One play can change a season

[freakofthesouth]

OK...So early on in the game, the skins were just downright losing.

And after facing a 14-3 deficit, Ramsey was pressured once again, and made a critical mistake when he underthrew Coles and threw an interception to a waiting Seattle defender.

As the Seattle cornerback pranced down the sidelines, and his teammates began to celebrate, LC comes out of nowhere and forces him to fumble just before the goal line. The ball is recovered in the endzone, creating a touchback for the skins, and extending the hopes of a credible season.

Shortly thereafter, Ramsey leads his team on a spectacular drive that culminated w/ a leaping grab from none other than the playmaker himself, LC.

After this play/drive, the team began to click, on both offense and defense.

This one play sparked the team to play w/ emotion and fire.

It could turn out to be the play that turned the season around for the skins.

[Dan T.]

Does this mean that Lavernaeus Coles is our best offensive AND defensive player?

[MOskins56]

Hopefully it has the same effect that LaVar’s INT had two years ago.

[freakofthesouth]

Originally posted by MOskins56

Hopefully it has the same effect that LaVar’s INT had two years ago.

That's exactly what I'm talking about!

Didn't we win five straight after that play?

[MidPennSkin]

And don't forget Thomas, who recovered the fumble in the end zone. He hustled across the field from his right guard position to jump on the ball when it came out. I hope the other Redskins will start showing as much hustle as Coles and Thomas did on that play.

[Art]

The Coles play was huge. Without it we almost certainly die a slow and painful death in that game and almost certainly the season. On that basis it is certainly the type of play that can qualify as a season-saving one. However, I don't rate it up with the Lavar play in terms of providing the emotional lift necessary to win.

In my view that play came later. In the fourth quarter on fourth down in our territory when Spurrier went for it and made it by a yard. That is the kind of play that instills such confidence in the players, it can lift them as a unit for weeks. Immediately after that play things looked easier for us.

Immediately after we had an open 12-yard pass to Coles which was poorly thrown or it could have been more. A nice 5-yard run. An open pass to Gardner for 20. A hard fought, but still big run by Cartwright. And then the trick play after a couple of non-descript plays.

Against Carolina after Lavar's interception things changed too. If you'll remember up to that point we threw NOTHING long all year. And suddenly in that game things came free. Passes of 85, 19, 22, 17 and 80 or whatever were hit in rapid succession. If you're looking for a play that could possibly qualify as the one that lifts a team for a stretch of games, to me, it would be that fourth down call.

[Skins66]

I never believe that one play can turn a season around for a team.It's a matter of the team getting off thier arses and playing to thier potential.Granted a big play can give them some momentum in a game.I bet if the seahawks started throwing more blitzes in the game there would have been a differant outcome.I am a die-hard skins fan and have been that way all my life, but come on folks as fans we have to admit this is not a team with very high potential, let alone playoff contenders. The front office has to clean house and start over

[freakofthesouth]

Check out this read:

One Play Keeps Act Alive

By Michael Wilbon

Monday, November 10, 2003; Page D01

Before Rod Gardner threw that gotcha pass to Trung Canidate to win it,

before Steve Spurrier let it ride and bet the whole season, maybe even

his NFL future, on fourth and inches from his 25, before Patrick

Ramsey threw those two beautiful touchdown passes, Laveranues Coles

won the Redskins a football game nearly by himself. He won it on

defense, by chasing down Seattle's Damien Robinson, who had

intercepted a Ramsey pass and was rolling into the end zone for what

appeared to be a 21-3 Seahawks lead.

At 21-3, ladies and gents, the ballgame would have been over. The

season would have been over, 3-6 and headed south for the winter, to

Charlotte and Miami. A lifeless team whose coach is being battered

from coast to coast doesn't come back from 21-3 in the second quarter

having already lost four straight. FedEx Field would have been a tomb.

Even as Robinson ambled toward the end zone with the interception

return, you could hear the fans start to boo. Some kind of ugly was

about to break out. As Spurrier said upon reflection on what would

have happened had Robinson scored, "we're down 21-3, in dire straits

and going nowhere."

Except Robinson never reached the end zone with the ball. Coles -- the

best player on the team, I'd argue -- was brought here to get the ball

into the end zone, not to stop the other team from doing it. But he

chased Robinson, caught him, and had the presence of mind to strip the

ball rather than tackling him and letting him fall into the end zone.

Randy Thomas recovered for a touchback, and the Redskins scored on

that possession to cut the lead to 14-10. Four points down is a world

of difference from 18 points down after an interception for touchdown.

"A huge, huge play," Spurrier went on. "We had some sighs of relief we

were still in the game."

We know one play can turn a game. It also can turn a season. Two years

ago, in Marty Schottenheimer's only season, the Redskins were 0-5 and

about to go 0-6, also at home. The Carolina Panthers were lighting the

Redskins up when LaVar Arrington picked off Chris Weinke and ran it in

for a touchdown that won the game and sent the Redskins to a

respectable 8-8 finish.

Coles's play is bigger than that, because at 4-5 the Redskins still

have hope, even if improbable, for a meaningful season. Tampa Bay is

4-5, the Giants are 4-5, the 49ers are 4-5, the Saints are 4-5.

They're all in the hunt for a playoff spot. Does this mean the

Redskins are suddenly a good team? Nope. It means Coles's play serves

as a temporary mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Remember three weeks ago

in Buffalo when Spurrier criticized what he felt was a lack of effort?

Well, here was a game saved by a highly skilled player making a

sheer-effort play to alter the course of a game and perhaps a season.

When Coles was a rookie with the Jets, he recalled after the game,

there was a play in one of his first preseason games in which a

defensive back caught an interception in front of him, "and I just

stopped . . . didn't chase him," Coles said. "Somebody cut in front of

him, and if I'd just chased it, if I'd kept running I could have made

a difference on the play. My coach didn't say anything to me, but I

saw it on film the next day and I said then I would never let that

happen again. You have to hustle on every single play because

everything you do shows up on film. I knew I couldn't tackle

[Robinson] because I knew I couldn't catch up to him quickly enough to

prevent him from getting into the end zone. His momentum would have

carried him in. So I had to go for the strip. I had to try to make a

play. Look, maybe it will rub off on some younger player. You have to

see that in each other. . . Football games are always about momentum.

And everything had been going against us. . . After that play, it just

seemed everybody felt good about themselves, and we were ready to

compete."

Though they are loath to admit it, teams are paralyzed by despair. The

weight of disappointment crushes even professionals. Ask the Cubs and

Red Sox. I wouldn't want to suggest the Redskins are cursed by a goat

or a bad deal, but they certainly haven't felt good about themselves

as a football team for more than a month. Coles, with a simple but

inspiring play based on effort and common sense, allowed them to feel

that way again.

Okay, nothing happens in a vacuum. Coles kept hope alive. But

Spurrier's willingness to allow his offensive coordinator, Hue

Jackson, to call most of the plays also has to lift the team. Whatever

criticisms can be leveled at Spurrier, selfishness isn't one of them.

How better to learn the lesson of unselfishness than to watch a $5

million-a-year coach say, "If I have to bench the play-caller, I'll do

it." See, you can have Fun 'n' Gun and I'll take a good, balanced

offense every day of the week. One of the ways you reduce a pass rush

is to run the ball effectively. And the Redskins passed 33 times while

running 32 times for a nice average gain of 4.3 yards per rush.

Of course, the other way you beat the blitz is to have the opposing

defensive coordinator call about the worst defensive game imaginable.

Ray Rhodes isn't just good at coordinating defenses, he's great at it.

He's not Buddy Ryan or Marvin Lewis or Bill Belichick, but he's on the

step right below them. He has left quarterbacks mumbling to themselves

for more than 10 years. And yesterday, he shocked the Redskins by

failing to blitz a team that one week ago couldn't even identify a

blitz, much less beat one. The most relieved guy in the house had to

be Ramsey, who wasn't sacked once, and the most stunned guy in the

house had to be Spurrier. "They didn't do the all-out blitzing we

thought they would," he said. "I thought they'd do some of the stuff

Dallas did, but they didn't."

Sometimes, it's the coaches who think themselves right out of a game.

You have to blitz the Redskins. Bill Parcells, a week ago in Dallas,

didn't presume the Redskins were ready to beat blitzes because they'd

seen so many the previous three weeks. Parcells's tactic was to blitz

the Redskins until they proved they could beat one. Rhodes hardly ever

blitzed Ramsey. Coach Mike Holmgren, who pays about as much attention

to defense as Spurrier does, said the Seahawks don't have a single

great pass rusher. And there's also the matter of the Seattle

defensive linemen being injured and inexperienced. One might suggest

that the only way to augment the rush of a limping line is to blitz.

Either way, Ramsey had all day to throw for the first time since, oh,

September. Rhodes let a shell-shocked kid find his comfort level.

If it turns out that the Redskins can win at least one of the next two

games down south, this victory over Seattle will be remembered for the

play calling because that's what consumes this offense-obsessed

community. It will certainly be remembered for Spurrier's gamble,

going for it on fourth and inches from the 25 with the score tied.

Honestly, I've never, ever seen a team go for it from that deep in its

territory with the score tied. It's insane and perhaps professional

suicide if it fails. It's gutty and demonstrates great faith in your

team if it works. Is it desperate? Of course, it's desperate. Anybody

who has been around this team the last month knows the Redskins were

in a desperate situation.

"If we don't make that, you all kill him in the papers," Coles said,

accurately assessing the situation. "He showed how much trust he has

in us."

So now the players are convinced Spurrier trusts them and has faith in

them because he goes for it like no coach ever goes for it. They're

also buoyed by a single hustle play that turns an 18-point deficit to

a four-point deficit. They beat a team that was not only whole, but in

first place in the NFC West. Suddenly, even if only temporarily, the

immediate future, which is to say next week, doesn't look quite so

awful.

[Art]

4skins,

This team is underachieving and failing to play as well as it might be expected to play. In fact, it has a very high potential for improvement, though more next year than this. The front office has started over already and the necessary components are here for the most part, though some will be modified. We won't know the outcome had the Seahawks thrown a more vigorous blitz package at the Redskins. There will come a time where teams will throw those sorts of packages at us and get beaten because of it. Could find that we're reaching that level as early as this week even. We'll see.

What may also benefit you is guys who proclaim themselves as die-hard skins fans who have been that way all their lives just before entering into an at least partly fictional rant tend to be something other than their proclaimation. May not be the case with you, but, folks will be watching, just in case.

[Ryman of the North]

i agree art this team is the very definition of underachiever however Coles and Thomas are exempt from that designation on that play alone!

[OURYEAR#56]

I think this is a positive step in the right direction. I like the fact we didn't commit many penalties, so we weren't in the Third-and-long situations. But what I'm mad at is all this blitz talk. We'll figure out how to stop it, and then watch out.

[NavyDave]

It can be the catalyst for us to make a run but we still need to get more from our d line and continue with a balance offensive attack

[Ancalagon the Black]

Originally posted by Art

What may also benefit you is guys who proclaim themselves as die-hard skins fans who have been that way all their lives just before entering into an at least partly fictional rant tend to be something other than their proclaimation. May not be the case with you, but, folks will be watching, just in case.

Um, Art? His moniker is 4Skins. Why do I have trouble believing that he's a Redskins fan at all?

[tchrpe1]

Yesterdays game is a glimse of what this team can be. However this team has a long way to go before that happens. Looking at the remainder of the schedule I see some games that are very winable but it is going to take a complete team effort for that to happen.

[Skins66]

It seems that some of you question my loyalty to the skin's because I have the fortitude to critisize when critisizism is due.If I do then it's because I'm fed up with all the BS that this team is showing.If and I am in fact a die hard fan then it's my responsiblity to question and critisize this team.I do not blow smoke up someones ass just to appease them.I TELL THE TRUTH.Defending the pathitic play and poor coaching does not make you the ultimate fan.Accept that they are playing poorly and move on. I am only stating fact's and you all know it but just refuse to accept it.NUFF SAID

[Art]

Yeah, yeah, guy. I can't tell you where we've heard similar comments before. Again, so perhaps you get my drift. When you go out of your way to proclaim your love of the team right before making fictional statements, it calls you into question and people will doubt you. The truth is not a bedtime story you've decided you can string together. But, as the obviousness of your weak acting continues to be exposed, I'm sure you'll prove entertaining, if not all that insightful.