A few personal thoughts on the game....

[pgray1111]

Where to start? Not in my wildest dreams (nightmares) did I ever think we'd see a performance, or lack thereof, like we did last night. In reflection though, I think it's pretty obvious what happened and how it can be fixed.

1) Before anything is changed, the team needs to decide what it's philosophy is going to be. We didn't run the ball consistently last night, and it seemed mainly because we weren't setting it up for anything. When you just run and run and run, with no apparent intention of using it to set up the pass, it's going to be fruitless no matter what. The only time our offense looked crisp or even halfway competent was at the end of the game when we were doing the hurry up and playing out of the shotgun. it seems to me that if this new offense is going to work, it has to be what it is, and can be, which is a run to set up the pass downfield system. We all know what Gibbs used to do, but it's not gonna work right now, and it shouldn't have to. I say go into houston, and just right out of the gate, set up in shotgun, and start chucking the ball, take some chances. the time for being conservative is sort of over now, we've had a chance to see what works and what doesn't, and what we've done the past two games is be very weak, and very passive. It's time to get aggressive on offense. Last night, even a non football fan could see the mistakes the redskins were making, when you have essentially a full house blitz coming, why just run it up the gut? Someone is going to be wide open, take the chance and hit them, don't get hit yourself. It's all obvious, what's not obvious is why gibbs seems to have such a hard time getting this through to brunell.

2) the defense. Something needs to happen here, mainly because the past few years we've been treated to this D feasting on other teams through the blitz, and in the past two games, we've seen very little of that. I don't want to hear the excuse that our secondary is too thin right now, because if you watched last night, when we pressured bledsoe, he made mistakes, when we blitzed him, he made mistakes, when we dropped everyone into coverage, either he chopped us down with his passing, or he handed the ball off and they got us like that. We NEED to blitz to get anything done in this defense, and that's not a bad thing. I think our D line can get pressure, if we maybe put wynn in and put in carter as maybe a speed rusher OLB. I like the agressive nature that some of these guys showed last night, but in a few of the instances, I felt like we were too agressive, and not playing smart, there is a time to just lay hits down, and there is a time to tackle and wrap your man up. I'm not that worried about these guys though, mainly because they've been on the field way too long, if the offense plays better, the defense plays better. When the other team gets a huge lead, our defense is put in a bad spot, and it's not entirely their fault that the other team has the huge lead.

3)the running game. What the hell was up with this last night. If you watched the whole first half, it honestly looked like Ladell betts was just moving, not running, not jogging, but just moving around out there. he had that one run in the fourth quarter where it looked like he had more than one gear, and that was it. If he's not gonna go out and make things happen, then put duckett in there, he actually looked good last night, and played like he wanted to produce, not just to be a warm body. This just proves how good portis is though, he shouldn't have playe in the monday night game, and I believe he would have been fresh for the dallas game. Whatever, it's over now.

4)finally, the passing game. Brunell is hurt. we're not being told something about his health, but we don't need to be, becuase he's playing like he's got an injury. If this is the case, we shouldn't play him. I'm not trying to jump on the bandwagon of haters, because with a healthy brunell, we win games. thing is, he's not healthy, so instead of putting a lame duck out there to get hurt even worse, get campbell in there, and tell him to execute the offense. If anyone should be prepared, it's him, he's had probably more time to study everything than anyone else, and what the hell did we wasted a first rounder on if he can't come in and produce in his second year? Remember at the end of last season when brunell started to tail off, and wasn't producing any great results, well that's how he's playing right now, imagine how he'll be at the end of the season. Cut your losses at two losses, and see what campbell can do, if he can't go, put in collins, either way, we need a fresh strong arm in there, and someone who isn't afraid to pull the trigger.

A friend of mine had a great analogy for this offense. We're like a high powered machine gun that's fully loaded, but it has no trigger. We're all ready to go and win games with this team, but something is holding us back, is it the system, I doubt it, it might be the playcalling, but who else thinks that they're calling plays to suit brunell's strengths and (many) weakneses?