It's completely vital,that we start off strong with our 08' season schedule!

[skinsbosoxheels]

Skins need to start taking care of business at home. 4-4 or 5-3 each year is not getting it done. Need to set goal at 7-1 or 6-2. Then they would have to go .500 on road each year and would be right at the top of division every year.

[HailSkinz1]

I guess it all depends on your perspective and what you expect from this team this year. Personally, I'm hoping more for what we saw in Gibbs' first few years in the early 80s. I'm not delusional enough to think this is going to be a playoff team this year. What I want is a perennial SB contender for years to come. Would I take the playoffs - of course! But, my level of expectation is a little different.

Even if we start off 0 - 5, I won't consider the season lost so long as we show improvement and start to jell as a team. You may or may not recall, but even when Gibbs started 0 - 5 in '81, we had the number 1 offense in terms of yards gained and the number 1 defense in terms of yards allowed. Eventually, we got the system down and we took off.

That's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping we give Zorn enough time to work it all out. I look at this season as one to build the foundation that will bring us multiple SB opportunities.

Hail,

H

[Big Mac Patty Wack]

Just give it time, it may need a week or two to get rolling. Then it's on to the Super Bowl!

[DGreen1]

Yes........it would be nice to start out with the same momentum we had in '91.

[Forehead]

the games against the Aint's in Cardinals are MUST wins. I will be happy if we steal one of the road games against our division opponents, probably the iggles.

I don't really agree with this statement. Let's look at last season. We had just gotten stomped by the Patriots, barely beat the Jets, and had just lost to Philly and Dallas. We're sitting at 5-5, playoff chances are 50/50 at best at this point, because there were some teams in the NFC that already had spots basically locked in. The rest of our schedule looks like this.

Tampa Bay

Buffalo

Chicago

New York

Minnesota

Dallas

Figuring we need to go 10-6 to have a really good shot at a wildcard spot, you pick the five games that need to be "must wins." Would Tampa Bay and Buffalo have been on your list? They sure were on mine, and we lost both of them, and they were both punches to the gut. We were dead in the water at 5-7. Then suddenly, we get rolling. Dominate Chicago, which may have been expected. Beat New York in New York, which no one could legitmately say they "knew" would happen. Run all over Minnesota, who was supposed to have the best run defense in the league at that time. Then beat Dallas, which is no easy proposition, much as I'd like it to be. We sneak into the playoffs at 9-7.

The point is, I'm not so sure I agree with the concept of a "must win" game. You need a certain number of wins to make the playoffs. I think calling anything a "must win" means you're conceding a game somewhere else on the schedule, like New England. And no professional team worth it's salt should be doing that.

Eh, there's a stat to prove anything as long as you want it to.

I had to find the Simpsons quote that goes with this.

Homer: “Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.”

[Morneblade]

I agree with the OP, but I dont think we will. New offense is going to take some time to get rolling and I dont see us being able to stop teams passing on us, Unless we get some D-Line help (maybe James will be healthy) we dont get enough pressure right now to really dominte a game untill the O gets up to speed. Which may not be till next year.

[JimmyConway]

It might actually be an advantage that we start off against our tough opponents first... The other teams probably as much idea of what to expect as we do, so might as well try to surprise the tough guys first...

It definitely CAN be an advantage if we do in fact take advantage of the opportunity. IMO as long as our week 1 game w/ the Gints is close we'll have the confidence going into two home games against questionable squads.

The OP is right, we do need to start off fast because winning consecutive games towards the end of the season will be difficult this season. The tail end of this season includes some tough games against teams that could be contending. IMO depending on our record the 11/16 Sunday nighter against the Cowgirls should be THE pivotal game that swings us into the paloffs or into the 09 mock drafts.

[skindogger47]

It's important to win all your division games. If we go 6-0 in the division, we'll go to the playoffs.