[sportscurmudgeon]

With all the conservative playcalling and all the bad offensive events last Sunday, the Skins led with less than two minutes to play. The defense was on the field and if anyone here thinks that is not the strength of the 2004 Washington Redskins, that person needs to takehis head out of his butt.

And they lost.

So, was that Gibbs' fault? Or Gregg Williams' fault?

NO, NO! NO!!!

The team was in a position to win; the defense had been called. The players BLEW THE COVERAGE!! (I'm being polite here because I've watched that play about 8 times and it was actually only 1 player who blew the coverage and lost the game!) The coaches did their job and did it well enough to win a poorly played game if the defense - and particularly one of the defense's icons - simply does what he is supposed to do. He didn't and they lost the game.

Go back to the Cleveland game. They had that game won and the defense was there and allowed a "length of the field drive" in the final minutes to lose the game. Gregg Williams didn't do that; the players on defense did that.

Go back to first Dallas game. Skins have the ball 1st and goal at the Dallas one-yard line. Three tries - two were power runs and one pass as I recall - and nothing good happened. Field goal gets 3 points. Dallas later had the ball first and goal at the Skins' one-yard line. First play is a TD and Dallas scores 7. Final difference in score was 3 points. Now who didn't get the ball into the end zone from the one-yard line? Gibbs? Bugel? Not a chance.

This team is 5-10 because it has players living on reputations and others trying to achieve their potential. The first players are not doing nearly as well as they used to do and the second players have not yet accomplished squadoosh. Of the 22 starters, about 10 fall in that category and that is a recipe for losing twice for each win.

It's the players that forged this record...