The Key to wins this season (my rant)

What seperates the Redskins from all other playoff teams in the NFL. With the exception of the Ravens, it's that we can't score in the Redzone. Yes, for what it's worth before getting to the opposing teams 20 yard line, the offense in week one looked like all pro's..., but when we got into the key area to score we have complete meltdowns, and mental breakdowns. It's the fear of failure that destroy's our team confidence, not opposing defenses. Everyone has questioned the coaching staff, the talent level, and everything else for that matter. But I think personally it has become a mental hump for our team and until we have a high scoring performance, we will always be in a struggle with ourselves when we get into the redzone.

Last year the Raven's compensated for their offense's failures by having the deffense scoring TD's. That is now a goal of our team. Compensate, I think this is the wrong way to think. We need to see our goal as a team ito be the offense to score and if the the defense score thats great too, but lets not put it all the defenses shoulders. I think we need to mix up the playcalling, give the opposing defenses something they never seen before, take a risk. Running 3 running plays in a row (with in the 5 yard line) and settleing for a field goal is not gonna do it. mix it up build the run before u get to the redzone, and then open up the play actions and draw plays in the redzone.

Our goal every year should be to get to the superbowl and thats it. Everything else is just a failure. It's about being the champ, everyone else in league r chumps. There is only one number 1 contender, that why the NFL is not college ball.

The Cowboys game is tonite and in my opinion we have better talent across the board. however if we can't get our heads out of our asses and use the talent, it will do us no good. So if there are players or coaches on this forum and read this message jus know that we r supportive of u and its not the other teams knocking us off, its us knocking us off.

Tell me members, what u guys think.

Here, here!

I just think we need a breakout game. Much like Chicago had yesterday. I think if we can put 28 points on the board tonight it will cure a lot of the ineptness of our offense.

Our defenses' thinking is a by-product of Gregg Williams' progressive coaching - he really believes they should be putting points on the board. To them, that's one of the ways they will measure improvement this year.

As long as the offense doesn't depend on the defense too much as a security blanket, I am happy. It's time for all of the offensive players to earn they're keep. I think those offenive guys on average r getting paid higher than the defensive ones.

Our Offense has been on the end of some starnge calls, not least of which was the Cooley TD pass called back for interference.

I think that the O need to drive one in there tonight to get their confidence going and have the floodgates open.

I think our red zone deficiencies don't have anything to do with the mental makeup of our team. The WRs, Cooley, Portis, Betts, Royal, and the O-Line all have great mental makeups at any phase of the game. They turn up the intensity in the red zone just fine.

Our red zone issues stem from mistakes by Ramsey mostly. When the field gets shorter you find more defenders in a tighter spot, hence they can afford to bring more pressure without worrying about getting beat deep. Ramsey fumbled and got sacked too much in the red zone. His passing accuracy also isn't great.

Hopefully Brunell will avoid the mistakes Ramsey made, and not fumble or take big sacks in the red zone. But I don't see Brunell as a major threat to move the ball into the end zone consistently. I think he'll be better than Ramsey but I don't think the Skins will suddenly become fantasy football's best team with him in there.

We're still strategically challenged when it comes to the red zone. Portis bulked up, but he's still not big enough to really be a battering ram like Bettis or McAllister. Betts isn't a bad option for goallines, though he's not much bigger than Portis these days. Moss & Patten aren't great options in the red zone because they need more open space to create the separation with their quickness. Our saving grace is Chris Cooley, he's a good target. But one target plus a mediocre goalline running threat don't make for a great red zone threat. Gibbs has resorted to using Taylor as a WR to create the needed size mismatch. I actually think that can work, but him making that move is proof that he thinks we lack strategic advantage in the goalline situations.

I don't think it's mental whatsoever. We're just not strategically built to punch the ball in that well. At least the line looks great, we should be better at running it in this year, but we'll still have to settle for our share of 25 yard FGs.

schneed I see were ur comming from. Guys like Cooley, Royal, Betts and Protis do try to turn it up. but u must account for the false starts and pennalties in the redzone as well; to me these are mental lapses that should not happen. To be the devils advocate in this conversation, I have to ask u to 2 things... Why haven't we used broughton in goalline situations. He's big, and I thought that is what we were gonna see, but it didn't happen in week 1. Another question is if it was so much on Ramsey as u say, then what happened last year when brunnel was the starter? We still didn't score that much.

We were oh so close to scoring two TDs against the Bears. I know close doesn't count but we were at least in the ballpark.

The points will come.

Tonight.

Our Offense has been on the end of some starnge calls, not least of which was the Cooley TD pass called back for interference.

I think that the O need to drive one in there tonight to get their confidence going and have the floodgates open.
I know it's old news now, but that penalty call still gets to me.......he was obviously being held, so he pushed off to get away. Just like a fight I guess, the retaliation is what usually gets the flag. Oh well, for once we won in spite of it!

Anyway, I agree. It's just a matter of sticking it in there once or twice, then it won't be such an issue.

scoring is infectious and we need to catch the bug baddly.

schneed I see were ur comming from. Guys like Cooley, Royal, Betts and Protis do try to turn it up. but u must account for the false starts and pennalties in the redzone as well; to me these are mental lapses that should not happen. To be the devils advocate in this conversation, I have to ask u to 2 things... Why haven't we used broughton in goalline situations. He's big, and I thought that is what we were gonna see, but it didn't happen in week 1. Another question is if it was so much on Ramsey as u say, then what happened last year when brunnel was the starter? We still didn't score that much.

On false starts and other penalties, you're right those are mental gaffes that have to be taken care of. Those were down against Chicago, so hopefully things are better for us in that area.

As for Broughton, he did a lot of fumbling in the preseason, exactly the kind of mistake we can't have in the red zone. He would be a nice goalline weapon but I don't think he can be trusted to handle the rock in a live game situation yet.

As far as Brunell goes last year, I think it was a different situation. The WRs were way different and the line was different. There was no center worth a crap, Dockery was average (he's pretty good now), and Jansen was hurt. So Brunell got chased everywhere. Plus the receivers couldn't get open. I think we should probably be thankful that Brunell didn't turn it over more often under those conditions. Now I think the line is upgraded which will help him a lot. The WRs can create separation now, which is good, but they're at a size disadvantage in the red zone. So I don't think Brunell isn't going to do anything amazing, I just think he'll be able to avoid sacks and fumbles better than Ramsey does. Hopefully we can ride the offensive line to some red zone TDs on the ground.

I just tend to focus on turnovers more than anything. Nothing affects your chances at a W like turnovers. If you're + in the giveaway/takeaway column, then you're pretty likely to win. If you're negative, you're pretty likely to lose. So I'd rather see players who can take care of the ball.