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Thoughts heading into Saturday’s game …


bnacpa

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First, it is interesting how most of the national media that I have heard first mentioned that the Skins would lose to the Seahawks because of their great record, home-field advantage, and powerful offense. Most of the media also state we would lose because they expect us to put the same 125yd offense on the field against a much weaker defense. All of a sudden, the past several days the prognosticators are starting to give us respect. I no longer read the above mentioned stuff (aside from home-field) as much as I read about how tired we are and if we hadn’t kicked so much tough butt in so many weeks; we would have a better chance. Yes, these guys are clowns, but at least they are finally acknowledging that we are capable of beating the Seahawks (if rested and healthy) and that the week 3 match up was not a fluke.

Second, my primary concern for our offense in pulling off an upset is that we must be able to convert on 3rd downs. We were amazing in week 3 … when Santana Moss was still an unknown threat (Dallas game has just happened, but many thought we just got lucky) and so they game planned him without double teams. We were in a lot of 3rd and long situations that game and Moss came up big. We also had teams coving out 2nd and 3rd receivers (prior to injuries). Currently we don’t have a 2nd receiver. We have a 2nd primary target in HB Cooley. I am sure Gibbs will come up with the best game plan he can think of, but one thought might be going to a 2 back set where Betts or Portis can help with blitz pickup and the other can add another receiving threat in short yardage if we have Cooley going for the intermediate zone and Moss stretching the defense for the long game breaker. Otherwise, Royal and Jacobs are going to need to make a presence in this game because I don’t trust Thrash with a cast on his arm. In fact, tipped passes from him trying to catch them worry me because those become turnover opportunities.

Third, I do trust and believe in these coaches … so if anyone has ever had a team struggling but winning like ours heading into the lion’s den of a #1 team, it would be us. I hope Gibbs has some wrinkles for them and if we do get off to a lead, lets build on it instead of sitting on 7 or 10 points and letting a team have a chance going into the 4th quarter. TB almost tied the game and if they had, they would have had a lot of momentum on their side and our offense, despite what the game plan may have originally been, was looking very rusty and ineffective. I think it was either Portis or Moss who said right before the St. Louis game that we need to gain more points instead of sitting on leads so that we don’t have such cardiac endings. I remember during the 1991 season there would be times where Rypien would roll out to his right and throw a bomb to Monk or Sanders along the left sideline across his body because teams generally didn’t defend that side of the field on a QB rollout. Eli Manning showed us over the weekend why many teams don’t encourage a QB to throw across his body because it increases the likelihood of an INT. However, I did see the QB’s throwing these across-the-body bombs in training camp and connecting. It makes me wonder if Gibbs has left a lot of stuff previously practiced and perfected off the field just so that he has these kinds of hidden gems in store for the playoffs. My common sense tells me that he probably doesn’t since he would have been pulling out all the stops just to get here after that 5-6 record.

Fourth, … maybe I am getting ahead of myself here, but somehow I just know that if the Skins beat the Seahawks, they are going to the show. Something just tells me that this is the big hurdle. That is also the problem … the town and the team may get soooo crazy because we haven’t even sniffed this potential since Gibbs left, that we may take the next team not a seriously. Personally, I would rather face Chicago.

The Panthers, when having a good day, are dynamic with a running game, a big game receiver and a very good defense … just like us, on a good day. The Bears have Orton (of the 15 game start variety) or Grossman, the champion of the moment, who has started just 7 games in 3 years. Wouldn’t you rather go head to head with their defense (because our defense rises to those occasions … just ask Tampa) with essentially a rookie QB vs. a team that was in the SB 2 years ago? But either way, these teams don’t scare me, only Seattle does.

Finally, if it comes to it, who would most people rather face in the Super Bowl … New England, Denver, or Indianapolis (I don’t give the Steelers a chance, to my wife’s dismay because she is a huge Pittsburgh fan)? The Super Bowl will be in a dome, so I can’t stand Indy. New England is, well, New England and Denver beat us earlier in the year … but that was in a bad weather game that, despite being on their home field, did benefit our style of football. Share you thoughts ….

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Yeah...3rd down conversions will defineitely be key in this game. We absolutely need to sustain drives and keep the 'Hags offense off the field. I expect Robert Royal to step it up in this game, big time....we all know Seattle will be gunning for Cooley and Sellers.

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I feel we need to open the first quarter with a big passing drive. This will force them to spread their defense a bit more to allow Portis more room to make his big runs.

Let's look at some obvious things...

They "THINK" Brunell is done and that our passing game is done.

They "THINK" by shutting down our run game, they can hold us.

So the way I see it... start off with the obvious and I'M CERTAIN they won't be ready for it. I keep looking back to the opening drive of the Cowboys game Part II. We beat them with 2 deep passes in Week 2 so we knew they wouldn't want that a second time. They were prepared. So what did we do? We hit them with the one thing we KNEW they would be looking for. And Brunell downplayed it too by saying, "Well, that's just your basic bomb pass, nthing special." WHAT!?!? No way, that was a demoralizing pass early in the game that destroyed any dreams the Cowboys had of beating us.

So that's what we gotta do early. Hit them with what they're expecting and do it SUCCESSFULLY when they're not quite read for it. I'm telling you that bye-week is gonna have rust on them--for at least the first drive and/or first quarter. So we gotta hit early!!

HTTR!!

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Great post, I agree the big key of this game is winning on third down like we did in the first meeting. Have to keep them off the field and I'm sure they will find away to keep the Seahawks defense on the field. They are not very big especially upfront hopefully by the fourth quarter they will be worn down.

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BigRay ... I agree with the second half, but like in boxing, we have to take the body shots early on to wear them down for the second half ... which means that we have to find a way to have an effective running game. They are going to double team Moss and Cooley and our other receivers can be blocked with single coverage ... which means that leaves them with 6 guys on the run and they will bring more that may drop into coverage should we show that we are passing. We need a 140 yard day from Portis and if we can get the ground game going, that will open up the play action passing and the downfield assault.

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As I read your post the thought that came to my mind was about how good our defense is. I know we've been talking about winning the Time of Possession game, but I have a feeling taht our defense can even make losing that battle less important. THe ability we've had to create turnovers recently has me excited about what we can do tomorrow. We'll see and I'm pretty excited about the number of different ways we can win this game.

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No matter what the media or playoff frenzied Seattle fans think or imagine, we have more than just a "chance" here guys. I know it's a distant echo but I still keep thinking back to the SB w/Denver and how I heard ad nauseum how their D was soooo much faster that the size differential wouldn't matter, that their "John Elway Show" was soooo talented that we'd be blown out by 30 or 40 pts........ I guarantee you this, Holmgren isn't feeling as ****y and confident as every yutz in the Pacific Northwest is!

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