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OK.... prepare for Knightingale Ramble!
Well that was a roller coaster of a ride yesterday.
Skins never do things the easy way do they? LOL
Just chipping in echoing many of the sentiments on here.
First half was awful. Just awful. I couldn’t see any bright spots across the team at that point. Our O-line was struggling, we couldn’t run block for toffee and Alfred looked terrible. Jones looked as bad. We conceded sacks and Cousins had pressure, our pass protection looked terrible and we couldn’t pass. We fumbled or just gave them the ball back series after series.
Which meant there was A LOT of our defence on the field, and they looked terrible too. No pressure on the QB, could not stop the run, giving up chunks of passing yards and the occasional big play here and there.
At least Tres was getting a work out on the punts, but there were times when I thought he was gonna get blocked.
Oh and the injuries! We seemed to be losing players left right and centre. There was a definite feeling of impending doom.
Worse still this was against the Buccaneers. The team my brother supports. I would never hear the end of this. *groan*
At half time I abandoned the TV and went up to play on my PC instead having the game on the second screen but not intending to pay much attention to it as it was just too depressing at that point.
Thoughts of all the media crap that would result, the calling for Gruden’s head, the QB controversy kicking into top gear.. I hate the circus around the Skins sometimes.
But then the second half starts.
Our defence makes a stand. OK I thought, but I was still only partially watching.
Then the offense takes the field and suddenly Cousins was on fire. We were moving the ball and looking good doing it. Short passes, medium passes, Jones got a few runs to start balancing us up a bit. Suddenly Tampa couldn’t stop us and I was invested again. Computer game forgotten, all my attention on GamePass.
Still as we clawed back I was, in the pit of my stomach, still expecting the worst. This is what it is to be a Skins fan. The deficit was huge and they only needed to score a couple of times to put it out of reach. There was no margin for error for the Burgundy and Gold.
There were moments where I held my breath.
There were a couple of passes where I thought for sure Cousins would get picked. There was the onside kick, that when I realised that’s what they were doing I was already resigned to the fact we wouldn’t get it (no one else in the NFL had so far all year so this wasn’t a Redskins orientated fear!). When it looked like Doug Martin was going to get the TD I held my breath until Breeland chased him down. When Dusty lined up that 4th qtr FG, I was confident he’d get it but I was also thinking “This guy has been so good for us all year so far, is this the one that he misses?”
Credit to our guys, backs against the wall, no margin for error and with the fire to their feet they pulled this one out of the bag. It was a real gut check moment.
I know the team isn’t the finished article. I know we’re not the best team in the league by a long stretch. But I do feel like we’re on the way and all these games are on a learning curve. We’re learning how to win, both players and coach, and yesterday was a key moment. I don’t expect us to go undefeated to the end of the season. I still think we’ll be a 5 or 6 win team at best.
But I liked what I saw yesterday. I liked the fight that we showed across all phases of the game in the second half.
I think those of us preaching patience, this is what we’re looking for. We want a team to learn from its mistakes. To take that experience and meld it into something long term.
Is this a turning point for Kirk? No idea. He could just as easily throw 4 interceptions against the Pats in a couple of weeks. WE still have problems that aren’t going to help him at the moment. Our run game is still in the tank, and he’s likely to have to throw a lot to try and dig us out of a hole against the numbers of points Brady may well put up. This is a worse-case scenario game for us. Battered secondary against one of the savviest passers in the history of the league.
On a positive note he looked more than capable of doing that this week. In the second half he looked great. I think it helped ALOT having Reed back (11 receptions). If we can get Jackson back after the Bye then maybe there’s another step to take in there. Saying that though, he really seemed to spread the ball around. Crowder, Garcon, Grant, Roberts, Jones… Ball was all over the place with multiple receptions. I liked that, on the whole it kept the Tampa Defence guessing. There’s a really good QB in there, his trouble is consistency. That’s the next step he needs to take.
If we thought the first half of this game was ugly against Winston, brace yourself for Brady!
But just for this week I’m one happy camper.
Well that was a roller coaster of a ride yesterday.
Skins never do things the easy way do they? LOL
Just chipping in echoing many of the sentiments on here.
First half was awful. Just awful. I couldn’t see any bright spots across the team at that point. Our O-line was struggling, we couldn’t run block for toffee and Alfred looked terrible. Jones looked as bad. We conceded sacks and Cousins had pressure, our pass protection looked terrible and we couldn’t pass. We fumbled or just gave them the ball back series after series.
Which meant there was A LOT of our defence on the field, and they looked terrible too. No pressure on the QB, could not stop the run, giving up chunks of passing yards and the occasional big play here and there.
At least Tres was getting a work out on the punts, but there were times when I thought he was gonna get blocked.
Oh and the injuries! We seemed to be losing players left right and centre. There was a definite feeling of impending doom.
Worse still this was against the Buccaneers. The team my brother supports. I would never hear the end of this. *groan*
At half time I abandoned the TV and went up to play on my PC instead having the game on the second screen but not intending to pay much attention to it as it was just too depressing at that point.
Thoughts of all the media crap that would result, the calling for Gruden’s head, the QB controversy kicking into top gear.. I hate the circus around the Skins sometimes.
But then the second half starts.
Our defence makes a stand. OK I thought, but I was still only partially watching.
Then the offense takes the field and suddenly Cousins was on fire. We were moving the ball and looking good doing it. Short passes, medium passes, Jones got a few runs to start balancing us up a bit. Suddenly Tampa couldn’t stop us and I was invested again. Computer game forgotten, all my attention on GamePass.
Still as we clawed back I was, in the pit of my stomach, still expecting the worst. This is what it is to be a Skins fan. The deficit was huge and they only needed to score a couple of times to put it out of reach. There was no margin for error for the Burgundy and Gold.
There were moments where I held my breath.
There were a couple of passes where I thought for sure Cousins would get picked. There was the onside kick, that when I realised that’s what they were doing I was already resigned to the fact we wouldn’t get it (no one else in the NFL had so far all year so this wasn’t a Redskins orientated fear!). When it looked like Doug Martin was going to get the TD I held my breath until Breeland chased him down. When Dusty lined up that 4th qtr FG, I was confident he’d get it but I was also thinking “This guy has been so good for us all year so far, is this the one that he misses?”
Credit to our guys, backs against the wall, no margin for error and with the fire to their feet they pulled this one out of the bag. It was a real gut check moment.
I know the team isn’t the finished article. I know we’re not the best team in the league by a long stretch. But I do feel like we’re on the way and all these games are on a learning curve. We’re learning how to win, both players and coach, and yesterday was a key moment. I don’t expect us to go undefeated to the end of the season. I still think we’ll be a 5 or 6 win team at best.
But I liked what I saw yesterday. I liked the fight that we showed across all phases of the game in the second half.
I think those of us preaching patience, this is what we’re looking for. We want a team to learn from its mistakes. To take that experience and meld it into something long term.
Is this a turning point for Kirk? No idea. He could just as easily throw 4 interceptions against the Pats in a couple of weeks. WE still have problems that aren’t going to help him at the moment. Our run game is still in the tank, and he’s likely to have to throw a lot to try and dig us out of a hole against the numbers of points Brady may well put up. This is a worse-case scenario game for us. Battered secondary against one of the savviest passers in the history of the league.
On a positive note he looked more than capable of doing that this week. In the second half he looked great. I think it helped ALOT having Reed back (11 receptions). If we can get Jackson back after the Bye then maybe there’s another step to take in there. Saying that though, he really seemed to spread the ball around. Crowder, Garcon, Grant, Roberts, Jones… Ball was all over the place with multiple receptions. I liked that, on the whole it kept the Tampa Defence guessing. There’s a really good QB in there, his trouble is consistency. That’s the next step he needs to take.
If we thought the first half of this game was ugly against Winston, brace yourself for Brady!
But just for this week I’m one happy camper.
