It's Talent, Not Coaching.

It is mostly a talent issue, but I agree with SouperMeister, Shanahan and Haslett do not get a free ride or get absolved of some of the issues. The defense's play is not progressing, in fact is regressing.
We have enough talent on that side of the ball that we should not be getting killed and run over in week week 8 or week 10 or 11 like we did.
I also fault the coaches for the way they are using the players and leaving other more talented players on the bench or in the wrong position. That is the coaches.Agreed, and probably the most disappointing event of the last four games. The offense has progressed. The defense has regressed. The last four games look a lot like the Zorn era in terms of what we do well/not so well.

The Redskins fanbase has quite simply forgotten what a talented team looks like.

Me included.

What is this talent concept you speak of? Is it based on contract size because if thats the case we have a LOT of talent.

So I was bored and I decided to spend some time looking at point margins in the NFL, and I know you shouldn't read very largely into point margins at the end of games simply because they can be deceiving. But if a team wins, say 31-6, there's no doubt who the better team was that day, or you could have a team win 27-24 and think it was a close game when the fact of the matter was it was never really close at all, until the final whistle.

I guess my whole point is I made a sample size (teams that win by 10 points or more) and analyzed it against all 13 weeks of the NFL season so far to see who was the best and who was the worst. Through 13 weeks only 2 NFL teams have not won a single game by 10 or more points. And those two teams are Washington and Carolina. Now I'm not saying we're Carolina bad, Carolina being 1-11 and the very worst team in the league, and most likely Andrew Luck's future team, but our largest margin of victory is 6 points, achieved in Week 1 against the Cowboys (2nd largest, 1st meeting with Philly, 5 point margin of victory), but I feel like it shows just exactly what kind of team we are, one that fights hard, but has to scrape to pull out every victory, and I doubt we'll beat a team thorougly enough this season that the outcome won't be in doubt heading into the final minutes. That's just indicative of how we play this season. We either get blown out, or it's a close battle that comes down to the wire.

And if anybody wants to know who leads the league in victories by point margins of 10 more, here's the list, up until this point at Week 13, not including Jets/Pats because that has yet to be played.

5 victories of 10 or more points:
Philadelphia, NYG, New England

4 victories of 10 or more points:
Seattle, St. Louis, New Orleans, Green Bay, Indy, Tennessee (with none coming after week 7), San Diego, Kansas City

3 victories of 10 or more points:
Dallas, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Chicago, NY Jets, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Oakland

2 victories of 10 or more points:
Detroit, Minnesota, Miami, Cleveland, Houston, Denver

1 victory of 10 or more points:
Arizona, San Fransisco, Cincinnati, Buffalo

No victories of 10 or more points:
Washington, Carolina

Now don't read into this too much, as more often than not a large margin of victory doesn't mean anything other than one team had everything go right for it one day. I was just bored and decided to look up the stats. But I do feel like this is indicative how much talent we have, and how much trouble we have closing out games.

Our 5 wins

13-7 against Dallas
17-12 against Philadelphia
16-13 against Green Bay (OT)
17-14 against Chicago
19-16 against Tennessee (OT)

I'll end this by saying I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin.

All points above i mostly agree with. It's the truth. We don't have good players. Shanahan is doing the best he can with bad players. The defense has been ruined. We need to totally blow up this roster next year. WE HAVE TO GET YOUNGER!!!

Everybody says how great McNabb is, but he had his worst outing as a pro yesterday, and he is having the worst season since he was a rookie. He is 34 years old, right?? He isn't going to improve, at this point he will regress, as any older QB does, with the exception of a few like Favre, Garcia, etc....

Let's hold out hope for a strong finish, but i dont think it will happen. 6-10 maybe the best we can do.

I agree that we have a lack of overall talent and depth, but I don't pardon Shanahan from fault entirely. He took a consistently solid 4-3 defense, and broke it. The genius of Joe Gibbs was that he adjusted his philosophy to fit the strengths of his personnel. Shanahan has demonstrated an inflexibility that is exasperating at times. I think he should fire his son before he fires Haslett.

See, I just don't agree with this at all. People seem to think that if it weren't for Jim Haslett and occasional use of the 3 - 4, the D would be back to top ten form.

The guys we have playing defense aren't that good, the players who were good in seasons past are deteriorating, and it wouldn't matter if we had Greg Blache or Gregg Williams running the 4 -3 100% of the time -- I maintain that the D would be just as bad either way.

The Redskins fanbase has quite simply forgotten what a talented team looks like.

Me included.

I agree 100%. Its been a long time since the Skins have been relevant in the NFL.

It is difficult for the younger fans on the site to understand what the Skins teams of the past were like. In their SB years they were generally.....if not totally dominant. In their off years, they were a powerhouse. They were....feared.
DAMN, I hope they can regain some of that success...this is tough stuff to watch.

Yeah i would love to just see a DOMINANT team on Offense and defense. The best year i can remember is 2005, but it was our defense that was feared...We had better years i'm sure, but in my short life 2005 and 1999 come to mind....

[QUOTE=sdskinsfan2001;765954]For next season the Redskins need to keep Trent Williams and bring up Selvish Capers/Erik Cook from the practice squad and release every other player on their O-Line. Then use their 1st and 2nd round picks on O-Lineman to get two more talented players. After the draft sign a bunch of young free agents and see if they can find any players to build some YOUNG depth. Till we get a solid O-Line our offense will continue to stink. We have to be able to run the ball to set up playaction and the longball.[/QUOTe


Were the Skins thinking of getting rid of the ROOKIE Trent Williams???:benched:

All points above i mostly agree with. It's the truth. We don't have good players. Shanahan is doing the best he can with bad players. The defense has been ruined. We need to totally blow up this roster next year. WE HAVE TO GET YOUNGER!!!

Everybody says how great McNabb is, but he had his worst outing as a pro yesterday, and he is having the worst season since he was a rookie. He is 34 years old, right?? He isn't going to improve, at this point he will regress, as any older QB does, with the exception of a few like Favre, Garcia, etc....

Let's hold out hope for a strong finish, but i dont think it will happen. 6-10 maybe the best we can do.

He did?