P'Oed Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Let's really look at the difference between the start of the season and what's going on currently. What exactly are we not doing that we were doing before? 1) Portis was healthier and running harder. You can't expect a RB to carry an entire team for the whole season. It's exactly the same as Eddie Jordan riding Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas for the past 4 years and playing them 40 minutes a game the whole season. At the end of the season, the guys you are riding are going to be done. You have to have a plan B or at least moderate the kind of hits the guy is going to take throughout the year so he doesn't look like he's been in a horrific car accident on the field like today. You just can't count on one guy, especially when it comes to football. 2) Element of surprise in regard to playcalling. Zorn has been figured out. The draw plays on 3rd down and the Cooley screens worked in the road games against Dallas and Philly. Now, they're simply busted plays from the start. I also think that we've been very lucky when it comes right down to it. I mean, come on, the bomb to Moss in the Saints game? If that doesn't happen we lose. The Torrence tip in the Cards game? It's probably an L if the ball doesn't hit him square in the head and then falls in the Rodgers' hands. We've had countless games that were so close that they could've gone either way. We're lucky to be 7-5, honestly. 3) Stronger run defense. I know, for the most part we stopped Jacobs (it's debatable in the second half though) but in the past few weeks are run defense has been poor. Barber ran all over us and even the lowly Seahawks managed to put together a strong game on the ground\. What happened to completely handling guys like Barber and Westbrook? We're giving up huge chunks on certain plays and it seems that one of the main problems is the quailty of the tackling. 4) Health. This, to me, is the biggest issue. It's a problem with EVERY DC area sports team that I'm a fan of. I don't know if it's the stretching routines, the quality of the medical staff (which I seriously doubt) or Zorn and Blache not substituting enough and keeping guys fresh but this injury crap needs to stop. Marcus Washington, Jason Taylor and the rest of the D-Line, Chris Samuels, Horton for a while, Portis, Betts, Moss, Kelly, I mean the list goes on and on. These are all guys that we need throughout the ENTIRE season. During our great start, when these guys were healthy we were killing it. Portis and Betts were tearing it up. Moss was getting the ball probably 3 times as much. The defense was stopping the run and getting to the ball quicker. To me, it seems like we're always the most banged up team in the league. WHY? 5) Campbell was more efficient. To me, it was mostly because a lot of the plays we ran were screens and short passes that actually worked for a while. Now, teams have shut down the easy stuff and Campbell has been forced to actually throw down field. When was the last successful deep pass that we had? The Moss catch in Detroit was great but it was against Detroit for crying out loud. Honestly, the last deep pass I can remember that worked was the Moss catch in the Saints game. How are we a threat at all if the only thing Campbell can do against a good team is throw a screen pass? I also remember Cooley being a lot more involved early in the season. He's been relatively invisible the past few weeks. Is Jason Witten ever this underused? I dont' think so. Get him the ball, he's supposed to be your security blanket. Please feel free to add or disagree with anything here. I really want to try to figure out what we are doing differently now. I'm not looking for "The O-line sucks" or "Campbell is a pu$$y." Think about the road games against Dallas and Philly and what we were doing in those games that we aren't doing now/. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtMonk_fav.redskin Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Please feel free to add or disagree with anything here. I really want to try to figure out what we are doing differently now. I'm not looking for "The O-line sucks" or "Campbell is a pu$$y." Think about the road games against Dallas and Philly and what we were doing in those games that we aren't doing now/. Before the season I guessed the Skins would be an 8-8 team... when they started out well I was pleasantly surprised, beating Dallas and Philly on the road. Looking back I would say they were really more lucky than good with their start. Sure they had a very low turnover ratio and they were winning close games but when they lost to the winless Rams and struggled against the Brown's I knew the 2nd half of the season would be a grind. They have been owned by the good team they have faced, at home even... Look the Redskins are what they are, a middle of the pack team that needs to continue to add pieces to what they have, hopefully Zorn has a keen eye for young talent if not, they will slide back into the cellar of the tough NFC east. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaGhost Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 what were we doing during that stretch? running with a healthy rb, protecting our qb, and actually catching passes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Let's really look at the difference between the start of the season and what's going on currently. What exactly are we not doing that we were doing before?1) Portis was healthier and running harder. You can't expect a RB to carry an entire team for the whole season. It's exactly the same as Eddie Jordan riding Caron Butler' date=' Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas for the past 4 years and playing them 40 minutes a game the whole season. At the end of the season, the guys you are riding are going to be done. You have to have a plan B or at least moderate the kind of hits the guy is going to take throughout the year so he doesn't look like he's been in a horrific car accident on the field like today. You just can't count on one guy, especially when it comes to football. 2) Element of surprise in regard to playcalling. Zorn has been figured out. The draw plays on 3rd down and the Cooley screens worked in the road games against Dallas and Philly. Now, they're simply busted plays from the start. I also think that we've been very lucky when it comes right down to it. I mean, come on, the bomb to Moss in the Saints game? If that doesn't happen we lose. The Torrence tip in the Cards game? It's probably an L if the ball doesn't hit him square in the head and then falls in the Rodgers' hands. We've had countless games that were so close that they could've gone either way. We're lucky to be 7-5, honestly. 3) Stronger run defense. I know, for the most part we stopped Jacobs (it's debatable in the second half though) but in the past few weeks are run defense has been poor. Barber ran all over us and even the lowly Seahawks managed to put together a strong game on the ground\. What happened to completely handling guys like Barber and Westbrook? We're giving up huge chunks on certain plays and it seems that one of the main problems is the quailty of the tackling. 4) Health. This, to me, is the biggest issue. [b']It's a problem with EVERY DC area sports team that I'm a fan of.[/b] I don't know if it's the stretching routines, the quality of the medical staff (which I seriously doubt) or Zorn and Blache not substituting enough and keeping guys fresh but this injury crap needs to stop. Marcus Washington, Jason Taylor and the rest of the D-Line, Chris Samuels, Horton for a while, Portis, Betts, Moss, Kelly, I mean the list goes on and on. These are all guys that we need throughout the ENTIRE season. During our great start, when these guys were healthy we were killing it. Portis and Betts were tearing it up. Moss was getting the ball probably 3 times as much. The defense was stopping the run and getting to the ball quicker. To me, it seems like we're always the most banged up team in the league. WHY? 5) Campbell was more efficient. To me, it was mostly because a lot of the plays we ran were screens and short passes that actually worked for a while. Now, teams have shut down the easy stuff and Campbell has been forced to actually throw down field. When was the last successful deep pass that we had? The Moss catch in Detroit was great but it was against Detroit for crying out loud. Honestly, the last deep pass I can remember that worked was the Moss catch in the Saints game. How are we a threat at all if the only thing Campbell can do against a good team is throw a screen pass? I also remember Cooley being a lot more involved early in the season. He's been relatively invisible the past few weeks. Is Jason Witten ever this underused? I dont' think so. Get him the ball, he's supposed to be your security blanket. Please feel free to add or disagree with anything here. I really want to try to figure out what we are doing differently now. I'm not looking for "The O-line sucks" or "Campbell is a pu$$y." Think about the road games against Dallas and Philly and what we were doing in those games that we aren't doing now/. You got that right. The Wizards situation we know. The Capitals situation has become laughable this past week. Semin, Federov, Green, Clark, Poti and two others I don't remember all out. It's become absurd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselPwr44 Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 It's called The Norv Turner Fade/Deathspiral. The Giants put an end to our postseason hopes today. This team has finished written all over it. The only thing left to look forward to the rest of this season is to see if the organization is smart enough to give guys like Geisinger,Heyer and Rinehart playing time along the offensive line and get Kelly,Thomas and Davis more involved. Zorn also needs to look at his playbook and ask if draws,screens and slants are the only thing in this offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CM916 Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 It ain't over yet and for the record, the last Super Bowl champ was 3-5 at home and 7-1 on the road including some blowout losses in their own stadium. We are looking pretty similar. This is just our obligatory mid-season slump and it has been decidedly less crushing than the previous ones that left us 5-6 in 2005 and 5-7 last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celticsalmon Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Being a die hard-I still have hope-but what concerns me is that we have not shown improvement since the Rams loss. Zorn and Blache always talk about "correctable" things-execution and technique-and game after game-the players commit the same mistakes-they haven't learned. Either they are not super smart or they are not as talented they think they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drockvb Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 The great start was an illusion. We could have easily lost every one of those games. We squeaked out wins against sub .500 teams. That should have told us something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Only if we could have Zorn in the begining and Gibbs at the last two months, Gibbs was great at the end of the year specially december, Maybe another change at quaterback we can go 4-0? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P'Oed Posted November 30, 2008 Author Share Posted November 30, 2008 You got that right.The Wizards situation we know. The Capitals situation has become laughable this past week. Semin, Federov, Green, Clark, Poti and two others I don't remember all out. It's become absurd. I know man, it's amazing isn't it? It's almost like the Wiz, Caps, Skins and Terps have little meeting during their seasons and decide who is going to be injured that particular year. I honestly think health is the main difference between our win streak and our awful finish but playcalling and bad protection certainly don't help very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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