Things to watch tonight

[MTK]

1) You can bet our offensive line will be out for some revenge tonight after they looked so horrible in that scrimmage against B-more. Like the article in the WP says, that poor performance in that scrimmage could have been the best thing for our OL. It definitely gave them a wake up call.

2) No injuries!

3) The starters likely won't play much, but of course we'll be looking for continued improvement as we gear up for September 11th. The offense has gone up against some of the tougher defenses in the league so far, does anyone realize the Skins offense is ranked #2 overall in the league in total yards so far? Yeah it's only the preseason, but it's funny how we haven't heard anything about that in the media. Instead all we hear about is how horrible we're gonna be, how much turmoil we had this offseason (yet training camp has been very quiet). I really have a feeling the rest of the league is in for a surprise this season. Last chance for the non-believers to hop on the Gibbs bandwagon!

[BrudLee]

I'd move your #2 up to #1.

I hope to see some manner of revenge for the offensive line's poor showing in the scrimmage.

If it hasn't been made abundantly clear, I'm on board the bandwagon. If the last eight years hasn't killed me, there's nothing this team can do to hurt me.

[Redskins_P]

It would be nice to see the offense score on their opening drive. And of course NO INJURIES!!!!!!!!

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

3) The starters likely won't play much, but of course we'll be looking for continued improvement as we gear up for September 11th. The offense has gone up against some of the tougher defenses in the league so far, does anyone realize the Skins offense is ranked #2 overall in the league in total yards so far? Yeah it's only the preseason, but it's funny how we haven't heard anything about that in the media. Instead all we hear about is how horrible we're gonna be, how much turmoil we had this offseason (yet training camp has been very quiet). I really have a feeling the rest of the league is in for a surprise this season. Last chance for the non-believers to hop on the Gibbs bandwagon!

Great point. This is a perfect example of why the media is so often surprised by teams that seemingly come out of nowhere each year in the NFL. They never take the time to scrutinize and analyze what's happening in the preseason. The preseason DOES mean a lot if you look at it in the right light. It's not the W/Ls that matter.

The media loves to just take a quick review of last year's performance, take a quick look at the offseason personnel moves, and project season performance based on that. What a joke. That's like saying coaches and players who are holdovers from the previous season cannot possibly improve themselves.

I'm getting supremely confident in our ability to play top-notch football. The only thing that can stop us will be ourselves. The only question is, can we take care of the football?

[firstdown]

I would like to see the O have a scoring drive in the first Q and then get them out of there. I would not be surprised if we did not see Portis tonight and if we do I hope its not more than a couple of plays. The D needs to step up its play to carry us into the season.

[gortiz]

Originally Posted by firstdown

I would like to see the O have a scoring drive in the first Q and then get them out of there. I would not be surprised if we did not see Portis tonight and if we do I hope its not more than a couple of plays. The D needs to step up its play to carry us into the season.

I had a dream, well nightmare, that Ramsey went 1-22 passing in today's game ... I guess I'm a little nervous about the season.

I would like to see some positive drives by our 1st team, and at least one score, either field goal or TD, no INT's and solid pass protection and NO INJURIES!!!

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I'm always on the bandwagon.

And basically to the credit of announcers that are NOT completely anti-Skins, I sometimes give them the benefit of the doubt that they don't cover JUST the Redskins. They have 32 teams to cover and I do understand sometimes when they can't analyze every bit of information given to them at any time.

I DO take issue that none of this has been brought up in local publications but for outfits like ESPN.com (minus Pastabelly) and MSN.com I typically take everything they say with a grain of salt because they can't put the type of objective analysis into every team they cover like we do with the Skins.

HOWEVER, you are all right to have said that a lot can be taken from the preseason. Cincinnati's D was no slouch and Pittsburgh AND Baltimore both have top tier D's. Again, as Matty stated, we're #2 in offensive production. I wouldn't mind getting rid of some turnovers and drop down a few slots, but otherwise we've been obliterating opposing defenses. Also we need to remember that a lot of this yardage HAS been coming from our first teamers, which has GOT to count for something.

[scowan]

I think the real problem in the Preseason has been not putting points on the board. Yes, the Skins have moved the ball, but they haven't scored more than 20 points yet. Doesn't that sound familiar? I know it is Baltimore tonight and they have a great Defense, but I want to see short fields tonight and more than 20 points.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I agree. The key is at LEAST we're moving the ball. We didn't even do THAT much last year. Once we cut down on turnovers, the touchdowns will come.

[steveo395]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

3) The starters likely won't play much, but of course we'll be looking for continued improvement as we gear up for September 11th. The offense has gone up against some of the tougher defenses in the league so far, does anyone realize the Skins offense is ranked #2 overall in the league in total yards so far? Yeah it's only the preseason, but it's funny how we haven't heard anything about that in the media. Instead all we hear about is how horrible we're gonna be, how much turmoil we had this offseason (yet training camp has been very quiet). I really have a feeling the rest of the league is in for a surprise this season. Last chance for the non-believers to hop on the Gibbs bandwagon!

it can't mean that much that we have the number 2 offense...the raiders have the number 1 defense and their defense is gonna blow

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by scowan

I think the real problem in the Preseason has been not putting points on the board. Yes, the Skins have moved the ball, but they haven't scored more than 20 points yet. Doesn't that sound familiar? I know it is Baltimore tonight and they have a great Defense, but I want to see short fields tonight and more than 20 points.

Good point. The ball is being moved well, it's just that drives are getting stalled due to turnovers. If they stop turning the ball over, those drives will hopefully end up in the end zone.

There have been missed opportunities by Ramsey on deep balls to Moss & Patten, and bad decisions on throws that got intercepted. If those things get cleaned up there will be no stopping the Redskins. I think it will all come down to the turnovers this year.

Of course, when doesn't an NFL season come down to the turnover battle?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by steveo395

it can't mean that much that we have the number 2 offense...the raiders have the number 1 defense and their defense is gonna blow

The reason we have the #2 offense is because Gibbs has placed a strong emphasis on evaluating the passing game. He has called way more pass plays than he normally would throughout a regular season game. Ramsey, Brunell, and Campbell have all been asked to air it out so Gibbs can evaluate what he has in the passing game.

The underlying key point there though, is that Gibbs feels that the running game is good to go and doesn't need a ton of evaluation, otherwise he'd crank it up a bit. He didn't use Portis hardly at all until the Steelers game, and he didn't really run Betts a whole lot either. He wanted to evaluate the running game a bit vs the Steelers, and the O-line and Portis showed what they can do. Once Gibbs saw it was kicking butt, he put the running game back in his pocket, and decided to work more on the passing game.

You can't take much from the fact that we're the #2 offense. But you can take a couple things:

1) Gibbs is confident in the running game.
2) The running game worked against one of the toughest run Ds in the league.
3) Gibbs still figures to lean on the running game, a phase of the game carrying a lot less risk of turnovers.

The fact that we've been airing it out so much is no indication of what we're planning on doing in the season. It's a setup. Gibbs is making the rest of the league realize that we're not afraid to throw on you anymore. So when they keep safeties out of the box, here comes Clinton Portis. I guarantee that's what he's thinking.

After all, how do you win football games in the NFL?
- Run the ball, and stop the run.
- Take care of the football.

The #1 thing I'm taking out of this preseason is that we can run, and we can stop the run. The only question is can we take care of the ball.

[jermus22]

Good assessment Schneed. I think it always starts at the line of scrimmage. If we win in the trenches, we have a better chance of winning overall. I was impressed with the o-line's domination of Pittsburgh and I'm confident our d-line can hold its own. Let's just hope we generate more of a pass rush without blitzing all the time.

[jermus22]

I'm surprised we have the #2 offense in yardage this preseason!

[Gmanc711]

If we can drive down the feild on the first drive or two of the game, and hold their starting offense to zero points; I'll be very happy.