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BG, if you drop back in here, what's your opinion on the RT spot. Is Free definitely starting there (I have read there also might be the chance they move Davis out to T and shuffle someone in at RG)? How worried are you about Free (or whoever) being able to replace Colombo and handle the RT duties?
Heard Babe Laufenberg on with Mike Wise today and he said Free should be ok. He's better in pass protection than run blocking.
Yes, Free will start at RT and Flo should be back at LT. Free is hard to guage in all honesty and I really have no idea what to expect with him. My sense is that he is better in pass protection then blocking-but we'll see. With the dismal run performance you can definately expect to see a better balance in this game as Garrett is again under fire.
Safety or two pointer for the win? I just wanna know what to look for.
With less than a minute left, trailing 10-9 and with the ball inside the Dallas 40-yard line, the Redskins will make a strategic decision to punt the ball on 2nd down. They pin the Cowboys on the one-yard line, and get a safety for the win.
One thing I can add here is that Free's footwork is better suited for the left side than the right.
M=S nothing would surprise me anymore.Andy I see you read Bill Nicholl's article for your footwork comment.Or have you broken down tape on his LT vs. RT body of work?
No, Wade mentioned it this week during a press conference.M=S nothing would surprise me anymore.Andy I see you read Bill Nicholl's article for your footwork comment.
Or have you broken down tape on his LT vs. RT body of work?
With Hunter Smith responsible for all 11 points.He throws a TD pass on a fake punt. He kicks the extra point and it's blocked, but there are offsetting penalties on Zorn and Wade Phillips for being clueless, so it's replayed. Smith fakes the kick and runs it in for a 2 point converstion. Late in the 4th quarter Albert Haynesworth falls down. The Cowboys run wide 3 times to get around him and have to punt. Hunter Smith returns the punt to the 25, where he kicks the winning field goal. After the game Hunter Smith is named Redskin coach. Albert Haynesworth gets up. Wade Phillips is clueless.Sebowski said:
Best move would have been to hire a competent head coach, not a QB coach to be head coach.Score one for VinnyI knew stripping Zorn was the right thing to do. He had too much on his plate and hired an incompetent OC. Zorn should have played it better and he'd be liking like a decent coach right now. Best play would have been to fire Sherman Smith, bring in Lewis as OC and have the OC call the plays like most teams do. Wouldn't even had looked like a demotion. Just reassigning. Score one for Vinny.
sebo 
fatty 
It was almost one of those wins that I absolutely love. No Portis, Cooley, or Haynesworth. Betts and Rinehart go down during the game. But, the team as a whole just kept fighting. They needed to play their best to win this game and they nearly did that. Yes, it's sad that that might have been "playing their best".
Definitely agree with this part. My overall anger has subsided the last several weeks. The way they've played the last two weeks is really all we were asking for against STL, DET, CAR, and KC. If they had played that way in those games, they probably win a couple more. But, they pissed the season away and then made matters worse by having a different "off the field" fiasco each week.
LinkWasn't Gray interviewed for one or more NFL head coaching gigs? Seems a shame to let this guy get away (despite the poor tackling from Landry and Hall some of the time) because they have the leading pass defense in the league. But how the hell do you begin to try keeping him when you can't tell him who the GM or coach will be next year?
This is exactly why you make no effort to keep anyone right now. Nobody on the current staff should be making any decisions about coaches. Those decisions should be made by whoever the GM/HC is next year.
Um, what?
Fat Al definitely makes the defense better.That being said, still held Dallas to 7 points. Was it really the secondary shutting things down, or just another off performance by Romo?
Screw Jerry Gray. 3 of his 4 starters are top ten picks. They all have problems with fundamentals and techniques. Stan Hixon should be the first guy fired and Gray right after him.
This used to work. Now, players just kneel down at the one.
A FG doesn't put them on top though.
If Dallas picks up a first down, all they have to do is kneel down and they win. If the Redskins let them score, Dallas wouldn't take advantage of that...if they were smart.I guess they could have picked up Barber and carried him into the endzone. Can't whistle that for forward progress since he's still going forward!
I'm talking about it was 7-6Some players/coaches are smart enough to kneel. I'm not sure Wade/Barber are. I'd bet on not.
Well they didn't give up 300 yards on the ground, did they? DID THEY? That's what I thought.
Get used to the idea that nobody's gonna be like Sean Taylor. He was a once-in-a-lifetime talent at his position. Yes, some safeties have comparable amounts of effectiveness overall - Polamalu and Reed are examples - but nobody has the combination of athleticism, strength, speed, size and aggressiveness that he had. He was one of those guys who you watched move on the field with all of that elite athletic NFL talent around him and he just looked different, particularly faster and more aggressive. I can't think of a S in the game today who makes WR's as reluctant to go over the middle as ST did. I will always feel robbed of the time I would have spent watching him play.
True. I guess instead of saying "Still not in Taylor's league yet," I should have said, "He'll never be in Taylor's league, but it was nice to see him take a step in that direction."Get used to the idea that nobody's gonna be like Sean Taylor. He was a once-in-a-lifetime talent at his position. Yes, some safeties have comparable amounts of effectiveness overall - Polamalu and Reed are examples - but nobody has the combination of athleticism, strength, speed, size and aggressiveness that he had. He was one of those guys who you watched move on the field with all of that elite athletic NFL talent around him and he just looked different, particularly faster and more aggressive. I can't think of a S in the game today who makes WR's as reluctant to go over the middle as ST did. I will always feel robbed of the time I would have spent watching him play.
doh...sorry, I was thinking 0-6
Exactly. So Barber runs to the 1, kneels, and they run out the clock there. Allowing Dallas to score there is a lot more fantasy than strategy. Gray was right. Holding a team to 7 points should win every game.
Cooley --- in a boot another 10 daysHall --- sprained knee, could miss next weekMike Williams --- trying to get back this week; if not, Edwin Williams will start at RG (someone must really hate Will Montgomery)
I thought the same thing of Landry with that hit he laid on Williams. Reminded me of how Sean used to terrorize Crayton and TO. The difference is that Sean did it all game. It really is the suck that he's gone. Even in college I would watch Miami games just for him. I'll never forget the FSU game where he dominated. I never saw a safety do that. I remember praying that the Skins would draft him, then they did! Sped put it right, I do feel robbed not being able to see him play.True. I guess instead of saying "Still not in Taylor's league yet," I should have said, "He'll never be in Taylor's league, but it was nice to see him take a step in that direction."Get used to the idea that nobody's gonna be like Sean Taylor. He was a once-in-a-lifetime talent at his position. Yes, some safeties have comparable amounts of effectiveness overall - Polamalu and Reed are examples - but nobody has the combination of athleticism, strength, speed, size and aggressiveness that he had. He was one of those guys who you watched move on the field with all of that elite athletic NFL talent around him and he just looked different, particularly faster and more aggressive. I can't think of a S in the game today who makes WR's as reluctant to go over the middle as ST did. I will always feel robbed of the time I would have spent watching him play.
They wouldn't even try a throw into the end zone on 3rd down with 15 seconds left in the first half.
Not sure if you're saying that tongue-in-cheek or not, but it's really not a great excuse. It's simple. Shotgun. Roll out. You are now out of the pocket and can throw the ball away (before running out of bounds). If there's pressure, just throw it out of bounds. If you have a couple seconds, throw it to the back corner of the endzone to one of those big receivers we drafted because we didn't have enough big receivers that could make such a play.Here's Zorn's explanation:
So, Zorn's explanation is basically, "We tried it once and it didn't work. And we didn't try it again because either my QB is too stupid to make an elementary football decision or I'm not smart enough to know what to do and explain it to him." I really think Campbell could have handled that simple situation. So, either Zorn couldn't think of how to run that play (remember Detroit?) or he really has an unrealistic lack of confidence in Campbell. I understand not having confidence in Campbell to do certain things, but this isn't one of them. And, for crying out loud, you're a team on its way to the morgue - GIVE IT A SHOT! This is a coach who can be so daring in one instance (going for it on 4th down in many situations) and so conservative in other situations.I don't think that play determined the game at all. I wanted to see them take a shot just to see them take a shot; not because I thought they'd actually score a TD.
Defenses that give up rushing yards don't get turnovers. They get even fewer turnovers when they rarely lead in games. It's pretty much that simple.
Just looking at this years data, not much correlation between rush yards or rush attempts with total turnovers. But, I get your point as there is a much stronger correlation between INT and total TO than FR and total TO. INT are where the most TOs are. But, in that regard, this D is bad. They have the 7th worst INT ratio, getting one INT every 46.5 attempts. I'd even guess they get their hands on fewer passes than most teams. They've had some drops, but I wonder if they drop more INTs than most teams.
In a town drawn up by a Frenchman, a place brimming with people who hail from somewhere else and who don't agree about much of anything, the Washington Redskins managed to attain something any professional sports franchise would kill for: a giant fan base that loved them unconditionally.
The primary architect of this loyalty was longtime Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, the ruggedly handsomesilver-haired showman who'd come to town after working similar miracles in Los Angeles with the Lakers. In the 1970s and '80s, his blue-collar teams
But this season, something seems to have changed. It's not that the Redskins are 3-7 and headed for oblivion—the team has had only three winning seasons since 1999. It's that the complaints many fans and former players are hurling at the team seem to suggest something more serious is happening: that its essence—whatever it is that made the Redskins "the Redskins"—has gone away.
A Harris Interactive poll taken in 2003 put the Redskins at No. 6 in the NFL in nationwide popularity. In the most recent poll taken earlier this year, they had fallen to No. 17.
"It's very possible that the ownership of this team has ruptured themselves in a way with the fans where a lot of them are through," says John Riggins, a former star Redskins running back who has been openly critical of the team's current owner, Daniel Snyder. Michael Richman, a Redskins historian, says that between the losing and the acrimony surrounding the team, "this could go down as the worst season in Redskins' history."
The Redskins say there are still 170,000 people on the waiting list for general-admission season tickets and the team's local-TV ratings have stayed relatively constant since 2005. "I'd be surprised if any team that has a tough year doesn't have fans critical of last year's draft picks and last year's free agency," says team executive David Donovan. Last season, when the team won six of its first eight games, he says, nobody was questioning its personnel choices.
Since Mr. Snyder bought the Redskins in 1999, the team has been to the playoffs only three times. It has had six different head coaches, has spent a disproportionate amount of money on expensive free agents and has traded away draft picks to acquire stars, many of whom have fizzled in Washington.
Higher prices for tickets, parking and concessions at the team's current stadium in Landover, Md., FedExField, have helped the team take in more revenue than most teams in the NFL. But many fans say they've grown weary of what they see as an endless drive for profits.This year, despite the economic downturn, the team drew fire after reports surfaced that they were suing season-ticket holders who were unable or unwilling to honor their contracts.
(The team said in most cases, it tries to work with ticketholders to come to a reasonable solution.)
Mr. Snyder's team has at times tussled with the local media, especially when the team is losing. This season, local news crews were prevented from interviewing fans in the stadium parking lot, and some fans have told reporters they were hassled by security guardsfor holding signs critical of Mr. Snyder. (The team says the guards were not acting on team policy).
In any case, the mood at Redskins games is vastly different from the team's glory years,at RFK Stadium inside the District literally swayed from side-to-side when fans got excited. The Redskins of Mr. Cooke's time had their share of flashy stars
, but they were most known for the men in the trenches—the offensive line that became known as "The Hogs
."
In 1981, Mr. Cooke hired Joe Gibbsas head coach and by 1983, Mr. Gibbs had won the first of two Super Bowls
.
Virginia congressman Jim Moran, who moved to Washington in the 1970s and instantly became a fan of the team, says the mismanagement and commercialization of the franchise has robbed it of its meaning to him. "I find it very difficult to root for the Redskins these days," he says. "A team should stand for something … the Washington fans are great, but Snyder doesn't deserve them."
The Redskins don't have the monopoly on Washington they once did. Major League Baseball's Nationals opened for business in 2005, and the city's Major League Soccer team is popular. The Washington Capitals, led by Alex Ovechkin—one of the NHL's brightest stars—have also siphoned away fans. "The Capitals are the only team here where you can go watch them and actually leave happy," says Ed Richards, a fan who moved to the Washington suburbs two years ago.
But what this season has exposed, more than anything, is that the team held a special place in the hearts of fans here—one that was once intense and affectionate—and that this bond is badly fractured.
"I feel like somebody is stomping on my childhood,"says Patricia Williams, 48, whose family has owned season tickets for more than 40 years. "There's so little regard for the fans right now, and for the team."
Write to Reed Albergotti at reed.albergotti@wsj.com
What a crock of ####.Are the Redskins Losing Washington?
Mr. Snyder's team has at times tussled with the local media, especially when the team is losing. This season, local news crews were prevented from interviewing fans in the stadium parking lot, and some fans have told reporters they were hassled by security guardsfor holding signs critical of Mr. Snyder. (The team says the guards were not acting on team policy).
