Two major concerns

The two areas I'm concerned about as we head into the regular season are turnovers and penalties. Two areas that plagued us last year and continue to raise their ugly heads this preseason.

Some of it you can chalk up to the backups/rookies playing, but it seems like these are two areas that could be problematic all year for us.

How concerned should we be? Will things settle down once things get rolling and the backups aren't seeing as much playing time?

I wish we had a breakdown of penalties and turnovers committed by the starting units compared to the backups. It might help put things in perspective.

Honestly, I think it's more of a back-up/preseason thing. We'll find out for sure in about 10 days.

But here's the thing, last year a lot of our penalties were things like motion, false start, delay of game, holding. I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Mr. Dockery has not one penalty called on him this pre-season and Jansen has only one. The offensive line is really focused! So it seems like these are very correctable penalties - mainly special teams and a few illegal contact downfield by DBs.

If memory serves me right, I think we've had only 4 turnovers by the starting units. All of them being Ramsey's 4 INTs. The good news is, he's gotten better and better as the preseason has gone on. Last night he took the sack rather than trying to force something that wasn't there. Those were, without a doubt, coverage sacks.

Penalties are purely disciplinary. The penalties on special teams that were committed seemed to be just a bad game. The people who committed them (Thrash namely) are usually great special teams guys. I hope that was just a fluke last night. As far as the offense and defense was concerned, both starting units did fairly well penalty-wise.

Yeah, penalties killed us last night, but I also didn't see many from either the starting offense or the starting defense. It was mainly special teams. I couldn't believe some of the stupid blocks in the back and holding penalties they committed. I don't remember so many special teams penalties in the other games, so I hope it is because we were letting some of the younger guys play more.

I personally think things will settle down, but if they don't it will be another long season marching backwards out of the redzone due to penalties.

As far as turnovers go, Ramsey looked indecisive in the pocket, but at least he didn't throw an interception or fumble, especially since our starting field position was regularly poor due to special teams penalties. Also, the Ravens have a great secondary, so it could be they were just shutting our receivers down. Hard to tell from the poor camera angles and replays from Redskins.comTV. Either way, the game would have gone completely different had we kept running Portis at them regularly. The few plays he had, he looked good. In a real game that would have opened up the passing a bit more.

Yeah, penalties killed us last night, but I also didn't see many from either the starting offense or the starting defense. It was mainly special teams. I couldn't believe some of the stupid blocks in the back and holding penalties they committed. I don't remember so many special teams penalties in the other games, so I hope it is because we were letting some of the younger guys play more.

I personally think things will settle down, but if they don't it will be another long season marching backwards out of the redzone due to penalties.

As far as turnovers go, Ramsey looked indecisive in the pocket, but at least he didn't throw an interception or fumble, especially since our starting field position was regularly poor due to special teams penalties. Also, the Ravens have a great secondary, so it could be they were just shutting our receivers down. Hard to tell from the poor camera angles and replays from Redskins.comTV. Either way, the game would have gone completely different had we kept running Portis at them regularly. The few plays he had, he looked good. In a real game that would have opened up the passing a bit more.

Ramsey did looked a little indecisive...Brunell on the other hand.....naw, I won't even go there:)

I'd rather Ramsey take the occasional sack than force a throw and get picked. Better yet throw it away.

If memory serves me right
Start calling you Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef.

I think the penalties will lessen once the season starts. However, the turnovers to worry me. At least 2 of Ramsey's 4 picks were extremely ill-advised, and worries me that those mistakes will continue.

Hahahahaha! I thought I was the only one who watched that show.

"Today's secret ingredient is... KISS MY ASS." (a clip from Best Week Ever)

Iron Chef is awesome, but I only watch it occasionally, as it butts up against Family Guy and me falling asleep.

I just love how it's dubbed though...it's hilarious.

Yeah, I want Iron Chef before I fall asleep because I love the pure 80s clothes they wear.

And they make the nastiest things I've ever seen. And sadly, I know all the Iron Chef's by name. Iron Chef Chen Kenichi is a bad ass.