Relax, Everything's Gonna Be Alright!

[Taylor703]

What's even funnier is the knee-jerk going on around the web.  ESPN dropped us to 19 in the power rankings and raised the Eagles to 14 based on not one game, but one-half of one game.

I've stopped paying any attention whatsoever to power rankings.  They're by far the most baseless ranking of anything, ever.

[Smurf85]

I don't agree with everything being alright. Our secondary is as bad as it was last year. RG3 is going to have to take a few weeks to get back into form. Well at least I hope he gets back into form. We could be 0-2 after this week. So week 3 against the Lions might be a must win and I'm not even sure we win that game. So yeah everything is alright.

[styx491]

Thanks for making this thread, I said the exact same thing yesterday after the game. This was such a TRAP game for us since RG3 and Morris were rusty and Chip Kelly and Vick were gonna come out guns blazing anyways. Having Gruden suck on Kelly's balls the whole first half didn't help either.

 

This is definitely what the team needed coming out of the gate, and Kelly's offense will slow down a LOT after a couple of weeks of opposing defenses studying film. What we saw in the second half from our offrense was partially a result of the Eagles dropping back deep and partially our offense getting the hang of playing full speed football again. 

 

There were also several times when both my roommate and I thought our defense was playing very well. To have the kind of bull**** half like we did and to only be down by a few points is HUGE. Orakpo was rusty too and Rambo played like a rookie, but those things are expected.Any fan who thinks we were gonna come out guns blazing in the first half and be up 24-7 at halftime is on crack. I posted last month that our offense will be super efficient, sharp, and crisp this season, but NOT in this game. 

 

THE most important thing to me is that this game was basically like jumping into the swimming pool without having showered first and getting that initial cold chill shock for the first 5-10 seconds. Now we are in the pool and we can swim around like we are used to.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Beginning next year, we also have more resources with which to add talent.

[spjunkies]

Look everyone I found a pic of OP!

 

 

J/K we will be fine people it was just one hiccup on a large journey, we will be fine.

[Shanahan's Tan]

One game.  They caught us off guard the way the Redskins did against the entire league last season.  RG3 was rusty and improved - that was great to see.  The team never gave up and could have one the game.  The entire team made adjustments. 

 

Despite a horrific start, the way they finished can leave you with a good feeling knowing they can and did adjust and should be hitting their stride soon.

[PeterMP]

I think a lot of that was due to them knowing that we were behind and that we had to pass the ball. If teams want to do that when we're not playing catch-up, I could see them getting hit with big gains to the outside by our running game. 

 

But you always have playes where you need/want to pass the ball.  If on 2nd and 3rd and long, we are extremely susceptable to an up the middle blitz, we'll see it, and it will affect things like 3rd down conversions.

I'm not saying I expect it to be an issue, just that if it is, it could turn this into a long season.

 

I remember Norv Turner teams that I thought would be pretty good (not great), ending up in situations where everybody just blized them to death, and they could never deal with it effectively.

 

Even last year, the up the middle blitz was part of the Eagles demise.  They went with a new center (cut the older guy), but then teams started blitzing them up the middle, and they could never figure it out.  I doubt that Andy Reid desinged an offense or picked his offensive unit with the idea that it wouldn't be able to deal with an up the middle blitz.

 

I suspect it was a combination of the score and the coaches being surprised by it.  I suspect that they will look a the tape and be prepared in the future, but I wouldn't be shocked if it doesn't happen.

 

(Partly because there doesn't appear to be a real ton of speed by our (quality) skill players (other than Griffin) so if you do blitz, the penatly is not as great vs. somebody like Jackson for the Eagles or even a pass in the flat to McCoy.)

[PeterMP]

I don't agree with everything being alright. Our secondary is as bad as it was last year. RG3 is going to have to take a few weeks to get back into form. Well at least I hope he gets back into form. We could be 0-2 after this week. So week 3 against the Lions might be a must win and I'm not even sure we win that game. So yeah everything is alright.

 

I will say I wouldn't be shocked (mildly surprised, but not shocked if we beat the Packers).  They have issues (like I wrote above).  Their WR/TE appear to have issues catching the ball.  They don't even seem to know if they can run the ball or not, and I don't think much of their secondary.  I wouldn't be surprised if we get 2 INTs off of bobbled/tipped balls, shut down their run game, have a moderately affective offensive game and win.

 

I also wouldn't be surprised if we get no INTs (that sort of thing being the luck of the bounce of the ball), they have a moderately affective run game, shut down are our game, make us 1 dimensional and their pass rush wreaks havok with our pass offense, and we lose the game.

[Murphs56]

If Week 1 was the deciding factor, we would have been Super Bowl Champs and the Giants would have been the ones in the basement of the NFC East

[skins island connection]

 I would love to consider the Eagles game our "Rams" game for the year. I would say it couldn't get much worse, because they didn't just lay down the rest of the game, even if the Eagles did throttle down, but it certainly needs to be an eye opener to the team.

[clskinsfan]

I would never call a season over after the first game. But we play A LOT of powerful passing offenses this year and our Secondary is a complete disaster. The safety play last night was just atrocious. Rambo is not a starting level safety. Period. The pass rush is going to have to compensate for that. Offensively, I am not worried a bit. We will score points in every game. But we may need 40 per week to win.

[paloosa]

I don't think that Philly's offense is that dynamic or that they are a good football team. If it was so dynamic then why did they only score 7 points in the second half? Why did they only score 12 points in the first quarter on 3 turnovers? The Eagle players on offense were sucking wind also and weren't able to keep up the pace. We beat ourselves with poor tackling, turnovers, penalties, and poor coaching. That is what kills this team every time they lose like that. Philly got a 33-7 lead and was able to hang on to win 33-27. The rust of RGIII and uncharacteristic turnovers by guys that don't usually turn it over were the reason we lost. It wasn't the Philly's offense or defense that out played us. Our defense hung in there but it is hard when you are on the field a lot to prevent them from scoring. Philly had the luxury of having good field position all night and only had to drive the field once the whole night. So don't give me they are this dynamic good football team. Good teams don't give up points in the end. A dynamic good football team would have pounded us and scored TD's and not field goals. They caught the Skins off guard and the turnovers just compounded the problems.  

[warskins65]

So We did not do as well as we all thought. Is this a first for die hard skins fans?   Hardly.  When the times get hard, time to get harder, inside and outside the locker room. Fans need to one thing only. Give the team they love all the support they can. Do fans have a right to boo.....yes they do. They pay to watch the play, players get paid to preform. Simple......HTTR

[Murphs56]

I would never call a season over after the first game. But we play A LOT of powerful passing offenses this year and our Secondary is a complete disaster. The safety play last night was just atrocious. Rambo is not a starting level safety. Period. The pass rush is going to have to compensate for that. Offensively, I am not worried a bit. We will score points in every game. But we may need 40 per week to win.

 

Good thing for us, The Packers secondary didn't look too much better. Bolden and Davis are great but they looked like all-time greats against that secondary 

[paloosa]

We all talk about how bad the secondary played and Rambo's play but that has to do with Haslett's defensive scheme. Poor tackling and poor technique will make them look bad. DHall is playing way off and is afraid of getting burnt. Rambo looked bad on a couple of plays because of poor tackling by other Skin players. McCoy had long runs because of poor tackling. When you plan for one thing and get another thing then you will look bad. I think they will be fine but get someone better to cover the other teams best reciever because DHAll can't shutdown anyone. 

[VeroViper]

I agree we'll be ok. I think we have a decent chance at beating the Packers. Even if we lose I believe we'll beat the Lions(we're at home) and we'll take care of the Raiders. That will put us at 2-2. By that time I see this offense clicking in a big way. And the rooks in the secondary will have some games under their belts and should improve.

[LetMeSeeYourWarFace21]

I'm just hoping that RGIII will be able to plant his foot on his passes and not half to rely flicking his rist and his upper body to get off passes.

[pjfootballer]

I would love to consider the Eagles game our "Rams" game for the year. I would say it couldn't get much worse, because they didn't just lay down the rest of the game, even if the Eagles did throttle down, but it certainly needs to be an eye opener to the team.

I'm kind of tired of having "Rams" games every year. We need to start beating teams we should beat if they want to be taken seriously. Otherwise, they'll look at us as, "them same ole Skins."

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I'm kind of tired of having "Rams" games every year. We need to start beating teams we should beat if they want to be taken seriously. Otherwise, they'll look at us as, "them same ole Skins."

 

Let me preface this by saying that we have no idea how good Philly will be this year. But I never understood the belief that "good teams" never lose to inferior opponents.

 

Just glancing back at our recent history over the past 10 years (as being the bad team) we have beaten the 2003 Patriots (we ended that season 5-11), the 2006 Saints (we ended the season 5-11), the 2010 Packers (we ended that season 6-10), and the 2011 Giants (we ended that season 5-11). Three of those teams were Super Bowl champs while the other team made it to the NFC Championship game.

 

If just in the past decade we have had 4 double-digit loss teams upset championship-caliber teams, I would expect that this happens pretty frequently around the league every year. Keep in mind too, that we haven't been anything better than a division champ (and more often than not we've been a wild card team) during our "good" years. So, a team like that having a "Rams game" each year is pretty understandable.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I'm kind of tired of having "Rams" games every year. We need to start beating teams we should beat if they want to be taken seriously. Otherwise, they'll look at us as, "them same ole Skins."

 

One more point...the last Super Bowl champion to not have a loss to a crappy team was the 2008 Steelers.

 

2012 Ravens lost to the 4-win Eagles

2011 Giants lost to the 5-win Redskins and 7-win Seahawks

2010 Packers lost to the 6-win Redskins, 6-win Lions, and 7-win Dolphins

2009 Saints lost to the 3-win Bucs*

 

* It was their 15th game and they had just suffered their first loss of the year the previous week so it's possible they didn't take the game seriously, but they played their starters for the entire game

[Dark Acre]

Can you imagine if this board were around in 1981?  There'd be a hue *and* a cry to fire Gibbs and bring Pardee back.  "At least Pardee played D."  "Pardee never stunk this bad."  "We finally have some talent and we have a milquetoast loser for a HC."  "#1 draft pick baby!" 

[London Kev]

I have no doubt that we will put this loss behind us and retain the NFC East title, (alright maybe a small doubt). But some questions need to be asked.

 

We did look rusty in the first half, as a team, not just RG3. Why were we so rusty? The eagles looked prepared and in sync. The team that finished 4-12 or something last year. They had changed to a 3-4 D, something that took us about a year to get right. They had a new offense and new Head Coach. How come they didn't look rusty?

 

OK, we played half a game when nothing went right and had a few freaky plays that probably wont happen again all season, but to my untrained eye we just looked un-prepared for the game. Maybe the starters could have played more in the preseason, I don't know, but the eagles blew us away in that first half. We need to start the game against GB how we finished against the eagles, not how we started.

 

No more rusty starts  .

[MumboSauce]

They will get locked in. It's unfortunate we weren't as prepared as we needed to be, but there were some extenuating circumstances...sure, I know, that sounds like excuses. I think pro football focus had us having the most missed tackles in the league.  weak, minimum snap pre season will do that. RG3 not playing real football in months, etc.

 

   Credit to the Eagles, they executed well, and we weren't ready...but I think we'll bounce back. The signs are there, this team doesn't quit. The penalties are a concern that carries over from last season, through this pre season and in the first game. The lack of turnovers last season was a huge asset..but a number hard to reproduce. Things have to get figured out/cleaned up fast. Tackling will improve, we'll get some guys back, RG3 will get sharper in the games to come, the offense will be in sync/more on the same page. I don't know what we have exactly but, I'm hoping the 7win down the stretch team stands up and not the 3-6/ this first game team. Hail!

[Jethrodsp]

Say what you want, and I'm proud of the resolve the team showed but no one counts moral victories. Its still a division loss and this team clearly wasn't ready to play in front of the home crowd.

Griffin and Morris have to play better. Big game coming up, going 0-2 is tough in this NFC.

[KDawg]

No one said that losing a game is okay. But given the circumstances and the team that we have in DC, everything will be okay. There's a drastic difference there.