SmootSmack
12-06-2005, 02:07 PM
Former NFL great Tony McGee sat down with TheWarpath.net front office Tuesday morning and answered some TheWarpath.net questions about the Redskins 24-9 win over the St. Louis Rams. Please be sure to visit http://www.tonymcgeeplus.com and watch Tony McGee's Pro Football Plus Saturdays at 11:30 am on Comcast SportsNet and DirecTV to see Tony and his panel of guests answer "TheWarpath.net Question of the Week". This week's question is "What player has been the biggest surprise this season?" Ok, let's get started with Tony's thoughts here:
This was a nice win. We played virtually mistake free and controlled the tempo of the game from start to finish. Let's start with the defense. Now the guy's stats may be down from last year, but I think we can clearly see what a difference it makes having Cornelius Griffin in there. There's better pressure on the QB when CG is in there clogging the middle. I like what I'm seeing out of Carlos Rogers. He's not there yet, but right now the defense has more flexibility to present different blitz packages with him in there. Harris was solid the first few games but once he got hurt it really affected him and the team. Now I hear some of you have been saying that CB is a hard transition from college to the NFL. I would say it's probably the linebacker position, especially MLB-because that's your signal caller. Cornerback can be a tough transition, but at that position you can often just get by on athletic ability even if your technique isn't great. Overall, QB is the toughest transition.
Let's move on to the offense now. This is way the team has to play the rest of the way. Like Matty says, smashmouth football. Fact is, the better teams are the teams that can run in the cold months. This is typical Gibbs football. Run, run, run in December. Joe Gibbs' teams are something like 34-12 in December so he knows what he's doing. I see that several of you have questions about Rock Cartwright. Why was he successful? Will we see more of him this year? Will he be here next year? Let's start with the last question first. It's too soon to tell, too soon to really talk about next year yet. I think we will see more of him this season, especially as long as Betts is out. Like I said you run, run, run in December. Now Big C, you want to know why he was so successful. Rock hits the holes hard. He attacks the hole which is key to the Joe Gibbs offense. It's all about timing. You can't hesitate. I'm not saykng Portis hesitates, but what Portis has been doing is getting slowed up by the fact that he's making sure he doesn't fumble. Holding the ball with two hands the whole time slows you down. You guys may have noticed he was running a lot with the ball safely tucked under one hand. And you can see the bursts of speed he got when he did that.
The passing game could use Thrash back in there. But you never know how long someone will recover from a hamstring injury. And especially in the cold weather. The window is closing on Jacobs. The excuse for him before was that he wasn't healthy. Now he is and he's not producing. It's time to start being concerned that he's just not going to be the right fit here. I would have liked to see them go after Peerless Price, but I guess the price wasn't right (no pun intended).
Looking ahead to next week, we need to keep Kurt Warner off the field. He's one of the games most accurate passers. Give him time and he'll kill you.
Just remember-run, run, run.
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Tony McGee's NFL career started in 1971 where he was a starting defensive end for the Chicago Bears. In 1974, Tony began a 7 year stint with the New England Patriots and earned the nickname, "Mac the Sack." His unique ability to swarm opposing quarterbacks helped coin the phrase, "designated pass rusher." Tony's career as a Washington Redskin began in 1982, and included a Super Bowl championship. Tony ended his spectacular career in 1985 with 106 career sacks and played in over 200 games -- a feat achieved only by a select group of NFL defensive linemen.
For more information visit http://www.tonymcgeeplus.com
This was a nice win. We played virtually mistake free and controlled the tempo of the game from start to finish. Let's start with the defense. Now the guy's stats may be down from last year, but I think we can clearly see what a difference it makes having Cornelius Griffin in there. There's better pressure on the QB when CG is in there clogging the middle. I like what I'm seeing out of Carlos Rogers. He's not there yet, but right now the defense has more flexibility to present different blitz packages with him in there. Harris was solid the first few games but once he got hurt it really affected him and the team. Now I hear some of you have been saying that CB is a hard transition from college to the NFL. I would say it's probably the linebacker position, especially MLB-because that's your signal caller. Cornerback can be a tough transition, but at that position you can often just get by on athletic ability even if your technique isn't great. Overall, QB is the toughest transition.
Let's move on to the offense now. This is way the team has to play the rest of the way. Like Matty says, smashmouth football. Fact is, the better teams are the teams that can run in the cold months. This is typical Gibbs football. Run, run, run in December. Joe Gibbs' teams are something like 34-12 in December so he knows what he's doing. I see that several of you have questions about Rock Cartwright. Why was he successful? Will we see more of him this year? Will he be here next year? Let's start with the last question first. It's too soon to tell, too soon to really talk about next year yet. I think we will see more of him this season, especially as long as Betts is out. Like I said you run, run, run in December. Now Big C, you want to know why he was so successful. Rock hits the holes hard. He attacks the hole which is key to the Joe Gibbs offense. It's all about timing. You can't hesitate. I'm not saykng Portis hesitates, but what Portis has been doing is getting slowed up by the fact that he's making sure he doesn't fumble. Holding the ball with two hands the whole time slows you down. You guys may have noticed he was running a lot with the ball safely tucked under one hand. And you can see the bursts of speed he got when he did that.
The passing game could use Thrash back in there. But you never know how long someone will recover from a hamstring injury. And especially in the cold weather. The window is closing on Jacobs. The excuse for him before was that he wasn't healthy. Now he is and he's not producing. It's time to start being concerned that he's just not going to be the right fit here. I would have liked to see them go after Peerless Price, but I guess the price wasn't right (no pun intended).
Looking ahead to next week, we need to keep Kurt Warner off the field. He's one of the games most accurate passers. Give him time and he'll kill you.
Just remember-run, run, run.
##################################################
Tony McGee's NFL career started in 1971 where he was a starting defensive end for the Chicago Bears. In 1974, Tony began a 7 year stint with the New England Patriots and earned the nickname, "Mac the Sack." His unique ability to swarm opposing quarterbacks helped coin the phrase, "designated pass rusher." Tony's career as a Washington Redskin began in 1982, and included a Super Bowl championship. Tony ended his spectacular career in 1985 with 106 career sacks and played in over 200 games -- a feat achieved only by a select group of NFL defensive linemen.
For more information visit http://www.tonymcgeeplus.com