Our Schedule...Did you know?

[tryfuhl]

That wasn't exactly the argument that I was trying to make, us being a playoff team/contendor, etc.

There is always a set of circumstances that occur with each following season despite what your previous record was. There is definitely more to it than just changing coaches.

Do I think that we go 10+ wins? No, not really. Do I think that we're just a continuing statistic? Definitely not.

You can't just compare equal record teams, it's stupid. You honestly have to compare teams that due to whatever other variables performed about the same.

If you judged everything by record where would you stand when it came Lombardi time? Brady would have another...

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Expectations are premeditated resentments folks. Don't expect more than .500 from this team. Hell, that would would be twice as many wins as 2009.

Or you could drink Kool-Aid only to be horribly defeated. I for one am done going that route.

I chuggin' a Kool-Aid Big Gulp!

If they don't do better than .500 I'll be momentarily disappointed, but at the end of the day if they finish 4-12 or 12-4 it doesn't change much for me. Just makes me a little happier Monday morning when they win (well, much happier)

[aceinthehouse]

If we were a 4-12 team coming into the 2010 season with Shanahan,a rookie QB(or very young QB),young RB's,TE's, FB's and even WR's and the same on the other side of the ball for Haslet and the Defense to work with.

I would certainly understand the glass half empty portrayel of this team being lucky if they could win 4 games again.....maybe even 6 or 7 games if we were to get lucky.

But this is not the case and why myself and few others believe this team is and has been better than what the product we have all seen on the field.

We have had arguably the worst coach and QB in the League in the last 2 years imo...Not bad...kinda bad..terrible..I'm talking..THE WORST! 2 of the most important areas of a football team.

Zorn was absolutely terrible...Was it his fault? no,it wasn't...He was thrown into the fire from a QB's coach to Head coach. Hadn't even been a coordinator before then. It was like taking a caddie in golf and saying.."alright buddy...Your facing the field..have at it!" "Good luck"!

We were just trying to hope we struck gold from a good QB's coach and go in the direction of a young head coach like many of the teams in the NFL have done. It failed...Simple as that!

Then we gave this coach a very bad QB. He might not be Jemarcus bad...But not a lot better.

There are 32 starting QB's in the NFL.
If you have me rank them by who I would want leading MY PERSONAL football team in hoping I could win the Superbowl with....Campbell would have easily been in my bottom 5.

It's just that simple folks!

Does that necessarily mean he's in the bottom 5 in talent? Not necessarily,but I truly in my honest of hearts believe...he doesn't, nor ever will...have what it takes to lead the charge for a SUPERBOWL victory! (I have my reasons and nobody will ever change that opinion of mine)

NOW..having said that...Things have changed!

You gave me a HOF Coach...
An up and coming Off. Coordinator
A pretty good D-Coordinator with Head coach experience
A possible HOF QB and a backup whom both have played in the SB)
3 Pro Bowl RB's (with all 3 of them X2 in pro bowls)
2 Pro Bowl WR's (moss and galloway)
A Pro bowl TE (and a stud backup)
A Pro bowl RT
A blue chip LT rookie
A Pro bowl FB...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A pro bowl DT/DE
2 Pro bowl LB's
A Pro bowl CB

and a pro Bowl Punter

To start my team off,plus aquire new faces for the scheme I want to run....on both sides of the ball

I'm going to be excited!

Does this mean we will be just automatically become perfect...no

If you want to tell me,we won't be good because of chemistry...haven't gelled....take a while for everyone to play as a unit...I'll buy that argument. I totally undertand that and team unity is as big as anything in team sports...

But don't tell me,we can't win..because we don't have the talent on the field..because it isn't true.
We just needed someone to be able to utilize that talent and put it in positionfor success.

Not to mention discipline and the demand for perfection!

people here and all over skins fans or not...expect a 4-12 to 7-9 season at best...

I'll be absolutely crushed..we don't at least hit 8-8...
How good can we be? See my sig!

I sure wouldn't put it there,if i felt we couldn't do it!

[Beemnseven]

Let's see...

Home against Dallas: I'd like to think they'd get up for the season opener against a big rival for a nationally televised audience. Problem is, they rarely seem to do that. I can see us losing this game. Sorry. 0 - 1

Home against Houston: Tough game. Tough to call. Their passing game is no joke, and expectations for the Texans seem to get higher every year. I'll say we squeak this one out. 1 -1

@ Rams: SHOULD be a win. 2 - 1.

@ Eagles: I'm truly on the fence with the Eagles. They took a huge roll of the dice with Kevin Kolb, and they seem confident with a young team. The Skins will be away for this one, so I'll say this one's a close loss. 2 - 2.

Home against Packers: I don't see us with much of a chance here; the Pack is the real deal. I predict a loss here. 2 - 3.

Home against Colts: Same deal. Tough opponent. They'll be too much for our D. 2 - 4.

@ Bears: Flip a coin. Who knows. It's in Chicago, but I'll say we get an unexpected win on the road. 3 - 4.

@ Lions: Revenge game? I wouldn't be so sure. But what the hell. We go on a 2 game winning streak. 4 - 4.

Home against Philly: This one's at home, so we'll get the win. 5 - 4.

@ Tennessee: The Titans will probably beat us handily. 5 - 5.

Home against Minnesota: Not a chance, we'll get our clocks cleaned. I don't care where it's being played. 5 - 6.

@ NY Giants: Our luck won't change in their new stadium. We'll get them at home though. 5 - 7.

Home against Tampa Bay: Should be a win, but we've struggled with this team as they have been struggling themselves. 6 - 7.

@ Dallas: Nope. Not on their turf. 6 - 8.

@ Jacksonville: We'll get this one. 7 - 8.

Home against NY Giants: These chumps couldn't possibly sweep us 3 years in a row. Could they? 8 - 8.

It goes without saying there's always a win when there should be a loss, and a loss when you're expecting a win. If things go completely in the shitter, I can see losses at the Bears and the Rams. If we're unexpectedly good, perhaps we get the opening night victory against the Cowboys, but that's about it.

As a fan, that's as best I can do for an objective look. Within a game of 8 - 8, but my tendency would be to say that we still have a long way to go, so we'll probably be on the wrong side of .500.

[beemnsevenspop]

Sorry, son of mine - NO wins against Dallas, NO wins against the NYG, perhaps ONE win against Philly; ONE win against the entire NFC North (Detroit); Rams, there's THREE wins under our belt; Houston, fuggedaboudit; Tennessee? Buh-Bye; Tampa Bay, yeah I think so; Jacksonville, perhaps, so, make that FOUR, possibly FIVE total wins this season.

Just yer Dad's toosensewurth....

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

I got 10-6 or 11-5. I see us splitting with the Giants, Eagles, and cowboys, and losing to the Colts and Packers.

And my sixth loss will be against possibly the Vikings, I could see us winning one of the big three games outside the division IE Colts, Packers, Vikings. Then lose to a team we should beat.

Also we could go 4-2 in the division and lose to one of the teams we should beat easily.

OR we could go something in the range of 0-16 wins with something like 0-16 losses.

[GusFrerotte]

I wouldn't put Detroit that easily in the win column. They are the guys that started the disaster for the SS Zorn and it is at Ford Field again. We beat the Lions handily in the playoffs, since it usually is in MD, but we are 2-3 against them during our last 5 meetings

[beemnsevenspop]

Originally Posted by GusFrerotte

I wouldn't put Detroit that easily in the win column. They are the guys that started the disaster for the SS Zorn and it is at Ford Field again. We beat the Lions handily in the playoffs, since it usually is in MD, but we are 2-3 against them during our last 5 meetings

I was being generous - that's the optimist in me coming out....

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

Gus we are going to rock the Lions this year.

Mike Shanahan is not going to let the Redskins lose to the Lions again this year.

[GusFrerotte]

Originally Posted by artmonkforhallofamein07

Gus we are going to rock the Lions this year.

Mike Shanahan is not going to let the Redskins lose to the Lions again this year.

I hope you are right. I was totally ribbed big time coming out of Ford Field in my Skins jersey surrounded by Lions fans last year. Everyone was joking around that I should take off the jersey since we lost to them. If we are healthy I agree with you, but if we are banged up or for some reason not firing on all cylinders, we can lose. The Lions look improved for the most part.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by GMScud

washingtonpost.com

Boswell made several good points in that article. My expectations are tempered at around the 8 win mark. Anyone thinking more is pretty much setting themselves up for disappointment. Some highlights:

In the last 20 years, 18 teams that went 4-12 switched coaches. Their average record the next season was 7-9.

Is there even a chance the Redskins could make the playoffs? Sure, there is. Unfortunately, it's just not much of a chance - less than 20 percent. Since '90, there have been 54 teams that lost 11 or more games, then got a new coach before the next season. How many made the playoff the first year? Ten of 54, or just 19 percent.

For the Redskins to reach 9-7 this season - a winning record and a mark that might get them into the playoffs - they would have to win five more games than last year. How rare is that? You guessed it: Darn rare. In the last 20 years, 115 NFL teams have changed coaches after the season. Just 17 of them - or 14.9 percent - improved by five wins. That should be sobering. But it gets worse. Of the 17 teams that showed big jumps, how many went backward in the new coach's second season? Answer: 13 of the 17.

Washington plays seven games against teams that won 11 to 14 games last year and four more against .500-or-better teams. That's not a schedule. It's a 113-day final examination.

You want me to tell you that the history book says that everything will be dandy by 2011. Sorry, another wrong answer.
Let's go back to those 115 coaching changes since '90. How many of those franchises had improved by five wins - which it would take to get the Redskins to 9-7 - by the end of Year Two? Only 22 teams - or 19 percent - met that high standard.

Expectations are premeditated resentments folks. Don't expect more than .500 from this team. Hell, that would would be twice as many wins as 2009.

Or you could drink Kool-Aid only to be horribly defeated. I for one am done going that route.

Although I appreciate the sobering numbers, Boswell would have been better off looking at teams which changed coaches AND GMs. Situations like Matt Millen changing coaches should not count here - we got rid of Cerrato.

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

I agree Gus, but this is one of those games that with Mcnabb and even with coach Shanny we should be able to out coach them.

We are signifigantly improved in so many areas then we were last year and I just do not see vast improvement from the Lions. WE should be able to make some big plays against them and force some turnovers with our aggressive new defense.

I like our chances this year.

[GusFrerotte]

Thing is you also have to take in account the system changes and the personnel from the previous regimes. The Gibbs guys didn't flourish in Zorn's system. It might take our guys a bit to get used to Shanny's. As far as the changes with FO tactics from Cerrato to Allen, not much of a change with the exception of the modest sizes of the contracts. We are still going heavy with free agency at the expense of future draft picks, thus the continuance of the win now philosophy.

[GusFrerotte]

Originally Posted by artmonkforhallofamein07

I agree Gus, but this is one of those games that with Mcnabb and even with coach Shanny we should be able to out coach them.

We are signifigantly improved in so many areas then we were last year and I just do not see vast improvement from the Lions. WE should be able to make some big plays against them and force some turnovers with our aggressive new defense.

I like our chances this year.

I do to, but then again I loved our chances last year and we stunk up the place really bad.

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

Well to be fair to our guys, not many people flourished in Zorn's system, which as we have come to find out had Cooley ( as an example ) running all of seven different routes, and as much everyone harps on our offensive line losing game for us in the past, I believe this group can help us win some. AND Zorn's system lost us plenty of games in 08 and 09.

I know we will have growing pains and I actually remember reading your post of how dissapointed you were last year when you attended that losing effort.

I just have a feeling that with our pass protection being so much improved as well as the play of our QBs we should have a damn good shot of kicking the crap out of them.

I guess you and I should revisit this topic before the game since we will have a better understanding of who this team will be and also who may or may not be playing!