Reaper Skins

Uneven enforcement of penalties, especially considering Tannehill was able to finish the game unhindered, while Big Ben had to be carted off the field Redskins Chris Baker fined for roughing the passer in week 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/football-insider/wp/2015/09/18/chris-baker-fined-for-roughing-the-passer-penalty-against-dolphins-qb-tannehill/ St. Louis Rams Mark Barron not expected to be fined for hit on Roethlisberger http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13771952/fine-unlikely-mark-barron-hit-ben-roethlisberger

I’m going to preface this post by saying that there were plenty of opportunities for the Redskins to win this game. The coaches abandoned the run, Cousins played his worst game of the season and consistently underthrew his receivers, and a lack of discipline led to a goal line fumble and squandered opportunities on 2 onside kicks. With that being said, in my mind this entire game was decided within the first two minutes. Last year against this team, the Redskins had a momentum shifting play called back when RG3 “didn’t get in the endzone.” The play happened before halftime, but the team took it as an excuse to say “well the refs are against us, we can’t win this game.” They showed that they weren’t mentally tough enough to shake off a bad play, a bad call, and move forward. Last night, I saw the exact same thing happen, only it happened within the first few minutes of the game. A bad call against us killed our momentum and we spent the rest of the game getting in our own way. We suddenly forgot that we were “not the same team from last year” and proceeded to let the refs and the Giants kill our momentum every single time we tried to get something going. So yes, we have no one to blame for this loss but ourselves, because the opportunities were there. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t see a ton of hometown calls that gave the Giants a huge competitive edge and helped keep the Redskins stuck in first gear all night. Good teams are able to overcome referee bias, and its quite clear that we are not there yet. With that being said, here are some points from the game that I think gave an unfair advantage to the Giants. First Point: Holding calls are always pretty subjective, and I noticed that most of our momentum killing “penalties” were of this variety, with some being so questionable that the commentators were even skeptical of them. There also seemed to be a large level of inconsistency as far as what constituted a holding call in this game. On the other side of the ball, there were numerous instances peppered throughout the game of the Giants clearly holding that were NOT called. In other words, there did not seem to be even handed enforcement. Second point: I noticed several instances of “combo penalties”. With these, either both teams committed penalties, but the end results still favored the Giants, or there was a penalty on the Redskins that gave the Giants a first down, immediately followed by a call for the Redskins. The end result of this is that a Giants drive is allowed to continue while making the flags look like they are being evenly distributed. In this vein, if I were to go look up the overall number of penalties on each team from this game, I would not expect them to be super lopsided in our favor. However, it did appear that the refs began calling the game much more in the Redskins favor only after the game was clearly out of reach in the 4th quarter, ensuring that these meaningless "make up" calls would pad the numbers and make them appear more even. The number of penalties wasn't the issue, but rather the variety and the timing of their enforcement. Third Point: The flags themselves were coming out VERY late, often way after the play had ended, giving the refs a chance to see the result of the play before deciding whether or not to negate it with a flag. There seemed to be an inordinate number times during drives where flags were thrown only to have the refs say "there is no foul on the play" I don’t have any screen shots for the penalties listed below (any footage would be welcome), so some of them may be more agregious than others, but I logged the times and situation as they came up anytime I noticed a ref call swing momentum in favor of the Giants: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First Quarter: 13:48 - Offense was moving the ball well until a third down, 33 yard play was negated due to a pass interference call on Jordan Reed. No replay of the infraction was shown. Contact is allowed within 1 yard of the line of scrimmage. In his post game presser, Gruden says that “We had some bad thing happen to us early and were never able to recover. Watch his reaction when asked about the Reed holding call https://youtu.be/LpSCbRwqu5o?t=6m 13:07 – On 4th down, our punter is run into by a Giants defender. The 15 yard penalty would have resulted in a first down. Instead, the referees call a Redskins player for being out of bounds. No replay is shown of the defender being out of bounds. Offsetting penalties result in a re-kick. Predictably, our coverage strategy has already been seen by the Giants, and when presented with a second chance, the Giants block the punt for a safety. 9:10 - Giants forced to punt, ball is fielded at Redskins 12. Holding penalty on Plummer forces Redskins to begin drive on their own 6 yard line. The very next play, Shawn Lavauo is injured and forced to leave the game. No replay shown of how he was injured. With backup LeRiebus filling in, Washington chooses to avoid running the ball and unwisely throws on 2nd down near the goal line, resulting in an interception. 4:37 – Redskins punt the ball, Giants returner fumbles the ball. Initially signaled Redskins ball. Upon review, ball is awarded to the Giants. :43 – Eli Manning throws first incomplete pass of game. No intentional grounding flag is thrown. Instead of being backed up, Giants are able to kick a 35 yard field goal. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Quarter 11:31 – Jeron Johnson called for ticky tack unnecessary roughness on a kickoff despite the fact that it was a touchback. Commentators agree that Giants player is acting and that the call was unnecessary. Giants awarded 15 yards and begin drive on their own 35. Ensuing drive: Multiple holds on both Murphy and Kerrigan that were not called. Possible pass interference also not called 4:13 – J. Crowder catches a pass and runs for 33 yards. Play is negated by a phantom holding call on Lichtensteiger. One commentator disagrees with the call, the other commentator states that “well he didn’t hold, but I guess he did TRY and hold…” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Third Quarter: :46 – Pass interference called on Chris Culliver even though the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage. When this is pointed out to the officials, they change the penalty to illegal contact on Culliver and say it occurred prior to the pass. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fourth Quarter: 6:50 – After suffering from an 11 yard loss on a sack the previous play, an 11 yard catch to Jordan Reed is negated by an offensive interference call away from the ball on J. Crowder. Washington is backed up to their own 8 yard line for 2nd and 28. 9:32 - The Forward progress call: Jennings is stopped and stripped of the football before coming to the ground. Officials claim that the runner's forward momentum was impeded and therefore the play is dead. the ball is clearly stripped before the whistle is blown. Both commentators agree that the whistle was blown much too early, although one commentator says that "the whistle doesn't matter" . Referees say that runner's forward progress is nonreviewable. Redskins fumble is negated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In conclusion, there were plenty of opportunities for the Redskins to win this game. That being said, the biggest issue I had with last night was that our offense had no rhythm. When he is forced to overcome everything else on the field and try to “save the day” Cousins over exerts himself and our coach abandons the run. I absolutely think the Giants front office and hometown refs used this knowledge to their advantage and stacked the deck against us. Anytime we began to get anything going offensively, the refs became involved. Ideally a good team should be able to overcome this. But we’re not there yet. So while I don’t blame this loss soley on the referees, I absolutely do think that their uneven penalties took a huge mental toll on our offense and quarterback and ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back for this week’s loss. You cannot run your playbook effectively and go for the jugular if you’re worried about the refs checking you at every turn. The loss is on the Redskins, but the lack of energy, mental confusion, and the “playing scared” attitude we saw from our players was definitely aided by the referees. It’s much easier to “out physical” the other team when you’re not worried about penalties, and this was the gameplan that New York employed this week.

Does anyone have any footage of this play? Like a vine or an image? I didn't remember seeing it or it being that blatent but Gruden today in his presser called it "alleged interference" and I've seen alot of fans complaining about the call

From the twitter thread: Former refs admit refs now getting coms in ear from press box & league office re: flags/calls "The idea makes perfect sense to me, but absent a formal policy, it raises questions about accountability and transparency. In an industry where so much money and job security ride on the outcome of each game, it would be unsettling to think that an unidentified entity is pulling the levers from behind the proverbial curtain..... ...The issue, if there is one, is avoiding the appearance that someone removed from the field of play -- be it the replay official or a league official in New York -- might be influencing the outcome of the game without anyone knowing it. I would also imagine an opposing coach wouldn't be happy to know that a replay could be used to correct what is supposed to be an unreviewable call." http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/179423/whispering-in-the-ear-of-nfl-referees …

NFL waits the whole offseason until today to hand down a 1 game suspension for Chris Culliver, ensuring that the Redskins won't be able to have a full roster in their secondary for 2 weeks of the season, rather than 1. Unecessarily drawn out for maximum disruption to our roster, keeps us from being able to have any offseason time to game plan in combination with Breeland's 1 game suspension. No reason this should not have been announced prior to the season. Removes our ability to make roster cuts according to team need heading into the season http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000530608/article/redskins-chris-culliver-suspended-one-game As a basis for comparison, Pacman Jones was not suspended for this on field incident, which occurred in week 1. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13654762/pacman-jones-cincinnati-bengals-facing-likely-fine-no-suspension

Suh kicks Morris in head during week 1 against Dolphins, no penalty during game http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/ndamukong-suh-dirty-miami-dolphins-redskins-plays-vines-gifs http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/13/miami-dolphins-ndamukong-suh-helmet-kick-video Despite being a repeat offender, the league decides not to enforce any penalty against Suh after review the next day http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000530418/article/suh-incident-with-morris-not-deemed-kick-no-punishment-coming They did, however, decide to fine Redskins Chris Baker for roughing the passer. It was the only fine handed out from the game https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/football-insider/wp/2015/09/18/chris-baker-fined-for-roughing-the-passer-penalty-against-dolphins-qb-tannehill/

9/8/15 - NFLPA collusion lawsuit against NFL over 'secret' 2010 cap rejected again http://es.pn/1QmUm3L

So the Redskins draft their most explosive player in decades and because of injury concerns, the team has a tough choice to make of whether he is worth the 16 million dollar contract he will receive the next year. In what was called "the most important game of RG3's career" an independent neurologist is brought in to see whether he can play. After being initially cleared, the day before the game the decision is reversed and RG3 is not allowed on the field to play, forcing the Redskins to move forward and name his backup the starter. Not only did this last minute switch make it impossible for the Redskins to prepare for the season as they did all summer and get a legitimate dress rehersal for the season, it also prevented them from being able to showcase RG3's skills to other team's if they were already considering moving on from him. It basically killed any possible trade value for RG3 and assured that the franchise would get little to no compensation on their investment for RG3. Less than a week after the decision was made, the "independent" neurologist has retired and refused to work with the NFL again. Was this a ploy by the NFL to assure that team relations with RG3 were shattered once and for all? By forcing them to go in a different direction, did they not only sour RG3'S relationship with the Redskins forever, and also gurantee that they would get no value by trying to trade them? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000517347/article/rgiii-not-cleared-to-play-after-neurologist-revisits-data http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/05/report-independent-neurologist-resigns-after-rg3-fiasco/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/sports/football/judge-overturns-tom-bradys-suspension-deflategate-patriots.html?_r=0 No penalty for Tom Brady, no penalty for Bill Belichick. Dropped onto the media one week before the season starts. Spirit of competitive fairness.

The original point of this thread was to call attention to when the Redskins were being treated unfairly either on the field or off. With that being said, I feel like I should just make a point regarding how this whole RG3 situation has played itself out with the media. NFL "insiders" have been bending over backwards to show the Redskins organization as bungling and inept. People are flat out creating whatever juicy buzzwords cast our front office in the worst light in order to drum up ratings and paint us as the proverbial "whipping boy" of the NFL without even pretending to wait for official press releases. Troy Aikman telling NFL viewers that the Redskins are more dysfunctional than the Kardashians. However this whole saga with RG3 turns out, the media decided on the headline a long time ago and its "Point and Laugh - The Redskins Find a Way to Mess it Up Again" From the league sanctioned "independant" neurologist who pulled the rug out from under us a day before the Ravens game, to our own supposed "hometown" media who desperatley keep trying to find a word to twist and paint our coach as a bumbling idiot. Watch Gruden himself call out the media and tell them "I know you all like to try and paint this picture of us being incompetant, but that's not the case". He also says that the report on RG3's concussion was confusing to him as well, and that as far as all thse "inside sources", its up to him to decide the starting quarterback and he doesn't understand why the report of Cousins starting week one is already being treated as fact. http://www.redskins.com/news-and-events/article-1/WATCH-LIVE-Jay-Gruden-Talks-Ravens-Game/20ef94f0-fa9e-4dea-a466-38a69792e14f This is not an organization that gets a fair break in the public eye, and despite the fact that we are 3-0 in the preseason, with a vastly improved depth chart that has been kicking the snot out of our competition from day one of training camp, we continue to be mentioned only as a punch line. It's getting old, and its getting innacurate. People say we need a culture change around Redskins Park. NEWSFLASH - The culture change is already happening, the rest of the league is just to stupid and slow to notice it. This franchise has done nothing but make smart decisions all offseason and has quietly turned into one of the most improved rosters in the league. Here's hoping they keep laughing all the way to gameday so we can punch them in the mouth while they wonder what the hell just happened.

This one was just too good to not add to the archive lol Dan Steinberg ‏@dcsportsbog 1h1 hour ago This week is manna for sports radio conspiracy theorists. This was a call on 980 yesterday, 2 hours before news broke

I'd say were off to a good start http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/on-second-thought--robert-griffin-iii-will-sit-out-with-concussion-234038910.html

Karma tells the Redskins to sit the **** back down. Every time we get a promising player they get struck by lightning Best cornerback- injured in training camp Best WR - injured in training camp Best tight end - injured in first preseason game Best QB- injured and ineffective in 2ND preseason game Best special teams performer- injured in 2nd preseason game Best defensive acquisition- injured in training camp Every bit of momentum we start to develop has been karmically shattered by the football gods. Something is very very wrong. I'm legitimately scared to root for Alfred Morris, Matt Jones and Kirk Cousins

Yeah the options were pretty limited on the website i used. http://www.teamworkathletic.com/taa/design-uniform2/

If we ever change the name, you know my vote PS i suck at photoshop

Keep seeing it mentioned in different threads so I figured I'd add it here, even though its technically a legal move, The Colts were definitely acting a little cheap when they claimed Tevin Mitchell, basically stealing a draft pick from us... http://kcmsports.com/blog/2015/08/06/colts-claim-injured-redskins-draft-pick-tevin-mitchel-off-waivers/

Don't know what the Redskins did to piss off the football gods but there was way to much bad luck and karma last night to not catalogue it. Figured I'd stick it here rather than in the serious threads; Our Best Tight End on the field: Team Leader, Special Teams Ace, Niles Paul breaks ankle immediately after being named Starting Tight End, out for Season http://deadspin.com/niles-paul-carted-off-with-gruesome-ankle-injury-1724009749 (next player up at TE also had to leave with an injury as well) #SkinsCamp ✔@Redskins INJURY UPDATE: TE Je'Ron Hamm (left thigh) OUT for the remainder of the game. 9:26 PM - 13 Aug 2015 Our Best QB on the field to our best WR on the field: Pierre Garcon drops wide open pass, kills momentum, gives reporters and fans the excuse they need to bring up everything RG3 has ever struggled with and stir the QB competition pot http://streamable.com/cebd Our Best CB on the field: Culliver called for questionable defensive PI that sets up Browns opening drive TD michael phillips ‏@michaelpRTD 3m3 minutes ago Chris Culliver said after the game he thought he got a "preseason" pass interference call. I agree. Our best rookie performer: RB Matt Jones evaluated for possible concussion symptoms #SkinsCamp @Redskins INJURY UPDATE: #Redskins RB Matt Jones being evaluated for concussion. (dodged a bullet on this one)(Silas Redd also injured his knee) Props to Andre Roberts for not letting his ST fumble hang over his head all game. He battled back and made alot of great catches afterwards. Ended up being the best performance by a wide reciever for the night.

Q: What happened when they expanded to two bye weeks in 1993? A: One word: disaster. CBS and NBC freaked out because their ratings plummeted thanks to a continually depleted Sunday slate; teams complained that they couldn't maintain momentum when they weren't playing enough games in a row; everyone hated losing the week off between the conference title games and the Super Bowl; and most importantly, fantasy owners couldn't figure out who to bench/waive/pick up since we didn't have the Internet yet. (Follow-up to that point: This continues to amaze me. How did we do fantasy football without the Internet? I keep wanting to ask my friends, "How did you guys have a league back then?" then I remember that I was in their league, too. Looking back, I can only remember one thing: Our commish, Camp, mailing out stats after he added them up from the Monday/Tuesday USA Today, then me excitedly getting my mail on Thursdays to see if I won. Not my e-mail, my mail. Was this the 1990s or the 1890s? I can't remember.) The real problem: With only 28 teams and a top-heavy league, that left eight or nine Sunday afternoon games per bye week … and only two or three of those games were good. We didn't have DirecTV's season package back then, or the Red Zone Channel, so if you were stuck with a crappy local game (or even worse, a crappy local team that wiped out the quality national game you could have been watching), your whole day was ruined. Trust me, my Patriots overachieved that season by going 5-11. (Double bye weeks) + (no DirecTV) X (crummy local team) = bitter. And that's why double bye weeks went the way of New Coke, "Cop Rock," Planet Hollywood, Rick Mirer and "The Pat Sajak Show." Q: Was there a tipping point during that 1993 season when everyone threw their hands up and said "The double byes must go immediately"? A: Actually, there was! How did you know? The NFC East and AFC West received byes in Week 8, which meant that four of the league's best eight teams (Dallas, Kansas City, the Giants and Raiders) were shelved, and also, CBS (who had NFC rights) lost local bumps in Dallas, Philly, Washington and New York. Of the eight Sunday afternoon games, our "marquee" AFC matchup was Buffalo (which finished 12-4) at the Jets (8-8); for the NFC, it was San Francisco (10-6) at Phoenix (7-9). A ratings calamity. (Important note: Now that we have 32 teams, DirecTV and perpetual parity, the quality of those Sunday games wouldn't be nearly as problematic. I'd rather see them bring back double bye weeks then stretch the season to an 18-game orgy of concussions. But that's just me.) http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmonsnfl2010/byeweek

Lol i haven't seen the hard knocks episode yet but reading the tweets forum it seems like they probably didn't PAINT us in the best light

According to SB nation we are tied for first with the giants for hardest schedule in the division, followed by the eagles, then the cowboys with the easiest. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/4/21/8459471/2015-nfl-schedule-strength-steelers-falcons on top of that, we play more teams coming off extra days of rest than anyone in the league except Seahawks (Seattle has 5, we play 4 teams coming off extra rest, while Giants only have to play against one) http://www.footballperspective.com/washington-seattle-carolina-tampa-bay-extra-rest-and-the-2015-nfl-schedule/ On top of THAT, 2 of the teams that get to play us after getting extra rest are within our division (Giants in week 3, eagles in week 16) So yeah, even though the Giants technically have the same strength of schedule as us, our schedule is much harder than theirs based on the amount of fresh opponents we have to face, both inside and outside our division.

Cool site! I wish they showed number of penalties overturned though. Also doesn't show the types of penalties called either which would be cool to know

That's a pretty interesting stat. Did they break it down by types of penalties or when during games at all? Where did our Nfc Opponents rank?

Got any footage of this? Sounds familiar but couldn't find anything. Certainly wouldn't surprise me though. Biggest thing with Dallas that I've noticed in recent years is the play clock starting and stopping when it shouldn't be. Intentional or not it's definitley annoying and seems to only happen in a way that favors the home team

I can see the upcoming storylines and disrespect already "Redskins play the role of NFL whipping boy to drum up ratings for "Hard Knocks" http://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2015/08/06/redskins-schooled-at-joint-practice-with-texans-and-hbos-hard-knocks/ http://mweb.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25263738/watch-texans-and-redskins-joint-practice-turns-into-all-out-brawl This is exactly the reason I didn't want this show here. Drama that keeps us from focusing on getting better and costs us a whole day of practice. It absolutley would not surprise me if someone was told to go out and "get some physical play going to give us some material to work with for the show." EDIT: looks like coaches kind of did tell the team to step up the intensity and according to Cecil shorts the fight was no suprise at all http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/football-insider/wp/2015/08/08/houston-wide-receiver-cecil-shorts-iii-says-texans-expected-saturdays-brawl-with-redskins/?wprss=rss_redskins-page-shell&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Cost us a full day of practice and critical exposure for our backups to get better. Stupid. Of course ESPN is blaming the Redskins entirely and saying that the Texans shouldn't have come to D.C. even though the videos show that the Texans started it. We're being painted as an unprofessional group of thugs mere days after our GM gets backlash for his signing of Galette, a "bad character guy". How convenient. http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=13399506&ex_cid=espnapi_internal

I will say that we seem to be handling the financial side of things way better in the last few seasons in regards to player contracts. Little things like restructuring Hall based on injuries and Culliver and Knighton's deals seem to indicate a smarter front office that has built in a bunch of safety nets to help minimize exposure for when things don't work out. Now we also have both Goldsen and Galette playing for us while other teams pay their contracts, definitley helps the team when you can minimize the number of eggs in one basket so to speak.