Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs. Colts)

[QUOTE=SmootSmack;825293]After a brief hiatus, the smackdown is back.

For those of you are new here, this is a weekly (ideally) feature that takes a look at what didn't quite work in the previous game.

The idea is not to be negative, bash the team, or say the sky is falling. Just to point out what needs improvement. I'll kick it off and other can jump in.

1.) The Beckwagon-Slow your roll, Beckwagoneers. He did nothing wrong really, and he was very efficient in one half. But he played in a pretty simple offense last night against a simple defense. He didn't cleary distance himself from Rex Grossman last week. The question, of course, is does he need to?


I disagree, yes it was preseason but he managed the game and spun the ball well on the run into some tight spots. The Beckwagon is being pushed along flat ground right now by those who see an exciting QB leading the redskins on and off the field. If you don't want to get on or help push thats okay, but when it really starts rolling don't be upset if you can't catch up! HTTR!!

If the Beckwagon keeps rolling, it will be due in no small part to Kyle Shanahan who has gotten a bum rap this past year by a lot of people who think he's only in the NFL because of his last name.

And I'm only half kidding. Maybe a third kidding...if that. I'm not trying to knock Beck at all. I thought he was fine. And I realize he didn't really have to throw deep on Friday, which is why we didn't see that/if he could. And the advantage he has over Grossman is that they're neck and neck in my mind, but Grossman should probably be way ahead considering he has a lot more experience.

All I'm saying I want to see more out of Beck and over a steady period of time. But if he's the starting QB for a winning Redskins team I will be very happy. Whether I was right about a player or not doesn't matter to me so long as the team wins

This isn't really a thought about a player or unit that needs improvement, but here' goes:

This team, through two preseason games, does not strike me as talent deficient. It actually strikes me as talent-laden. Perhaps a team that could compete for a playoff spot if it had gone after Chad Henne or Vince Young in the offseason. I think it's lacking in *young* talent, but not talent overall. The Redskins could surprise some folks this year if Kyle keeps calling good games that benefit his quarterbacks and Mike stays the f out of the way.

Over 16 games, there are far too many issues here that will get exposed: the QB, the secondary, the offensive line, Rocky Mac, the defensive scheme, and some young players being forced into premier roles before they are ready (Kerrigan, for example). I think a team like that can start strong, but it's going to be tough to finish strong with that many real issues. But in a perfect would, a 5-3 start and an 8-8 finish isn't totally out of the question, with some early luck (similar to last year).

But I like what I've seen from Tim Hightower, Jabar Gaffney, Donte Stallworth, Terrence Austin, Brandon Banks, Anthony Armstrong, Santana Moss, Roy Helu, Evan Royster, Rex Grossman, John Beck, Fred Davis, Logan Paulsen, Darrel Young, and Kory Lichtensteiger. And you know what, that's a lot of players who know what the f they are doing (and all Shanahan acquisitions, except Davis, Young, Armstrong, and Moss!) to expect this offense to be worse than last year.

The biggest improvement to date however, (and its been just two preseason games so take it as a grain of salt) has been Kyle Shanahan. He's called two great preseason games after being a liability for us last year. Hope it continues.

Well it was Mike Shanahan who decided Young should be a FB, not LB. So I guess give him that

This isn't really a thought about a player or unit that needs improvement, but here' goes:

This team, through two preseason games, does not strike me as talent deficient. It actually strikes me as talent-laden. Perhaps a team that could compete for a playoff spot if it had gone after Chad Henne or Vince Young in the offseason. I think it's lacking in *young* talent, but not talent overall. The Redskins could surprise some folks this year if Kyle keeps calling good games that benefit his quarterbacks and Mike stays the f out of the way.

Over 16 games, there are far too many issues here that will get exposed: the QB, the secondary, the offensive line, Rocky Mac, the defensive scheme, and some young players being forced into premier roles before they are ready (Kerrigan, for example). I think a team like that can start strong, but it's going to be tough to finish strong with that many real issues. But in a perfect would, a 5-3 start and an 8-8 finish isn't totally out of the question, with some early luck (similar to last year).

But I like what I've seen from Tim Hightower, Jabar Gaffney, Donte Stallworth, Terrence Austin, Brandon Banks, Anthony Armstrong, Santana Moss, Roy Helu, Evan Royster, Rex Grossman, John Beck, Fred Davis, Logan Paulsen, Darrel Young, and Kory Lichtensteiger. And you know what, that's a lot of players who know what the f they are doing (and all Shanahan acquisitions, except Davis, Young, Armstrong, and Moss!) to expect this offense to be worse than last year.

The biggest improvement to date however, (and its been just two preseason games so take it as a grain of salt) has been Kyle Shanahan. He's called two great preseason games after being a liability for us last year. Hope it continues.

You know I pretty much agree with.....young Tripp and I frequently do not. In addition I would like to add I think the coaching staff has these guys believing. They seem like pack your own lunch kind of work ethic and I REALLY like that.
And as has been stated we have added much youth, talent and improved MANY positions across the board on this team.
It is beyond my ability to understand how the Pundits.....universally as far as I know suggest this is a 4 and..team.....possibly worst in the NFL? I don't get it.
Oh well.....so much crow.....so little time

And I would like to add having so many additions and no OTA's, this team will learn on the fly fast and have an opportunity for dramatic improvement throughout the season.

I guess I wouldn't be as concerned about his drops if that wasn't a knock on him coming out of college. If he never had a problem with it before, you could chalk it up to rookie nerves. But he did have issues with it at Miami. Not saying it can't be corrected. It's just ... concerning.

Especially when you consider that we haven't drafted a wide receiver who's had any long term success with the team since Ricky Sanders.

The thing about that is, his really bad drops all came in his first two years at Miami. His last two seasons, he was there most consistent---if not their ONLY consistent--weapon. Once he settled down in the offense and worked on just focusing and concentrating on catching the football, he was more than solid.

So he has corrected the problem before, and he drops were kind of overplayed, as tends to be the case. But his senior season, he didn't have a game where he caught less than three passes.

That's why I'm not worried now, because I know exactly what the problem is, and I know he fixed it once, and after dropping one on Friday he came right back and made two more catches on almost the same route.

We knew what we were getting when we drafted him. I'm more than willing to guess Keenan, Mike and Kyle knew this might happen, and they know how to solve it.

This isn't really a thought about a player or unit that needs improvement, but here' goes:

This team, through two preseason games, does not strike me as talent deficient. It actually strikes me as talent-laden. Perhaps a team that could compete for a playoff spot if it had gone after Chad Henne or Vince Young in the offseason. I think it's lacking in *young* talent, but not talent overall. The Redskins could surprise some folks this year if Kyle keeps calling good games that benefit his quarterbacks and Mike stays the f out of the way.

Over 16 games, there are far too many issues here that will get exposed: the QB, the secondary, the offensive line, Rocky Mac, the defensive scheme, and some young players being forced into premier roles before they are ready (Kerrigan, for example). I think a team like that can start strong, but it's going to be tough to finish strong with that many real issues. But in a perfect would, a 5-3 start and an 8-8 finish isn't totally out of the question, with some early luck (similar to last year).

But I like what I've seen from Tim Hightower, Jabar Gaffney, Donte Stallworth, Terrence Austin, Brandon Banks, Anthony Armstrong, Santana Moss, Roy Helu, Evan Royster, Rex Grossman, John Beck, Fred Davis, Logan Paulsen, Darrel Young, and Kory Lichtensteiger. And you know what, that's a lot of players who know what the f they are doing (and all Shanahan acquisitions, except Davis, Young, Armstrong, and Moss!) to expect this offense to be worse than last year.

The biggest improvement to date however, (and its been just two preseason games so take it as a grain of salt) has been Kyle Shanahan. He's called two great preseason games after being a liability for us last year. Hope it continues.

young or henne? have you seen them play? no thanks. henne is a great backup. are we sure it was kyle and not mcnabb and guys like galloway and the lackluster RB stable the held the O back last year? that OL was also pretty awful, and all that figures into calling and executing plays.

btw, i'd argue that kerrigan will start slow and become better when he figures out wtf he's doing 8 games in... there's still the week 12 rookie wall, but i think he'll be alright.

we're missing an ILB and #1 CB right now though, with no hier to fletcher's spot either. rocky wouldn't be out there if we had a better option. still need 2 OL and a QB too ;), but i guess no team is perfect.

I don't think QB is necessarily the bottleneck though. our entire top 22 is fairly middle of the pack.

as far as that game - (in general, not at you GTripp) just dont bandwagon too hard when you realize that the colt's D operates best when the know your offense HAS to scor 14 TDs to keep up with peyton. that is not a dink and dunk grind it out defense.

There's a reason we didn't stretch the field last night.

The Colts play a Tampa 2 defense. The strength of that defense is defending the deep ball. Two deep safeties, one deep linebacker, and rush with the front four. The weakness in the Tampa 2 defense is short and intermediate, particularly over the middle. Which is the part of the field the Redskins attacked over and over again.

You guys don't remember the Colts game last year? The go route with Banks? The deep pass attempt to Armstrong? They're always ready to defend the deep ball. They could've tried it, but the chances of completing it wasn't much. So why take a shot deep when they're giving you the short stuff and leaving the middle of the field open for you, not to mention they're having trouble stopping the run?

I guarantee you, if the Ravens try to crowd the box to stop the short passing game, Beck will have no problem chucking one deep, provided he has the time. The weakness of the Ravens defense is still in their secondary; they bought in Bernard Pollard, but he's like Landry and has issues covering, and they'll likely be starting Jimmy Smith, who was worked on by Dwayne Bowe.

As for red zone production, if Sellers doesn't get accidentally tripped up, it's a touchdown. I think there's like, five teams who made the playoffs last year that had an even worse red zone conversion rate than we did. I saw some good red zone plays called in the regular season at the end of the year, particularly with Fred Davis. You don't want to tip your hat to that too much, though.

But we didn't have much of a vertical dimension to the offense against the Steelers, either. If memory serves the longest completion was a catch-and-run and generally shots were not taken down the field. Maybe this problem is an artifact of circumstance. But if we don't take occasional shots, over 16 games safeties will cheat towards the line and the running game will suffer thereby.

Henne or VY? I would rather give the helm to Grossman after his decent performance last year or take a chance with Beck than chase known failures.

Tripp and I are probably the only Redskins fans who care about the Dolphins QB battle: Henne vs. Moore

I don't see how a Beck bandwagon can be formed yet with him only playing one preseason game against a team that just screws around during the preseason, and will be lucky to make the playoffs this year. If Beck does start against the Ravens and does well, I will raise my eyebrows and gain interest. All he has done thus far in my mind is show me he does have some potential and so far is serviceable. Whether or not he is starting caliber is another matter though. He shows promise, but one preseason game does not a season make.