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Random Commanders Thoughts

The elite teams are all barely beating us. And they're the only ones beating us.
And this is where the schedule gets very easy by comparison, the rest of the way out.
And we are still a very good team.
So it's very realistic that we go 5-1 or even 6-0 here out, and make the playoffs.
And in fact, that's how this team typically enters the playoffs.
So the season is far from over.
I can not buy into the bolded statement. It takes great skill to find a way to give up a 15 point lead inside of 3 1/2 minutes.

I wish I had your faith and optimism.
 
The Skins played a 95% amazing game today. Where we go from here today I don't know but that team put up one helluva effort today.


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Any given Sunday brother.

Norv's teams tortured us in much the same way and no one ever thought those teams were good.

Good teams don't do Redskins things.
 
I think that's lazy analysis. We lost - in a situation where no team should lose. But the Redskins played one helluva game today.


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There are tickets available for Thursday nights game for $8.
 
There are tickets available for Thursday nights game for $8.

That's a shame. If I were heading north to my parents instead of south my in-laws for Thanksgiving, I would absolutely be going to the game.
 
There's no positive from this loss. I take no joy in how well they played until they didn't. This team doesn't know how to win from the coaches down it's inexcusable to lose the game this way. I'm freaking tired of watching Gruden puss out when we have to have a first down to ice it and inevitably go 3 and out and watch the defense shit the bed. This team does not have the running game to rely on to come in and run three straight plays to try to get a first. It's just insanity. This team didn't play a helluva game when it mattered most, and that's all that matters to me. The first few years I thought Gruden was constantly improving, but now he seems to be repeating the same mistakes. And Manusky has made the D seem much better. Except for the last few minutes of each freaking half, where teams consistently score. Where's the learning? The players aren't suddenly forgetting how to play at the end of each half. This team gets no pass. There's no honorable mention. I want accountability. I want change. I want it now. If it doesn't change on the field, it needs to change elsewhere. I don't want a team that I have to hope for any given Sunday. I want a team that has a chance to win every week because they are well coached, disciplined and competent. Not because we might catch the other team on a bad day. This team is freaking infuriating.


Edit This team has stretches where it plays great. That they don't do that consistently is 100% coaching.
 
There's no positive from this loss. I take no joy in how well they played until they didn't. This team doesn't know how to win from the coaches down it's inexcusable to lose the game this way. I'm freaking tired of watching Gruden puss out when we have to have a first down to ice it and inevitably go 3 and out and watch the defense shit the bed. This team does not have the running game to rely on to come in and run three straight plays to try to get a first. It's just insanity. This team didn't play a helluva game when it mattered most, and that's all that matters to me. The first few years I thought Gruden was constantly improving, but now he seems to be repeating the same mistakes. And Manusky has made the D seem much better. Except for the last few minutes of each freaking half, where teams consistently score. Where's the learning? The players aren't suddenly forgetting how to play at the end of each half. This team gets no pass. There's no honorable mention. I want accountability. I want change. I want it now. If it doesn't change on the field, it needs to change elsewhere. I don't want a team that I have to hope for any given Sunday. I want a team that has a chance to win every week because they are well coached, disciplined and competent. Not because we might catch the other team on a bad day. This team is freaking infuriating.


Edit This team has stretches where it plays great. That they don't do that consistently is 100% coaching.

Gruden was ballsy as hell all day long. In the end 5 things had to go wrong for the Saints to win. 5 things went wrong. It sucks but it happens. We have a gritty group of competitors. If you all want to call for sweeping changes that's fine. But I think you're discounting a pretty impressive effort that shows better days are ahead. We aren't going anywhere this year but there are a lot of positive signs if you are looking.


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That's just it B. It doesn't happen to well coached teams. I don't want sweeping changes. I want consistency. I've been lock step with you on that. But we keep losing this way and it's a theme. Offense has us ahead, we have chance to end it, we 3 and out and Defense folds. When your strength is the pass, you use that when it matters most. We have the talent to excel. We see it on the field all the time. Yes there was impressive effort, but that's like a broken record. It's just incredibly frustrating to see this again and again. I just don't know what to make of Gruden at this point. Just like you look for the 'it' factor in players, you look for it in coaches as well. I'm not seeing the 'it' in Gruden right now and it's concerning because I want him to be the one, I just feel like evidence to the contrary is mounting. We're already out of the playoffs and likely won't have a winning record. It's inexcusable at this point in his tenure here.
 
Right, I've slept on it and have my calm head on this morning.

Tough loss yesterday, but today I've put some perspective on it.

I always said we needed to split the last two week, and beforehand I had figured it would be the Vikings game we'd win. As usual this team does nothing by the book, and for a long time it looked like the Fairytale ending against the Saints to put us back to 5-5 and in good shape fr the stretch run.

First thing to say is that this was a game against a team on a 7 game win streak. New Orleans are the Number 1 offense in the League right now. That we managed to shut them down at all for the majority of the game was a minor miracle for a defense that is still a work in progress and has key injuries on the line. Bree's is never a QB to underestimate, they were always capable of these drives and they just made them at the end of the game when it counted and our D was tired. Make no bones, it was an epic collapse from the Redskins D, but this wasn't Keenum we were facing... Last weeks Defensive effort still haunts me worse.

Our Offense on the other hand is finally playing with the potential it has flashed all season. They did more than enough to win the game, everyone said we needed to score 30 to win as the Saints averaged 29... well they got 31. They upheld their side of the deal. They put the Defense in a good position, beating the Saints on Time of Possession and establishing a 15 pt lead with 5 mins to play. No team plays a complete game and never punts, just doesn't happen. It's a shame ours came at the end of the game, but honestly with the lead we had that shouldn't have mattered.

I'm afraid I put this one squarely on the D. I put it on the penalty on Smith when we'd stopped them on 3rd and long and forced a punt. Penalty gave them life.
I put it on the penalty Fuller committed before getting the interception.

Both times we had them on the ropes and the Defense did something stupid to give them life.

The Offense should never have been put in the position they were in at the end of the game where this happened (according to post game interview and Keim):

"The Saints were in a defense that was the antidote to the run play Washington had called. The Redskins wanted more yardage to set up a better field goal attempt.

The coaches yelled for Cousins to throw the ball. It turned into a big bungled affair: Redskins coach Jay Gruden said he was giving a hand signal for a bubble screen to Jamison Crowder. Cousins said he thought the coaches just wanted to throw it near Crowder, setting up another play without wasting their last time out. But with Crowder still thinking run, he went to block – and Cousins threw the ball.

"I don't know why it was a penalty, but it was," Gruden said."


Listening to Redskins Talk this morning Tandler agreed. The part of the rule book that I think applies says: "Intentional grounding will be called when a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion"

It's the underlined bit that's the key bit. Kirk threw a pass to a receiver who wasn't going to his spot as they were both on the wrong page. Bad play, but it should have been ruled incomplete, not incurred the penalty or the clock run off. Without that call we could have kicked the FG and be drinking the Champers this morning.

On a more positive note, we are now hitting the soft part of the schedule and it's not inconceivable that we could run the table and finish the season 10-6.

I really believe that we're one of the better teams in League this year and have been dealt a bad hand through injuries, having to break in rookies, and having the hardest early schedule in the league. Last years team probably would have been 2-8 by now.

I still have hope and I'm not going to overreact to a crushing loss to one of the best teams in the League. Instead I'm going to mourn the loss of CT25, but regard this as a glimpse of this teams potential.

And that's your Monday dose of English Optimism. :D
 
I think that's lazy analysis. We lost - in a situation where no team should lose. But the Redskins played one helluva game today.


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It's about as lazy as saying this OL unit is one of the tops in the league when they fail time after time to convert 3rd and short in key situations.

We watched today and in the past few weeks, where teams like the Saints, Philly and the Cowboys, blew open holes for their backs that our vaunted Oline can only wistfully dream about.

Hell, Gruden can't even call the run play to go behind our best blocker in Williams on 3rd and half a yard!

3rd and half a yard,with a weak run blocking unit and you call a run into a ten man box when Cousins had been "on" for most of the game?

You're right. 5 things needed to go wrong to lose a 15 point lead inside of 3 1/2 minutes.

That's Norv Turner/Jim Zorn level skill . But it doesn't sting all that bad because as a fanbase, we've grown accustomed to the team finding ways to lose.

If this is deemed snarky and thus offensive, I'm sorry. But yesterday was inexcusable,imo.
 
I was busy during a lot of the game but.....
Perine - flashing potential, definitely can be a major force
Doctson - showed lots of promise in first half
Crowder - rounding back into form
O-line - nseke steps in , no appreciable loss w/Lavauo injured, Roullier competent for Long
————————————
And then there's 92 McGee - liability ST's and D
Lanier - flashes of potential
Fuller - made several plays - one major goof
Breeland - stuffed a couple of runs
Swearinger - mostly decent play
Spaight - flashed on several plays

As noted before, Skins are again (last year as well) playing a very tough schedule - most difficult thus far

We all want a juggernaut ala the 80-90 skins - not there yet but I echo Knightengale in that there is hope
 
We got the Giants next, and somebody explain this.
How in the **** do the Giants lose to 0-9 San Fran, and then those same 1-8 Giants, the very next week, beat the Chiefs ?
I'll tell ya how. The same crazy way, that we go 6-0 from here on out.
 
It's about as lazy as saying this OL unit is one of the tops in the league when they fail time after time to convert 3rd and short in key situations.

We watched today and in the past few weeks, where teams like the Saints, Philly and the Cowboys, blew open holes for their backs that our vaunted Oline can only wistfully dream about.

Yes but this ignores two key things.

One: Our O-line has been banged up pretty much all season. Scherff is playing on one leg, Trent is playing with a Kneecap that floats around and needs surgery, Moses is playing on two sprained ankles (which judging by the way he was getting up off the ground yesterday are still bothering him) and even when they're playing any of the guys playing with them are a rotation of rookies or people signed off the street to fill a hole. It's a miracle they stand upright let alone do the job they're doing.

They managed to protect Kirk long enough to put up one of his best games yesterday, only 1 sack on the day, and they help Perine have over 100 yards rushing. I think they're getting healthier and yesterday was a sign that they're on their way to getting back to that point.

Secondly, the Saints, Philly and the Cowboys blew holes in our D-Line because we're missing Allen and Ioannidis, or have Ioannidis playing with a club hand. Are we surprised they're blowing holes we can only dream about? Camparing how their broadly healthy O-line blows though our decimated D-line with how our decimated O-line can't blow holes in their relatively healthy D-Lines is like comparing apples and breeds of cat. We've also played THE hardest schedule to date in the NFL, so these are paper teams we're battling.

If we were healthy I reckon we could EASILY be looking at something like a 7-2 record. Games are won and lost on the line and injuries have killed us on both sides in that area, which is why we're 5-5. We can blame coaching, or Kirk, or Pryor or whatever we want to... but no coach pitches the perfect game, no QB throws a perfect season, no RB hits the hole every time and no WR always run perfect routes and catches the ball. I could be a fan of pretty much any team in the league and have all the same complaints, draft a new QB, sack the coach, cut that player etc.

First thing Wifey said to me last night after the loss to the Saints was..."Now you know how that feels!" - a reference to the Packers heartbreaking collapse to the Seahawks a couple of years ago.
Remember this one... Epic Packers Collapse!
They were up 19-17 with a couple of minutes left and collapsed to let the Seahawks win in overtime (sound familiar!). And this was the NFC Championship game.

Consider Atlanta in the Superbowl last year.

These things happen in football, even the best teams can suffer a systemic collapse across the board at the worst times.
It's kind of what makes Football so satisfying. The Cinderella ending. Sometimes you're simply on the wrong side of it.

Anyways...

I spent a little time crunching the injury numbers this morning regarding the O-Line health and our Run game....

Rushing Yards per week.jpg

Now if you compare that to our Injury History so far...

Week 1 - PHILADELPHIA EAGLES – 64 Yards (5 Active, 2 carrying injuries)
Active: Scherff, Williams, Catalina, Moses, Long*
Inactive: Catalina, Clemmings
TE's Inactive: Sprinkle

Week 2 – LOS ANGELES RAMS – 229 Rush Yards (5 Active, 3 Carrying injuries)
Active: Scherff, Williams, Moses*, Long*, Nsekhe
Inactive: Catalina, Clemmings
TE's Inactive: Reed

Week 3 – OAKLAND RAIDERS – 116 Rush Yards (5 Active, 3 carrying injuries)
Active: Scherff, Williams*, Moses*, Long* Nsekhe*
Inactive: Catalina, Clemmings
TE's Inactive: Reed

Week 4 – KANSAS CITY CHIEFS – 111 Rush Yards (5 Active, 4 carrying injuries)
Active: Scherff, Williams*, Clemmings*, Moses*, Long*
Inactive: Catalina, Nsekhe,
TE's Inactive: Sprinkle

Week 6 – SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS – 94 Rush Yards (5 Active, 3 carrying injuries)
Active: Scherff, Williams*, Catalina, Moses*, Long*
Inactive: Nsekhe,
TE's Inactive: Sprinkle

Week 7 – PHILADELPHIA EAGLES – 75 Rush Yards (5 Active, 3 carrying injuries)
Active: Scherff, Williams*, Catalina, Moses**, Long*
Inactive: Nsekhe,
TE's Inactive: Sprinkle

Week 8 – DALLAS COWBOYS – 49 Rush Yards ( 1 Active, 1 playing with injury)
Active: Scherff**
Inactive: Nsekhe*, Williams*, Catalina*, Moses**, Long*
TE's Inactive: Sprinkle

Week 9 – SEATTLE SEAHAWKS – 51 Rush Yards - (4 Active carrying injuries)
Active: Moses**, Nsekhe*, Scherff*, Williams*
Inactive: Lauvao, Long**
TE's Inactive: Reed, Paul

Week 10 – MINNESOTA VIKINGS – 81 Rush Yards - (6 Active, 5 carrying injuries)
Active: Lauvao*, Moses**, Nsekhe*, Scherff*, Williams*, Long*
Inactive: Kouandjlo
TE's Inactive: Reed, Paul

Week 11 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS – 156 Rush Yards - (5 Active, 4 carrying injuries)
Active: Lauvao*, Moses**, Nsekhe*, Scherff*, Williams*
Inactive: Long, Kouandjlo
TE's Inactive: Reed

I tried to list the TE's that were out during the period too, as I know they can contribute somewhat towards run blocking. What I didn't have time to do was factor in the weeks when we lost Kelley to injury to. We also need to factor in things like the struggle to get Pryor involved, Doctson's learning curve and Perine trying to get up to speed in a system he's never played in. It all factors in.

Oh and on the above a '*' indicated the player was carrying an injury. A '**' means he was carrying two injuries. Moses is still carrying the Sprains in both ankles and at one point Scherff had both a back injury and a knee injury.

If you look at where the *'s line up on the weeks with the graph you can see that our Oline was at it's most banged up during the Cowboys game, where we only managed 49 yards.

Lately it's been recovering as we get players back and the results are improving too. This weeks effort was outstanding by our Line.

But... we're not in a position to be blowing holes in D-Lines consistently. Look at the injuries listed...

As of this week:
Lauvao – Listed with Stinger
Moses – Listed with sprains to BOTH ankles
Nsekhe – Listed with Core Muscle injury
Williams – Listed with Knee injury (requiring surgery)
Scherff – Listed with a Knee injury
Long – Listed with Injuries to BOTH knees

Lot of Knee, Ankle and Core injuries there, if you think this line is going to be able to push consistently with any strength... We're lucky they're still standing and can run and pass block to the extent they are. This group have been warriors all season. Even though it's been an injury riddled mess all season pretty much, they are only allowing 2.5 sacks per game. Which is a kinda miracle. That coupled with all the changes to the personnel meaning Kirk has been behind a different O-Line almost every game, it's another miracle that he's only had 4 fumbles on the season and only 5 interceptions.

You're right, you might not be able to call this unit one of the best in the NFL... but then it's not been a complete and healthy unit for 99% of the season. Game 1 we weren't ready as a team and that's on Gru. Game 2 we were healthy and killed the Rams. After that point they started to drop like flies till we hit the nadir of the Cowboys game. Since then they've been getting healthier and this week was their best game for a while, just missing Long now to get back to all our Starters, but even then they won't be completely healthy till next season.
 
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We got the Giants next, and somebody explain this.
How in the **** do the Giants lose to 0-9 San Fran, and then those same 1-8 Giants, the very next week, beat the Chiefs ?
I'll tell ya how. The same crazy way, that we go 6-0 from here on out.

Honestly this would NOT surprise me in the slightest.

Our Offense is finally clicking.
Our schedule is softening.
Our Defense SHOULD be playing with purpose after the last two weeks.

I could see a 6-0 or 5-1 run to close out the season.
 
Some people been blaming Fuller partly for the loss, because of his penalty.
But I've been thinking, if he does NOT commit that penalty, does he STILL make that interception ?
Seems like his facemask slowed down the receiver, and put him out of place or behind in his route, which then puts Fuller in an uncontested position to make the INT.
So I'm thinkin, if he does not make the facemask, the receiver may be in position to challenge him for the ball and prevent the INT.
So maybe it's not really his fault that there was no INT on that play.
Am I wrong ?
 
Some people been blaming Fuller partly for the loss, because of his penalty.
But I've been thinking, if he does NOT commit that penalty, does he STILL make that interception ?
Seems like his facemask slowed down the receiver, and put him out of place or behind in his route, which then puts Fuller in an uncontested position to make the INT.
So I'm thinkin, if he does not make the facemask, the receiver may be in position to challenge him for the ball and prevent the INT.
So maybe it's not really his fault that there was no INT on that play.
Am I wrong ?

I think you're wrong. I thought the facemask was completely incidental and had zero impact on the play at all. That was the tragedy of it all to me.
 
OK, so we're 4-6...

If we run the table and went 10-6 where does that leave us?

Our Wild card competitors are:

Seahawks - 2 games ahead but we hold the tiebreak (Not the hardest schedule, but there are games against the Eagles and the Rams, so maybe the 2 game deficit could be erased.)
Panthers - 2 games ahead (They still have Saints, Vikings and Falcons on the docket. So there's a chance).
Lions - 2 games ahead. (Their schedule is cake. They play the Vikings, but that's about it.)
Packers - 1 game ahead (but have looked awful since the loss of Rodgers. Their schedule is pretty easy, but they are lost without Aaron. They couldn't even muster a FG against the Ravens last night.)
Cowboys - 1 game ahead (but we still have the return game against them, and they are now without Elliott. They still have tough games against the Eagles and the Seahawks to come too.)
Falcons - 1/2 game ahead (Have the Saints twice - 2 losses please! The Seahawks, the Panthers and the Vikings. Pretty tough finishing stretch for them and all of their opponents are rivals for the wildcard birth for them and us).
Cardinals - Level (Have games coming up against the Rams and Seahawks so it would be nice if they lost those. Then they also face us, so it would be a MUST WIN for us to move us a game up on them and also get the tie break)
Buccaneers - Level (But they play the Falcons twice, the Packers, the Lions, the Panthers and the Saints. If they could beat the Pack, the Lions and the Falcons I'd be happy with them losing to the Panthers and the Saints. A split of their remaining games owuld be nice.)

So if we run the table and we rule out the Buccs and Cards, then get rid of the Falcons and Packers. Cowboys could fade away and partly that destiny is in our own hands on that one.

The problem teams are the Seahawks, Panthers and Lions. We do hold the tiebreak over the Hawks, so there's that.

But this does depend on us closing out the season on a huge win streak!
 

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