Stay aggressive, he who dares wins!

[NoCalMike]

What's unfortunate is that Hopkins has become inaccurate.  He has the leg strength that make 55 yarders look like kids games, but now he is pushing 30-45 yard field goals wide.  It reminds me when Suisham suddenly started sucking and then leaves, goes to Pittsburgh and becomes solid again.

Kickers can be streaky, but I tend to fall on the side of keeping the ones who have the leg power.

[skins island connection]

12 hours ago, Suffolk_Skins said:

 

Here's the deal. Our D is average at best he doesn't have the talent apart from a few players to build a good one, not this year anyway. They just need to keep games interesting and let the offense do its thing. He's sured them up nicely recently including multiple second half shutouts. That's just the football team we are right now I am afraid. If the offense can figure out the redzone we can beat really good teams even with a subpar D. If they can't figure it out we will be constant close games. 

 True, he can do that against weaker teams with little offensive threat, but the better teams make the playoffs; usually they have a pretty good offense, one that he wouldn't be able to do that to.

Here's the thing that really gets me, and maybe I'm totally wrong, but I don't think I am. Anyone wishing to chime in, please do, maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way.

Coaches coach, players play. We're ok so far, right?

I read some posts saying 'well, we need better players on defense in order to get better.'

So, what is the actual job of a coach again? To teach. Players have training and are taught from pee-wee all the way through college; so, we just have to find the good players and hope we can draft them? If not, **** it?

No.  A coach, [ DC-wise ] should teach players, teach technique, teach schemes, and make a player better than he was out of college. The scheme aspect of it revolves around the talent of the players, and he can game plan against any team and have fairly good to very good results by putting players in position to neutralize an offensive player. If a player is not good enough to do his particular job, then the coach should be able to design plays to mask that deficiency while accomplishing the goal.

When a DC has a very good player, its an advantage because that player can get a certain job done, in which the offense will try to steer away from, and the DC should have a scheme to be ready for it. Darrell Green did it for years; he took out the best WR/side of the field and gave Pettibon much more to work with.

Barry, like Haslett, relies on the current talent but the scheme he runs doesn't support or play into the strengths of the players. At times we see a vanilla zone and it is picked apart; the players are playing to deal with the ball catcher AFTER he makes the catch; that's why we see Whitner and Fuller in chase; their job is to cover a certain part of the field and pass him off to the person the WR is running towards. Maybe they're daydreaming and get caught staring into the backfield, I dunno, but I understand a player making a mistake; I DON'T understand a player constantly making these mistakes AND its not corrected in a timely manner.

Its the chess match between offense and defense; it constantly changes. Players have to be aware of changes coming and be ready to adjust to them. Barry doesn't adjust fast enough [ sometimes not at all ] and it usually costs the team points. He should be training per team, not per scheme, to adjust to the different styles of offense.

OK, I think I said enough. But am I wrong? If I am, then correct me please.

[RandyHolt]

So the key to not being iced, is not kicking a practice kick after the whistle, and reading the wind etc. The Kickerer Whisperer. 

I like the aggression. We went away from conservative run run pass late last year, and it was a HUGE shot in the arm for our offense, which went on a tear. Look at Kirk's game logs for 2015. 

Vs Dallas, we went hurry up to open the game. It was about 15-20 years overdue, but we finally tried what had consistently worked for super bowl grade offenses over that span. We tried an onside, went for 2, tried a 55 yarder.... I have long felt coaches need to go ahead and try what they want, and just adjust/learn based on how it went. We tried, crashed and burned, but learned. All the while, making life for DC's more difficult going forward, that have to now game plan for a lot more than run run pass. 

The aggressiveness I don't like is seeing CT used as a FB. if that can even be called aggressive. Going one wide with Grant, and slamming CT up the gut on 3rd and short, is not a recipe for success. 

The aggressiveness play of the day Thursday goes sadly, to little D. Final drive. Old school thinking milk milk milk aka run run run gives us the ball back, exactly the 3 plays Skins fans were quietly rooting for. Dallas went 3 wide, and passed on 2nd down to Beasley for the final nail in our coffin.

They went aggressive for they knew 50 seconds would = 500 passing yards for Cousins, and a big fat L. 

[Long n Left]

21 hours ago, -JB- said:

What does Hopkins do on the first kick?  He kicks it after the TO was called.  Never kick it after the TO is called!  He's an idiot & a bad kicker who has shanked multiple pressure kicks this season.

Just ****ing stop. Remember David Akers? 

Yeah, let's get rid of a promising young kicker cause he missed a couple (which EVERYONE does) to see him go to a division rival and become one of the best kickers in the league for a decade and a half.

Just stop!

[Diehard Otis]

1 hour ago, RandyHolt said:

I like the aggression.

I like it too.  Jay is furiously fashioning a reputation as a go-for-your-throat Gameday Coach.  

His moves don't always work out, but he has served notice to everyone paying attention: The Washington Redskins came to Win!

He goes after the Opponent, pushes the envelope, & ain't scared to take a risk (and accepts responsibility when he misfires).  I admit to being one of the horde that had pitchfork in hand prior to last Season, but this dude has seriously Won me over.  What's more, he's Winning his way.

I trust ya Coach.  Just keep Winning ballgames & we are definitely with ya!

[lavar1156]

Bench Compton and Whitner. Start Cravens at S and either Garvin or Spaight at MLB. We need more speed.

[Bonez3]

Of all of Hopkins kicks Thursday, the first onside kick may have been his worse, It was there with even average execution. He kicked it way to hard, that play was there and shouldn't be difficult for an NFL kicker to make.

[Peregrine]

I dont have an issue with Gruden being aggressive, but I do have an issue with him being stupid.  Being aggressive for the sake of being aggressive IS stupid and a sure fire way to lose games.  Though we missed opportunities, a lot of yesterdays loss was on Gruden, who did NOT put his players in the best of positions.  For the same reason that I loved his 4-1 call against the Packers(and I loved it BEFORE the play, not after the result), I hated his calls in this game(again, before the plays results).

1. 1st and goal at the 5, your passing the ball well, struggling to run, and you call a...........wildcat???? Where the defense KNOWS  you are running?  How stupid is that...No threat of Kirk to Reed, Kirk to Crowder, etc.

2. So, your kicker just missed a FG, because hes kicking into a blinding sun, and got iced by somehow a blocker not being out on the field for it.  Now, its a 12 yards longer FG, where he hits only 60% of kicks, and you attempt it instead of pinning them deep?  Thats not aggressive, thats stupid.  The end result was another short field for the Cowboys(who put up 31 points, with only 2 long drives, because we gave them short fields all day, made our defense look worse than it was).

3. At the end of the half, you get down to the 2 with 21 seconds left.  Instead of running another play(hey, you can RUN the ball here!), or calling timeout immediately to give you enough time to run any play you want(including a RUNNING play!), you wait 10 seconds, and bizarrely call timeout with 11 seconds left.  I guess the D now knows its a passing play.

4.  You score a TD and can now be down by 7 and you...... go for 2??????   If you hold Dallas to a FG at any point you are within 7 points, now, you miss it, and you are 8 points out.  That was short sighted, and cost them a point.

5. So now you run an onside kick and give them ANOTHER short field, at a time where the Cowboys were expecting it.  

All in all, due to poor playcalling/coaching decisions/extra short fields for Dallas/and a missed FG, we probably gave away a good 1+3+4+4=12 points.  We only lost by 5.  One longer field where they had to kick a short FG rather than a TD, and our taking the XP instead of 2 would have meant a tie game.  The chance in the Packers game made sense, our offensive line was rolling their D Line, we only needed 1 yard, and Rodgers had already showed on MULTIPLE consecutive drives he was just going to march 80 yards, so 60 versus 80 didnt mean anything.  In this game the Cowboys only had 2 long scoring drives, while we had 5.  Thats how there were no turnovers, equal penalties, and we out paced them with 500-350 yards and still lost.  They just didnt have to go as far.

[Commander -JB-]

2 hours ago, Long n Left said:

Just ****ing stop. Remember David Akers? 

Yeah, let's get rid of a promising young kicker cause he missed a couple (which EVERYONE does) to see him go to a division rival and become one of the best kickers in the league for a decade and a half.

Just stop!

How many kickers have the Redskins cut since Akers that have gone elsewhere to do absolutely nothing.  I fail to see your logic.

[Long n Left]

11 minutes ago, -JB- said:

How many kickers have the Redskins cut since Akers that have gone elsewhere to do absolutely nothing.  I fail to see your logic.

And Hopkins is FAR AND AWAY the best of that whole lot.

[Commander -JB-]

1 hour ago, Long n Left said:

And Hopkins is FAR AND AWAY the best of that whole lot.

Can't say that.  His numbers this season are mediocre at best.

[Long n Left]

2 hours ago, -JB- said:

Can't say that.  His numbers this season are mediocre at best.

Guess you want Kai back. Only guy with better career numbers.

The impatience of some Redskins fans never ceases to amaze.

[Commander -JB-]

1 hour ago, Long n Left said:

Guess you want Kai back. Only guy with better career numbers.

The impatience of some Redskins fans never ceases to amaze.

Unfortunately Kai got picked up by Minnesota.  One of the reasons we brought in Hopkins, in the first place, was his ability to hit kickoffs out of the back of the end zone.  Now they moved kickers up, rendering it virtually impossible to lack leg strength enough to kick it out of the end zone.  Therefore, the only thing we truly need to focus on is field goal kicking accuracy.  Hopkins has been failing in that regard.  

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

8 minutes ago, -JB- said:

Now they moved kickers up, rendering it virtually impossible to lack leg strength enough to kick it out of the end zone. 

Pretty sure we had Kai after the kickoffs were moved up and he still couldn't make it to the endzone.

I hope we keep Hopkins.  He's missed a couple but I think he'll get it worked out.  

[Commander -JB-]

5 minutes ago, AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy said:

Pretty sure we had Kai after the kickoffs were moved up and he still couldn't make it to the endzone.

I hope we keep Hopkins.  He's missed a couple but I think he'll get it worked out.  

I hope it works out too.  Because I don't want to see the rest of Redskins nation coming late to the dump Hopkins party after he shanks another kick that costs us yet another game.  

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

4 minutes ago, -JB- said:

Because I don't want to see the rest of Redskins nation coming late to the dump Hopkins party after he shanks another kick that costs us yet another game. 

Ok.

[Wildbunny]

7 hours ago, Peregrine said:

3. At the end of the half, you get down to the 2 with 21 seconds left.  Instead of running another play(hey, you can RUN the ball here!), or calling timeout immediately to give you enough time to run any play you want(including a RUNNING play!), you wait 10 seconds, and bizarrely call timeout with 11 seconds left.  I guess the D now knows its a passing play.

There's no chance you can run a running play, get stuff (and thus, not score a TD), and have your Field Goal unit snapping the ball in less than 21 seconds. That's too short, you'll run out of time. And ES will scream at how stupid it was to run a running play with no TO left. And since it was 3rd down, there was no chances that you run a running play, regroup fast and spike the ball...

Turn it all you want, we didn't have much else to do than go with pass, and they knew it.

7 hours ago, Peregrine said:

5. So now you run an onside kick and give them ANOTHER short field, at a time where the Cowboys were expecting it.

Because we had to do it again. And even when it's expected, it may work. After all, Hail Mary still work in the NFL, even when it's the most obvious call.

3 hours ago, -JB- said:

Can't say that.  His numbers this season are mediocre at best.

Really? Last I check guy have scored the most FG in the NFL, and tried the most as well. So, if he's mediocre, then, there's a ton of NFL kickers that are even worse than that.

20 minutes ago, -JB- said:

Unfortunately Kai got picked up by Minnesota.  One of the reasons we brought in Hopkins, in the first place, was his ability to hit kickoffs out of the back of the end zone.  Now they moved kickers up, rendering it virtually impossible to lack leg strength enough to kick it out of the end zone.  Therefore, the only thing we truly need to focus on is field goal kicking accuracy.  Hopkins has been failing in that regard.  

Well Kai is not great at 50+ yarder... (I know he once kicked a 57 and made it). And while you're talking accuracy. Forbath career accuracy is 84.7%.

Hopkins? 84.7%

Want to dig more? In 6 years, Forbath have tried 85 FG. Hopkins? 59, and he's only half way through is second year.

Want to have some fun again? Janikowski (38yrs), only have a 80% career FGM. He even had a few season at less than 70% accuracy.

Vinatieri (43yrs), one of the best actually have a 84.4% accuracy in his career. He was roughly 80% for his first sixth years with the Patriots, only to break the 90% of accuracy in his seventh year. The Patriots only cut the guy when they got Gostkowski (32yrs). Who's probably one of the most reliable kicker right now at 87% of accuracy in his career.

All these should tell ya that kicking is not automatic. It's definately not. And history also should tell ya that you just don't cut young kickers. You let them develop when they're quite good. Because they can play up to their 40, Morten Andersen retired 9 years ago and he was 47, and they don't grow on trees either.

[TSO]

Jay Gruden agrees: 

Quote

On taking gambles during the game and having an aggressive mindset:

"Well, if you’re talking about the onside kick, you know it’s something that we looked at on tape. We thought we had an opportunity there in the way they aligned. We thought we could get it and we thought it was a good time to get it. We just scored to cut it to five, we had some issues stopping them, they were playing at a very high level offensively, with their running game, their play action and their third down conversions and I thought it was a good opportunity to try and steal a possession quite frankly and we had the look we wanted we just didn’t execute it. It was kicked a little too hard and you know, the field goal, the 55 yarder or 56 yarder, I know [Dustin] Hopkins’ leg, he can make that kick so where do you draw the line? 52, 53, 54, 55, I mean you’re talking about a difference of nine feet and I know he has plenty of leg to get, he had plenty of distance, he just pushed it to the right but I think my mind set is gonna not change. I think we’re gonna be aggressive in all phases of the game. If we see a look that we like we gotta call it, we’re not end the game and say ‘dang, I wish I would’ve tried an onside kick or I wish I would’ve tried the field goal. If I feel like our players can execute, make the plays, I’m gonna give them opportunities too." 

 

I feel like this is very similar to Gibbs. More conservative and more about shortening the game or avoiding putting the aspects of the team in tough situations they can't handle, but when he felt like he had something and the individual players or certain phases of the team started proving they have the ability to not only fight back, but excel and dominate... he got more aggressive with them and started going for the kill more. 

It's what he did for almost his entire second tenure. Gibbs got criticized a lot about being overly conservative but what I learned was he was just adapting to what the team could do at the time. He didn't put too much pressure on the players when he knew they couldn't handle it. As soon as he felt they could and as they improved, he got more aggressive. He understood the capabilities of his personnel. 

Gruden did this last season, as well. It's why I was so impressed with how they handled Kirk's development, too. Even with a terrible run game, they stuck with it and didn't put too much on Kirk's shoulders. As he got more and more comfortable they got more aggressive with putting the success of the offense on his shoulders. 

[Long n Left]

13 hours ago, Wildbunny said:

 

Want to have some fun again? Janikowski (38yrs), only have a 80% career FGM. He even had a few season at less than 70% accuracy.

Vinatieri (43yrs), one of the best actually have a 84.4% accuracy in his career. He was roughly 80% for his first sixth years with the Patriots, only to break the 90% of accuracy in his seventh year. The Patriots only cut the guy when they got Gostkowski (32yrs). Who's probably one of the most reliable kicker right now at 87% of accuracy in his career.

You're gonna let facts get in the way of a good rant?!?

C'mon man! It's always better to **** and moan about a player, then pray for his failure so you can be right!

Puff out chest now!

[NoCalMike]

Speaking of being aggressive, I was saying going into the Dallas game that Barry is going to have to allow the secondary to take some chances and be aggressive if they wanted to stop all those short routes that Dak loves to throw to.

 

With the game on the line, or at least a chance to get the ball back for a final drive, we had stopped the 1st down play (I can't remember what it was) I had a feeling they might call a quick pass to catch us off guard and seal the game.  Sure enough, snap, drop, throw......those kinds of plays were exactly the kind I was hoping our defense would be keyed in to stop.  Dallas was counting on our coverage playing off the line, giving cushion for an easy completion.  If you fake the cushion and run up to the line and say the catch is still made, the only thing that happens is the WR gets a few extra yards since there is another guy behind the play ready to make a tackle, and the game is over at that point anyway.  No reason to just allow a quick easy completion in that situation.

[RawRebel]

Wasn't Hopkins the reason we beat Minnesota and The Giants? All of these over reactions are ridiculous.

[Wildbunny]

14 hours ago, RawRebel said:

Wasn't Hopkins the reason we beat Minnesota and The Giants? All of these over reactions are ridiculous.

You should know that players are only good to get  cut  when they muff  on a play.

[skinny21]

Regarding Hopkins, it's interesting (and makes sense) that he's easily attempted the most kicks so far.  He's 22nd in percentage (not good), making one more (of his 31 attempts) would put him at 16th... making 2 more would put him at 12th.  Grand scheme, he's been awesome at onsides kicks (last week was the first one that was poor, and the first that our players didn't have a legitimate shot at), decent on FGs, and quite good at kickoffs.  Unfortunate that the kickoff change has greatly reduced the importance of touchbacks.

[Peregrine]

On 11/26/2016 at 6:26 PM, Wildbunny said:

There's no chance you can run a running play, get stuff (and thus, not score a TD), and have your Field Goal unit snapping the ball in less than 21 seconds. That's too short, you'll run out of time. And ES will scream at how stupid it was to run a running play with no TO left. And since it was 3rd down, there was no chances that you run a running play, regroup fast and spike the ball...

Turn it all you want, we didn't have much else to do than go with pass, and they knew it.

 

If you dont believe professional athletes can get a chip shot FG done in 17 seconds, then you have really really really low standards.  Thats a world of time.

[illone]

I like being aggressive too, but I don't like the Wildcat or read-option plays in the red zone.  Just line up and run the ball on 1st or 2nd down.  Skins need to do a self scout and go against some of their own tendencies.  Jay tries to get cute too much with some of these plays.  The skins have enough weapons, the RZ issues are really perplexing but I actually point more to the play-calling than Kirk.  The red zone package and play-calling needs to be overhauled.