Team was not prepared for "situational football"

[MTK]

I found this tidbit to be pretty interesting:

The player, and another veteran, said that while the team played with passion for Zorn, the fact was there were places he came up short as a coach, such as preparing the team for situational football. "We were never as prepared as we were because we didn't practice that," the player said.

"Other coaches make that a priority during practice and we didn't."

link

Disappointing to hear something like this. Probably not surprising as Zorn was clearly tossed into the deep end of the pool, but I think it explains a lot as far as what we saw on the field these past 2 seasons.

[SmootSmack]

How do you not practice that?

Well...on a positive note the same player said

"I think Dan Snyder has learned his lesson, finally," one Redskins player told me after the game. "I think he's done with the fame game and trying to bring in big-named guys instead of keeping the homegrown guys who are out contributing to so many teams in the league. I think he's done with that, I really do."

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

I hope the new regime changes the mind set and the way things are run with our beloved football team. This year was a complete embarassment. Alot of pieces need to fall into place for this team to turn it around in the coming years.

[CRedskinsRule]

ok, we don't practice situational football, but we practice at least 4 different special teams fakes. Seems like Danny Smith knew they might be needed.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

ok, we don't practice situational football, but we practice at least 4 different special teams fakes. Seems like Danny Smith knew they might be needed.

Seems like Danny Smith got more say than most Special team coordinators. I'm guessing most SC guys dream about all the fancy shmancy trick plays they could run and the HC always tells to go 'eff off. I guess Zorny didn't have the heart to tell Smith no.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

How do you not practice that?

Well...on a positive note the same player said

"I think Dan Snyder has learned his lesson, finally," one Redskins player told me after the game. "I think he's done with the fame game and trying to bring in big-named guys instead of keeping the homegrown guys who are out contributing to so many teams in the league. I think he's done with that, I really do."

I certainly hope that's the case. It's hard to build a true team when you don't reward your own and you continuously bring in outsiders and give them the big money deals.

[warriorzpath]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Disappointing to hear something like this. Probably not surprising as Zorn was clearly tossed into the deep end of the pool, but I think it explains a lot as far as what we saw on the field these past 2 seasons.

Yup, it explains why they adjusted so poorly in games. If things weren't working right from the start, it just snowballed.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

I found this tidbit to be pretty interesting:



Disappointing to hear something like this. Probably not surprising as Zorn was clearly tossed into the deep end of the pool, but I think it explains a lot as far as what we saw on the field these past 2 seasons.

True, it explains a lot. Many of us would have guessed this to be true if the guess hadn't seemed so bizarre. How on earth can you not practice for various situations?

[htownskinfan]

Well it certainly looked like we never practiced a 2 minute drill,we absolutely sucked at that,Sunday showed us that again.
Someone else might have brought this up,but once SD had the ball 1st n goal we should have let them score,it was inevitable and it cost us a lot of time off the clock.
The defense was ranked pretty good this yr,but did they ever stop anybody when it counted?

[SmootSmack]

Situational football as in we weren't prepared for situations that required us to play on Sundays and Mondays...but hey if there were games on Wednesdays we would have been 16-0!

[BigHairedAristocrat]

this is exactly why i don't understand why there's a thank you jim zorn thread on this site. zorn was a complete joke as a head coach. he may be a "nice guy" but there's no reason to thank him for anything.

[rbanerjee23]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

this is exactly why i don't understand why there's a thank you jim zorn thread on this site. zorn was a complete joke as a head coach. he may be a "nice guy" but there's no reason to thank him for anything.

If Zorn's crime was that he was unprepared as a HC, then it was a greater crime to hire him as the HC...there is a Thank You Zorn thread simply because the spoiled child at the head of this organization handled the situation like the asshole that he is whereas Zorn handled it with dignity. Rather than quit on the team mid way through the season, he stuck it out and did his job to his ability...can the same be said of Snyder?

[Dirtbag59]

I'm getting a deja vu from the Spurrier era. It's amazing how similar these last two years have been to 2002-2003.

[BigHairedAristocrat]

snyder didnt hire zorn. cerrato did. if we should be thanking anyone for this debacle forcing snyder to finally change the organizational structure its cerrato. it was his decision to hire cerrato which brought all this on.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

this is exactly why i don't understand why there's a thank you jim zorn thread on this site. zorn was a complete joke as a head coach. he may be a "nice guy" but there's no reason to thank him for anything.

Nothing wrong with thanking a guy for his hard work and dedication. Obviously he was in over his head as head coach but that wasn't his fault. Gotta fault the guy that put him in that position to begin with.