Art Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 We had areas we can feel good about in this game. The line blocked well. We largely controlled things with our offense, though our defense didn't play as well as you'd like. We tried down the field plays. We had Seattle's defense on its' heels much of the game. But, we do not culminate drives with points leaving teams in it. The Seahawks stayed in it and started to get control. This game didn't go as I expected it to. I expected we'd play a solid game, limiting mistakes and win pretty easily or we'd spike ourselves with a series of crushing errors largely imposed upon ourselves and lose. Here, we played well, but really had to hold the edge against the Seahawks. That game went from us dominating to them dominating to a coin flip to feel good again. Seattle's defense is not impressive, but, they have a well-designed offense that utilizes the entire field and has great balance. Our defense needed our offense to have a good game and it did, if not quite good enough to make this an easy win. We still can't keep teams out of stacking the box because we're a hair off on so many of our deep chances. Brunell has accuracy, poise and some mobility. He's not the problem. But, he's not the solution either. We're a hair off, which likely comes from timing, which should improve. Now, we know we have threats on offense. Teams are going to have problems with us because of how deadly Moss can be. It feels tremendous being 3-0 especially because we aren't yet as good a team as we will be and we can so obviously be. We're winning close, hard-fought games. Things are going to keep getting better and better. We're a physical team. We're a well-coached team. We've got great talent on both sides of the ball. There's something missing and it's hard to figure out exactly what it is at 3-0, but, at 3-0 we've been able to work through things while not playing really great football yet. That is enough to get excited about. If we get a road win here in the next two weeks, it'll be a season that will find us a tough team to beat because the confidence will be so high. Credit goes to the Seahawks for playing so well. That's a very good team, which we knew. We're a very good team, which they didn't know. Now they do . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba9497 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 The Defense can't have the mental laspes against Denver and expect to get A WIN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tr1 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I'll take winning close ones instead of losing close ones any day. Hail to the Redskins, and nice game Seattle...thanks for giving us credibility around the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheREALJBird Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 Yea there was some good things to look forward to from the offense, I think were really starting to establish our offense out there and it's only going to improve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bat~man Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 our defense is still great , but the losses we have taken are showing a bit , pierce , smoot , bowen , clark , harris , noble , all are either hurt , gone or coming off injuries , now i think with a bit more exp number 22 will make us forget smoot and once bowen and clark get back in a groove we will be ok , our d-line is up and down at times and marshall misses soem plays he should make but overall i will take a little slack in our D for a upgrade on O if we win ball games >< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiskeypeet Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 The Defense can't have the mental laspes against Denver and expect to get A WIN I couldn't agree more. If we give Jake Plummer room to run like Hasselbeck had in the 4th quarter he is going to go OFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iheartskins Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 What's different is that now, when we're down, we're not out. I don't think any of us can underestimate how important of a step that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 Nothing builds confidence like winning. This team is building. It has gone through adversity and is starting to come together. You can feel that old feeling that we all knew and loved in the 80's and early 90's with Gibbs teams of old. That old intangible feeling of TEAM, and that intangible feeling that week in and week out, we have a chance. I like it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenaa Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 "There's something missing and it's hard to figure out exactly what it is at 3-0, but, at 3-0 we've been able to work through things while not playing really great football yet" I don't think it's too hard to figure out, Art. They're just now learning how to win. It isn't a habit yet. Once it becomes a habit, attitudes change and domination ensues. When they step on the field "knowing" they can't be beat, the opponents will be in a world of hurt. This team is starting to develop an identity. They are tough and relentless. They aren't hitting on all cylinders, yet they continue to scrap and fight and find a way. We could be in for something very special if this team continues to respond to the Gibbs way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gichin13 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 "There's something missing and it's hard to figure out exactly what it is at 3-0, but, at 3-0 we've been able to work through things while not playing really great football yet"I don't think it's too hard to figure out, Art. They're just now learning how to win. It isn't a habit yet. Once it becomes a habit, attitudes change and domination ensues. When they step on the field "knowing" they can't be beat, the opponents will be in a world of hurt. This team is starting to develop an identity. They are tough and relentless. They aren't hitting on all cylinders, yet they continue to scrap and fight and find a way. We could be in for something very special if this team continues to respond to the Gibbs way. Nice post Steven. I agree on the identity factor. Two examples -- the obvious Dallas example. Less obvious -- getting the TD to Royal in the first half after we got robbed. We stay in and scrap until the clock is over. Both sides of the ball are into the game now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WallyG3 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 Another plus - penalties. How many did we have? 1? 2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WallyG3 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 The thing that's missing is creating turnovers. How many do we have this year? 2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted October 2, 2005 Author Share Posted October 2, 2005 "There's something missing and it's hard to figure out exactly what it is at 3-0, but, at 3-0 we've been able to work through things while not playing really great football yet"I don't think it's too hard to figure out, Art. They're just now learning how to win. It isn't a habit yet. Once it becomes a habit, attitudes change and domination ensues. When they step on the field "knowing" they can't be beat, the opponents will be in a world of hurt. This team is starting to develop an identity. They are tough and relentless. They aren't hitting on all cylinders, yet they continue to scrap and fight and find a way. We could be in for something very special if this team continues to respond to the Gibbs way. It could be that, absolutely Steve. It does take time to learn how to win. We're learning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snagletooth Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 We are still searching for an identity, offensively. The O-line is still very much in question in my mind. They were solid, but, if we are going to be smashmouth, physical, and hold the ball as long as we did today, you would hope to see a better push at the line of scrimmage in the run game. The Dirtbags need to be a strength. One impression I had of todays game is that the offense had a much greater "west coast" feel. At one point I wondered if Musgrave might be calling plays? Clearly we were implimenting more west coast into the offense or atleast executing it to a better degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I'd mostly have to agree with your assessment Art. However, I'm not all that dissapointed in our defense. They held the 2nd ranked offense in the niffle to 7 points under their average. Not bad. As for the offense, I'm very much encouraged by the fact that they have managed to look average. This is the first time during Gibbs 2.0 that I think we can really say that. Also, as you said there appears to be a prospect for improvement down the road. 3-0 and alone atop the NFC East. Not bad at this stage of the game, not bad. Also, looking down the road a bit, if we play .500 ball from here on out (7-6) we win 10 games and will almost certainly make the playoffs. I hope you all are ready to see Michael Vick at Fedex in the postseason:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenster95 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 Good points, Art. The difference between last season and this season is that our offense has that little extra oomph to turn a bunch of close games we lost last year to those we end up winning this year. Still, when looking at it from a glass half-empty perspective, we've improved, but not by much. The improvement has translated into wins, but we need to do more to win easily to give our guys and my blood pressure a break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryman of the North Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I agreed with most of your analysis Art but I disagree with your Oline comments. Our Oline looked very overrated today, on some occassions they gave Brunnell enough time but they didnt look solid vs the blitz and they looked terrible on more than a few running plays. They did not get much push on a lot of inside plays played waaay to much on our side of the LOS and they missed a lot of blocks on key plays (Darby coming thru untouched to stuff a second a short is unacceptable). If Betts and Portis were not such good backs we would have been in trouble today. We do have the talent at most spots along the Oline but they havent gelled yet. what we need to do is find a way to create space for portis I think that going to the Old Gibbs 3 wide with Cooley at TE might help at least on 1 st downs when teams are stacking the LOS. Good enough to eke out a win is nice but Id rather see us dominate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isifhan Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I'm still very concerned that we can't finish off drives with a score on the ground. We need to establish a red zone running game. Hopefully this game will be a stepping stone to that since this is the best intermediate play in terms of passing that we've had. We managed to get Cooley involved and even Patten a time or two. I wasn't too impressed by our special teams play either but we neither gave up a big play (unless you count the field goal) or created one. Once we start clicking on all facets we will be a dangerous, dangerous team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrockster21 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 The defense.....of all the places for us to not perform well, I never thought the defense would be one of them. It was almost like we were giving them the 5-15 yard passes on purpose they were so wide open. The got nothing on screens, but the flat was almost completely unguarded. It was almost a given that they would convert because of that fact. And one sack and zero turnovers is not going to cut it against the Chiefs and Donkeys. True, we almost had a turnover on the Alexander fumble, but other than that, not even close. I'm not sure what the problem is, but they just aren't there. We should have had one more sack when Hasselbeck got chased like 30 yards behind the line of scrimmage and threw a prayer over his shoulder, but somehow the refs didn't call that one. Not sure what game they were watching...that would have been huge. We won, yes, and its because I guaranteed it. But, we were one shanked kick (two actually) away from losing a heartbreaker. The difference between this year and last year is that the bounces, so far, have gone our way. We're getting shady penalties called in our favor (yes, BlueTalon, that call on Trufant-I think it was him-that set up the Skins TD was bogus) in response to bad calls against us (make up calls). Last year this team would have been 1-2, 0-3 at this point in the season. We all knew how close we were to a winning record last year, and I think we've closed the gap. Remember, our offense doesn't have to be spectacular; which it wasn't today. It most certainly wasn't bottom of the barrell, either. It was an average NFL offense, which is all we need with our defense. Pundits can say all they want, but we are 3-0 for a reason; we're a good football team. Not great, just good. And that's okay for now! EDIT: I'll also add that we got 2 redzone touchdowns today; and if that original field goal isn't blocked, that's 17 points in 3 trips to the RZ. That's pretty good for the Skins, considering the past two years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tizzod Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I have to admit, I was cussin' Gibbs with 7 minutes left, going into the shell with the "3 runs and punt" offense. There was way too much time left to go into the clock-killing offense. Almost killed us. With no missed field goal, hopefully he would have learned a lesson. But the great thing is, we are catching breaks that we haven't caught in the last 10 years. Redskins never used to win games this way, and now they are. It's a sign. Life is good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I disagree that the stacked box is because we're "a hair off" deep passes. Right now, Brunell is still,usually holding it a bit long, because he needs to trust the play a bit more or start understanding the speed there. But there are plenty of teams that RARELY THROW deep in the NFL that somehow manage to run the ball with 8-9 in the box. I think what teams will start to do is realize Mark can hit those passes in the middle now and if he gets a pocket he'll step up--then eventually, they'll drop back. Because right now, I'm seeing teams put everyone but the deep safety near the LOS. That's not something even poor passing offenses see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba9497 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 But there are plenty of teams that RARELY THROW deep in the NFL that somehow manage to run the ball with 8-9 in the box yep, but rarely with ANY success Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 yep, but rarely with ANY success That's not true at all. many teams, as a result of their systems, do not throw deep frequently. And certainly the completion rate and attempts we've had is good enough for teams to know that stacking it is not going to account for everything. The problem(other than basic execution and running well) is that for a few reasons teams don't care about the deep ball enough OR about the short passing game really. Eventually, teams will learn, but right now the RBs are going to have to gut it out while teams learn that we have a passing game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselPwr44 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 yep, but rarely with ANY success Well...currently watching the Chiefs and Eagles and the Chiefs are managing to run with the Eagles putting 8 in the box, so it is possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I've seen this offense get better every game this season. Art's right. We're not there yet. But we are getting close. We are seeing things we waited all year last year to see on offense. And the best part is we're winning games in the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.