Marty Errs in Loss To New England................

[bulldog]

Watching tonight's game it became clear that some players such as Dorian Boose and Lloyd Harrison helped themselves with their performances.

Mookie Moore, Mario Monds, David Terrell, and a very green David Brandt did not.

But my major observation or opinion is that with the opener only 10 days away, Marty made a poor decision by shifting as many players on the offensive line in this game as he did with Jeff George out there.

The Redskins will rise or fall on what Jeff can do in the 16 games that count and the line weighs heavily in that calculation.

Chris Samuels was missing tonight. That created a hole at LT. But instead of shifting Campbell AND inserting Brandt into the starting lineup at guard I would have been inclined to keep Campbell and Szott at guard with Raymer inside to help develop some chemistry.

With Jansen manning RT, I would have tried using either Coleman or another younger player at LT and covered the blind side by keeping Walter Rasby in on that side to assist in the passing game.

I think focusing on Rasby as an intermediate receiver robbed the offensive line of a key blocker for Jeff George and caused him to take some unnecessary punishment.

In the back of my mind I think getting reps on the field with as much of a set lineup as possible on the OL would have been the most beneficial course.

We had 4/5 of the starting unit available tonight and should have kept them in their primary spots.

We may have had a chance to see more of Brandt, Fischer, Fletcher as a result of the way the lineup was drawn for this game but it set the team back for the SD game and the opening of the season as none of these players are projected as starters.

[VoR]

I just hope Jeff George doesn't have a rib injury after taking that 'Nighttrain Lane' hit from the New England safety.

Biggest problem--We cannot pick up the blitz.

[bulldog]

From watching the game tonight, beyond the inability of Brandt and the other youngsters to play at a high level, the starting o-line suffered from a couple of factors.

One was the fact that Rasby and Alexander were sent out in patterns even after it was shown that the line could not block even 5 on 4.

Remember Gibbs? When Joe Jacoby missed a start and we put Raleigh McKenzie at LT we kept Don Warren on his side to protect Mark Rypien's blind side.

Marty made the mistake of leaving only KiJana Carter in to block on what became obvious mismatches.

The other point is that it is better to make ONE change on the line and keep the other positions constant than try and overcoach the situation by radically changing the combinations week to week and even quarter to quarter.

Now, that observation is reserved for when Jeff and the first team was out there.

Once substitutions were made for Jeff and Stephen Davis then other moves could have been made as well.

But putting our first-line skill players at risk to try and experiment in starting a rookie at one spot and shifting another player to a spot he hasn't worked on all camp, was one gambit too many.

[NavyDave]

I'm hoping the media ask the same questions about protecting the QB.

It's a given thatS an Diego will blitz and I expect there will be an extra body in to potect J George if not the media will be on his a$$ if J Geore takes another hit and is out for an extended period.

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Take a sip of the Marty Kool Aid and Believe

[Art]

Gibbs employed a max protect scheme that was beautiful to behold. He'd send two receivers out against five defensive backs and teams wouldn't have a chance because no one could get to the QB. That won't always work, but, it did with Gibbs.

Bulldog, your observation on the offensive line here is a good one and the same I made earlier in the week. It's also the same as Marty has made indicating that he probably made a mistake because you never make two changes to fix one problem. That's what he did.

That will have an impact on the interior line when the season starts. I'm not sure we'll see Campbell in the starting lineup at this point. I think if Coleman can play, he's the right guard and Szott is the left guard. Campbell needs to get some reps at left tackle and be used there as the primary backup, IF Coleman is healthy.

We've got 10 days to get some continuity. Marty's no dummy. He knows where we're in trouble. I suspect he'll do something about it. We'll see.

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Doom is in the box.