Art Posted September 14, 2003 Share Posted September 14, 2003 Twelve penalties. Two turnovers. NUMEROUS break downs in blocking -- specifically by the backs -- leading to SIX sacks. Several poor special teams plays giving field position. This team is desperately trying to hang on to the curse that has been over us for years. And we're 2-0 despite it and in such a way as it's HARD not to get excited. First, we were the clearly superior team in both games. The first game we wound up winning by facing down the strengths of the Jets. Winning with heart and toughness. This game we're down early, and show heart and actual fight. In both games we go through stretches of great dominance and we win by a total of 5 points. But the WAY we're winning is adding the EXPERIENCE of winning a tough game and with adversity that will come into play against better teams in a more even match in terms of talent. And, when this team actually puts it together and learns the basics of blitz pickup and keeping the dumb penalties down, we're going to start blowing teams out. We've now won two games we all have seen us lose so many times the past decade. The doom of KNOWING we'll give up just one more big play to kill us. Twice it hasn't happened, and, when the gun went off to end the game, I think I felt Norvousness leave me. If we can win in the face of so many mistakes, we're going to be a tough team to deal with in the VERY near future. With Patrick Ramsey as poised and calm as he has shown, this team has no real weakness. Ramsey took some shots, but, he just took on the feel of a leader. I was watching as he almost lazily dropped back and fired great pass after great pass despite having earlier taken a beating. He's a gunslinger. How he responds once teams start taking some of his best throws away from him and start forcing him to throw down the middle -- where he is often high and off target -- will be very telling. But with Ramsey sharp, the Redskins have a great passing game. A strong running game branching from it. A defense that is MUCH better than many thought. If you watch the game again, notice the Falcons couldn't run up the gut on us. They had to go outside to gain yards. The defensive line is BETTER than people thought. Still not a ton of pressure, but somewhat better than last week. And knowing that when Ramsey catches fire there's almost NOTHING the opposition can do to stop us, this team can emerge even THIS year as a legitimate contender. The line will block just a little harder. The backs will start picking up the blitz a little better. Receivers are so open so often and Ramsey can hit them with the ball. If he's as good as he's been the first two weeks, there's no reason to think we can't beat most teams on our schedule. And that's a nice place to be as a Redskin fan after 10-tough years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor The Invincible Posted September 14, 2003 Share Posted September 14, 2003 I'll disagree with you saying we have no weaknesses. If we had a passrush, our D would be complete. Did you notice how much time Doug Johnson got? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckeyeG Posted September 14, 2003 Share Posted September 14, 2003 Art, I have been saying all along that if we can stop all these stupid penalties and having turnovers we wood have won handily..L. Coles is the man!!!!J.Hall desevers another game ball along with Iffy and PR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted September 14, 2003 Author Share Posted September 14, 2003 Skeletor, I agree with you that we aren't going to be generating a lot of pass rush, but, with how great our coverage is, that's not as necessary as maintaining lane responsibility and not getting exposed by draws and the like. We do have a weak pass rush. There's NO question about that. But as a whole, we have such strength in coverage it balances out in our favor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted September 14, 2003 Share Posted September 14, 2003 Hopefully, the ghost of Norv is gone for good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor The Invincible Posted September 14, 2003 Share Posted September 14, 2003 Hmm I'm not comfortable with the passrush, that's all I will say. I think if we play a team that has a great passing game working for them, we're in trouble. We need to generate some pressure with our 4 down linemen. That will be a priority in the upcoming offseason. That must be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPare Posted September 14, 2003 Share Posted September 14, 2003 It feels really good to win a close game or two, doesn't it. As I mentioned earlier, the real test is going to begin next week against the Giants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiskeypeet Posted September 14, 2003 Share Posted September 14, 2003 Its pretty intersting to hear someone comment on the quality of our defensive line play. Not being able to watch/listen to the game I was really curious as to how their backs were both averaging about 5 yards per carry each. I assumed that our DTs were probably just getting blown up pretty regularly. Art claims that this was not the case. So where exactly was the breakdown occuring? Were our LB's over-pursuing? Were our safety's missing tackles or out of position? If our line was truly plaing well how were they able to gash us like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted September 14, 2003 Author Share Posted September 14, 2003 They had some very nice sweeps on us. They got almost nothing up the middle. Once they went to the outside they had success. That doesn't bode well when we play the Saints who make a living on the sweeps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor The Invincible Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 Our DLs didn't play badly. Good run stuffers. But no passrush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riggins44 Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 I wish we had a better pash rush, but our secondary and LB's are making up for this weakness. Johnson had time to throw with no one to throw to...credit Smoot & Bailey. For first time in years Iffy and Bowen are giving us decent play from the safety position. George Edwards is impressing me. He is calling great games and using our strengths to our advantage. Pass protection needs to get better fast. We got Giants, Patriots, Eagles, and Tampa coming fast. These teams get excellent pressure and love to blitz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofer Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 Art, You are correct, it is hard to not get excited about this team. Your observations about their overcoming the adversity and recovering from the mistakes are exactly what I was feeling/thinking. As for the dumb penalties - I think that they got themselves under control better after the 1st quarter. So I wonder how much of it was the combination of noise, new surroundings (remember, this was their first time in the Georgia Dome), jitters/nervousness, and just plain excitement. I sense that the Redskins themselves are excited about what they have going. That's an even bigger reason to feel excited. Ramsey is a big part of that. AS I've said many times before, this is the first time since Rypien that we've had to a quarterback to be excited about. In past years when I heard the players talking about being "excited", I got the sense they were trying to talk themselves into being excited rather than really feeling it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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