A (Finally) Sober Look Back And Ahead

[Vilandil Tasardur]

I know, I know. We're all on to week 2 and tired of reliving that crushingly disappointing week 1. But I really think that our opinions on week 1 get better and sounder the more time passes. Hindsight and all that...

 

 

Starting with week one, I saw a couple things where I really disagree with what I'm seeing here on the board.

 

~ I thought this defense BALLED. The first drive was a struggle to contain the speed, but they had little to go on. In the end, they made the play and scored the TD. Then, having to go right back onto the field, they held the eagles to 3. At this point, the D had seriously given us a leg up. They had managed to snatch us the lead and all the Offense had to do was sustain a drive to get them a blow. Instead, we all saw what happened. But I didn't see a defense that couldn't play. I saw a defense that was gassed all first half and struggled to keep up with some nasty speed.

 

 

~ I didn't think Rambo played bad or had trouble tackling. I actually thought he tackled reasonably well when he wasn't thrown out to dry. I mean, realistically, Merriweather wasn't going to tackle Vick or Mccoy in the open field by himself either. 

 

 

~ I thought Riley, Kerrigan, and Cofield looked great. I thought Fletcher, Orakpo, and Biggers looked awful. Just my thoughts.

 

 

On offense, we all want to talk about Robert. At halftime, I wanted him pulled. I was hollering about how injured he was and how rushed he had been. I was close to tears thinking about the media storm if Shanny admitted he wasn't ready, or worse. Obviously, we all saw him improve in that second half. I'm mixed on that point.

 

I still didn't see him step into any throws. I didn't see him plant on that bad leg. I didn't see him throw down field at all. The entire second half I saw dink and dunks over the middle with some YAC. I STILL saw throws high, wide, and late whenever they went outside or deep. There is no doubt in my mind that Robert last year hits Hankerson on 3rd down in the second to last drive (and I didn't think that was a "drop" just because it hit off of a finger tip.

 

That said, I no longer think Robert is hurt. I honestly think this is rust. I don't think sitting him through the bye week would help, I think it would hurt. I think Robert needs to play through this. I think Robert just has to move past it. I think he will. But I think we as fans should settle in it to go on at least through the bye week. And we should all thank our starts if we can limp into that bye week and 2-2.

 

 

In all though, I think we could have still won, by a decent margin, in spite of Robert's rust, if the rest of the offense had been decent. But the truth was, this offense, as a unit, got lost in the moment of Monday night football. But that doesn't mean it's a bad offense. Alfred lost the ball twice, but we all know he can ball. The OLine has always been shaky, but on Monday even Trent Williams was missing blocks and getting beaten off the line. Really, we just didn't get up for the moment.

 

 

I'm not worried about Robert. I'm not worried about this Oline. and I'm def not worried about this defense. But the one thing, the single MOST disappointing thing I saw all night, was Kyle. I think we can all agree his schemes and his system are some of the best ever. But there is no excuse, NO EXCUSE, for RObert to be calling the play to his teammates with 20 seconds left on the play clock.  The delay of games, the burnt time outs, the false starts, these are not the fault of the offense. Those penalties at the end happened because Kyle didn't get the play in to the players fast enough. Robert needs the play fast enough to call it, get to the line, change it, give a dummy count, and still not sweat. THAT, I fault the coaches for. And it pisses me off.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Jaws said on PTI exactly what I thought. He's not hurt but playing with the pain effed up his mechanics and he's going to have to play out of it. He's a mechanically-flawed QB right now. 

[Vilandil Tasardur]

Jaws said on PTI exactly what I thought. He's not hurt but playing with the pain effed up his mechanics and he's going to have to play out of it. He's a mechanically-flawed QB right now. 

I heard that as well and, I know it won't be popular because this fanbase hates Jaws for earlier comments, but I agree.

 

I don't think Robert is currently in pain. But I do think he learned bad habits during our run last year, and especially in that Seattle game, and now has to unlearn them. 

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Apart from the D and O-line I agree with the rest of your assessment Vilandil man 

 

Not worried about either huh? Sorry to say I greatly am and have been all off-season and beyond. 

 

Hail. 

[bradboyd80]

Nice writeup. But I think one thing a lot of us keep missing are the poor choices by Thompson on special teams. He had a terrible game that consistently put the offense in bad positions. He'll get better though (hopefully).

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Nice writeup. But I think one thing a lot of us keep missing are the poor choices by Thompson on special teams. He had a terrible game that consistently put the offense in bad positions. He'll get better though (hopefully).

 

He'd better or his roster spot could well be in serious jeopardy. 

 

Moss taking over through his poor decisions and not injury isn't a great first outing to say the least. 

 

Hail. 

[NoCalMike]

Thompson on at least two occassions should have let the football bounce into the endzone.  Instead the offense had to start on their own 10 or inside their own 10.

 

RGIII whether back to normal or not was definitely improved in the 2nd half, throwing-wise. People forget that last season when AP came back it was such a unique story at the time that in retrospect most don't remember that he didn't have a 100 yard rushing game until Week 6. He didn't start out the season lights out, he had to slowly and gradually build the strength and trust back up in his repaired knee. It's just part of the process, one we all overlooked because we all judged AP's recovery on the 2013 stats and not what he actually looked like the first month.

 

The defense definitely didn't play as bad as the score reflects, until they got tired from constantly being on the field.

[Diehard Otis]

I definitely agree with the comments on Thompson's poor decision making & The Defense playing (relatively) well.  And I was definitely one among the posters that expected The Skins to Win, but it didn't happen.  Week 1 was a loss & there are many areas for improvement in the team's play.  No biggie.  I expect the team to correct the errors & adjust.  Frankly, we need more data - is it Sunday yet?

[bradboyd80]

Not only the punt returns, but his kick returns were terrible also; taking one of them to the 9, and another to the 13. So out of 5 returns total, only one of them got beyond the 20. That's tough on any offense.

Personally, I would like to see him stick around. But like you said GHH, he better learn quick.

[Diehard Otis]

Bradboyd80, I think we can all agree that we don't want to see Santana Moss returning punts in the opening chapters of The Season.  Something really needs to be done about that.  I hope the kid can get his **** straight in the return department.

[StephenB]

Jaws said on PTI exactly what I thought. He's not hurt but playing with the pain effed up his mechanics and he's going to have to play out of it. He's a mechanically-flawed QB right now. 

 

I would have to agree with Jaws to a certain degree, but it's hard to take him 100% seriously.  During the same PTI interview, he said the Eagles/Redskins game was one of the 8 moments that changed the way football is played.  It hurts his credibility when he can think the Eagles changed football after only one game. 

[VeroViper]

Aside from the poor fielding decisions Thompson did not look fast at all. It had that running in quicksand feel as he was returning kicks. 

[Vilandil Tasardur]

How could I forget the field position!!!?!?!?

 

I have to agree you guys. The offense didn't even start at the twenty. The field position was atrocious and had me in near tears.

 

And GHH, I should rephrase. I AM worried about our lines. I am not MORE worried about our lines after just that game. Our OLine has always been exactly what it is. I'm not any more worried about it as long as we can establish the running game.

[TheGoodBits]

Hankerson's failed catch on 3rd down was more than off the fingertips. Hit him right in the hands and he dropped it. The way we were moving the ball it probably cost us the comeback. Hell of a play by Griffin though.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Ahhhh, got you Vilandil. 

 

My bad. Sorry for the misunderstanding. And yeah, the opener didn't add any new worries to those I already had in those departments. Just reiterated them for me once again. 

 

Hail. 

[RedskinsInFebruary]

How could I forget the field position!!!?!?!?

I have to agree you guys. The offense didn't even start at the twenty. The field position was atrocious and had me in near tears.

And GHH, I should rephrase. I AM worried about our lines. I am not MORE worried about our lines after just that game. Our OLine has always been exactly what it is. I'm not any more worried about it as long as we can establish the running game.

I think the successful read option definitely masked our OL as a major weakness last year, exposed by Seattle. It's a shame we were unable to address it in the offseason. I would've taken a stab at someone in the draft, even though it was a weak draft by the times our picks rolled around.

[DC9]

He'd better or his roster spot could well be in serious jeopardy. 

 

Moss taking over through his poor decisions and not injury isn't a great first outing to say the least. 

 

Hail. 

 

I agree.  He didn't impress and made some decisions that rivaled Brandon Banks.

 

darrellgreenie is creeping this post... and I don't care.  He needs to step up or step out and bring Dy-No-Mite up!

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

I agree.  He didn't impress and made some decisions that rivaled Brandon Banks.

 

darrellgreenie is creeping this post... and I don't care.  He needs to step up or step out and bring Dy-No-Mite up!

 

Meh, ignore that green thingie. 

 

He knows NOTHING! (Specially when it comes to QB's. 'Aint that right greenster?  .).

 

Hail. 

[Vilandil Tasardur]

Maybe I need to rewatch  that Hankerson drop. It didn't look nearly that makable to me.

 

That said, I'll admit, I spent a lot of the game flipping frantically between our game and the Nadal-Djokovic final. I felt wrong doing it, but I just had too much invested in the US open by then.

 

 

February,

 

I'm not totally sure about that with regards to our OLine. We didn't need the read option to protect cousins in the Cleveland game and we had no problem running the ball on them. I don't think that Seattle shut us down because RG3 couldn't run t he option. I think Seattle shut us down because RG3 couldn't press the ball down field.

 

Last Monday, I saw the same thing. I don't think the offense struggled because the offense needs RG3s threat as a runner to open things up. Quite the opposite. I think that the offense needs RG3's arm to back the safeties off. I don't think Morris faces stacked boxes because RG3 isn't taking it around the end, but because he isn't confident when he tests the boundaries. To me, that's what we're missing. 

 

Because of that, I don't think our OLine needs the option as "smoke and mirrors" in order to look good. I just think they aren't built to handle 3rd and 8. Whether it's the option or not, they need someone to pick up 4-6 on the first two downs. They're never going to get you 5 seconds when the DLine knows you're throwing and pins their ears back. But they can handle pass protection on 2nd and 6 for a 3 step drop.