Hey, the sun did rise this morning!

[over the mountain]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Memphisskin, I think you touched on some thoughtful points, but you put too much of a positive spin on things.

I do agree that of the two units, I'm far less concerned about the defense. LaRon Landry is indeed the lynchpin of our defense, and without his range back there we are no better than average on D. With him, we can be a top 10 defense.

Still, our inability to stop the run was alarming. Kareem Moore and Doughty took horrific angles and tackled poorly, I have no doubt Landry would have stopped Williams and Stewart on those two large runs and limited them to 10-15 yard gains. But the core problem really was that our front seven couldn't keep Carolina's backs from getting into the secondary. Even if Landry were there to stop those long runs, the way Carolina was consistenly opening holes, I have no doubt they would have just marched down the field anyway, springing the backs for 8-yard gain after 8-yard gain until they methodically marched into the end zone.

Our front 7 has a TON of work to do. I've seen them do it before, so I'm not THAT concerned, but it's still alarming.

As for the offense, we should be very concerned. This is two weeks in a row now that Campbell has hesitated. He is not making quick reads and quick decisions (even when given enough time to throw). These are the telltale signs of a guy still learning an offense. The WCO is dependent upon the timing and the ability of the QB to make quick reads. You must be confident in your knowledge of the offense to make the reads quickly enough. You can tell Campbell is nowhere close.

And of course, none of that will matter if we can't protect the QB, because then not only will we miss opportunities, but we'll take sacks and turn the ball over.

The offense has MILES to go, we're showing signs of being the worst offense in the league. Yes, maybe it's just preseason and we didn't bring our bread and butter. We can hope that's the case - but nothing we've seen over the past two weeks gives us any indication that will be the case.

Too many fans are dismissing this poor performance on the HOPE that "it's just preseason." But careful and thoughtful analysis indicates that we suck balls at this point.

Someone in another thread said we're headed for a 1-4 start. I'd actually be impressed with the coaching staff if we manage to do better than that.

We're in for a tough year.

In my opinion campbell has always locked on to his primary receiver and not shown the ability or confidence to read defenses and check down to another receiver before his 2.9 seconds are up. this being said campbell has great pocket presence and will get better. thats one of the reasons we brought zorn on board.

i dont have to "hope" its preseason, it WAS a preseason game lol! (i know what you meant thoo, just couldnt resist)

go skins!!

we will be an 8-8 team give or take a game (and a suisham kick) and will yet again need to go on a run in the end to push into the playoffs. our D dictates our success and we have pretty much the same squad as last year.

[squrrelco3]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

In my opinion campbell has always locked on to his primary receiver and not shown the ability or confidence to read defenses and check down to another receiver before his 2.9 seconds are up. this being said campbell has great pocket presence and will get better. thats one of the reasons we brought zorn on board.

i dont have to "hope" its preseason, it WAS a preseason game lol! (i know what you meant thoo, just couldnt resist)

go skins!!

we will be an 8-8 team give or take a game (and a suisham kick) and will yet again need to go on a run in the end to push into the playoffs. our D dictates our success and we have pretty much the same squad as last year.

It may take another year for Campbell to get there...I remember when Matt Hasselbeck was called Matt Hasselsuck or Matt Clusterf*ck...it took him about 3 or 4 years to really come into All-Pro form...the question is, will Danny have that kind of patience or will he fire Zorn if we have a bad year and bring in Cowher...

[over the mountain]

yikes i dont think we are at the point in zorns head coaching career that he needs to worry about being replaced. If (and its a big if) campbell fails to grasp zorns offense to the point a change MUST be made next offseason, i would be surprised he would be fired before given a chance to hand pick his own quarterback. remember campbell is a gibbs selection but we are getting way to ahead of ourselves.

go skins!

[JWsleep]

I feel ok about Campbell, given that we have Zorn. Zorn will get him straight.

The killer was the AWFUL pass pro. No time at all the set and throw. No time. And Carolina plays a very tight man-to-man given the power of their rush. You can afford to lock onto short routes and jump things if your rush is going to get pressure. If you can pass pro, the WRs will open up after a few seconds and the tight coverage will get beat. But that cannot happen with no pass pro. And we had none.

Watch, if you have the stomach for it, Samuels getting smashed backwards into Campbell by Peppers. Peppers uses Samuels like a ragdoll to actually make the tackle and force the fumble. If that's the play of you BEST Olineman, the QB has very little chance to set up and make reads.

Here's a thought, and yes, I know, woulda coulda, etc. If Betts does not fumble (and this, I'm afraid, is his MO--his fumbles have killed us before), and we score on that drive, it's 7-6 and a very different game. Momentum is so huge in football. That's why turnovers are SO damaging. Watched the Texans play the cowroids the other night. The roids were dominating and then Romo threw a pick in the endzone. THe game changed--suddenly the team that could not block, run, pass, etc. drove down to score. Funny how that works.

But the bottom line, for me, is the physical effort from both lines. If we come out like that against the gints, we are in for a world of hurt. Glad we got smacked like that, in a way. At least we won't think we can walk into Giant stadium and march up and down the field. We're going to have to actually play with fire, heart and discipline. And we still may well lose to the SB champs. But at least lets give the effort!

[hesscl34]

Our O line sucked, so I'm trying very hard not to be critical of JC.. but my TV almost didn't make it through that game intact. I don't think I could have yelled "throw the $@)*#()!@(* damn ball" any louder....

As for the rest of it... Wow.... what a mess.

[GTripp0012]

The holding on to the ball too long is a legitimate concern...there shouldn't ever be 4 sacks taken in a half, even if you are playing short a few linemen.

Outside of that, I can't really get worked up over this. We played terrible....yeah, whatever. Shit like that happens from time to time. It will probably happen once or twice in the regular season.

Speaking of which, how good is my Carolina to win the NFC South pick looking right now.

[DirtyLandry]

OSI out for the season!!!!!!! Jason Taylor to miss 10-14 days...WOW. The football gods do not totally hate us.

[JWsleep]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

The holding on to the ball too long is a legitimate concern...there shouldn't ever be 4 sacks taken in a half, even if you are playing short a few linemen.

Well, he could have done the Brunell chuck out of bounds, but he was getting pressure instantly on lots of those plays.

Here's a question for those with DVRs and the stomach for looking. Did Campbell MISS open routes out there? Were people ever running free and he didn't see them, etc.? My guess is that the rush and tight coverage made it very tough and he held the ball more for that reason than for failing to read the D in the woefully short time he had.

But the whole team, JC included, played poorly. Let's see if Zorn and co can fix it!

[DirtyLandry]

I agree JW!!! I also truly believe the play calling for the first time in the Zorn era suffered.

[hesscl34]

Originally Posted by JWsleep

Well, he could have done the Brunell chuck out of bounds, but he was getting pressure instantly on lots of those plays.

Yeah, he could have and should have... there is no excuse for 4 sacks. One, maybe even two.. but not 4.

[redskinjim]

A sprained knee is pretty lucky. jason will be out a while.But at least he will play.The very next play the panthers scored a touchdown. I have never seen the wheels fall off so fast. why even throw the ball when you can grind it out on a tired defense.My god the safety play was a killer. we should have drafted kenny phillips. now the giants got him and we still have reed douty.How very unfortunate for us!!!!

[12thMan]

I won't make any regular season predictions based on this game alone, but I will take it for what is/was - a serious blowout. Now the big question is can we hunker down and save face. Based on this team's track record of bouncing back, I would say the odd's favor the Redskins heavily. I'm not willing to bet against this team, that's all.

Now, two things about Jason Campbell. I totally disagree with one of the posters that Jason locks in on one receiver too long. I think it's just the opposite, he probably looks at his other options a little too much. And for the Todd Collins lovers, you put him behind last night's offensive line, and you get six or seven sacks, in my opinion.

The only solace I'm taking at this point is that we'll probably line up 99% of our starters on opening day. This is a veteran team, and we'll be relatively healthy and hungry on opening night. That's what I'm counting on. Remember, they doubled the amount of work they put in this training camp under Jim Zorn than they did under Gibbs last season. It's possible they mentally checked out around mid-way through the second quarter due to the two-a-days.

[theJBexperience]

Originally Posted by JWsleep

Well, he could have done the Brunell chuck out of bounds, but he was getting pressure instantly on lots of those plays.

Here's a question for those with DVRs and the stomach for looking. Did Campbell MISS open routes out there? Were people ever running free and he didn't see them, etc.? My guess is that the rush and tight coverage made it very tough and he held the ball more for that reason than for failing to read the D in the woefully short time he had.

But the whole team, JC included, played poorly. Let's see if Zorn and co can fix it!

Yes, he did miss open guys. I don't remember seeing anyone totally blow by anyone on the plays where he held on too long, but he definitely had options and didn't take them.

[RMSkins]

I think Reed Doughty has just proven that he is not a starter in the NFL. If I was Blache I would find a way to pair Kareem Moore up with Landry as our starting safeties. After watching the game for a 2nd time Moore looks like he is the real deal. He had two plays where he took bad angles against the RB but the play should have been stopped way before it got to him forcing Moore to change direction to compensate for the earlier missed tackles which caused him to take the bad angles.

Of course Moore wasn't a beacon of perfection last night, but he's a rookie who will learn in time and I see so much upside in him that I think he needs to be starting somewhere.

[Boston Brave]

I think another key factor in our motivation was this was our 4th preseason game. As we know, many NFL starters debate benefit of a 4 or 5 game preseason. I think our starter just went through the motions. Mentally, the starters were fatigued of the preseason.

Carolina's starters knew this was their key game and the last real action prior to the regular season, and were hyped.

Outside of the play, what also concerns me is I am not sure we are any closer to settling roster spots 50-53.

Coaches will have practice to do their more through evaluations, but it would have been nice to see some guys step up huge and move off the bubble.

Finally, I realy like what I see out of TE Davis. Like Peter King stated in his preview, the guy is a stud. Just needs more time.