Team Spirit, depth, and other intangibles

[feeshta]

Watching the past few weeks of Skins games has been rather enlightening. We have heard all the time from Coach Gibbs about how these guys never quit and always kept fighting. Now we are starting to see that pay off. This team really has "fought it's guts out" the last few weeks. It's been a team effort, with people all across the board contributing what they can to help the team win. They are starting to look like, dare I say, The Patriots in some respects. Obviously there are a lot of differences in the scheme between the two teams, but the spirit that these Skins have displayed and the ability to make substitutions for key players and still suceed are hall marks of a team that is getting it together. The players have bought into it, and it's starting to really show in their play. We have pretty decent depth overall, with only D-line being a true week spot in my opinion. QB depth is excellent, which suddenly is a big deal after Brunnell's injury.

A strange thing happened to me yesterday. Our Starting QB, a guy who has redeemed himself in the eyes of the nation, who is by all accounts a true team player and great guy, and who had been playing very well of late, got injured. That was not strange; this is the NFL after all. What was strange was the fact that it affected me little more as a fan than if say Ryan Boschetti were to get injured. I didn't have a sudden rush of panic. No feeling of doom wellling up in my gut. I simply thought, "well here's Ramseys chance". I feel confident in the guy, enough so that I don't feel nervous with him in the game. Will he throw an occasional Int? Yeah. Is that the end of the world? No. Ramsey is a pretty decent QB, and he is much better now at managing the game than he was a year ago, especially in this sytem. I think Gibbs made a mistake by declaring Ramsey the starter at the end of last year. It fealt like the right thing at the time, but it forced him inot a position where he fealt like a liar if he changed up, and also fealt like he was not pursuing the best interests of the team if he did not play the QB who was performing better, which was now amazingly enough Brunnell. He made a tough choice, one that drew a lot of criticism, but he did it because he just fealt Brunnell gave us the best shot to win. He may or may not have been right, we'll never know for sure. Seems like a decent decision to me though from where I'm sitting. The key thing to remember in all this though was that Gibbs did not bench Ramsey because he was so awefull, but rather because Brunnell was playing so well. Ramsey played acceptably well when given the chance an did so again yesterday. What a good situation to have to worry about. Which of my QBs is BETTER, rather than which one is less bad.

Can't wait to see how all this plays out in the end.

Go Skins!

[feeshta]

Anbody have any comment?

[Henry]

I totally agree. Especially about the QB situation. That was my exact reaction when Brunell went down. "Not to worry. Ramsey will be fine" is what I think I said to my wife.

This team, to me, does not look so much like the Pats as it does the Gibbs teams of old. Aggressive, punishing defense. Efficient offense. Smart, unspectacular QB play complimenting a relentless, punishing rushing attack. Run the ball, run the ball, throw a TD, run the ball some more. Not flashy, but very effective. Notice nobody making crazy celebrations. No yelling and bickering on the sidelines. The 'personalities' on the team express themselves before and after games, not during. Gametime is work time. That's very Gibbsian.

The past few weeks this team has become so Gibbs-like it's scary. I think this bodes well for the future, whether we win this weekend or not.

[feeshta]

I'm a little young to really remember the Gibbs I days with any clarity. Back then things like chemistry and team spirit were not within the scope of my knowledge, so it's hard for me to really compare them. Back then I just knew that Riggins was the man and Art Monk was the coolest cat ever.

When I compared the current team to the Pats, my intent was not to compare the way they approach the game from a scheme standpoint. That is obviously very different with the exception of the defenses both being pretty damn good. It was more the way they approach the game from a philosophical standpoint. That sense of professionalism to the way they approach things. The true sense that it is about the TEAM, for all of the players involved. They have passion and play with fire, but they also keep their heads. I love it.