Redskins 31 Browns 20 post game talk

I see the optimism police have arrived.

You could have posted this same thing this time last year. Fact is, we can improve as the season progresses...the season is ebb and flows. Things change...

Exactly. One of the things that really helped us last year was McCloughan's mid-season free agent pickups. Who knows who might get injured, and who knows who might ride in to the rescue. That's why I say our depth is an advantage. All teams suffer injuries. I just think we're much better equipped to handle them than most.

And all teams tinker. As much as I don't like Joe Barry at the moment, he is no doubt tinkering with concepts and may find something that works better on 3rd downs. Who knows.

The NFC is wide open...when your best team in the conference is QB'ed by Sam Bradford and your star RB is out, anything can happen. Carolina and Arizona could be borderline tail-spinning if either of their QB are out for a significant time....

I'm going to stay positive no matter what because I believe we're heading in the right direction as a team and I've thought from Day 1 of the Scot M. era that the team build would take at least three years.

Right now, I accept that teams are going to be able to run on us. But the team is playing hard every week and we've shown strength in other areas. If things go our way, we can compete for the division title this season.

Right now I am up in the air about "the direction of this team". As well I should be. We are 2-2. We could be 3-1. We could be 0-4. That is reality. That is how we are playing. Depth, as Schneed pointed out, has seemingly improved. I mean in past years these injuries would have decimated us. Murphy, Dunbar, our O-line - there appears to be real solid depth there.
Cousins seems to be getting on track. Jones and CT, and more importantly Grudens decision not to take them out of the game , seems to have actually given us a credible run game. No doubt that our defense up the middle needs help. Probably not in the form of mid season pick ups but who knows. Most likely (pray to God) this is addressed with the utmost of importance during the offseason. If we get some guys back, continue to improve, and stay healthy otherwise, than this team can win 9-10 games and be in it at the end. Which is all you need to be - see the Giants last two championship teams. If you remember correctly they were calling for Coughlin, and Eli's heads midway through both of those seasons.
Now, if next year we are 5 weeks into the season and our defense still looks like this, and our redzone offense is struggling than I think the optimism police have a legitimate gripe. Let us remember what a complete disaster this roster was two years ago though. We have enough pieces right now to make some "unexpected" noise. With one more draft and free agency period we "should" be fielding a complete team.

I'm going to stay positive no matter what because I believe we're heading in the right direction as a team and I've thought from Day 1 of the Scot M. era that the team build would take at least three years.

Right now, I accept that teams are going to be able to run on us. But the team is playing hard every week and we've shown strength in other areas. If things go our way, we can compete for the division title this season.

I know we have a pretty mediocre defense and there are tons of room for improvement in talent and the coaching staff. But, I feel sometimes people expect a shutdown defense out of this bunch.

Right now we have a defense that can't stop the run and has trouble getting to the QB. Yet, they are in the top 10 in the league in takeaways. And that's going to be the reality of the defense for the most part. They can't/won't be able to carry the team and will give up yards, but they can provide opportunities for the offense with turnovers and in some cases key stops.

We will win games if the offense plays to its potential and plays as the strongest unit of the team. And if they can continue to capitalize on the defense's takeaways as they did against the Browns.

I see the optimism police have arrived.

Yeah I guess some people prefer to never believe than to expect something and take the chance to be deceived... Don't be so coward, the worst that could happen is you're deceived, not the end of the world. I just don't see the point of being a "fan" of a team if you're 100 % sure you gonna lose even when your team's leading in the 4th quarter...

I know we have a pretty mediocre defense and there are tons of room for improvement in talent and the coaching staff. But, I feel sometimes people expect a shutdown defense out of this bunch.

Right now we have a defense that can't stop the run and has trouble getting to the QB. Yet, they are in the top 10 in the league in takeaways. And that's going to be the reality of the defense for the most part. They can't/won't be able to carry the team and will give up yards, but they can provide opportunities for the offense with turnovers and in some cases key stops.

We will win games if the offense plays to its potential and plays as the strongest unit of the team. And if they can continue to capitalize on the defense's takeaways as they did against the Browns.

Mostly true, but I think the defense is still better than they've played so far overall. I think they're not communicating well, they're not staying disciplined and thus are out of position in a lot of cases, and then flat bringing weaksauce tackling.

I think some of these issues will get cleaned up. Will the Cowboys still have success running the ball against us, sure. I'm not asking them to be top 10, hell I am not even sure I'm confident they can be top 20. All I want is better tackling and to get off the field on 3rd down at a more normal rate. Those things alone will put the ball back in our offense's hands, where the strength of the team is. We can win the division that way. Barry needs to coach better and we need to tackle better, but we have it in us.

Eagles have a tough schedule from here on in:

at Lions
at Redskins
Vikings
at Cowboys
at Giants
Falcons
at Seahawks
Packers
at Bengals
Redskins
at Ravens
Giants

Their schedule is looking tough to me because the Falcons appear to be much better on offense this year and playing in Seattle is a nightmare. 4 out of their next 5 games are away games.

This is a winnable division.