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Redskins.com: Believing your eyes

Art

By Art
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Art

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http://www.redskins.com/gen/articles/ExtremeSkins_Fan_View__Believing_Your_Eyes_24023.jsp

Hey, he's back. that's me.

ExtremeSkins Fan View: Believing Your Eyes

By Arthur Mills

ExtremeSkins.com

Posted: September 30, 2008

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Having a hard time believing your eyes?

Me too.

Doing things Zorny style seems pretty cool right now. But, I’m blinking like crazy to clear my vision because I can’t really process what’s happening. You may recall last year after Saint Joe rushed his field goal unit on the field against the Dolphins instead of working closer for an easier shot at the win that I chided him to express his own belief in his team before expecting I would be able to.

Joe Gibbs told us then how he’d been burned by his team in the past and wasn’t willing to take a chance on moving closer for fear Casey Rabach (sorry Casey) would be called for a mystery or stupid penalty. The team had whipped Gibbs into a certain belief it would screw something up if given too much of a chance. It took a death to give his final team life.

In comes foot-loose-and-fancy-free Jim Zorn.

Fourth down? Why punt? Slant.

Bet they won’t be expecting a right-handed QB to roll out to his left for a game-sealing pass in the flat.

Two games of that and bet the Cowboys are waiting on that, so, run baby. Ahh, the 7-minute Riggo drill. I still believe in that. I guess covering your mouth when calling plays keeps the other team off balance because it appears no one can quite get ahead of Zorn right now. Zorn coaches without the knowledge of a coach burned. He coaches with a tangible innocence which feeds his team an unmistakable confidence.

The Redskins received a great deal of criticism in the off season for a coaching search that was too lengthy for its own good and too unconventional to work. I recall going on Redskins Radio with Larry Michael begging, on behalf of the fans, NOT to hire Jim Fassel. Hire anyone else. And they did.

When Channel 4 in D.C. televised Zorn’s car in the head coach parking spot speculating he was in and Jason La Canfora of The Washington Post in his "Redskins Intruder" blog quickly tried to write what he just saw on television without mentioning the television and it was Jim Zorn as our coach, I pushed away from the computer and thought, "What a disaster."

It is no secret I tend to believe the team when they tell me things. I’m a fan. I like the shade of rose when looking at them.

Here, I saw maroon and black (I’m using that until we brand some of that and I get a percentage).

I really couldn’t believe the team when it told me Greg Blache was a big ingredient in the defensive success we’d had over the years. Such was my man-crush on Gregg Williams, I’d packaged all my belief in him.

Then, on Sunday in Dallas, I am pointing to the field as Leigh Torrence is 20 yards off his receiver with no one underneath and I’m certain we’re going to give up an easy out. Chris Horton is in the middle of the field. At the snap he goes blasting to the sideline.

My eyes widened as I saw as good a coaching call as exists in the NFL. Blache knew something. He knew how to trigger something in the Cowboys. And he drew up a turnover when we needed it.

As an opposing QB you do not, because it’s impossible, account for a guy lined up 8 yards off the center as a guy who can be covering the flat.

The Redskins defense has held up well to the second, third, fourth and fifth best offenses in the NFL with No. 6 on tap for Sunday. Maybe the team was right.

I couldn’t really believe the team when it told me Jim Zorn was the most impressive candidate they interviewed, so when they’d finished their interview list for head coaches and gave him an interview for head coach, I was too inclined to believe they hired the only guy who would say yes to them.

I live in Minnesota. I see a former QB coach who’d never called his own plays running things here. Other than better hair, how would Zorn be different than Brad Childress?

I’m now watching as Zorn is putting forward a crisp, efficient team that doesn’t kill itself with mistakes. We make mistakes, true, but they are not those the team can’t overcome. When Gibbs took us out to 3-1 in 2005, we were penalty prone and turnover prone and had won two ugly games in spite of ourselves.

We’re 3-1 now and have won three reasonably gorgeous games. Any team with any coach in his first season should have a greater adjustment period than we’ve had.

Yet, despite what my mind believes, my eyes see a team that is far more like the Joe Gibbs teams of memory than any we’ve seen since.

I do not fully understand how it is possible for Jim Zorn to put a product on the field in four games that is the type of team Joe Gibbs couldn’t make in four seasons. Gibbs is a hero of mine. I firmly believe he’s the greatest coach in the history of the NFL. I thank him for instilling professionalism, toughness and character in the organization. But he was just never that good a coach the second time around.

Watching Zorn put it together is like watching a magician by the name of Tricky Dicky pulling off something Harry Houdini died trying.

You see it. You just can’t believe it.

Now Zorn must use whatever sleight of hand he can master to overcome the one constant element of the Redskins that no organization changes have been able to eliminate. The Redskins have long been their best under adversity. When things are good, the Redskins often play like they’ve already accomplished something, and they get destroyed.

Zorn’s constant motto to Jason Campbell of never allowing yourself to get too low on yourself or too high now must convey to a team that just woke the world up to the fact it still exists and has achieved some satisfaction in the wake up call.

While it remains too early to know if Zorn is really the answer, Redskins fans have something real to cling to in hoping the answer is yes.

We clung to the hope Marty Schottenheimer was the answer despite a team-wide revolt rejecting him. We held out hope Steve Spurrier was the answer because of his reputation as an offensive mastermind. We knew Joe Gibbs was the man to finally take us back and transform the team because of what he’d done in the past.

None of those men had going for them what Jim Zorn has now. Zorn has led a team that has performed against top competition as if it actually belonged there, too.

Maybe the team finally got it right.

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Mark The Homer

Mark The Homer

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Posted

Art - this may be the best piece you've ever written. Or maybe it's just my own giddy-ness and adrenalin that won't stop pumping that makes it seem that way.

I just read Murf's piece an hour ago. Now you come out with this? Do you guys even have real jobs? Or are you like me - you do it (read, write, etc) because you can't help yourself?

Very nice.

HTTR

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SkinsManNJ

SkinsManNJ

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Very good read. Zorn does seem to have a handle of the team and keeps them grounded. So it seems so far. After watching Clinton's interview after the game I got a sense that he was happy for the win but ready to take on the Iggles.

It feels like this team is truly a TEAM and not full of themselves. Portis-- We just want to go out there and play as a team and win we arent worried about the stats. To me thats very telling.

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Califan007 The Constipated

Califan007 The Constipated

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Joe Gibbs told us then how he’d been burned by his team in the past and wasn’t willing to take a chance on moving closer for fear Casey Rabach (sorry Casey) would be called for a mystery or stupid penalty.

And ironically enough, we had two Casey Rabach "mystery penalties" against the Cowboys that negated two TDs lol...So maybe Gibbs was onto something. ;)

But seriously, though, I don't think deciding to kick a 40 yard field goal in OT to win the game should be any different than deciding to go for it on 4th down to win the game. The better comparison would be to the numerous times Gibbs decided to put the game in the hands of the defense when we had the lead late in the game instead of doing whatever he could to maintain possession of the ball. As you pointed out, Zorn is very un-Gibbs-like in how he finishes off games by controlling them. I'm glad we won't be seeing Frost shank a 28 yarder with 1:54 remaining and us up by 3 points lol...

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SkinsManNJ

SkinsManNJ

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It was fourth. That was the reasons people were so impressed. Gibbs would have punted it and given the other team a chance to win. Zorn didnt give them that chance. Aggressive.

I think that was the best play call and execution I seen a number of years. It had me completely fooled and I was pissed for while thinking that we actually ran the ball on that. Helluva play. I loved it once I caught to what happened.

:notworthy to Zorn.

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ewmartin7776

ewmartin7776

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Posted

Great post Art. I have been a lifelong fan and remember so many fantastic memories from when I was in high school (went to John Carroll from 1980 - 1984) when the glory years were just starting.

One memory in particular (out of so many) was the game with the Raiders in 1983. We were down 15 points in the fourth quarter. My cousin had come over to the house after church and was about to leave. He glanced at the TV and said something like "The Redskins won't be able to come back. They are going to lose."

I refused to believe they would lose. I watched the remaining minutes of the game and what do our beloved Skins do? They score three times in the remaining minutes to beat a good Raiders team. That moment spoiled me for years and I truly believed we had a great team.

I'm starting to feel that way again, but I am being cautious because the season is early. We'll have to see how the team responds during periods of more adversity as well as how they respond when things are going really, really well.

Great post.

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TheGreek1973

TheGreek1973

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For me that last drive, where we simply molested the Cowturds brought back memories of Gibbs I. But more so I came to realize Zorn is capable of anything (throw the bomb, run it 10 times straight, trick play) and then I remembered back in his playing days in Seattle. They didn't have a great team but man they were anything but pertictable as a team.

Good article Art. i believe we will be stunt more and more from the Z-man.

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timdaley73

timdaley73

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Art,

Nice read! However, I would hesitate to give all the credit to Zorn and compare his success over the Second Coming of Gibbs. While, I agree that Gibbs II was not as successful as we would have all liked, I would suggest that part of Zorn's success (thus far) should be credited to the foundation Gibbs II had laid... Just my 2 cents...

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