Victory Monday! Next day thread

[Bang]

I didn't see a general next day thoughts thread, and i have a bunch so... 

10 thoughts on the game.

 

1. The defense is VERY good. Good enough to carry the team, and that is good because they are having to right now.
There's NOTHING wrong with this. 
Some facts:
In the last 4 games, they have beaten Aaron rodgers, cam Newton and their biggest rivals coming off their biggest win of the year. They have lost to Drew Brees.
They're getting better. 
They are not just stuffing the run, they are STOMPING on it. Zeke went nowhere. McCaffrey and Cam, nowhere. Next up, Saquon. 
I ain't scared. Are you?

 

2. Outside pressure finally showed up. Kerrigan had a great game, Smith had a great game. Prescott's pocket was crushed all day. That Cowboys OL? Whipped.

 

3. Pass defense.. i like that we have such confidence in our young corners.. but we need to get Stroman some help on the outside. He bit so hard on the double move he probably needs to get his teeth checked today. He's a rookie and a raw one at that.. getting him some playing time is good, but he needs to have some help. Any QB seeing him single up on the outside is going to feast. 
Norman had a second strong game. DJ is a BEAST. 
But they do like to play man up with a lot of confidence,, i like it, but it's feast or famine. If you CAN, great,, if not, it's gets exposed quickly and beaten badly.

they did sell out on quite a few blitzes yesterday, so the ability to bump and run with receivers is great, but needs consistency and a recognition of who needs help..

 

4. Shawn Lauvao.. well, what a difference he makes, huh? everyone hates him, but he's back and the Cowboys vaunted DL doesn't get nearly the pressure they would have if he had not been there. Smith had time. Smith had throwing lanes. AP had another big game.
The entire OL's game was up, and it's no coincidence that our 5 starters were all on the field and healthy.

 

5. TEs.. honestly, whoever is their coach needs to really work with them on their blocking. I get they are more pass catchers, but the damn job requires blocking on the line as well, and while i can forgive some,, Davis is just a liability in run blocking. He literally tackled AP in the backfield on a play that had a chance to get a first down in a key spot.. and their overall ineptitude in this area of their game is a glaring problem.

 

5. Alex Smith: Definitely needs to improve his accuracy. Totally missed Sprinkle for a TD, all on him. Just a bad throw. Had a couple of shots on that mystery drive to end the half that he missed Doctson deep when he was open. 
I will give leeway in that is he still new to the offense, and has not had really any time to develop much continuity with any receivers.. yesterday, 3 of his wide receivers were out, replaced by guys who have been on the squad for only a couple of weeks total. His main target (Doctson) has been in and out of practices with injuries.
So, some understanding,, BUT, that patience is about up.
He ran out of bounds knowing he would not get the first down with a minute 40 to go and saved Dallas the TE they needed to get in position to tie the game.
OK, so some passing rust or some OL issues are one thing, flat out stupidity like that is not excused. He's supposed to be extremely smart,, well, that doesn't help his cause.

 

6. AP is a monster. Makes so much out of so little. Knows where holes are coming, sees EVERYTHING at ALL TIMES. 
I sure hope Guice is in his hip pocket and taking notes.

 

7. Josh Doctson had one of his best games to date. He only had a few catches but he made some tough plays over the middle and took some hits. Showed me some toughness, and i was glad to see it. Small contribution, but a lot to see from it.
Smith overthrew him deep a couple of times when he was open... which brings me to

 

8. WTF was that garbage to close the half? No plan to get points, like watching a kid play Madden. A PRIME opportunity.. we deferred the kick, so we get it first in the second half. We HAVE the ball with a chance to score and then take the ball after the half,, which KILLED US SO MANY TIMES last year when others did it to us. 
I get taking a couple of shots.. fact is Doctson was open at the 10 and Smith missed him deep.
But after a shot, take th yards.. get those next ten yards to get into FG position, then check the time and if you can take another shot. BUT GET INTO POSITION TO SCORE.
VERY frustrating.

 

9. Special teams had an OK day.. but i really would like to see them stop playing scared in the punt return game. Stroman is young, sure, but he's got huge spaces when he's fair catching punts. They let him return the final one and he did alright considering it was the best job of closing on him to Cowboys did. But wow,, they had shots at some decent yardage on returns if he's given some green lights. (And it's not just him. We're afraid to fumble, seem to fair catch everything going back to last year.)

 

10. 4-2 and a game and a half lead in the east after a very difficult portion of the schedule. I hear people complaining about the offense (and i did some above,) but overall, the positive is we have a solid defense and can run the ball. Teams have gone far with that.

[veteranskinsfan]

I agree Doctson played better.  He was running shorter routes and he does not seem hesitant to go over the middle.

[KDawg]

-Color me not shocked that the line looked much better with Lauvao in at left guard and Roullier at C. Said it all along. Continuity matters on the OL. 

 

-The Skins played their overall best game of the season.

 

-Alex Smith still looks uncomfortable .

 

-I don't understand why we don't take Adrian Peterson and run downhill as a battering ram. Yes, the guy is good enough to run sideways. But that burst downhill with a head of steam should scare people.

 

-Big Kapri Bibbs fan. 

 

-Welcome back Ryan Kerrigan. We missed you. Stay awhile! 

 

-Our inside backers played down hill all game long. It was freakin' awesome. It suggests to me that there was a schematic tweak defensively.

 

-We sent heat on defense. That was awesome. 

 

-Mr. Payne may be my absolute favorite player on this team. Dude is just a man. And Jon Allen, too. They're stupid good. Can't discount Ion, either.

 

-Doctson looks disinterested at times. Or that may just be his overall demeanor. Not sure.

 

I'll add more as you guys post. Busy at work and posting on my break very quickly!

[Warhead36]

The defense is legit. I don't think we're dominant but we're very good. Reminds me a lot of the 04-05 Ds except the secondary isn't as good(but the DL might be better). I still have some issues with the scheme though. We run soft zones too often when we blitz which makes no sense. When you blitz you want to jam and play press man to throw off the timing. So many times when we blitz our rushers are a split second late and the QB just finds a receiver open in the zone. If we played tighter when we blitz, we'd get there more often. But even with all that said, the D is legit good. We get pretty good pressure from just our front 4 and yesterday the blitzes were getting there. Payne is legit and Allen should be a Pro Bowler(he's replaced Silverback as the best player on our team now). We're an ILB and FS away from being dominant on that side.

 

Offensively...other than AP it was yuck. Smith was off but Gruden's playcalling in goal to go was also bad. In the 2nd half, we had two situations where we got inside the 10 off a big AP run and immediately went into shotgun. Why do we keep going shotgun handoffs in goal to go? Its so bad and never ever ever works. We do a really poor job spacing out our receivers and creating room and as a result guys are always running into traffic and Smith will never make a throw. Where were the seam routes to Davis yesterday? Reed only caught two passes, that's inexcusable. Doc caught a few but man everything with him is a chore, he's just never really comfortably open.

 

All in all, we appear to have the formula to win 9-10 games in the NFL: run the ball, play good D, win the turnover battle. Its a shame because with Cousins instead of Smith and a little better playcalling we could be challenging for #2 in the NFC(nobody is beating the Rams this year).

[Warhead36]

Do we really need TWO next day threads?

[KDawg]

6 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

Do we really need TWO next day threads?

 

Do we have two? I do it every week... Posted quick to get it up?

[Warhead36]

http://es.redskins.com/topic/424749-victory-monday-next-day-thread/

[KDawg]

Just now, Warhead36 said:

http://es.redskins.com/topic/424749-victory-monday-next-day-thread/

 

Well do whatever I guess. *shrug*

[MartinC]

2 minutes ago, KDawg said:

 

Well do whatever I guess. *shrug*

 

I merged them together. You keep doing your thing each week ?

[RandyHolt]

3fers

 

Good

AP - the man is our offense now. He appears man among boys on many runs.

DL/Front 7 - Our DL is competent enough that our LBs can effectively read and not run themselves out of the play. PAYNE is awesome.

Pressure and Pain on Dak - Greg "Hitman" Stroman hitting Dak while staying in bounds was a key play.

 

Bad

Alex and his over throws - hey he avoids the INT at all costs as we facepalm the overthrows. Turnovers did prove pivotal.

Playcalling - I want to see Jay try a little trickery and deception, roll or boot Alex... I dunno, we just seem vanilla. Without AP greatness... yikes

Betting on Dallas assuming we would lose

 

Other

OL seemed to hold up well vs the Dallas pass rush. I cannot recall many stunts when I was expecting them early and often

Maybe they won the game for Tandler. I can only assume his passing was on many minds yesterday.

#SnapInfraction #Doink deserve mention in here somewhere.  Those were huge. I bet there was a false start on someone else (not the C).

[MartinC]

Our first down run percentage is off the charts. 

 

Jay is really setting up that big play in week 17 off play action ...

[petey hodge]

I’m so happy the players didn’t overlook dem boyz.  Classic “Trap Game” as we have the date against the vaGiants circled on the calendar, baby!

 

 

[goskins10]

 

KDAWG said: 

Quote

Doctson looks disinterested at times. Or that may just be his overall demeanor. Not sure.

 

You care to elaborate? All 3 catches were tough catches - 2 down the middle and the one on the sideline where he to jump with the guy in front of him shielding his view but still making the catch was outstanding. He was very much wide open several times and Alex just missed him - either over throw him or went somewhere else. I saw several plays where Doctson was blocking down field - and well. He had one of the key blocks on the Bibbs TD. He drew a PI penalty and actually got with the defender a bit. Not sure what people want form him - to fight with the kicking net? 

 

Warhead36 said:

Quote

Doc caught a few but man everything with him is a chore, he's just never really comfortably open.

 

Doctson was wide open several times and Alex just missed him. He caught two very nice passes in tight coverage. As stated above he did a good job blocking yesterday also. It's actually pretty rare for WRs to be that wide open. Good QBs throw thier WRs open. Also, Josh's strength is fighting for balls and making catches in tight spaces. Alex needs to give him more chances. 

[Bang]

Sorry, i didn't see the other one and went back 2 pages.

 

~Bang

[KDawg]

@Bang thats because it wasn't there yet. I didn't look when I posted. I assumed no one posted because I do it weekly so I came in quick on my break to get it up.

 

@goskins10 Demeanor. Not play. Demeanor. His facial expressions.

[Riggo#44]

18 minutes ago, KDawg said:

-Mr. Payne may be my absolute favorite player on this team. Dude is just a man. And Jon Allen, too. They're stupid good. Can't discount Ion, either.

 

I have a Bama Boys Boner this morning. They are ****ing monsters. No one is missing Derwin James right now. But Matt Ionnidis is the forgotten man there. Look at this beast:

 

 

Couple other thoughts:

The Peterson signing was the deal of the year. Where would we be without him? I rag on Bruce Allen a lot, but need to give credit here.

I am extremely frustrated with Smith, but I am giving him a partial pass with this game--that wind played a big factor, I think. Running out of bounds, trying to run the clock out is inexcusable though.

I love our LBs. Fabian Moreau made Kendall Fuller expendable--good foresight by the FO there, even if Smith is mediocre.

[Enforcer_FFX]

Lauvao coming back truly does have a major impact on the interior!

 

Underrated:

-With the big dogs up front doing their jobs well, it allowed Foster and Brown to make plays all game.

-I like the change-up of McPhee and Anderson. They are BOTH angry hombres and bring it when they sub in.  Both seems to get pressure, and I think Anderson got a sack.

[WelshSkinsFan]

Not too much to add.  D is playing lights out at this point and will give us a chance against any team in the league.

 

Offense still misfiring on a couple of fronts but having a true rushing threat sure papers over a lot of cracks.  I am not stressing this too much though for a couple of reasons.  We have been chopping and changing the targets on Alex due to injury almost every week so far and add to that this was only his 6th game in this offense.  I trust that he is going to get more comfortable and will have stronger games ahead and it is nice that in the meantime he is not killing us with picks and fumbles.  We have a game that can live with a game manager at QB.

 

I do think we could be in for a repeat of Kirk's first full season as starter.  Kirk was very uneven through the first half of the season but as we saw, the lights came on against Tampa Bay and he was a different player down the stretch.  I do think Alex will have a similar moment and with Richardson still learning too and Crowder and CT still to return from injury we can be more explosive in the passing game later in the season.  We will need to be because right now we look like a playoff team but without the big chunk plays we won't go far if we get there.

 

 

[goskins10]

1 minute ago, KDawg said:

@Bang thats because it wasn't there yet. I didn't look when I posted. I assumed no one posted because I do it weekly so I came in quick on my break to get it up.

 

@goskins10 Demeanor. Not play. Demeanor. His facial expressions.

 

 

He is a laid back guy and very shy. You have probably already read this, but if not it's a good read. Talks about his desire that took him being rejected by TCU to start, to then becoming a walk-on, to finally getting a scholarship and eventually being the #1 WR for TCU. 

 

https://washington.cbslocal.com/2016/04/29/josh-doctson-journey/

[Wildbunny]

@Bang Some tweaks regarding what you said, and giving my thoughts on it.

 

3. Stroman bite hard on the double move, but to his defense from the above camera angle, you notice the deep safety biting on his left where both WR are covered. Stroman made a rookie mistake, but the Safety, Swearinger? had to provide him support and bite on something else and was nowhere to be found.

 

5. There's two 5 in your 10 thoughts, which makes it eleven One regarding TE, one regarding Smith.

 

5. Regarding Smith, I found it troubling that he had 1 drop in one game, and two in this one. One where it hits Michel Floyd right between the numbers in the EZ and the guy doesn't come up with a catch while being covered by 2/3 Cowboys DBs? That was one of the weirdest play on the game.

 

6. I'm starting to wonder if we shouldn't resign AP at the next offseason, just in case Guice isn't as good as advertised.

[JoeJacobyHOForRIOT]

SKIP BAYLESS Having a meltdown over Cowboys loss on Undisputed lmao ?I think this loss took years off his life



 

1 hour ago, veteranskinsfan said:

I agree Doctson played better.  He was running shorter routes and he does not seem hesitant to go over the middle.

 

 

I'v been rough on Doctson but he was decent, nothing amazing or first round worthy but at least something to build upon

[purbeast]

27 minutes ago, Riggo#44 said:

 

I have a Bama Boys Boner this morning. They are ****ing monsters. No one is missing Derwin James right now. But Matt Ionnidis is the forgotten man there. Look at this beast:

 

 

Couple other thoughts:

The Peterson signing was the deal of the year. Where would we be without him? I rag on Bruce Allen a lot, but need to give credit here.

I am extremely frustrated with Smith, but I am giving him a partial pass with this game--that wind played a big factor, I think. Running out of bounds, trying to run the clock out is inexcusable though.

I love our LBs. Fabian Moreau made Kendall Fuller expendable--good foresight by the FO there, even if Smith is mediocre.

I just heard Grant talk about this so I looked at his Twitter and saw this and came here to post it.  LOL he just TOSSES his ass like I throw my 3 year old son onto the couch.

[petey hodge]

This was just one of those games where we won despite our best efforts.  lol 

 

 

 

 

[JoeJacobyHOForRIOT]

1 minute ago, purbeast said:

I just heard Grant talk about this so I looked at his Twitter and saw this and came here to post it.  LOL he just TOSSES his ass like I throw my 3 year old son onto the couch.

HOLY!!!! Was that Kerrigan or  Ioannidis ? Love the intesity of our defense this year , they play angry

[purbeast]

1 minute ago, JoeJacobyHOForRIOT said:

HOLY!!!! Was that Kerrigan or  Ioannidis ? Love the intesity of our defense this year , they play angry

It was Ioannidis and LOL every time I watch that it just makes me LOL.