Looking for some perspective on coaches from pre-Norv fans

[justice98]

The 91 team deserves more credit in history than it gets. (I was in 8th grade and wore one of about 50 Skins' shirts daily. I also had the Zubaz pants, man those were hideous looking). Three great WR, Byner with a hand from Riggs in the Jumbo package, Ryp putting it all together for one year, and then the underrated National Defense.

That team easily could've gone undefeated.

[Hooterman]

There has been alot of good responses to OP first post.  For me, I'm commenting less about the issues around Barry and more about the culture of the team in the 70's and 80's.  I think a great example of how to sum it up is the post from Mark the Homer on this board that recaps all of the Redskins vs. Dallas quotes.  Particularly the string of quotes about the time the Redskins ran at Randy White many times in a row.  I thought about that when the Fox camera's caught White at todays game. 

[Bang]

bumping an old thread, i was 11 when the 91 redskins happened, and i was well aware of the run and how great they were, but you don't really understand the ins and outs of the NFL

 

basically, i've been thinking about richie petitbon (your redskins mind starts to wander when you have a meaningless regular season game on the horizon because playoffs are clinched up) and i remembered our defenses just killing people in those days (what was it 3 straight home shutouts in 1991 - unreal!!!)

 

anyways, after gibbs retired, petitbon takes over the team and doesn't have a great year going 4-12 and is immediately fired and replaced by of all people, a freaking Cowboy

 

my question is, should petitbon have been fired?  what would ES in 1993 have said?  did the defense at least look good, or were we just killed all around?

 

my dad thought he should have been given more time, but i've also heard that he didn't look like he knew what he was doing on the sidelines.  it seems like someone with that much playing and D-Coordinating experience would know what they are doing

 

it was also around that time that we got rid of gary clark and art monk, not 100% sure where it happened on the timeline, but my dad thought that was losing part of the soul of the redskins

 

any insights appreciated!!

 

 

he should have been fired, and it gave him a chance to save dignity. That year was one of the worst in my memory, and i've been watching since the late 60s.  It was embarrassing to him, and the reasons are multiple.

he clearly was not cut out to be the head coach. he knew his defense but IMO the overall responsibility of being a head coach distracted him, and he couldn't do it.

And a much bigger reason... talent depletion. The Redskins Gibbs and Beathard built were at the end of their run, and they were simply not built to continue any further.

 

~Bang

[PeterMP]

The problem with Petitbone was that he tried to install a new hybrid offense between the 1 back Gibbs offense and a more West Coast 2 back set when he was a defensive guy in his background.  Coupled with the injury to Rypien, it ended up being a season killer.

 

http://articles.dailypress.com/1993-08-14/sports/9308140129_1_gibbs-offense-richie-petitbon-one-back

 

In the end, it failed miserably as the team fell from 12th in years to 26th.  I remember the season opener against Dallas when we smoked them and the commentators saying something about maybe Petitbone was right and Gibbs had actually been holding the offense back.

 

In general bigger picture for that era, the Howard draft/trade killed them.

[fasttimes]

Bobby Beathered cheated like crazy by stashing players on the injury/practice squad. He and Gibbs worked the system like a dog works a rib.

[Veretax]

Pettibone got fired because the team became jealous of Dallas's Success if I recall Correctly.   That's why Norv got hired.

 

It turns out talent makes a difference.