Redskins November 2010 - - The Ugly

[sportscurmudgeon]

As the final thread in my trilogy, here are some things concerning the Washington Redskins that are either Ugly now or have the potential to become Ugly.


1. Nepotism: Obviously, I do not have direct knowledge of the coaching situation on a day-to-day basis within the Skins organization. Nevertheless, if I were Bruce Allen, I would be out looking for old oil lamps that I could rub just to produce a genie to give me some wishes. And my first wish would be that some other team in the NFL would offer Kyle Shanahan a job as an "assistant head coach" or even as a "head coach" so that the Skins can get him off the premises. The fact that he is Mike Shanahan's son makes for some potentially intractable situations.

The Redskins offense has been "less than fully productive" in 2010. [How's that for political correctness?] I think most of the blame falls on the skills and abilities of the players - - but there is no way on the planet that the head coach can give a fair and objective evaluation of what share of the blame belongs on the offensive coordinator here. We can pretend Mike Shanahan can and will do that; but that is all it is - - pretense.

Let me be candid here. Kyle Shanahan at age 31 is an offensive coordinator with 5 years in the NFL. His position coaching experience and offensive coordinator experience came in Houston under the tutelage of - - the guy who was Mike Shanahan's OC in Denver. So, there is no way to know if Kyle Shanahan is competent at this job - - and it is possible that he is a certifiable genius here - - of if he holds the position only because his last name is Shanahan.

This is a cloud that will hang over the Skins until and unless Kyle Shanahan moves on and succeeds somewhere else on his own dime. And the only way that happens is if Bruce Allen finds a genie in a lamp ... because:

You can find more than a few folks around the NFL who are 100% certain that Mike Shanahan's long range plan in Washington is to leave town only when his kid is a shoo-in to be his successor. I don't know if those folks are correct or not - - but if they are, this is UGLY.

2. Locker-room leadership: If there is any real leadership among the players in the locker-room I have two things to say about it:

A. It is a very quiet brand of leadership.

B. It needs to assert itself very directly and very forcefully right now in the wake of the disastrous loss to the Eagles on MNF.

The leadership has to come from the players and not the coaches here; the coaches will surely tell the team about the mistakes they made and all that stuff that is on tape. It will take leadership from the players themselves to address player problems that were evident last night against the Eagles and at other times during the season. For example:

[I]A. Lack of effort on the field. I'm not even referring to Fat Albert lying on the ground like walrus and not even trying to get up and pressure Michael Vick who had 7.8 seconds in the pocket to pick out a receiver. I am talking about other players on the D-line and at linebacker and at WR who gave half-hearted efforts once the Skins fell behind by 3 TDs. It is one thing to get beat by another player who is also collecting a salary to play football; it is another to get beat because he was trying hard and you were not. Someone in the Redskins locker room has to assert himself and call out "lack of effort" and make it understandable that "lack of effort" is unacceptable to the other players on the team!

B. Stupid trashtalking/posing/celebrating: If you are going to create an incident on the field before a game on national TV thereby focusing attention on yourself, you damned well better back it up once the whistle blows. LaRon Landry and DeAngelo Hall were clowned last night - - not just on the first play of the game - - all night long. After all the pointing and taunting and posturing, how did it look after the game when there were 59 points up there staring down at you defensive stalwarts? Someone in the Redskins locker room has to assert himself and make it clear that those posers embarrassed themselves AND THE REST OF THE TEAM on national television. And that must never happen again... Oh by the way, when the opponent is ahead 35-0 in the second quarter, no one on the team should be pounding himself on the chest and flexing for the crowd when he makes a single play. Save that for when you have gotten back to within two scores...

This is UGLY.