"Why can't we have nice things?"

[hail2skins]

First, just a brief reaction from the game. If you had told me that we'd lose our last two home games to the Cowboys and Tony Romo was not the QB in either, I wouldn't have believed you.  Hard to believe that we couldn't outscore......Dak Prescott.  I know, the Cowboys have a talented offensive line, Witten is still solid, and Dez is a beast. But geez, how does our D make rookie QBs look like all-pros? Did I mention that side of the ball really sucks?

Anyway, in real life, I live in a great country and home, have a wonderful family, great co-workers, and blessed that I'm able to go to a good number of Redskins games per season. And I know that you had a team like the 2007 Giants who started out the season looking dreadful on D, but was able to rebound in a come-from-behind victory on the road for their first win against (guess who?) enroute to rattling off six straight and eventually getting to the playoffs at 10-6, where they went on a run and capped it off by beating the team thought unbeatable.  But again, the Skins haven't had an 11-win season in 25 years, and filing out of FedEx with what seemed like 50 percent Cowboys fans mocking us.....it hit me.  I've been a Skins fan for over 40 years now, and my fandom feels like someone who was born into a family of wealth and was living large for quite some time, but then we made some bad investments and have been struggling for a quarter century.  To be sure, we are better off than families like the Browns and Lions down the block, but what I wouldn't give to enjoy some of that caviar that the Patriots, Steelers, and Packers families always seem to enjoy. Heck, what about that filet mignon that the Ravens often have for dinner?  Occasionally we get treated to a bit of the good life by ordering the lobster tail at Outback, but more often its either fast-food or standard sit-down chain restaurant fare?

Why can't my football family have nice things?

[skinsfan1523]

Fast food?? Fast food at least tastes good, this is some off brand frozen dinner **** we see again and again every year.  

[skins island connection]

All the better reason to buy RFK, re-model it and call it home.

And have a special rule in place that if you're a season ticket holder and you sell your tickets, you lose your place and forfeit your season ticket position.

If this organization can stop hiring old farts who live in the 70's, dumb-asses who suck at coaching, and try being original instead of copying everyone else, we might be in a better position. Allen needs to be gone, Barry needs to be hand-cuffed to Allen, and for once hire a competent coaching staff that has a proven success rate, and may as well change the scouting team as well.

[GoDeep81]

It's hard to get your head around.. At least I have the 3 SB years to remember, but this last 20+ YEARS are head scratchers man.. There's always the saying that goes something like "I hope in my lifetime...." We'll, it's becoming a reality.. We just never seem to improve. Sux..

[hail2skins]

2 minutes ago, skins island connection said:

 

And have a special rule in place that if you're a season ticket holder and you sell your tickets, you lose your place and forfeit your season ticket position.

 

SIC, I'm not sure if you were there today, but leaving that stadium today was pathetic. I know there's a ton of Cowboy fans in the area, and yes, I always notice a large contingent of visiting fans on the visitors side lower deck just about every game......but if you had awoken me from a coma and had me walk around the stadium to my car after the game, I might have told you that I was at AT&T Stadium.  This fanbase ought to be embarrassed.......it is so overrated.

[NoCalMike]

The Dak hype is absurd.  He should absolutely get credit for his composure and playing mistake free football for the most part, however the Cowboys have designed a very safe scheme for him to play within and it's largely because that O-line buys him a ton of time to throw the ball.  His down and distance to go is usually always on the favorable side by the time you get to 3rd down and the majority of his passes are of the 2-3 yard dumpoff variety.  Joe Barry was his biggest supporter today by refusing to bring a tighter press coverage in order to try and stop these dumpoff passes from going for tons of yards.  When they face a defense that is able to tackle Beasley and Witten here the catch the ball, and it forces Dak to have to push the ball downfield, we will see the hype train derail.  And this is nothing to downplay his eventual potential as a QB, he could very well turn out to be great.....just already over hearing how great he already is right now.

[Mr. Sinister]

I dunno.

Starting to feel like Mel Gibson in The Patriot  when he damn near lost all of his sons to the Revolutionary War

 

I've long feared the day that my sins would return to visit me... And the cost is more than I can bear.

[illone]

Mara uses this:

[skinsfan1523]

25 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

SIC, I'm not sure if you were there today, but leaving that stadium today was pathetic. I know there's a ton of Cowboy fans in the area, and yes, I always notice a large contingent of visiting fans on the visitors side lower deck just about every game......but if you had awoken me from a coma and had me walk around the stadium to my car after the game, I might have told you that I was at AT&T Stadium.  This fanbase ought to be embarrassed.......it is so overrated.

Is it embarrassing? Yes, but we have sucked for 25 years now, fans like me have never even seen this team be competent for longer than 5-6 game stretches every once in awhile.  It erodes your fan base, this team will have no fans in the future with the way they look every year, what kid would cheer for this bucket of suck if they were to start watching the NFL today.  

 

 

[NoCalMike]

1 minute ago, skinsfan1523 said:

Is it embarrassing? Yes, but we have sucked for 25 years now, fans like me have never even seen this team be competent for longer than 5-6 game stretches every once in awhile.  It erodes your fan base, this team will have no fans in the future with the way they look every year, what kid would cheer for this bucket of suck if they were to start watching the NFL today.  

 

 

Yeah and I guarantee you Cowboys fans at AT&T stadium say the same exact thing leaving their games in the parking lot after a loss.  Did you see how much Giants-blue there was in the lower bowl of their stadium last week?  Until the 'Skins become a consistent winner again, at least a consistent playoff caliber team, season ticket holders will look to make their money back on tickets rather than suffer through embarrassing losses. If Cousins led the team to a comeback victory I guarantee you those Cowboys fans would have walked to their cars without making a peep.

[RedskinsLegacy]

This team will not improve until we have something called a Defense!

[skins4eva]

We need top tier coaching, and we haven't had it over the last 25 yrs except when Gibbs came back. 

I saw a team out there today that was woefully unprepared and had no substantive game plan. In back to back weeks we have been badly outschemed and outcoached. I'm so freakin tired of it. No decent head coach in this league is ok with four false starts at home per game. It's mind boggling the kind of mistakes you see from this team week to week. I just wish we could get a competent coaching staff in here. Settling for Jay, who is clearly in over his head and not head coach material, was a very big mistake. Sadly, that's all Snyder can do. He has the reverse Midas touch. So. Damn. Frustrating. 

This is about as frustrated as I've ever been with this team, and that's saying something. 

[RSanz]

Honestly, at this point with this team, it's better just to expect the worst so that you're not disappointed.  Everyone knew that they had to win this game, at home, against a division rival, and they still crapped the bed.  This franchise will never be a "good franchise" again.  Just accept it, and enjoy the odd fun years here and there when they happen.

[Veretax]

48 minutes ago, skins island connection said:

All the better reason to buy RFK, re-model it and call it home.

And have a special rule in place that if you're a season ticket holder and you sell your tickets, you lose your place and forfeit your season ticket position.

If this organization can stop hiring old farts who live in the 70's, dumb-asses who suck at coaching, and try being original instead of copying everyone else, we might be in a better position. Allen needs to be gone, Barry needs to be hand-cuffed to Allen, and for once hire a competent coaching staff that has a proven success rate, and may as well change the scouting team as well.

How exactly do you enforce that?  How many of us have that annoying Cowboy fan in our family that we invite to the game because we hope to rub their faces in it?


 

[Rogue Jedi]

It's as plain as day.

We have no home field. NFC east matches at FedEx are basically 50/50 in opposing fans, sometimes 70/30 by halftime if we spew out our perpetual garbage on the field.

Hell, it's been like this for a decade now.

Skins fans are some of the most loyal in the NFL, but we are getting into dangerous territory with the enthusiasm right now, and that only comes from a quarter of a century of suck.

Fans are getting fed up, and we've been patient. Good lord have we been patient.

Im sorry, but I DEMAND a good competitive team at this point. 

How many of you here are tired of this perennial "we are 1-2 years away" bull****? Seems like every ****ing YEAR!!!!

When do we finally draw the line? Is it crazy to start holding this team accountable instead of making excuses for them every year?

We gotta start demanding success NOW.

Otheriwse, keep hearing more of "We're x years/drafts away" for another 25 years.

[kleese]

I was going to start my own thread, but this one is appropriate enough. 

Amidst the frustration, anger, sadness, and disappointment of the first two weeks, I'm also feeling a little bit of relief. This may seem like a weird emotion given the circumstances, but let me explain. 

I'm sure most of you have seen The Shawshank Redemption. For those that haven't, the story takes place mostly inside a prison. There is one prisoner named Brooks, who is a very old man and has spent almost his entire life behind bars. Finally, his release date arrives. He walks out into the sunshine for the first time in like 50 years. A glorious day? Not so fast. He has no idea what to do. The world has changed beyond recognition to him. He has no one to call, nothing to do. His life behind bars was restricted and gloomy, but he knew his role. He had routines. As a free man, he was more locked up than ever before. So, he eventually decides to call it quits and hangs himself. 

Forget that last part in terms of this analogy; we aren't going that dark or dramatic. 

But for me, I have become SO used to being a certain type of fan, that I find myself feeling uncomfortable on the rare occasion things change. As many have noted, this has been going on for 25 years now. Starting in 1993 and not including this year of course we have played 23 seasons. That's a really big sample size. Big enough to not only form habits, but lifestyles. 

Over the years I have trained myself to find ways to enjoy the Redskins season DESPITE the Redskins themselves. If I allowed them to dictate my enjoyment of them based year to year on whether or not they were good, I would have jumped off the train a long, long time ago. 

So instead I bargain with myself and come up with little internal heads games. I only plan parties/gatherings for PRE game, never post game. No matter how bad the week prior was, I'm almost always able to wake up on game day and anticipate the game with some level of enjoyment and excitement. 

Lets say we are 1-4; well, I may very well KNOW we aren't going anywhere that season, I may very well KNOW it's over. But I tell myself that it's not over... Yet. Meaning if they are 1-4 and win; I'll be interested to watch the next game-- even if ultimately I know we are headed down the drain. I start rooting for them to simply satisfy my desire to have a rooting interest the next week or weeks. 

And there might even be this slightly odd/weird element where rooting for a joke team has become part of my personal shtick. Like if they were ever actually good, my entire "act" would cease to exist and I'm not sure I'd know what to do. 

So normally, I wake up on Sunday's, still pretty excited for whatever reason I've convinced myself to be they week. I put on my jersey and usually sigh a big sigh like "well, here we go again, but I kinda sorta love it anyway...." 

This is what I do. This is who I am. I root for a terrible football franchise and I have for a long time. 

So when those strange pockets pop up where we DON'T totally suck, it feels weird to me. It's not quite as bad when it comes out of nowhere like in 2012 or last year because you almost don't even realize what's happening until it's happened. I mean last year I think it was the week of the Philly game where it actually clicked that we were one win away from winning the division. 

But a year like this or 2000 or any number of other years when either myself or others really think they might be good (guilty as charged this year) I almost get uncomfortable. I have no idea what to do with myself. My jokes about how bad we suck don't work. The game feels different and so do I. It's weird. 

And whenever that game arrives that shows us reality, well that game really hurts. But it also brings relief. That's what happened today. 

The loss today dashed my pre-season hopes. Clearly the Redskins can't/won't be good this year. In that sense, the season most certainly is over. We aren't going to be good. We aren't going to compete for anything major. Now, it wouldn't STUN me if we scratch and claw and find ourselves at like 4-5 at some point hanging around in the race. I'm not agains we are looking at 2-14. But we won't be good; we won't make the playoffs. I understand and accept that as of about 3pm central today. 

So now I can go back to the world I know. The one I've been living in as a fan for almost 25 years. I'll still have fun this year. I'm going to a couple of games in a few weeks. I think we very well may win of them-- and some others along the way too. 

I am a Redskins fan. And not even the Redskins can take that away from me. Today, the season started. 

[NoVaSkins21]

22 minutes ago, skins4eva said:

We need top tier coaching, and we haven't had it over the last 25 yrs except when Gibbs came back. 

I saw a team out there today that was woefully unprepared and had no substantive game plan. In back to back weeks we have been badly outschemed and outcoached. I'm so freakin tired of it. No decent head coach in this league is ok with four false starts at home per game. It's mind boggling the kind of mistakes you see from this team week to week. I just wish we could get a competent coaching staff in here. Settling for Jay, who is clearly in over his head and not head coach material, was a very big mistake. Sadly, that's all Snyder can do. He has the reverse Midas touch. So. Damn. Frustrating. 

This is about as frustrated as I've ever been with this team, and that's saying something. 

Not to turn this into a Snyder bashing thing, but you're right that not many top coaches want to come here and lead this team when they know who they have to answer to.  Gruden is a guy who doesn't believe in a running game and it shows in the gameplan.  Barry, outside of last year, was a terrible DC.  This team got lucky last year, but it's coming back to bite them in the @ss this year.  Players are openly criticizing them which is obviously a horrible sign.  The year isn't over, but unfortunately it's likely to get worse before it gets better.

[Darrell Green Fan]

To the opening poster: why would you not believe we could start 0-2 without Romo?  It is what we have been doing for a generstion.  Hell even in our 3 playoff seasons every one required a miracle run at the end.  Outside of the  7-1 start by Norm and a quick start by Zorn, which were both followed by complete collapses, this team seems to be 3-5 every year on Halloween.  Every stinking year, it's what they do.     And I so done having our season taken from me so early every stinking year.

[Koolblue13]

5 hours ago, kleese said:

 

I'm sure most of you have seen The Shawshank Redemption. 

I was on the beach from the end of it Saturday. Almost went yesterday, but wanted to get ready for the game. It's 5 minutes from my house.

[Momma There Goes That Man]

8 hours ago, skins island connection said:

And have a special rule in place that if you're a season ticket holder and you sell your tickets, you lose your place and forfeit your season ticket position.

 

Yeah punishing fans for exercising a basic right they have doesn't seem like the way to improve stadium atmosphere and fan morale 

8 hours ago, hail2skins said:

I've been a Skins fan for over 40 years now, and my fandom feels like someone who was born into a family of wealth and was living large for quite some time, but then we made some bad investments and have been struggling for a quarter century. 

Id sign up for this any day. My fandom of 24 years is basically like being born in a dumpster behind a Walmart, contracting genital herpes at 10yrs old without ever experiencing sexual activity and spending the rest of my life cold, hungry and alone sleeping under wet newspapers on a pillow of used baby diapers every night. 

[Momma There Goes That Man]

7 hours ago, skinsfan1523 said:

Is it embarrassing? Yes, but we have sucked for 25 years now, fans like me have never even seen this team be competent for longer than 5-6 game stretches every once in awhile.  It erodes your fan base, this team will have no fans in the future with the way they look every year, what kid would cheer for this bucket of suck if they were to start watching the NFL today.  

 

 

Honestly if I had a son or daughter, I'd watch all the Redskins games from inside a locked closet so I didnt accidentally influence my kids to root for this sad pathetic **** show of a franchise. 

Hopefully, on their own, my child would pick a team that could provide at least a fleeting moment of happiness every decade or so. 

[skins island connection]

7 hours ago, Veretax said:

How exactly do you enforce that?  How many of us have that annoying Cowboy fan in our family that we invite to the game because we hope to rub their faces in it?


 

I was just venting.

If you want to talk annoying, I live in Texas, and I want to slash the tires of every car I see with a Cowboys logo on their bumper or windshield.

Will I hate going to work this morning? Yes. Those annoying backwards assed freaks a.k.a. Cowboy fans will be sticking their chest out because they won; as I mentioned earlier, these divisional games are crazy as hell, records be damned. It was an ugly game, but its early in the season, lets see where we go from here.

[Mr_ Skinshead]

8 hours ago, hail2skins said:

SIC, I'm not sure if you were there today, but leaving that stadium today was pathetic. I know there's a ton of Cowboy fans in the area, and yes, I always notice a large contingent of visiting fans on the visitors side lower deck just about every game......but if you had awoken me from a coma and had me walk around the stadium to my car after the game, I might have told you that I was at AT&T Stadium.  This fanbase ought to be embarrassed.......it is so overrated.

No, the organization should be embarrassed. No product - no loyalty.... There's a reason that FedEx Field is the UN stadium of the NFL, and it has nothing to do with fan base and everything to do with the product. 

[Darrell Green Fan]

I actually was OK with the crowd in the first two games.   Pittsburg and Dallas have huge national followings, they represent at every stadium.  But the first two games didn't have the takeover we've seen in the past. But all that ended at 4:00 yesterday.  Loyal Redskins fans will start to bail and after 25 years of this **** who could blame them?

 

 It is obvious by now that everything Dan Snyder touches turns to coal.  Men with amazing NFL track records show up in Ashburn and suddenly turn dumb.  We have all heard of the horrible dysfunction at Redskins Park from those who witnessed it and have moved on.  A writer who came from Seattle a few years ago was amazed at what he saw here.  Even when it appears that Snyder has done the right thing by hiring smart football people and getting out of the way the culture from the top is just too much to overcome.

[hail2skins]

Kleese, if the league ever makes the team change its name.....the Washington Shawshanks would be perfect!

I still have hope that this is the football gods way of messing with us and that it'll wind up being a reverse of both 2003 and 2011. Both years we started 2-0, and had the usual talk of "maybe this is the year we'll be good" following by agonizing losses......in 2003, a home loss to the Giants, where they were up big and then we stormed back, but lost in OT.  In 2011, that horrible 18-16 loss to the Cowboys where we had them like 3rd and forever and they completed a long pass and 15 more were tacked on and we lost on their 6th field goal of the night. Both seasons, we finished 5-11....."not too good" in the immortal words of the Ball Coach.  More than likely, I see where we can have a bizarre game against the Giants where we wind up on top and scratch and claw to 9-7 again. Not sure whether that will be good enough for the paloffs this season, but I guess once you're there, anything can happen. But if we fall to 0-3? Hoo boy.

As far the fans who say "oh what do you expect when we've sucked for so long?"  Just stop it.  Last I checked, we won a division title last year.....yes, the division was weak, but we ended the regular season with four solid wins. If that doesn't motivate your STH fanbase to get off their backsides and go to an early season game against their biggest rival, I don't know what would. Yes, if we had come back and won the game, it would've been sweet to see their heads hung low. But even during the game, the "lets go Cowboys" chants that loudly dominated at least one side of the stadium was bad. Even allowing for the Cowboys fan national following, this was pathetic.