent. I think it frustrates Kyle and McNabb with what they want to do. We need more talent on offense. This style of "winning ugly" close games is what we have to do because of the lack of talent on the O.

I just really think when it comes down to Oline, RB and WR we simply just dont have enough talent offensively to be consistent. I think it frustrates Kyle and McNabb with what they want to do. We need more talent on offense. This style of "winning ugly" close games is what we have to do because of the lack of talent on the O.

I'm not sure what you mean by consistent.
But, i certainly believe the offense and the passing game as a unit (OC,QB,OL,WRs/TE) except the RBs and Armstrong are underperforming.
McNabb can most certainly play much better then he's playing now, we all should now and acknowledge that McNabb can and imo will play better.
He needs to be more on time with his reads and passes and take the easy gain rather then waiting for the big play.
The OL can play better across the board although a littel help from the OC by running the ball more and QB getting the ball out quick can help them play better.
The RBs i think are playing about as well as can expected for journeymen back-ups.
Moss is playing the way he normally does good but not quite top tier b/c he still gets muscled too often and he has some wierd drops every now and again.
Joey Galloway?? i'm not sure why he ever gets targeted on non-deep routes or on 3rd downs but if Shanahan has faith in him then he's drastically underperforming.
Cooley's been up and down.
Davis is criminally underused.

I'm not sure what you mean by consistent.
But, i certainly believe the offense and the passing game as a unit (OC,QB,OL,WRs/TE) except the RBs and Armstrong are underperforming.
McNabb can most certainly play much better then he's playing now, we all should now and acknowledge that McNabb can and imo will play better.
He needs to be more on time with his reads and passes and take the easy gain rather then waiting for the big play.
The OL can play better across the board although a littel help from the OC by running the ball more and QB getting the ball out quick can help them play better.
The RBs i think are playing about as well as can expected for journeymen back-ups.
Moss is playing the way he normally does good but not quite top tier b/c he still gets muscled too often and he has some wierd drops every now and again.
Joey Galloway?? i'm not sure why he ever gets targeted on non-deep routes or on 3rd downs but if Shanahan has faith in him then he's drastically underperforming.
Cooley's been up and down.
Davis is criminally underused.

The last 4 games our offense will literrally disappear for quarter or halfs, they dont come out and play an entire game...Just poor, bad play, lots of mistakes and missed opportunities. A real lack of offensive rythum. If we have better talent at Oline, WR and RB I think we could fix what I previously mentioned.

Just poor, bad play, lots of mistakes and missed opportunities. A real lack of offensive rythum. If we have better talent at Oline, WR and RB I think we could fix what I previously mentioned.

Are you saying the offense isn't good b/c of lack of talent or are you saying the offense is out of rhythm and is making mistakes?
B/c depending on which you believe you either think the offense can improve or you don't.

Also you mention every position except QB.
Do you think McNabb is playing well?
And wouldn't better play from McNabb make everyone else play better?

I think the Kyle and McNabb have the power to right the ship b/c there is no reason why this offense is performing worse then last years offense.