Did the 6-2 start raise our expectations to an unrealistic level?

[MTK]

Good piece by Mike Wise here:

washingtonpost.com

The article got me thinking, especially this part:

It was never about this year.

Daniel Snyder might have said he expected to win the NFC East and return to the playoffs in an interview with Comcast SportsNet in August, which was a nice, preseason carrot for the owner to dangle in front of the needy masses. And the signings of Jason Taylor and later DeAngelo Hall might have been done to immediately bolster the defense.

But from their build-through-the-draft mantra to their brazen pick of a position-coach lifer to take over for Joe Gibbs, the Redskins have not-so-covertly sold their fans and themselves on one big idea: that 2008 would be a starter kit toward lasting NFL success.

That doesn't mean instantly believing smoke and mirrors can lead to hoisting a Lombardi Trophy a year after essentially the same roster barely made the playoffs. It means planting seeds, marrying the minds of a new coach, his young quarterback and yet another new system.

Just because there was gravy before the grunt doesn't mean the long-term goals should now be shelved.

I think most of us can agree our expections back in August for this year were in the 7-9 win range, which we're on course for. So what has changed exactly? The only thing that makes some sense to me is the fast start inflated our short term expecations and has made us lose sight of what the long term plan is.

Yes, I agree the team is certainly capaable of playing better right now, but it still doesn't change the fact that realistically this was a 7-9 win team coming into this season with a rookie head coach, a new passing game and some new coaches on the staff, a QB learning yet another new offense and one that is a pretty big departure from the Gibbs/Saunders philosophy, and a front office that signaled they are working on stocking through the draft and taking a more conservative approach to free agency.

This simply wasn't a team built for winning right now. So can we just calm down with the silly notion that if this team misses the playoffs we need to make major changes to the personnel and staff??