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Blognosticator - LoyalSkinsFan
Wow. Not sure if I pulled the short straw or the long to get to write a blog following the game against the Rams.
Honestly, folks, I’ve tried to stay away from reading too much following our loss this week and have looked simply to absorb the game, gleaning as much useful (and not-useful) insight into what happened just by letting my thoughts roam as the days pass. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m totally out of the loop. For instance, I got to learn a new word today – “asshat”. Let’s look at that now for a second. “Ass” and “hat”. The meaning of the first is clear….as is the second. Put 'em together and whaddya got? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.
I’m pretty sure I’ve already spent more time on the word “asshat” than is necessary, but the point I’d like to make is that going from zero to asshat in one week is – in my opinion – a little bit drastic. There was a lot of both good and bad in that game last weekend and I’m as pissed off about the bad as anyone. However, I’m not prepared to write the Redskins off just yet– nor am I about to hand them the Lombardi Trophy. That’s right……you guessed it……I’m preaching patience and clear-headidness. For what that’s worth….
Let’s start with the bad:
Defense, defense, defense.
Ours sucked. No two ways about it. For all the seemingly talented pieces on that defense of ours, we somehow seem to always find a way to screw things up. Which, in my mind, means that the big problem is with the coaching staff and/or schemes. I don’t think anyone would argue with that today…..not after all the zone vs. man talk I’ve seen. I’m more than a little tired of seeing our defense give up critical 3rd and longs week after week. You have to finish out the series. It’s really, really frustrating. If you want to lose weight, you stop putting food in your mouth. If you want to stop losing football games, you stop the other team from scoring points. It’s really that simple.
Two of our talented players on defense are now out for the season…..Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker. While I’m sad to see both of them go, I’m excited to see how our younger guys will perform. Regardless of the outcome, I’ve been very happy seeing our improved team speed and our rush to the ball. This is what youth does. Now, we just need our coaching staff to work on channeling it.
Special Teams.
I’m not a Danny Smith hater, but you can’t expect to succeed if every time you go back to punt you have to hold your breath that folks will hold their assignments. Week one we won the field position battle and it showed. Week two we lost it….and it showed. Between the blocked punts and the field position we gave a lot away too easily. It’s gotta stop. The pieces are there…..again, they just need to be managed.
Now the good:
Offense, offense, offense.
Let me get this straight…….we’ve played two games – both on the road – and we’ve scored 40 and 28 points respectively.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Really, there’s nothing more to say. In an otherwise frustrating game on Sunday, RGIII ran for 2 touchdowns and passed for another. For the second straight week he connected for a looooooooong score – this time to Leonard Hankerson (who nearly didn’t hang on to the ball). Our rookie quarterback is still figuring things out, and he’s got some talented folks around him to help him along. Josh Morgan screwed up unbelievably……but he’s no asshat. He’s down the ladder, but still an important piece. I’ve seen receivers (including Morgan) put effort into blocking and I’ve seen all of 'em hold onto passes that in years gone would be dropped, dropped, dropped. I don’t even fault Aldrik for letting that deep ball carom off his pads……that was a tougher ball to catch than it looked like on TV and he’s held onto a bunch of other tough ones. Alfred Morris is a find…..and I was already pretty happy with Helu and Royster. Keep our offensive line healthy and I think it’s gonna be a fun – if not successful – season. And let’s not kid ourselves…….if someone told us we’d lose a lot of high scoring games this year I think ALL of us would welcome it. Not in perpetuity, but certainly for now. I, personally, would welcome anything over 10 points a game for a change.
Which brings us to this week against the Bengals. I read somewhere that their defense is ranked 30th in the league right now. Excellent. In past years, that’s JUST the type of defense that would stymie us from the opening kick on. But not this year, folks. I just don’t see it. Especially against a team whose defensive leader is (am I reading this correctly?) Jumpy Geathers??
Being at home, against the Bengals…….we’re gonna do just fine. Dalton and Green can only do so much, and while the same can be said about Bradford and Amendola, Marvin Lewis is no Jeff Fischer. We know that from experience, don’t we?
Redskins are gonna do fine. It’s our home opener of the 2012 season…..
My prediction for these, our Washington Redskins…….at home:
Redskins 27 Bengals 17
Hail to the Redskins!!
HTTR
Redskins vs. Bengals
Wow. Not sure if I pulled the short straw or the long to get to write a blog following the game against the Rams.
Honestly, folks, I’ve tried to stay away from reading too much following our loss this week and have looked simply to absorb the game, gleaning as much useful (and not-useful) insight into what happened just by letting my thoughts roam as the days pass. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m totally out of the loop. For instance, I got to learn a new word today – “asshat”. Let’s look at that now for a second. “Ass” and “hat”. The meaning of the first is clear….as is the second. Put 'em together and whaddya got? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.
I’m pretty sure I’ve already spent more time on the word “asshat” than is necessary, but the point I’d like to make is that going from zero to asshat in one week is – in my opinion – a little bit drastic. There was a lot of both good and bad in that game last weekend and I’m as pissed off about the bad as anyone. However, I’m not prepared to write the Redskins off just yet– nor am I about to hand them the Lombardi Trophy. That’s right……you guessed it……I’m preaching patience and clear-headidness. For what that’s worth….
Let’s start with the bad:
Defense, defense, defense.
Ours sucked. No two ways about it. For all the seemingly talented pieces on that defense of ours, we somehow seem to always find a way to screw things up. Which, in my mind, means that the big problem is with the coaching staff and/or schemes. I don’t think anyone would argue with that today…..not after all the zone vs. man talk I’ve seen. I’m more than a little tired of seeing our defense give up critical 3rd and longs week after week. You have to finish out the series. It’s really, really frustrating. If you want to lose weight, you stop putting food in your mouth. If you want to stop losing football games, you stop the other team from scoring points. It’s really that simple.
Two of our talented players on defense are now out for the season…..Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker. While I’m sad to see both of them go, I’m excited to see how our younger guys will perform. Regardless of the outcome, I’ve been very happy seeing our improved team speed and our rush to the ball. This is what youth does. Now, we just need our coaching staff to work on channeling it.
Special Teams.
I’m not a Danny Smith hater, but you can’t expect to succeed if every time you go back to punt you have to hold your breath that folks will hold their assignments. Week one we won the field position battle and it showed. Week two we lost it….and it showed. Between the blocked punts and the field position we gave a lot away too easily. It’s gotta stop. The pieces are there…..again, they just need to be managed.
Now the good:
Offense, offense, offense.
Let me get this straight…….we’ve played two games – both on the road – and we’ve scored 40 and 28 points respectively.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Really, there’s nothing more to say. In an otherwise frustrating game on Sunday, RGIII ran for 2 touchdowns and passed for another. For the second straight week he connected for a looooooooong score – this time to Leonard Hankerson (who nearly didn’t hang on to the ball). Our rookie quarterback is still figuring things out, and he’s got some talented folks around him to help him along. Josh Morgan screwed up unbelievably……but he’s no asshat. He’s down the ladder, but still an important piece. I’ve seen receivers (including Morgan) put effort into blocking and I’ve seen all of 'em hold onto passes that in years gone would be dropped, dropped, dropped. I don’t even fault Aldrik for letting that deep ball carom off his pads……that was a tougher ball to catch than it looked like on TV and he’s held onto a bunch of other tough ones. Alfred Morris is a find…..and I was already pretty happy with Helu and Royster. Keep our offensive line healthy and I think it’s gonna be a fun – if not successful – season. And let’s not kid ourselves…….if someone told us we’d lose a lot of high scoring games this year I think ALL of us would welcome it. Not in perpetuity, but certainly for now. I, personally, would welcome anything over 10 points a game for a change.
Which brings us to this week against the Bengals. I read somewhere that their defense is ranked 30th in the league right now. Excellent. In past years, that’s JUST the type of defense that would stymie us from the opening kick on. But not this year, folks. I just don’t see it. Especially against a team whose defensive leader is (am I reading this correctly?) Jumpy Geathers??
Being at home, against the Bengals…….we’re gonna do just fine. Dalton and Green can only do so much, and while the same can be said about Bradford and Amendola, Marvin Lewis is no Jeff Fischer. We know that from experience, don’t we?
Redskins are gonna do fine. It’s our home opener of the 2012 season…..
My prediction for these, our Washington Redskins…….at home:
Redskins 27 Bengals 17
Hail to the Redskins!!
HTTR