At 5-3 We Are Now Officially Trapped

[Morneblade]

1 minute ago, Cooleyfan1993 said:

Since our game against them, they have gotten worse scoring wise (going from 17 in our game to 14 the next game (this past Monday night). That’s really the thing I’m going off of as to why i think we can complete the season sweep  plus, who knows, maybe Trent/CT/Crowder are back for that game. That could be a huge help i hope. 

 

Titans have the #1 scoring defense, that has a lot to do with it. They are also 8th in yards. It's a nasty D. Cooper will be better acclimated to the offense, and that is not a good thing for a rather porous secondary.

 

Meanwhile, offensively we've lost our more reliable WR, and both starting guards for  the year. We could only hang 14 points on a bad defense, and you expect us to do better with the a injury decimated OL against a team that we generally do not play well against (we are 1-4 over the last 5 games).

 

I admire your optimism, but I don't see this game, or the rest of the season ending well.

[Darrell Green Fan]

On 11/5/2018 at 11:39 PM, jjpomeroy said:

@kleese while I always don’t agree with you - the majority of the time I do and I appreciate your insights.  Please keep them coming.

 

I joiniedExtremeSkins back after Gibbs II started. For the most part, I have merely “lurked” reading great insights from fans like you, and who had a much bigger knowledge base about football than me.

 

My biggest problems are with the FO - Bruce Allen......  he alone with Danny have almost killed my undying love for this franchise that started way, way back back in 1969.   I am just tired at the age of 60 of investing anymore of my heart in this team.  They consistently do everything possible to rip out my heart.  I feel so bad for my youngest son who I “influenced” into becoming a huge Skins fan like his dad.

 

Allen’s screw up of the entire Kirk (Kurt) Cousins negotiations and chasing away the best QB that we had since Rypien was maddening.  

 

Once Kirk was gone - I initially felt like getting Alex Smith was the best possible alternative UNTIL the details around the extension given to Alex were disclosed - that was Bruce’s final FU to the Skins fan base - as we’ll be stuck for awhile.  What really pisses me off is that even if Allen gets fired - he’ll walk away totally enriched while the Skins fans are stuck yet again. 

 

It also really kills me to see Skins fans attacking each other due to our mutual frustration with the team.

 

I am almost to the same point I was after the Senators moved to Texas where I went from being a big baseball fan to a sports guy that didn’t watch a single pitch of this year's World Series.  Pro football has pushed me to a point that I have thought was impossible.

 

 

 

 

Wow we are close to the same age and you posted my feelings as well.   Well except for the baseball part, I'm a Red Sox fan.

 

 

[kleese]

Well, if you didn’t feel trapped BEFORE last week, you really should now. 

 

The Redskins are pretty much guaranteed to be playing games with playoff implications into mid December at the very least. 

 

Consider this... Dallas beats Atlanta, Philly beats NOLA, Philly beats Giants, we lose to Texans, we lose to Cowboys. 

 

That right there would be the absolute worst case outcome of the next two weeks. And if it happened we’d STILL be in first place, albeit at that point it would a three way first place tie at 6-5. And even if we lost the NEXT one to Philly to fall to 6-6 we would almost certainly still control our own playoff destiny over the final four games. 

 

Essentially, no matter what happens we are guaranteed to take the field against the Giants on Dec. 10th very much alive in the playoff mix. The WORST case scenario being that we’d be “alive.” That’s the WORST case. The best case of course is that we’d be cruising. I think the most likely is that we will be in good shape, but still have a little work to do. 

[Cooleyfan1993]

^you lost me at philly beating the saints ?? Philly couldn’t even beat Dallas  you think they’re going to compete against the saints, who scored 51 points on Sunday and beat the previously unbeaten rams the weekend before?? (Yes, i realize you said worst case scenario, but i dont see that happening in ANY scenario at all). 

[hail2skins]

Yeah Ed, I've probably been as skeptical as this team as any, and am still trying to figure out how Tampa rolled up 500 yards and scored only 3, but am slowly coming around that 6-3 at this point is much preferable to the alternative and going through the motions of another wasted season.

 

I remembered I had compared the ATL game to the Bills game in 1999 and in a lot of respects this feels like a reverse 1999 in that, instead of the offense carrying that defense as it did that season, the defense is carrying the offense this campaign. And, like 1999, we are benefitting from a weak division. Back then Dallas was sliding from its SB dynasty run, the Giants were meh, and the Eagles were in rebuild mode. Now, the Giants appear to be about to enter rebuild mode, and the Cowboys are kind of playing about as well as we thought, maybe underachieving a bit. The surprise is that nobody expected the Eagles to be at 4-5. They really should be 6-3...….flat out blew those games against the Titans and Panthers.

 

There's a lot of season left to worry about, but it is fun to start thinking about who the Skins would play in a wild card matchup (assuming neither the Saints nor the Rams collapse down the stretch.....be interesting to see how Kupp's injury impacts LA). Thursday's game is going to be interesting....although any team we play is going to be a handful, it is tempting to help lessen Mr. Rodgers chances as much as possible. 

[kleese]

8 hours ago, hail2skins said:

Yeah Ed, I've probably been as skeptical as this team as any, and am still trying to figure out how Tampa rolled up 500 yards and scored only 3, but am slowly coming around that 6-3 at this point is much preferable to the alternative and going through the motions of another wasted season.

 

I remembered I had compared the ATL game to the Bills game in 1999 and in a lot of respects this feels like a reverse 1999 in that, instead of the offense carrying that defense as it did that season, the defense is carrying the offense this campaign. And, like 1999, we are benefitting from a weak division. Back then Dallas was sliding from its SB dynasty run, the Giants were meh, and the Eagles were in rebuild mode. Now, the Giants appear to be about to enter rebuild mode, and the Cowboys are kind of playing about as well as we thought, maybe underachieving a bit. The surprise is that nobody expected the Eagles to be at 4-5. They really should be 6-3...….flat out blew those games against the Titans and Panthers.

 

There's a lot of season left to worry about, but it is fun to start thinking about who the Skins would play in a wild card matchup (assuming neither the Saints nor the Rams collapse down the stretch.....be interesting to see how Kupp's injury impacts LA). Thursday's game is going to be interesting....although any team we play is going to be a handful, it is tempting to help lessen Mr. Rodgers chances as much as possible. 

 

I'm surprised no one yelled at you for "looking ahead" or not taking it "one game at a time."

 

I would certainly hope that Jay Gruden isn't prepping his game plan this week for the wild card round of the playoffs, but there is ZERO harm for us as fans to look ahead and ponder possibilities. First of all, I honestly haven't even given thought to being the 1-2 seed in the NFC. The ONLY way that will change is if we beat Houston on Sunday and then the Rams lose to the Chiefs on Monday. At that point, we'd only be one back of the Rams in the loss column with a possibility still of owning a tie-breaker against them. Believe me, I'm not thinking this is any sort of real possibility, but if those two outcomes happen this weekend, it becomes sort of a "why not?" thing to consider. 

 

Much more realistically my goal is to secure the 3 seed-- and I DO see that as an advantage this year over the 4 seed (so years it either doesn't matter or could even be beneficial to be 4). The Saints look amazing. Believe it or not, I actually think the Rams are vulnerable and they have MUCH less of a home field advantage. If we were to survive a wild card round game I would MUCH rather play at the Rams than the Saints. So with that all in mind, keeping a close eye on the North right now... either the Bears or Vikings win this week and more or less become the favorite moving forward with the other one becoming a strong wild card candidate. We will know a little more often that game in terms of what to watch/root for going forward. Personally, I'd prefer Minnesota win the division as I'd rather host the Bears in a potential wild card game than the Vikings-- although the hype around a Vikings @ Redskins playoff game would be pretty cool. 

 

I have my eye on the Cowboys too. They can put some pressure on if they beat Atlanta this week. There would be a small silver lining to that as it would really, really hurt the Falcons lingering wild card chances and thus improve our own, but at this point I actually think it's hard to do the math where the Redskins make it as a wild card. I think if we get to 9 wins there is a strong possibility that gets us the division. I suppose there are some crazy scenarios out there where either Dallas or Philly ends super hot and finishes with 10 wins and we come in second and battle it out with others for a wild card, but that seems like a long shot to me. I really think we will either win enough to win the division, or lose enough to that it won't matter for division or wild card. Again, it could change, but I'm not particularly focused on wild card possibilities right now. 

 

If I had a crystal ball and KNEW we would beat the Texans on Sunday I'd actually kind of want Dallas to beat Atlanta. It would make Thanksgiving more fun and feel like a really big game and we'd still have the two game cushion going in. But of course as things stand now I'd prefer both Dallas and Philly lose this week. 

[TD_washingtonredskins]

9 hours ago, hail2skins said:

I remembered I had compared the ATL game to the Bills game in 1999 and in a lot of respects this feels like a reverse 1999 in that, instead of the offense carrying that defense as it did that season, the defense is carrying the offense this campaign. And, like 1999, we are benefitting from a weak division. Back then Dallas was sliding from its SB dynasty run, the Giants were meh, and the Eagles were in rebuild mode. Now, the Giants appear to be about to enter rebuild mode, and the Cowboys are kind of playing about as well as we thought, maybe underachieving a bit. The surprise is that nobody expected the Eagles to be at 4-5. They really should be 6-3...….flat out blew those games against the Titans and Panthers.

 

That's a good comparison...1999. 

 

And even though we are The Upside Down 1999 with the D outplaying the O, the glimmer of hope I have is how the D ended that season. If you recall, they tightened up significantly down the stretch and even in the playoffs. After giving up 35 to McNabb and Eagles to drop to 5-4, they were instrumental in several key wins (holding the Giants down the following week, halving Philly's output just two weeks later, and pitching a near shutout vs. Arizona) and gave up an average of only 16 points per game. 

 

If we can see that type of progress out of our offense, I think we might have something here!

[bakedtater1]

I was going to start a new thread for this but figured it would fit best in this thread... Right now with our record and where we're at in the season.. I guess this could also go in the good juju thread...and with the way we've played it puts us fans at holding hope that we still win the division or the season's over and we won't win another game, maybe one and time to look to the Future...me personally am holding out hope we still win the division and host a playoff game.. Now knowing that colt did not have any reps going into that cowboys game it's no wonder he looked as sloppy as he did.. but he had his good moments too... With a little mini bye week and him able to get more reps things will come back around, Adrian Peterson feels better than he has all year and the run game will get going again.. so which side are you on?.. me personally I'm on the positive side that believes we can still win this division..

[hail2skins]

The division is certainly still up for grabs, but I don't see this team winning any more than 3 out of the last 5.  That could get us the division, but even if it does, based on what we've seen this season, can you really get that jazzed for a home playoff game anyway? Unless we somehow play the Cowboys in the wild-card round, FedEx likely isn't going to be close to being filled for such a game.

[kleese]

49 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

The division is certainly still up for grabs, but I don't see this team winning any more than 3 out of the last 5.  That could get us the division, but even if it does, based on what we've seen this season, can you really get that jazzed for a home playoff game anyway? Unless we somehow play the Cowboys in the wild-card round, FedEx likely isn't going to be close to being filled for such a game.

 

Yes, I’d be jazzed. Making the playoffs is not something I take for granted and it would be a nice accomplishment for the team especially given the injury situation on offense. And even though we could very well be home underdogs there isn’t any potential team we’d play that I don’t think we COULD beat. I would feel very gratified if we won the division and had a home playoff game. 

 

I don’t blame fans for their general frustration and lack of enthusiasm but the whole “well even if we win, it won’t matter” attitude slays me. 

[hail2skins]

Ed, after the game last night, you said (in jest) that maybe we should root for Dallas so we can put ourselves out of our misery.

 

I'll echo Josh Norman from a few weeks ago. At this point, if we do make the playoffs, I'd rather we do it as a wild card so we play on the road.

 

You haven't been to a game in DC this season. Aside from the lower bowl, the atmosphere is horrible. We might as well be like the Chargers and play in a soccer stadium.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Cut that ****. 

 

I’ve gone to two games (Dallas and Houston) and both have been electric especially when the team was playing well 

 

**** Josh Norman. **** his opinion. He’s a loser and we deserve better than him 

[hail2skins]

1 minute ago, BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 said:

 

I’ve gone to two games (Dallas and Houston) and both have been electric especially when the team was playing well 

 

BOW93, where did you sit? Like I said, lower bowl is good. And yes, the Dallas game was electric because, well, its the Dallas game.

 

Otherwise, if you're club or upstairs, it is a relative ghost town.

[kleese]

30 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

Ed, after the game last night, you said (in jest) that maybe we should root for Dallas so we can put ourselves out of our misery.

 

I'll echo Josh Norman from a few weeks ago. At this point, if we do make the playoffs, I'd rather we do it as a wild card so we play on the road.

 

You haven't been to a game in DC this season. Aside from the lower bowl, the atmosphere is horrible. We might as well be like the Chargers and play in a soccer stadium.

 

The only to start solving the problem is to give more and more reasons to keep showing up. A home playoff game is a reason to go. Even if it doesn't sell out or produces more opposing fans that we'd like to see it's still a step in the right direction. Let's say we get a home playoff game and win it... well, then maybe next year it encourages some better crowds for early season home games, etc... 

[hail2skins]

Yeah Ed, and I really can't get frustrated at folks for having other priorities and choosing to spend their money in other ways. Its just frustrating that we start out the season at Arizona with a dominating win, and get 57K paid attendance for the Colts. We were 5-2 with Atlanta coming in, and paid attendance was 63K, but it was really tough to tell a visual difference in the stands between that and the Indy game.

 

I think the Skins are either going to have to lower prices or remove more seats from the place, maybe a combo of both. Anything to make the entire place seem more full.  But that has been discussed in other threads. 

[glongest]

On 11/7/2018 at 10:56 PM, glongest said:

I will take a stab at it.  We are now 8 games in so the statistics do matter and I am not necessarily talking about wins and losses.  My prediction is 3 and 5 to finish 8 and 8 and obviously miss the playoffs.  First general thoughts.  First half of the season we were 5 and 3.  We did not win any of those games decisively and in fact a couple we were lucky to escape.  Carolina and Dallas come to mind.  Through that stretch we were relatively healthy at the key positions.  Now 2 starting OL are out for the season one of which is a pro bowler, left tackle pro bowler out for 3 or 4 games, number one receiver out for the season, 2nd best receiver at least in prior years out and not sure when he will be back, 3rd down back who was a big part of the offense last year out not sure when he will be back.  Based on all of that and based on the fact that the offense struggled significantly when all those starters were in there, if they can win 3 out of these last 8,that would probably be pretty well done based on where we find ourselves on the injury front.  

 

Now to the statistics.  3 out of the last 8 games are against top 5 defenses.  5 out of 8 are against defenses ranked in top 11.  That is going to be a tall order for this offense.  And when the offense doesn't play well and control the ball that puts pressure on the defense.

 

So I have us winning Jags, Bucs, and Giants and losing to Cowboys, Titans, Eagles twice, Texans.  I see us very even with the Cowboys but giving them the nod since its in there stadium.  Eagles defense and our defense are pretty even but certainly you have to give their offense a pretty significant edge.  Texans not as good as us on defense but much better on offense so I give them that nod.  The stats say we should beat the Titans but they looked pretty darn good putting up 28 points on the second ranked defense in the NFL in their stadium so you have to give them the nod.  They appear to be playing better than the Skins right now and now we have all these injuries.

 

So lets go play the games and we will see how it all works out but assuming that we will finish 10 and 6 because these teams in the second half don't have stellar records in my view is misguided.  Hoping i am wrong but not counting on it.  

Don't mean to say I told you so but here was my prediction when they were 5 and 3.   In hindsight, I gave them to much credit.  I missed it by one game.  Got the playoff part right though.  

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

12 minutes ago, glongest said:

Don't mean to say I told you so but here was my prediction when they were 5 and 3.   In hindsight, I gave them to much credit.  I missed it by one game.  Got the playoff part right though.  

Nice call.  Predicting a Redskins collapse should certainly be put on the Mount Rushmore of clairvoyant achievements. 

[88Comrade2000]

I predicted 7-9 back in August. Only thing I go t wrong, Jay getting fired. That isn't happening.

[Burgold]

It's really tough to fall from 6-3 to 7-9. The Redskins made it look easy.

[Cooleyfan1993]

1 hour ago, Burgold said:

It's really tough to fall from 6-3 to 7-9. The Redskins made it look easy.

Panthers pretty much did the same thing  so i guess It’s not that tough