An argument for cooler heads

[@DCGoldPants]

16 minutes ago, Califan007 said:

#1 - I agree with wholeheartedly.

 

#2 - I agree with this part: "winning ugly is something good teams learn how to do. "

 

#3 - Meh lol...I'm not sure how much learning and growing and "waking up" actually occurs with games like this.

If you need to have that "waking up" and cleaning up mistakes right off the bat. That has folks wondering what you were working on this summer. "the little things" should be an everyday kind of thing to work on. 

[Chump Bailey]

Didn't get a chance to watch the game only snippets so cannot really comment other than to say:

 

Granted this is hindsight to the extreme and I was wrong in my initial assessment of Justin Fields not worth trading up for - this is not to say I was down on him by any stretch of the imagination but that's exactly what we should have done. We should have moved up and snagged Justin Fields and not doing so I think is going to haunt us for some time.

[justice98]

This franchise always needs wake-up calls and reality checks to start the season.  No matter who's coaching it.

[srtman04]

The truth of the matter is this.....we were only 1 Gibson fumble away from potentially winning that game.  I have no doubt if that didn't happen,  Heineke would have drove us down the field to score.   I am sincerely happy he is getting his chance and I believe Thursday is going to be fun to watch!  

[Riggo-toni]

Keeping heads in a cooler is definitely preferable to the times I stuffed them in a duffle bag.

[TysonM]

1 hour ago, Riggo-toni said:

Keeping heads in a cooler is definitely preferable to the times I stuffed them in a duffle bag.

[Veretax]

A bunch of asked, okay when you let Trent Go.... what are you doing at LT?  Is leno the long term solution? Really?

A bunch of us asked, why does the offense not seem crisp at all? What the heck does that mean?

You can't fault the D for not getting off the field, when the O  was so poor.  We were one turnover away from really being blown out if you ask me.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

5 hours ago, srtman04 said:

The truth of the matter is this.....we were only 1 Gibson fumble away from potentially winning that game.  I have no doubt if that didn't happen,  Heineke would have drove us down the field to score.   I am sincerely happy he is getting his chance and I believe Thursday is going to be fun to watch!  

 

You have no doubt that if Gibson hadn't fumbled Heineke would have driven the team 90+ yards to a game-sealing TD? Despite the fact that he's never done that and had led only one TD drive all game? OK hahahahahha

[srtman04]

5 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

You have no doubt that if Gibson hadn't fumbled Heineke would have driven the team 90+ yards to a game-sealing TD? Despite the fact that he's never done that and had led only one TD drive all game? OK hahahahahha

No doubt at all.....we had all the momentum before that fumble.  

[Mooka]

There's only 2 positives I saw in the game, otherwise we got our asses kicked.

 

1. Carter looked good in returns.

 

2. We took our TOs and actually drove the field in 45 seconds for a FG at the end of the first half. Haven't seen a Washington QB do that.....maybe never lol. Heinicke actually worked the sidelines. 

Edited September 13, 2021 by Mooka

[Chris 44]

Just now, Mooka said:

There's only 2 positives I saw in the game, otherwise we got our asses kicked.

 

1. Carter looked good in returns.

 

2. We took our TOs and actually drove the field in 45 seconds for a FG at the end of the first hald. Haven't seen a Washington QB do that.....maybe never lol. Heinicke actually worked the sidelines. 

Didn't hear Cheesmans name called...good thing.

[Cooleyfan1993]

1 hour ago, Mooka said:

There's only 2 positives I saw in the game

 

2. We took our TOs and actually drove the field in 45 seconds for a FG at the end of the first half. Haven't seen a Washington QB do that.....maybe never lol. 

Don’t remember Alex smiths sneaky move in taking the football to the sideline with him to save time for Hopkins right before halftime against the Steelers?? 

[TD_washingtonredskins]

2 hours ago, Veretax said:

We were one turnover away from really being blown out if you ask me.

I think that's the more accurate way to describe the game.

 

Some credit obviously goes to the red zone defense...I think they proved last year that it's not fluky that they get more stout inside the 20. But I want to say that the Chargers had the ball 6 or 7 times in the red zone and only scored 2 TDs - that's very good. The flip side of that is that you are tenuously close to giving up 30-34 points rather than 20. 

[petey hodge]

if things continue to falter for us... and we lose against the NYG.

 

well, we can revert back to supporting the 2019 Pride of the Redskins... our TRU MVP

 

 

[PartyPosse]

14 minutes ago, petey hodge said:

if things continue to falter for us... and we lose against the NYG.

 

well, we can revert back to supporting the 2019 Pride of the Redskins... our TRU MVP

 

 

were those all the QBs that started for us that year?

[The Rook]

As bad as we thought the defense was, the offensive line pass blocking was graded among the worst for week one.

 

The run blocking was among the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rook

[OtisDriftwood25]

10 minutes ago, The Rook said:

As bad as we thought the defense was, the offensive line pass blocking was graded among the worst for week one.

 

The run blocking was among the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rook

That had a lot to do with scheme design. I heard Logan Paulsen before the game say chargers run a 2 gap scheme with defensive tackles which helps the run. They literally sat in nickel and dime and we didn’t do enough about it.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Totally agree on point 1. My angst is more related to just being a fan of this team for 28 years. It just all felt so familiar. Moderate expectations led to a complete dud with your “stars” not showing up and the part of the team you were most sure of looking horrendous. 
 

the trauma is real 

[kingdaddy]

On 9/12/2021 at 10:16 PM, Rskins91 said:

I’ll start this post with a disclaimer that you can react however you wish to a win or loss. Totally within your rights. But even though I can be salty and angry in the moment at a bad play or loss, I prefer to think about things with the larger picture in mind. So with that said, let’s dive into why the sky, is in fact, not falling. 
 

1.) Week 1 of the NFL is incredibly hard to gauge 

 

In 1999, the Rams beat the Ravens 27-10 to open the season. I remember it well, despite being 9, because my dad was seething mad after the game. How could the Ravens defense, or any defense, lose to some former Arena league QB? Of course, it turned out that Kurt Warner would become a pretty damn good player. And that those Rams would go 13-3 in route to a SB title. 
 

Or, if that example isn’t good enough, take the 2007 Giants. They got the doors blown off them in embarrassing fashion to start 0-2, letting up 80 points over two games. It was a large concern for a defense that was supposed to be much better. Eventually, the 2007 Giants got right, and painfully went on to win a SB with a dominant defensive display. 
 

The point in these examples are that we really can’t draw too many conclusions from one or two games. Teams change and evolve, with schemes and players being week to week. In this week’s case, I’m willing to give the team more time to right the ship. 
 

2.) It was a one possession game where we had opportunities to win

 

Yes, I know the score didn’t reflect how the team played. It was clear that for most of the day the Chargers were the better team. But even with that - even when the eye test told us, “man, we’re getting wrecked” - we held in there and, if a few plays turned out differently, could have stolen the win. That’s not insignificant in my eyes. It says that even on a day where the team isn’t playing to it’s full potential, there’s a chance to make enough plays to win. Obviously would prefer to play to said potential, but winning ugly is something good teams learn how to do. 
 

3.) The game will serve as a wake up call and reality check

 

For the most part, this team is pretty young. And that worked against us I think. This game felt to me like the team read or heard the press clippings about them and how they were perceived favorites with “the best defense in football.” The Chargers didn’t care about that at all. Sometimes, when you get full of yourself, a trip to reality and humble pie can bring out the best in you. And so I hope it does for the young guns who might have felt a bit too confident. 
 

I wish I wasn’t making this post and that we were enjoying a win. The truth is though we deserved to lose and we had our asses kicked. That doesn’t mean that we’re doomed to fail this year, though, or that we should release Del Rio, or that the D-line won’t play better in the future. It can be simultaneously be true that we got beat bad and can do better next game.

 

IMO, the biggest question mark is the Fitzpatrick injury. That has the highest risk of detailing our season. But on the upside, I guess we’ll soon know what we have in Heinecke.

Very well said, thanks for posting. In the end we're either good enough or we're not and we fans can't control any of it. We need our stars to play like the stars they're supposed to be. The defensive line needs to dominate games and JDR needs to make sure that happens. Tomorrow night is a statement game in my eyes. It's time to start winning games at home, in prime time, and its time to beat the snot out of our division opponents. 

[profusion]

Let's not forget this was a 7-9 team last year. Making the playoffs in more convincing fashion this year would represent a sizable leap for the franchise. 

 

The offense has to be more than "give Gibson the ball and see if he can make something happen," which is how it started out on Sunday. Heinicke has to get Mclaurin and Thomas involved for them to have any shot this year.

 

I think the defense will come around.

[SkinsGuy]

Sixteen teams started 0-1 last week.

 

The includes supposed contenders like Buffalo, Tennessee, Green Bay, and Baltimore.

 

Week 1 always has crazy results and surprising upsets.

 

We'll get a little better idea tonight where the team is, I believe.

[Llevron]

On 9/13/2021 at 12:40 AM, Nerm said:

It is so bizarre to me that the WFT will be playing their only division game in the first 13 weeks of the season this Thursday.  Next division  game for them is Dec 12th.  

 

This may end up working in our favor if we can get it together late. But thats a big if as of right now. Winning tonight will be huge for us.