John Clayton - reality?

EDIT: Before getting in a huff about the Gyants, my point for this thread was the following question: do you believe the Skins have to play a perfect game in order to beat "good" teams (e.g., of the Gyants' caliber)?


Per Clayton (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&page=/firstandten/week9&campaign=rss&source=NFLHeadlines):
"The Redskins learned in last week's blowout loss to the Giants that to beat good teams they have to play a perfect game."

Two points:
1. The Gyants aren't in the "good team" league. For that matter, I'm not sure we are either.
2. Um...did he watch the game? We didn't do *anything* right, and the Giants played marginally well. If the 49ers had played as bad as we did, we probably would have won by 60 points.

Could you clarify? I really don't understand the point you're trying to make.

In your opinion, the Giants aren't a good team. However, they are 1st in a division that has every team over .500. That's saying something. They have scored the 2nd most points in the NFL, and lead the league in points per game. Their defense is suspect, but they showed last week that they can be a force.

Putting up 36 points in the NFL is no easy task, especially against at Top 5 defense. Marginally well is the Skins beating the Bears 9-7.

However, I'd be more suspect to say that Clayton is just stating the obvious. You have to play a perfect game anytime you go out there.

Let's give some credit here, the Giants are indeed a good team. I know it's hard to admit, but hey, they're 5-2. As Parcells has said, you are what you are, and right now the Giants are a first place team.

cpayne5:
We didn't lose because we failed to play a "perfect game". We lost because we played absolutely atrociously. "Perfect game" implies we would have lost had we made even a few mistakes. Personally, I don't believe that to be true. We've been winning games with negative turnover ratios, which is hardly a "perfect game" (in fact, positive turnover ratio is pretty much a core element of a perfect game).

BDBohnzie:
I didn't say they weren't a good team. I was using "good team" in quotes to indicate I don't think they are one of the best teams in the league. I could have stated that more clearly. They are a decent team, and they may very well be better than us.

Bottom line - I think what Clayton said is a gross mischaracterization of the game. I don't think the Skins need to play a perfect game to beat the Gyants. Do you guys really think we do?

OK - let's drop the Gyants thing - that was partly an off-the-cuff joke. They are a good team.

Back to my original question - do you believe the Skins have to play a perfect game in order to beat teams of the Gyants' caliber?

I think teams like the Bears have to play perfect games to beat those teams. I don't believe the Skins are in that lower rung this year.

Edit: So as not to offend ;), I changed "bottom rung" to "lower rung".

I think he saw the highlights but not the game, the Giants played the perfect game. If he's watched us at all this season, except for the 49er game we've had room for improvement each week. We don't need a perfect game to beat good teams.

Why is our win over Dallas considered a fluke, but when they beat us its fate? Last year we lose in Dallas on a bomb and it's validation that they are better than us, even though we had been beating their brains out all day. This year, we reverse that and still get no respect.

If we get back to playing defense the way we have since GW arrived, then everything will be ok.

The Giants are a good team. Stats mean diddly. 5-2 speaks louder than, "number 31 ranked defense". That "lower rung" defense pretty much took care of our offense last week, so we have no crowing room. Of course, they still have to come into Fedex in December and we'll see who the good team is on that day.

The Giants are a good team. Stats mean diddly. 5-2 speaks louder than, "number 31 ranked defense". That "lower rung" defense pretty much took care of our offense last week, so we have no crowing room. Of course, they still have to come into Fedex in December and we'll see who the good team is on that day.

OK - let's drop the Gyants thing - that was partly an off-the-cuff joke. They are a good team.

Back to my original question - do you believe the Skins have to play a perfect game in order to beat teams of the Gyants' caliber?

We can beat any team in the league if we play our game. It doesn't have to be perfect but it can't be as bad as it was last week. The worse game we've played otherwise was week one adn we barely won. Other than that we really haven't played fantastically except the 49er game. To me that shows we are a good team who does not need to be perfect to win. Plus what the heck is "perfect" anyways? Perfectly execute the gameplan or perfectly execute the gameplan that all the "experts" think we should be using? My guess is that they are often very different.