WP Email: Redskins Good On Paper

don't need to wait for Curmudgeon.

we've ALWAYS been good on paper. ALWAYS. before the season, after the season, even DURING the season.

but it's all toilet paper if we cant eke out the wins.

not bad for what was suppose to be a weak defense coming in

The difference between this good on paper and others is this is statistics from games, the other "good on paper" was all pre-season hype.

And yes we have been close to being a fair to good team several times in the past twelve years- but now we are close to being a great team.

We have the one thing we need more than anything else- continuity across the board, this will pay more dividends than anything else we can do/get/buy

Those stats are amazing and speak well of the future, the bottom line is: this is the first time we have been able to compete with every team in the league since Gibbs left. It is close..sooo close. I wish this was a 32 game season

We got blown out what? Once last year? We've been close very very often. The thing is we never had a defense like this to support our offense. It just shows you how great our defense is and how awful our offense is.

I believe the proof will be shown next season when we're a much better team than this year. It will finally put to rest the Spurrier/Gibbs comparisions since there isn't a comparsion to begin with.

As of right now, there's a perfect comparrison. I hope you're right.

Both seen as offensive masters. Only one averaged 18.change a game, and the other has gotten to 18 once!

smootsmack:

Sorry to keep you waiting...

I have nothing gloomy to say about the defensive statistics. Looking at the yards given up by the defense this year, it is obviously a positive thing. In fact, it is the only positive thing about the Skins this year.

I do notice that Jason La Canfora has neglected to mention one defensive statistic - probably because it does not fit particularly well with the underlying theme of this article/note. So I'll ask the question here:

How many points has the defense produced this year?

I believe that the Skins have lost 4 games this year by 6 points or less. So a defensive TD in any of those games changes the outcome. Obviously, the offense did not do its job sufficiently, but great defenses also win a game or two in a season.

If the Skins were 9-4 and had these defensive stats we could anticipate the possibility of the defensive unit getting on a roll and making a run through the playoffs. Now I know that the Skins are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet - and neither are the sorry-assed Arizona Cardinals - but at the moment the only realistic way to look at this is that the team is 4-9 and not doing anything after 2 January 2005.

Sorry that none of the comments here are gloomy. All I can do is see what exists and identify it for what it is.

While Great Defenses do score points, they have defintley "scored" by setting up the offense with a very very short feild early on in the season. In fact, with the execption of a few drives, almost all of our offenseive points were set up defensivley.