same old patterns

The good news: it usually takes teams about half a season to fully grasp the 3-4 defense.

The bad news: players should already know how to do fundamental things like tackle.

The good news: DeAngelo Hall was frustrated last week, and stepped up to take ownership for the defense. Teams need leadership like this.

The bad news: DeAngelo Hall's walk could not back-up his talk. The second TD to go 14-0 was simply inexcusable - what was he thinking?

The good news: Clinton Portis finally looked like his old self a bit, finding space, and making the defense pay.

The bad news: Clinton Portis was inexplicably on the bench for most of the second half. I'm still scratching my head.

The good news: Donovan McNabb is one helluva QB. That throw across his body and off his back foot to Moss was something spectacular. Campbell would have thrown a pick there, or put it in the 4th row.

The bad news: Donovan McNabb still throws very untimely interceptions that suck any wind out of the sails immediately.

The good news: Santana Moss looks to have returned to form, catching everything, including the first WR TD of the season.

The bad news: Santana Moss has gone back to being careless with the football, and the Redskins never really recovered from his early mistake. (Side note: not blaming Santanaman for this loss by any means, but you gotta hold onto the football).

The good news: Reed Doughty forced a fumble on special teams, which led to a TD.

The bad news: Danny Smith is still our head coach, and our special teams blow donkeys. Yes, he did what he could with Gano punting and Bidwell out, but shesus. I'm so sick of seeing Danny Smith coached players run STRAIGHT INTO THEIR WEDGE. You can run around those guys, ya know...just sayin'.

The good news: Chris Cooley had a great day blocking - maybe one of his best days in the B&G.

The bad news: The usually unstoppable Chris Cooley was stopped easily on at least one crucial 3rd down. We really needed Captain Chaos to come through, and he was stopped about 3 yards short...not cool, Butters.

The good news: I think I'm all out of good news...

The bad news: looks like the Redskins are still playing down to inferior opponents. This game should have been a cake walk for the Skins. But...I guess that leads to...

The good news: The Redskins should play well against the Eagles this weekend. Hell, the rest of the schedule is tough...we might not lose again!
</sarcasm>



Reality check:
It was Kareem Moore's first game back after 4 weeks out - of course he's gonna be a little rusty. That was one spectacular INT though; Reed Doughty doesn't make that play.

This offense is simply much better with Trent Williams in the line up. Bodes well for the future.

This was a Rams team that lost 27 of its last 28 games. 27 of its last 28 games. And we didn't just lose, we got whipped up and down the field, on both sides of the ball. Its gonna be a looooooonnnng season, people.

Lanky Livingston said:

The bad news: DeAngelo Hall's walk could not back-up his talk. The second TD to go 14-0 was simply inexcusable - what was he thinking?

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Hall, along with every other player on defense, played a turrable game. Turrable!

However, he was in a no win situation on that play. If he doesn't come up on Bradford, he would have walked into the endzone. There was at least the chance of a bad pass by forcing it.

Ax said:

Hall, along with every other player on defense, played a turrable game. Turrable!

However, he was in a no win situation on that play. If he doesn't come up on Bradford, he would have walked into the endzone. There was at least the chance of a bad pass by forcing it.

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I dunno...I thought the other defenders there would have stopped him from scoring. Plus, wait until he's crossed the line of scrimmage to charge, don't make it easy for him. Seemed like a turrable play to me at the time.

Lanky Livingston said:

I dunno...I thought the other defenders there would have stopped him from scoring. Plus, wait until he's crossed the line of scrimmage to charge, don't make it easy for him. Seemed like a turrable play to me at the time.

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I thought so too, at first. Watching the replay, Bradford had already cleared Daniels, and no one else was close enough to him. If Hall would have waited, he would have been too late.

Kobayashi Maru

Sarge said:

You didn't really believe that, did you? I said it before the season started............we just don't have that much talent.

That's what is confusing me about the danny this year. We have a potential uncapped year and he hasn't spent a dime, so to speak. For years he's tried to buy a team, and yet this year, when the opportunity is here, he's gone AWOL

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It doesn't matter if I believe it. It matters if the guys putting the team together believe it.

I don't Portis playing in second half would have helped. He makes a good initial burst through a hole, but doesn't have the legs to go much further. Portis would have helped on pass protection, which he would have played LT better than Heyer.

Yesterday we didn't match the Rams intensity. You can't sleep walk through a game and expect to win. The Rams OC outcoached Haslett and their DC made McNabb uncomfortable all day.

The only way our D can get off the field is when the other team scores. Last week we gave up 20 unanswered points and yesterday it was 16. Third and long was a piece of cake for Rams...without Jackson.

On offense, our OL made Chris Long look like an All Pro. After the way we looked yesterday my guess is McNabb will be a Viking next year.

Shanahan needs to check his ego at the door and start putting the our 11 best guys on the field.

Henry said:

It doesn't matter if I believe it. It matters if the guys putting the team together believe it.

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Was it the coach's doing the "win now" or the media? It's evident SHanny has a plan, ie switch to the 3-4, zone blocking etc, but we just don't have the talent to do it. I predict by the end of next season we may start to jell.

Definately not this year

Sarge said:

Was it the coach's doing the "win now" or the media? It's evident SHanny has a plan, ie switch to the 3-4, zone blocking etc, but we just don't have the talent to do it. I predict by the end of next season we may start to jell.

Definately not this year

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Reading through all this, Sarge-I don't mean to frighten you-but you can add me to the list of those conferring upon you the title "The Voice of Reason."

Basically, I agree with your assessments. I'm still thinking 8-8 like I was before the season started, and 8-8 teams sometimes lose games to weaker opponents and beat stronger ones. And there are 13 games yet to play.

Learning curves are a bitch sometimes.

servumtuum said:

Reading through all this, Sarge-I don't mean to frighten you-but you can add me to the list of those conferring upon you the title "The Voice of Reason."

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The Redskins are all communists. There. That better?

Sarge said:

Was it the coach's doing the "win now" or the media? It's evident SHanny has a plan, ie switch to the 3-4, zone blocking etc, but we just don't have the talent to do it. I predict by the end of next season we may start to jell.

Definately not this year

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Again, why are we trading away picks for a QB that will be 36 when we start to gel? That doesn't follow the logic of planning for the future.

The other choice was to keep Jason Campbell, who apparently can't even start for the Raiders.

McNabb has been the only offensive bright spot this season. So far. I'd actually forgotten what it was like to have a pro QB playing for the team

Sarge said:

Was it the coach's doing the "win now" or the media? It's evident SHanny has a plan, ie switch to the 3-4, zone blocking etc, but we just don't have the talent to do it. I predict by the end of next season we may start to jell.

Definately not this year

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Shanahan is the guy who said before the season started that the fans were right to have high expectations for this year and he did not want us to reduce those because it was his first year. Sounds like "win now" to me.

Sarge said:

Agreed. But do we switch back to the 4-3 for this year and play the 3-4 when we get a few more players? Didn't Haslett say we'd play both this year at times?

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He DID say that Sarge but I certainly haven't seen any evidence of it, at least not in the traditional sense. I pray Haslett's too good a coach to not find a way to deal with this embarrassment. For HIS sake, he'd better.

Henry said:

Again, why are we trading away picks for a QB that will be 36 when we start to gel? That doesn't follow the logic of planning for the future.

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Not crazy about that part either. However, if the choice was to keep Campbell or trade for McNabb? Maybe Shanahan didn't like any QB in the draft outside of Bradford, and knew he wasn't going to get Bradford, IDK.

Given our struggles, I am more inclined to think we should have made a very serious pitch to get Bradford, instead of trading for McNabb.

Sarge said:

The other choice was to keep Jason Campbell, who apparently can't even start for the Raiders.

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So? If we're gonna lose to the ever-loving Rams by two touchdowns we may as well have more than two players under 30 starting for us on offense. Can't do that if we continue to trade away picks AFTER we get rid of the front office guys who were famous for trading away picks.

McNabb has been the only offensive bright spot this season. So far. I'd actually forgotten what it was like to have a pro QB playing for the team

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I've enjoyed watching him play as well, but I feel bad for the guy too. His efforts are being wasted on us. I really hope it takes fewer than two seasons for this team to get it together. I doubt he'll stick around that long if we continue to play like this in the meantime.

Henry said:

So? If we're gonna lose to the ever-loving Rams by two touchdowns we may as well have more than two players under 30 starting for us on offense. Can't do that if we continue to trade away picks AFTER we get rid of the front office guys who were famous for trading away picks.

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That would have been looking in the crystal ball. Who would have thought we'd lose to the Rams?

I think Shanny would have been happy to have gotten us to "didn't suck" this year. He knew we needed a QB for that. And no coach is going to go out there and say "we expect to suck balls this year as we re-build". Not good for the bottom line nor team moral

But it's clear we have a project on our hands

Goaldeje said:

Not crazy about that part either. However, if the choice was to keep Campbell or trade for McNabb? Maybe Shanahan didn't like any QB in the draft outside of Bradford, and knew he wasn't going to get Bradford, IDK.

Given our struggles, I am more inclined to think we should have made a very serious pitch to get Bradford, instead of trading for McNabb.

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St. Louis was not gonna give up on this kid and it is apparent why. He is going to be a super star in this league.

Interesting comments from Fletcher - says the 3-4 is not to blame for the big plays. http://redsk.in/9hDlEm

Lanky Livingston said:

Interesting comments from Fletcher - says the 3-4 is not to blame for the big plays. http://redsk.in/9hDlEm

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OK, so maybe I don't completely understand the 3-4, but if anyone tells me we can be successful with Andre Carter covering a TE or RB, they are wrong! Subpackage...package...I don't care! Orakpo is better than Carter in these packages, but even Orakpo should not be covering TE's or RB's!

This part was interesting:

It's not a debate that will go away immediately, but for now Fletcher is emphasizing a focus on the basics. "We need better preparation, better focus, better attention to detail, and execution of the gameplan and the calls that are made."

Sounds like a quote that could have come from last year.