WT: Enjoy it while you can - Dan Daly

[spanishomelette]

Enjoy it while you can

http://www.washingtontimes.com/sports/daly.htm

By Dan Daly

September 12, 2005

Three field goals and a cloud of dust. That's where the Redskins' offense is right now, one year and one game into the Gibbs Restoration. After a season in which the Redskins made ordinary defenses look like the Steel Curtain -- and after an offseason in which they replaced both starting receivers, brought in a new center and quarterbacks coach, welcomed back Jon Jansen and tried to perform a Vulcan mind meld between Coach Joe and Patrick Ramsey -- they beat the Bears 9-7 in their 2005 opener, all nine points coming courtesy of John Hall's instep.

A win is a win, sure, but Joe Gibbs and his offensive think-tankers had to be expecting more than three field goals and a narrow victory over a team quarterbacked by a rookie fourth-round draft pick. Truth be told, there wasn't much difference between yesterday's halting effort and the one against the Bucs in Week?1 last year. The Redskins ran the ball a little more consistently, Mark Brunell seemed a little lighter on his feet, but every score was still of the blood-from-a-stone variety.

Oh, there were a couple of big plays, a few glimmers of hope. Ramsey and Santana Moss connected on a 52-yard completion at the outset of the second quarter, and Clinton Portis broke a 41-yard run at the end of the third, but two sacks (the first resulting in a fumble) effectively sabotaged those series. No, it's hard to get very enthused about this performance, especially with a Monday night game at Dallas looming.

Already we may be looking at a quarterback change -- Ramsey leaving, Brunell coming. Patrick had his neck wrung by linebacker Lance Briggs on the aforementioned sack-fumble and was given the rest of the afternoon off, though he felt up to returning in the second half. In his 19 minutes, he had one interception and two fumbles (only the second of which, thankfully for the home team, was lost). That, as much as any strained neck, is why Ramsey stayed on the sideline for essentially the last three quarters. Gibbs saw his opportunity to go to a steadier hand, a more trusted hand, and he took it.

And it's hard to blame him. Ramsey turned the ball over in the preseason, and he turned it over again yesterday -- a disturbing pattern indeed. Coach Joe didn't say definitively that he was switching to Brunell, but he didn't give Ramsey a glowing endorsement either. And if you read between the lines -- or rather, listened between the lines -- you could pretty well figure out the direction he's leaning in.

After all, he could easily have said, "If Patrick's healthy, then he's starting against the Cowboys." But instead he said, "We will see how everybody heals up, and then I will sit and look at it and decide what we are going to do." Big difference.

He also did some venting about the Redskins' three giveaways -- of which Ramsey, of course, was responsible for two. "One thing we still have not grasped for ourselves for a team," he began ... is that, well, the team needs to grasp the ball more firmly."

Who knows what might have happened in this game if the FedEx crowd of 90,138 hadn't inserted itself into the Redskins lineup midway through the final quarter. The Bears, needing just a field goal to go ahead, had a second down at the Washington 37 when the stadium suddenly got so loud that the visiting team couldn't hear the signals. Three times in a row Chicago tried to snap the ball, and three times in a row -- which might be some kind of record -- somebody false-started. Soon enough, the Bears were facing a third-and-38.

"We couldn't get a play called in the defensive huddle either," Cornelius Griffin said. "We're going, 'What? What?' But that's what you want, the 12th man. You want teams to hate coming here to play us."

It's not like the day was a total downer for the Redskins' offense. The running attack, for instance, looked more Gibbsian than it usually did last season, gaining yardage in small, clock-eating chunks that enabled the Redskins to hold the ball -- and give their gallant defense time to gather itself. The protection afforded Ramsey and Brunell was also a cut above last year's, allowing them to at least take a peek downfield every now and then.

Gibbs, too, is doing everything he can to get the offense out of first gear. The shotgun, which he resisted so spiritedly in the old days, is very much a part of the Redskins' scheme now. And get this: He's leaving it up to Portis to decide when he comes out and Ladell Betts comes in. Don't remember him ever doing that with John Riggins and Joe Washington (or with Earnest Byner and Gerald Riggs, for that matter).

But all these changes, all this receptiveness to others' ideas, all this flexibility added up to three field goals yesterday. And the player who booted those field goals came out of the game with a leg injury -- much like the one, the medical staff fears, that sidelined him for half of last season.

So, smoke 'em if you got 'em -- those victory cigars, I mean. No telling when you'll be lighting up again.

[wilbur58z]

I hate to even respond to something written by a 3rd rate columnist who writes for a 5th rate newspaper, but obviously certain writers and some Redskins fans aren't giving the Bears enough credit. That defense is pretty nasty and Orton is poised as hell and can play. They're going to knock off somebody at some point and get noticed, but right now obviously they aren't much to people who don't follow the NFL closely and thus we get the uninformed checking in with opinions such as "they should have beaten them worse."

[flexxskins]

I hate to even respond to something written by a 3rd rate columnist who writes for a 5th rate newspaper, but obviously certain writers and some Redskins fans aren't giving the Bears enough credit. That defense is pretty nasty and Orton is poised as hell and can play. They're going to knock off somebody at some point and get noticed, but right now obviously they aren't much to people who don't follow the NFL closely and thus we get the uninformed checking in with opinions such as "they should have beaten them worse."

I didn't like that last statement at all. I think what alot of people are failing to recognize is the fact that, the Chicago Bears is a pretty good team. Yes, we beat a good team.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

I'm not liking the fact that Ramsey can bounce back from an interception, throw some key 3rd down passes, lead a 70 yard drive, toss a TD even if it gets called back thru no fault of his own....and then have ALL of that deemed irrelevant because some linebacker made him fumble by grabbing him by the neck within seconds of the ball being hiked, and slamming the back of his head into the ground. You notice nobody gets upset about the non-call by the refs...you notice nobody blames one single O-lineman for allowing the opposing team have a free shot at the starting QB's head...no, all you hear is "Ramsey fumbled". What's even worse, is that I fear that's all Gibbs is saying to himself, too...

[JWB]

The next 3 weekly articles by Dan Daly:

Week #2: "It Won't Last Long"

Week #3: "The End is Coming Fast"

Week #4:"Ok, fine. They are good but I still hate them!"

[Commander Adama]

Very bitter article.

[Thiebear]

Hateraid is half off this week....

Everyone grab a cup...

Forget the announcers totally talking up Ramsey as he corrected after the mistake:

(for the bears QB it was poise)....

Forget the bear hug that Cooley received when he got in the endzone and then pushed off (my opinion only)

Forget the armbar tackle on Ramsey's neck and then giving the ball to the bears as opposed to us getting it inside the 20 with a 1st down...

Forget ALL of that.. and then say we didnt do anything...

[Sonny Joe Hog]

I'm not liking the fact that Ramsey can bounce back from an interception, throw some key 3rd down passes, lead a 70 yard drive, toss a TD even if it gets called back thru no fault of his own....and then have ALL of that deemed irrelevant because some linebacker made him fumble by grabbing him by the neck within seconds of the ball being hiked, and slamming the back of his head into the ground. You notice nobody gets upset about the non-call by the refs...you notice nobody blames one single O-lineman for allowing the opposing team have a free shot at the starting QB's head...no, all you hear is "Ramsey fumbled". What's even worse, is that I fear that's all Gibbs is saying to himself, too...

You make some excellent points. I think that Ramsey was coming on nicely after a bit of a shaky start before he was hurt. Who wouldn't have fumbled the ball when hit like that?

Something tells me that we need Patrick to play if we want to throw the ball downfield and score more points. I continue to believe that he will develop into a very good NFL QB. Nevertheless, it's hard for me to deal with some of the mistakes that Patrick makes as he continues to develop. For example, I may go insane if he continues to throw an interception early in the first quarter of every game. But we must go through these things if he is to reach his full potential because he needs to play.

However...

I must confess that, for now, I feel more comfortable with Brunell at the controls in a close game. His experience really showed against the Bears when he made smart decisions and protected the ball well.

It's quite a dilema, isn't it? We fans just need to keep our cool while the coaching staff continues to work with Patrick.

:dallasuck