Smugly applying grades to the 1st Quarter of the season.

[Dead Money]

We held the Eagles to their second lowest point total of the season.



You get this one.



We held the Bills to their second lowest point total of the season.


Defense is not the problem.

"The Eagles raced to a 20-0 lead in the second quarter and held on to beat the Redskins for the 10th time in 12 tries at Washington. LeSean McCoy rushed for 126 yards and one touchdown as Philadelphia improved to 2-4 and at last started to at least resemble the team picked to win the NFC East.
Washington dropped to 3-2."

" Ryan Fitzpatrick threw two touchdowns, and the Bills defense had nine sacks in a 23-0 win over the injury-riddled Washington Redskins on Sunday in Buffalo's adopted home north of the border. Scott Chandler caught both touchdown passes, including a 15-yarder to open the third quarter, that put Buffalo ahead 20-0. Fred Jackson had 120 yards rushing and 74 receiving in helping the Bills (5-2) get off to their first 4-0 start at "home" since 1995. The Redskins (3-4) have lost three straight and continue to unravel "

I agree Henry, the Defense is not THE problem. However, they are a much bigger part of the problem than many continue to admit. Haz probably most accountable for this but teams are running and throwing all over us. Our secondary is going to finish in the bottom five in the league if not worse. Sorry.

Like I have said before, if you look up from the stats once and a while and actually watch how we are getting gashed, you'll see the truth. I know I know... London Fletcher had 20 tackles, 1/2 sack and and INT!!! yay!

 

[Dead Money]

Well, honestly Kev, as much as I dig you, you aren't exactly stepping out on a limb with your predictions. The Redskins have more or less sucked since Gibbs left the first time, so expecting them to buck that trend is about as safe a bet as betting Obama will lead America to new economic heights.

On both fronts, being right doesn't make one a genius, or bring anyone any pleasure.

It wasn't a prediction. It was an observation based on how we had played through 4 games. I wish they proved me wrong but Haz is playing defense like he has an offense. (Something everyone knew we didn't)

I'm no genius, many here have shown much more knowledge in many areas of football than I have shown. But I re-watch every game and try to be objective and not to ever stand behind fluff or stats.

Stop trying to pit me against the homers or yourself against the doomdayers or whatever. Its getting old.

The way we play defense is flawed. It needs to be fixed. That's all. There are plenty of teams with flawed offenses that survive with a little more respect than we do.

I wasn't hoping for us to lose but you bet I will continue to remind those who want to hang everything on one person in the redskins organization like John Beck, or Rex Grossman that there are 53 players and too many coaches on game day that share in each and every loss.

 

[Henry]

"The Eagles raced to a 20-0 lead in the second quarter and held on to beat the Redskins for the 10th time in 12 tries at Washington. LeSean McCoy rushed for 126 yards and one touchdown as Philadelphia improved to 2-4 and at last started to at least resemble the team picked to win the NFC East.
Washington dropped to 3-2."

Ah yes, the Eagles who jumped up against the Falcons 31-21 and blew their lead, who jumped up against the Niners 23-3 and blew their lead, who have jumped up on the Dallas defense 24-0 and made them look silly, jump up against us 20-0 and that's proof that our defense stinks.

Sorry, the Eagles do that to everyone. When they did it to us they scored relatively few points and we shut them out in the second half, giving our offense plenty of opportunity to do something against a vulnerable defense that habitually gave up big leads.

Our defense didn't play perfectly, but we played as well as any other defense has against the Eagles.

" Ryan Fitzpatrick threw two touchdowns, and the Bills defense had nine sacks in a 23-0 win over the injury-riddled Washington Redskins on Sunday in Buffalo's adopted home north of the border. Scott Chandler caught both touchdown passes, including a 15-yarder to open the third quarter, that put Buffalo ahead 20-0. Fred Jackson had 120 yards rushing and 74 receiving in helping the Bills (5-2) get off to their first 4-0 start at "home" since 1995. The Redskins (3-4) have lost three straight and continue to unravel "

I agree Henry, the Defense is not THE problem. However, they are a much bigger part of the problem than many continue to admit. Haz probably most accountable for this but teams are running and throwing all over us. Our secondary is going to finish in the bottom five in the league if not worse. Sorry.

I don't know how anyone watching this game could pin this loss on the defense. Nine sacks. ... Tied for the worst line play in the history of the Redskins. The first shutout in the history of Mike Shanahan. Three of Buffalo's other four wins would have been losses had they scored 23 points. Their defense is terrible, and we played the worst offensive game I've seen the Redskins play since Tim Hasselbeck got shut out by the Cowboys during the Spurrier era. Our first six possessions included four three-and-outs and a missed FG after the defense handed the offense the ball at the Bills' 30.

Earlier in this thread you gave the defense a C. I think in light of how awful this offense is you are being unfair. Against teams that are bad on both sides of the ball the Bills win 41-7, the Eagles win 31-13 and the Cowboys win 34-7. When those teams score 23, 20 and 18 on us, respectively, it is not proof that our defense is bad, especially when they get no help from the offense at all.

Like I have said before, if you look up from the stats once and a while and actually watch how we are getting gashed, you'll see the truth. I know I know... London Fletcher had 20 tackles, 1/2 sack and and INT!!! yay!

First gloating about Redskin losses, and now this. Nice.

 

[Henry]

It wasn't a prediction. It was an observation based on how we had played through 4 games. I wish they proved me wrong but Haz is playing defense like he has an offense. (Something everyone knew we didn't)

How do you play defense like your offense is going to score 0?

 

[Dead Money]

I am not gloating about our team losing. Good defenses stop offenses. They are not helping. They can be good, I hope they change quickly but no I am not pinning losses on the defense. They are just not good. (yet) Our entire team sucks. But they are getting younger, so there is hope.

Did a funny picture of a man with his head in the sand offend you? All you keep saying is they are not the problem. However, our defense is leaky as hell and getting worse. Do you honestly feel like they can stop teams scheming against them at this point? They haven't proved it. Still quoting "stats" but our defense has taken steps back each and every game this year.

If you can't admit that, then the shoe fits.

Last time I'll post here, I see nobody really gets the spirit of it...(my bad) There are plenty of others here that have grown tired of both of our views I'm sure.

 

[Henry]

You are correct that stats do not show the whole picture. However, neither is just watching the games we play. Watch how the offenses we play play against other teams. Do they usually play better against other teams or worse? If they usually play better against other teams, our defense is ok. You can't just look at our game and say 'they gashed us.' Look at Philly tearing up the #7 ranked Dallas defense tonight, for example, before claiming that the way we played against them shows us our defense is a big problem.

People who ignore stats completely, especially comparative stats between teams against like opponents, tend to get caught up in the moment, play-to-play, and pick apart every non-perfection as proof that whatever they are looking at is flawed. I fully acknowledge that our defense is not across-the-board awesome. I think in this thread I gave our line a B, our LBs an A and our secondary a C+. That's means there is room for improvement. Mediocre? I disagree with that. Judging by how the rest of the league has played against the teams we've struggled against, our defense is better than that.

I will say the defense looked downright terrible against the Panthers. If they have a few more games like that, then I'd say the first few weeks were an illusion and we still have a ways to go on that side of the ball too. If not, it's a bad game that every unit has once in awhile. Giving up what they did to Vick and Fitz is not dropping 30+ to Newton, though.

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

How do you play defense like your offense is going to score 0?

Like Blache did, which is why suddenly we are seeing haslett rush 3 men on a second short 3 times that I saw in the second half, you don't win with pressure defence if you DONT BRING PRESSURE.