Smoot Lays the Smack Down (Redskins vs. Panthers)

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by #56fanatic

WOW - unbelievable how people jump from one week to the next.

come on people. we are 3-3, we have some tough games coming up, but I believe we are still in the running. Our division isn't as strong as it has been in the past.
I like all the questioning of players and coaches and styles and playcalling when we lose vs when we win. Its so freaking dramatic. I dont get the bashing of Cofield AT ALL. That D line is a HUGE improvement and plays pretty damn well. Carriker has 4 or 5 sacks, pretty good in my eyes. That is directly related to Cofield getting doubled in the middle.
Haslett DOES have a clue. I dont understand why people are questioning him. Our Defense is remarkably better this year. We are 2nd in the NFL on 3rd down, top 5 in sacks. WE are getting better. Another year, another draft and our D could bereally really good.

WHen hightower went down, I can't remember what the score was, but I am guessing we were down a bit. This offense has run the ball as much as most in the league, so no idea where that comes from. From what it looked like to me was Beck was out of rhythm early, and they were trying to get him going, which it looked like he started getting into a good rhythm when they moved him around a little.
As far as bringing Gaffney and Stalworth in why not? Gaffney has proven to be a quility receiver. He had a bad game last week, who doesn't. Stallworth was an invite on minimum salary and he made the team. He may be one that actually pays off now with MOss out 5 or 6 weeks.

THis turning around project isn't going to happen in one year. Throw out last year because I think they thought they had pieces to compete last year with McNabb and quickly realized they didn't. So a couple more drafts and offseasons is when I am looking to make that move and be playoff contenders and super bowl contenders. I rather us to build through the draft, aquire a FA here and there to fill out a young talented roster and compete.

WE ARE headed in the right direction. Look at last year to this year, Defenese alone is leaps and bounds better.

two of the wins were against the rams and the cards. we're headed in the right direction but we have a real long way to go.

[skinsfaninok]

If we lose this week then I'll start to think 6 wins again is possible

[SouperMeister]

I would have included Orakpo in the smack down, and I'm a huge fan. How many times does he have to lose containment on the edge before Haslett sits him on run downs? Plus, the one time he had a completely blind kill shot on Cam, he made no effort to swipe at the ball with his right hand. That would have been a fumble if D. Ware or Umenyiora had the same opportunity.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

I hate to beat a dead horse but why is it that when we're down late in the game there is not hurry up offense? That goes on the OC and the HC.

AMEN to this - - - particularly after having listened to Shanahan lecture everyone on the importance of tempo at practice and in games.

The tempo of this team is about the same as the tempo of "Taps" played at Arlington National Cemetery.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

How many Belichick have without Tom Brady? How many did Bill Walsh have without Montana and Young? How many did Tony Dungy have without Peyton Manning?

Smootsmack:

Big difference here is that Walsh - - once he righted the ship in SF - - never coached 10 years after Montana/Young were finished. Shanahan has...

Dungy never coached 10 years without Peyton Manning. Shanahan has.

Belichick only had 3 years (or was it 4) in Cleveland where a .500 season would have been acceptable as his coaching stint "without Brady". That is not a decade of coaching without his stud QB. Shanahan has been coaching "sans Elway" for 11.5 years now.

[SirClintonPortis]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Smootsmack:

Big difference here is that Walsh - - once he righted the ship in SF - - never coached 10 years after Montana/Young were finished. Shanahan has...

Dungy never coached 10 years without Peyton Manning. Shanahan has.

Belichick only had 3 years (or was it 4) in Cleveland where a .500 season would have been acceptable as his coaching stint "without Brady". That is not a decade of coaching without his stud QB. Shanahan has been coaching "sans Elway" for 11.5 years now.

Shanahan's personnel decisions undid him. He eventually DID find a franchise-caliber QB to pilot one of the best 8-8 offenses ever, but a Swiss cheese defense and being reduced to using Tatum Bell ended whatever hopes he had of getting Denver back to glory. Oh, and he was too loyal to Slowik and didn't want to fire him.

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

I'd like to lay some smack down to the NFL for the kick off rule. Did Banks even get one return yeserday? That rule has basically taken away our most explosive player. Might as well have just placed the ball on the 20 yesterday and not even wasted the time kicking it. Such a HORRIBLE rule. One of the annoucers said that touch backs were up 300%.

Hate the rule too...


However, you do realize the indictment you have just laid out on the rest of the 53-man roster here, right? Lots of guys are getting paid lots more money to be on the field for lots more plays than Banks and you say he is the most explosive player.


Bet that is not part of the script for the team meetings this week...

[sportscurmudgeon]

Take a deep breath folks; the 2011 season is on track to be what should have been realistically expected for the 2011 season.

The Redskins are a better football team now than they were in the middle of last year. They are better because they are faster and they are better because they play harder than last year's team did. They are younger and that leads to one of their "weaknesses" for 2011 - - they make bad mistakes at bad times in games. That "weakness" can be cured over time; lack of talent cannot be cured over time except to replace the lack of talent with new talent. There is a saying that, "You can't cure stupid." Well, you also can't cure incompetent...

Mike Shanahan will be the Redskins' coach next year unless Mike Shanahan decides to pack it in and leave or unless he gets caught on video doing unspeakable things to a household pet. Danny Boy ain't gonna fire him. Get past that kind of thinking...

The Mike/Kyle dynamic is NOT helping the team. For those who say that Mike Shanahan never won much without John Elway at QB (sort of correct and sort of not correct because it takes plenty of winning to get to the playoffs even if you get bounced in the first round) let me point out that he won plenty of games without Kyle on the sidelines. He was lots more "involved" in games back in Denver; if you don't believe that, watch NFL Films of those games or talk to the folks who covered the NFL and the Broncos 10-15 years ago. Today, he does not get in the face of his offensive coordinator much at all. Ask Gary Kubiak if that ever happened to him in Denver...

Fans here need to keep expectations within the realm of reality. After a win, the tendency here is for some folks to commission the busts for Canton Ohio for at least a half-dozen Redskins' players. After a loss, some folks here want to throw just about anyone/everyone under the bus.

Reality Check

QB: Neither Grossman nor Beck is anything more than average at the position. Neither looks like they will ever achieve much more than that - - albeit the jury is still out on Beck. It is unrealistic to expect that the Redskins will be an elite team without better play at the QB position and it may be several years until that can happen. Deal with it...

RB: Tim Hightower is/was far and away the best RB on the team. He can/could run, block, catch and carry out meaningful play-action fakes. No one else on the team can do all of that. He is down for the season; the running game will take a hit because of that.

WR: They have been average-at-best for about 5 years and this crop is about what it has been for the last 5 years. Before anyone goes nuts about how great some of the young guys might become, please recall the level of enthusiasm and eupohoria around here several years ago over Malcom Kelly and Devin Thomas... None of the youngsters on the roster now have shown very much so far.

TE: There are two perfectly good tight ends on the roster and Logan Paulson is not too shabby either.

OL: This year's OL is better than last year which was better than the year before. This year's OL is mediocre. That is improvement over previous OLs, but there is PLENTY of improvement possible.

DL: See statement for OL above. Ditto marks here...

LB: Without question the best part of the defense. Kerrigan and Orakpo are young and get better and better. London Fletcher may be very long in the tooth and will likely not be around when the Skins as a team get to be very good, but those three guys make the LB corps significantly above average. For all the bashing Rocky McIntosh takes here, he is not all that awful. He is the least accomplished of the four starters, but he is still above average league-wide.

CB: Given the amount of talk coming from D. Hall, I would say he is an underachiever; unless Wilson is still on a learning curve and has lots more to show on the field, he represents a problem area. The other CBs are not as good as either of those guys so this is an area of weakness.

Safety: Lots of tries for spectacular hits and highlight reel plays out of Landry but not a lot of positive results. He still cannot cover a turtle with a blanket. Otogwhe is a step up from last season. This is not a "great unit" but it is satisfactory.

Getting this team back to being on an even-footing with its competition after the way Vinnie Cerrato ran it into the mud from a talent perspective will probably take at least 4-5 years of good drafting and solid free agency management. The team - - and the fans - - need to realize that there is no single player in the league that could be added to this roster who could make this team into a serious contender to be the NFC Champion. This process will take time, commitment, patience and the ability to assess the team assets in terms of reality - - and not on reputations or "Madden ratings" or anything of the sort.

Stay the course...

[CrustyRedskin]

Originally Posted by skinsfaninok

If we lose this week then I'll start to think 6 wins again is possible

The way the Skins have played the last two weeks, 6 wins aint happening, every team in our division right now is playing better than the skins. 2 Qb's is like the old saying when you have two people doing the same job this means you have nobody doing the job.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by skinsfaninok

London Fletcher is becoming my all time Fav Redskins

Thank goodness he won a Super Bowl in St. Louis. I'd hate to think of a player like Fletch going his whole career without a ring.

[GridIron26]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Take a deep breath folks; the 2011 season is on track to be what should have been realistically expected for the 2011 season.

The Redskins are a better football team now than they were in the middle of last year. They are better because they are faster and they are better because they play harder than last year's team did. They are younger and that leads to one of their "weaknesses" for 2011 - - they make bad mistakes at bad times in games. That "weakness" can be cured over time; lack of talent cannot be cured over time except to replace the lack of talent with new talent. There is a saying that, "You can't cure stupid." Well, you also can't cure incompetent...

Mike Shanahan will be the Redskins' coach next year unless Mike Shanahan decides to pack it in and leave or unless he gets caught on video doing unspeakable things to a household pet. Danny Boy ain't gonna fire him. Get past that kind of thinking...

The Mike/Kyle dynamic is NOT helping the team. For those who say that Mike Shanahan never won much without John Elway at QB (sort of correct and sort of not correct because it takes plenty of winning to get to the playoffs even if you get bounced in the first round) let me point out that he won plenty of games without Kyle on the sidelines. He was lots more "involved" in games back in Denver; if you don't believe that, watch NFL Films of those games or talk to the folks who covered the NFL and the Broncos 10-15 years ago. Today, he does not get in the face of his offensive coordinator much at all. Ask Gary Kubiak if that ever happened to him in Denver...

Fans here need to keep expectations within the realm of reality. After a win, the tendency here is for some folks to commission the busts for Canton Ohio for at least a half-dozen Redskins' players. After a loss, some folks here want to throw just about anyone/everyone under the bus.

Reality Check

QB: Neither Grossman nor Beck is anything more than average at the position. Neither looks like they will ever achieve much more than that - - albeit the jury is still out on Beck. It is unrealistic to expect that the Redskins will be an elite team without better play at the QB position and it may be several years until that can happen. Deal with it...

RB: Tim Hightower is/was far and away the best RB on the team. He can/could run, block, catch and carry out meaningful play-action fakes. No one else on the team can do all of that. He is down for the season; the running game will take a hit because of that.

WR: They have been average-at-best for about 5 years and this crop is about what it has been for the last 5 years. Before anyone goes nuts about how great some of the young guys might become, please recall the level of enthusiasm and eupohoria around here several years ago over Malcom Kelly and Devin Thomas... None of the youngsters on the roster now have shown very much so far.

TE: There are two perfectly good tight ends on the roster and Logan Paulson is not too shabby either.

OL: This year's OL is better than last year which was better than the year before. This year's OL is mediocre. That is improvement over previous OLs, but there is PLENTY of improvement possible.

DL: See statement for OL above. Ditto marks here...

LB: Without question the best part of the defense. Kerrigan and Orakpo are young and get better and better. London Fletcher may be very long in the tooth and will likely not be around when the Skins as a team get to be very good, but those three guys make the LB corps significantly above average. For all the bashing Rocky McIntosh takes here, he is not all that awful. He is the least accomplished of the four starters, but he is still above average league-wide.

CB: Given the amount of talk coming from D. Hall, I would say he is an underachiever; unless Wilson is still on a learning curve and has lots more to show on the field, he represents a problem area. The other CBs are not as good as either of those guys so this is an area of weakness.

Safety: Lots of tries for spectacular hits and highlight reel plays out of Landry but not a lot of positive results. He still cannot cover a turtle with a blanket. Otogwhe is a step up from last season. This is not a "great unit" but it is satisfactory.

Getting this team back to being on an even-footing with its competition after the way Vinnie Cerrato ran it into the mud from a talent perspective will probably take at least 4-5 years of good drafting and solid free agency management. The team - - and the fans - - need to realize that there is no single player in the league that could be added to this roster who could make this team into a serious contender to be the NFC Champion. This process will take time, commitment, patience and the ability to assess the team assets in terms of reality - - and not on reputations or "Madden ratings" or anything of the sort.

Stay the course...

Definitely one of the best post I have ever read in a while

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by skinsfaninok

London Fletcher is becoming my all time Fav Redskins

Ditto. I didn't think a whole lot of our signing an over 30 MLB at the time, but Fletch has proven to be an absolute gem. He's arguably our best defensive leader on the field since Sam Huff came back to play for Lombardi.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

The team - - and the fans - - need to realize that there is no single player in the league that could be added to this roster who could make this team into a serious contender to be the NFC Champion.

except for tom brady or aaron rodgers.

just saying

[htownskinfan]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

Take a deep breath folks; the 2011 season is on track to be what should have been realistically expected for the 2011 season.

The Redskins are a better football team now than they were in the middle of last year. They are better because they are faster and they are better because they play harder than last year's team did. They are younger and that leads to one of their "weaknesses" for 2011 - - they make bad mistakes at bad times in games. That "weakness" can be cured over time; lack of talent cannot be cured over time except to replace the lack of talent with new talent. There is a saying that, "You can't cure stupid." Well, you also can't cure incompetent...

Mike Shanahan will be the Redskins' coach next year unless Mike Shanahan decides to pack it in and leave or unless he gets caught on video doing unspeakable things to a household pet. Danny Boy ain't gonna fire him. Get past that kind of thinking...

The Mike/Kyle dynamic is NOT helping the team. For those who say that Mike Shanahan never won much without John Elway at QB (sort of correct and sort of not correct because it takes plenty of winning to get to the playoffs even if you get bounced in the first round) let me point out that he won plenty of games without Kyle on the sidelines. He was lots more "involved" in games back in Denver; if you don't believe that, watch NFL Films of those games or talk to the folks who covered the NFL and the Broncos 10-15 years ago. Today, he does not get in the face of his offensive coordinator much at all. Ask Gary Kubiak if that ever happened to him in Denver...

Fans here need to keep expectations within the realm of reality. After a win, the tendency here is for some folks to commission the busts for Canton Ohio for at least a half-dozen Redskins' players. After a loss, some folks here want to throw just about anyone/everyone under the bus.

Reality Check

QB: Neither Grossman nor Beck is anything more than average at the position. Neither looks like they will ever achieve much more than that - - albeit the jury is still out on Beck. It is unrealistic to expect that the Redskins will be an elite team without better play at the QB position and it may be several years until that can happen. Deal with it...

RB: Tim Hightower is/was far and away the best RB on the team. He can/could run, block, catch and carry out meaningful play-action fakes. No one else on the team can do all of that. He is down for the season; the running game will take a hit because of that.

WR: They have been average-at-best for about 5 years and this crop is about what it has been for the last 5 years. Before anyone goes nuts about how great some of the young guys might become, please recall the level of enthusiasm and eupohoria around here several years ago over Malcom Kelly and Devin Thomas... None of the youngsters on the roster now have shown very much so far.

TE: There are two perfectly good tight ends on the roster and Logan Paulson is not too shabby either.

OL: This year's OL is better than last year which was better than the year before. This year's OL is mediocre. That is improvement over previous OLs, but there is PLENTY of improvement possible.

DL: See statement for OL above. Ditto marks here...

LB: Without question the best part of the defense. Kerrigan and Orakpo are young and get better and better. London Fletcher may be very long in the tooth and will likely not be around when the Skins as a team get to be very good, but those three guys make the LB corps significantly above average. For all the bashing Rocky McIntosh takes here, he is not all that awful. He is the least accomplished of the four starters, but he is still above average league-wide.

CB: Given the amount of talk coming from D. Hall, I would say he is an underachiever; unless Wilson is still on a learning curve and has lots more to show on the field, he represents a problem area. The other CBs are not as good as either of those guys so this is an area of weakness.

Safety: Lots of tries for spectacular hits and highlight reel plays out of Landry but not a lot of positive results. He still cannot cover a turtle with a blanket. Otogwhe is a step up from last season. This is not a "great unit" but it is satisfactory.

Getting this team back to being on an even-footing with its competition after the way Vinnie Cerrato ran it into the mud from a talent perspective will probably take at least 4-5 years of good drafting and solid free agency management. The team - - and the fans - - need to realize that there is no single player in the league that could be added to this roster who could make this team into a serious contender to be the NFC Champion. This process will take time, commitment, patience and the ability to assess the team assets in terms of reality - - and not on reputations or "Madden ratings" or anything of the sort.

Stay the course...

Great post,although its possible you might be wrong about the 1 guy turning the team around.I say that because of Indy.They were expected to be a 10 game winner this yr.Without Peyton they might not win a game.So I agree with That Guy,but we know thats not gonna happen{getting rogers or brady}
Also I dont think we should stay the course,we need to get rid of Kyle.Like you said,its not working and he should have never been hired to begin with.This is one place Snyder or Allen should have stepped in and said you cant hire your son,too big of a conflict of interest

[freddyg12]

I agree w/about all of sportscurmudgeon's post (#203) & I too have my concerns w/Kyle. But in this last game I think he called a pretty smart game. We came out running, had success & made Carolina respect the run game. In the 2nd half they adjusted & stopped the run game largely, plus we got behind. He called plays that Beck ran well, e.g. the bootlegs. Beck was effective & really didn't make any grave errors in the 2nd half until that int. when he & Hank "weren't on the same page."

So maybe we saw an adjustment from Kyle that no one really appreciates because we lost? The story was the D, too many guys had really poor games. Rak & Landry in particular. Landry looked terrible in fact. I think the Panthers showed the rest of the league how to play him in the run game; send a big WR right at him. He really sucked at shedding blocks on sunday, a few times I saw him diving into the blockers legs, taking himself out of the play.