bulldog Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 A couple of weeks ago, Walker on his WTEM 980 show indicated that the 2006 Redskins concerned him because they didn't seem to have enough players that were willing to take a punch, get up off the mat and get back into the fight after adversity hit. When you go back and look at halftime leads of 13-6 vs. Minnesota, 14-13 against Tennessee, 14-13 against Indy and a 3-6 score vs. NY and then look at how the team finished up those games he makes a convincing argument that at least some of the problems here are mental as well as physical, ie the talent and the cumulative injuries. There are guys like Mike Sellers and Randy Thomas that seem to have the necessary toughness to ride the adversity out. Others seem to be wilting under the pressure, including some of the recent FA additions who have been mighty quiet since signing those contracts in March and April. Two players, based on experience, reputation and contract I expect to see as visible leaders on this team, Samuels and Jansen, have had a rough first half of the season. Of all the quarterbacks in the NFC after Drew Bledsoe, Mark Brunell would appear to be the one that consistently needs quality protection to be effective. Experience has shown that when Brunell suffers any type of lower body injury he simply cannot throw the football effectively. He has been hit and knocked down a lot this season, even for a team that has at times strayed from its traditional bread and butter ground attack. When your bookend tackles are healthy but struggling your offense is just not going to be as effective. The Cowboys and Giants front seven dominated the Redskins when it counted and the Redskins O-line was unable to sustain a ground game against two of the AFC's worst defensive fronts against the run in Indy and Tennessee. Even with the addition of Anthony McFarland, it is amazing to me that the Redskins could still fail to salt away time of possession facing a defense that was minus Thornton, Corey Simon and Monte Reagor. At some point you figured the 252 pound Freeney would face a downhill train vs. the run that would limit his effectiveness vs the pass. Instead, the Colts left the game with the proverbial clean jerseys (despite obviously playing indoors). When people ask if things can be fixed in two weeks, the answer is it depends upon what you think is wrong........... If you think it is just guys getting healthy and getting back out on the field then the bye week could offer some hope. But if the root of the problem is the team collectively lacks the strength of character to tough out wins over the Titans and Cardinals of the world, and not played scared and on their heels.............then the bye week to me buys the Redskins a fresh half against Dallas before another inevitable second half collapse. I sure hope it is the former, but as Doc Walker observed, a good bit of it appears to be the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praise_gibbs Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Someone just give this team a damned hug then!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinfan2k Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 bulldog, another great post.. i think this team doesn't have the swagger like last year.. does lavar have anything to do with it? i dont know. maybe he fired up the guys on the defense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UltimateSkins Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Yea, I agree completely. The team this year seems to lack intensity on both sides of the ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldog Posted October 27, 2006 Author Share Posted October 27, 2006 I know he fired up Coach Lindsay :laugh: Poor LaVar, the team gave up on him in part because of concerns over his long-term health prospects and here he is going down before the midpoint with a season-ending injury :doh: Personally, I always thought Arrington was one of the players you had to worry about when things went south. He didn't appear to be a leader in bad times. He seemed rather to be a player that got jacked up when things otherwise were going well and he could 'pile on' with some playmaking of his own. I think that's what he was starting to do in NY in that Monday night game. Surrounded by Strahan, Umenyiora, Pierce and Co. LaVar was coming on in a nationally televised game to make some plays for his team. But in that defense he was a COMPLEMENTARY player and would have continued to be so. Fans here don't seem to realize he didn't have the mental makeup to be a Junior Seau or Ray Lewis here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRay Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 The question is how do you get it back the intensity ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldog Posted October 27, 2006 Author Share Posted October 27, 2006 new offseason. new approach. some new additions, some necessary subtractions. perhaps a shakeup in the coaching staff. in my mind (although Snyder will never buy it) the hiring of a GM to blueprint this team and chart a course back among the elite clubs in the NFL. a return of the coaching staff including Gibbs to COACHING the players they are given to work with.................. having Gibbs help with players' contracts and the draft is a waste of his time. his value has always been in focusing on the details in getting a team prepared to play and win on Sundays. right now he doesn't appear to have the energy to do that. he has delegated a lot to others and they seem to be failing him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRay Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I think you might hit it on the head he (Gibbs) really do not have anything to do it's all in his assistant coaches hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoVaSkins21 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 It clearly seems as if there have been no halftime adjustments at all this year and whatever has worked in the first half they've gotten away from. This team is playing not to lose instead of playing to win the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Diggler Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 new offseason. new approach. some new additions, some necessary subtractions. perhaps a shakeup in the coaching staff. in my mind (although Snyder will never buy it) the hiring of a GM to blueprint this team and chart a course back among the elite clubs in the NFL. a return of the coaching staff including Gibbs to COACHING the players they are given to work with.................. Someone is going to lose a power struggle in San Diego after this season and it could be GM AJ Smith. So root for the Chargers to win it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRMADD Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 A couple of weeks ago, Walker on his WTEM 980 show indicated that the 2006 Redskins concerned him because they didn't seem to have enough players that were willing to take a punch, get up off the mat and get back into the fight after adversity hit. . That ain't exactly insightful. Anyone who's watched a game can't help but notice how lifeless they are. Even their own fullback called them out as "paycheck players." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiggoReincarnated Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Someone is going to lose a power struggle in San Diego after this season and it could be GM AJ Smith. So root for the Chargers to win it all. Has Gibbs or Snyder mentioned going after Smith for GM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk Diggler Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Has Gibbs or Snyder mentioned going after Smith for GM? No and they never would mention that publicly. But if Gibbs is humble enough to give up play-calling, I'd imagine he'd be humble enough to bring in a GM. My money says he does. PS (Though it kind of begs the question - what exactly would Snyder be paying him $6 mill per year for!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncr2h Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I think an overlooked part of this discussion of the lack of heart is Al Saunders. In 2005 we had a compeltely different type of offense. We lined up and ran the ****ing ball down the other team's throats. Our offensive line was mostly asked to just look at the guy in front of them and plow him the **** over to open up lanes for Portis. How many big 60-yarders are we going to get? Not many. But it's going to add up...our 4 & 5 yard runs coupled with dictating the game to the opponent. Then on passes when the other team stacks the box we run a play action and look for either 1-on-1 coverage on Moss or a mismatch on Cooley. Now our offense is all finesse. It seems like every run is either a draw play or a toss to the outside (which DID work effectively last year, but didn't seem like it was our bread and butter like it is this year). Did we even run any draw plays last year? We run an assload of reverses. All this trickery and shiftiness in the run game I think is not good for the mentality of this team. In 2005 we were a team that was gonna do our thing. We didn't care how good your defense is. We are going to run the ball up the gut until you can't take it anymore. This season is we're going to prance and try and out-think you with our tosses and draws and reverses. We shift around like madmen pre-snap trying to create mismatches or confuse the opponent...I think we should refocus on outPLAYing the opponent, like last year. I dunno, that's my take. Keep in mind I have no stats to back this up, just observations and general impressions from this season and last. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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