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There I said it.
I hate coaching changes. Coaching changes feel like giving up to me. They make me feel like once again we are starting all over and will not likely be competitive for at least a season or 2.
I have been trying to convince myself since the McNabb trade that this coaching staff was going to be good. I was starting to really buy in during the late season run last year. But then what for me was the beginning of the end happened: The playing of an injured RG3 during the playoffs with a healthy Kirk Cousins sitting on the bench. It's 1 thing to play hurt. It's a whole other thing to play injured. You're not going to win playing an injured QB. It just doesn't happen. This terrible decision may very well be looked back upon as the beginning of the end for Mike Shanahan.
Let's put aside the terrible decisions made by the team in the months following last year's playoffs for a second(and there were plenty of them ) and fast forward to the present. The coaching staff is failing miserably in all 3 phases.
Let's start with the obvious: special teams. It's hard to believe the special teams could have gotten any worse after the departure of Danny Smith, but guess what, they did. We don't even need to get into the details b/c we've all see it, but let me just say I have never seen a football team try more absolutely clueless return men in on punt returns. What in the world are these guys thinking? The Redskins wind up with drives starting on their own 1 yard line weekly b/c of return men allowing punts to roll down there. Earth to coaches: put Moss in there and let him fair catch it unless the return is there. This is not rocket science. Instead they start the season off with rookie nobodies and are now getting the same results with some dude they pulled up off the practice squad. OK enough on that.
On defense, I think Haz moved up to the sky box this season to keep fans from throwing crap at him during the games. What happened to the creative, aggressive blitzes Haz employed during the winning streak last year? We can't cover, we can't get a pass rush with the front 4, and what does Haz do? Rush 4 and drop into coverage over and over again. The only creative blitz I remember from the entire Philly game was the delayed blitz with Fletcher. You know, the 1 where Fletch blew up Foles and nearly took him out of the game. Of course Haz immediately went back into base defense and continued to get picked apart like it was 7v7 drills. Haz should be throwing all kinds of blitzes in there like he did last year. Sure they'll get burned for some big plays, but that is already happening anyways, and at least they'd have a better chance of getting a sack or creating a turnover. It's absolutely maddening to watch Haz drop into base defense over and over again. I don't know if it comes from him or from Shanny, but the defense is being coached scared and it makes us all sick to watch it, and I'm sure the players feel the same way.
The worst coaching for me though is happening on offense. I feel this way because the offense has the most talent to work with. Yes the oline is terrible, but Garcon, Morris, Reed, Helu and RG3(when healthy) are ballers. Has there ever been an OC with a better knack for out-smarting himself than Kyle Shanahan? He passes too much when he needs to run, he runs too much when he needs to pass. Why have the Redskins shrunk the offense to the extent they have this season. There are so few nfl style passing plays being called now it's crazy. Knowing the oline is struggling, why aren't we making more quick throws out of the shotgun in multiple receiver sets? This was RG3's bread and
butter in college. The Redskins have gone almost completely to the pistol run/play action game, and they just can't complete enough passing plays out of that set of plays. RG3 takes too many hits in that formation whether he's running the ball or dropping back on the play action.
I will be the first to say that this roster has deficiencies, but as coaches you have to find ways to compete with those players you have. It feels to me that this staff has taken the "what we do works" stance, and have set these players up to fail.
A couple of weeks ago they did a "sound fx" episode on nfl network with Mike Shanahan. Most of the footage was '97-'98 Broncos MS, but a good bit of it was current MS with the Skins. It looked like 2 completely different people. Broncos MS was in the zone. He was calling the offense, he was high energy and cutting edge. Of course that was over 15 years ago. Current MS looked like a grumpy old man who's main focus was arguing with the refs.
We'll have to see how this all turns out of course. My gut feeling is that MS and company will get 1 more year from Snyder. Maybe they will make the necessary roster improvements and turn things around next season. I hope so, but judging by what I've seen over the last 11 months or so I just don't see it happening.
I hate coaching changes. Coaching changes feel like giving up to me. They make me feel like once again we are starting all over and will not likely be competitive for at least a season or 2.
I have been trying to convince myself since the McNabb trade that this coaching staff was going to be good. I was starting to really buy in during the late season run last year. But then what for me was the beginning of the end happened: The playing of an injured RG3 during the playoffs with a healthy Kirk Cousins sitting on the bench. It's 1 thing to play hurt. It's a whole other thing to play injured. You're not going to win playing an injured QB. It just doesn't happen. This terrible decision may very well be looked back upon as the beginning of the end for Mike Shanahan.
Let's put aside the terrible decisions made by the team in the months following last year's playoffs for a second(and there were plenty of them ) and fast forward to the present. The coaching staff is failing miserably in all 3 phases.
Let's start with the obvious: special teams. It's hard to believe the special teams could have gotten any worse after the departure of Danny Smith, but guess what, they did. We don't even need to get into the details b/c we've all see it, but let me just say I have never seen a football team try more absolutely clueless return men in on punt returns. What in the world are these guys thinking? The Redskins wind up with drives starting on their own 1 yard line weekly b/c of return men allowing punts to roll down there. Earth to coaches: put Moss in there and let him fair catch it unless the return is there. This is not rocket science. Instead they start the season off with rookie nobodies and are now getting the same results with some dude they pulled up off the practice squad. OK enough on that.
On defense, I think Haz moved up to the sky box this season to keep fans from throwing crap at him during the games. What happened to the creative, aggressive blitzes Haz employed during the winning streak last year? We can't cover, we can't get a pass rush with the front 4, and what does Haz do? Rush 4 and drop into coverage over and over again. The only creative blitz I remember from the entire Philly game was the delayed blitz with Fletcher. You know, the 1 where Fletch blew up Foles and nearly took him out of the game. Of course Haz immediately went back into base defense and continued to get picked apart like it was 7v7 drills. Haz should be throwing all kinds of blitzes in there like he did last year. Sure they'll get burned for some big plays, but that is already happening anyways, and at least they'd have a better chance of getting a sack or creating a turnover. It's absolutely maddening to watch Haz drop into base defense over and over again. I don't know if it comes from him or from Shanny, but the defense is being coached scared and it makes us all sick to watch it, and I'm sure the players feel the same way.
The worst coaching for me though is happening on offense. I feel this way because the offense has the most talent to work with. Yes the oline is terrible, but Garcon, Morris, Reed, Helu and RG3(when healthy) are ballers. Has there ever been an OC with a better knack for out-smarting himself than Kyle Shanahan? He passes too much when he needs to run, he runs too much when he needs to pass. Why have the Redskins shrunk the offense to the extent they have this season. There are so few nfl style passing plays being called now it's crazy. Knowing the oline is struggling, why aren't we making more quick throws out of the shotgun in multiple receiver sets? This was RG3's bread and
butter in college. The Redskins have gone almost completely to the pistol run/play action game, and they just can't complete enough passing plays out of that set of plays. RG3 takes too many hits in that formation whether he's running the ball or dropping back on the play action.
I will be the first to say that this roster has deficiencies, but as coaches you have to find ways to compete with those players you have. It feels to me that this staff has taken the "what we do works" stance, and have set these players up to fail.
A couple of weeks ago they did a "sound fx" episode on nfl network with Mike Shanahan. Most of the footage was '97-'98 Broncos MS, but a good bit of it was current MS with the Skins. It looked like 2 completely different people. Broncos MS was in the zone. He was calling the offense, he was high energy and cutting edge. Of course that was over 15 years ago. Current MS looked like a grumpy old man who's main focus was arguing with the refs.
We'll have to see how this all turns out of course. My gut feeling is that MS and company will get 1 more year from Snyder. Maybe they will make the necessary roster improvements and turn things around next season. I hope so, but judging by what I've seen over the last 11 months or so I just don't see it happening.