Random Commanders Thoughts

Kel Varnsen said:

Gruden should have decked him. He could stay as long as he likes if he had done that.

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Ha. I wasn't a fan of Harbaugh, until the halftime reporter asked him the same stale questions and Harbaugh replied, "You got any good questions to ask, and I'll answer them"

Fear The Spear said:

Ha. I wasn't a fan of Harbaugh, until the halftime reporter asked him the same stale questions and Harbaugh replied, "You got any good questions to ask, and I'll answer them"

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He's definitely trying to take his brothers role as coach cuckoo. He went on a rant last week about the Suggs late hit.

I'm concerned that Robinson could draw a suspension from that hit

For the first time in 3 years we finally have peace and quiet in Redskins land. And it feels promising.

McD5 said:

For the first time in 3 years we finally have peace and quiet in Redskins land. And it feels promising.

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with all due respect...you continually make these broad generalizations without any definition of what you mean, context or reasonable anticipation of the variety of outcomes that can unfold in the near-term or long-term. I get the bias in your thinking and that's fine - everyone has them. it's also somewhat amusing: one game and we have peace and quiet? that's ridiculous. I can give you an easy example of why that's wrong - you can already see it playing out. this team is gonna have to shed Griffin. when that plays out it will revitalize all the drama for a period of time. another example: Cousins is going to have bad games - you could see the strengths and weaknesses last night. when that time comes....it is not going to be peace and quiet in Redskin land.....

Cousins did some things very well last night....he also had some performance issues that aren't drawing attention simply because we now have a QB who knows how to slide in the pocket....and the standard right now is pretty low. that will change once the regular season begins and we start playing teams with offensive coaches who know how to exploit the passing game and defensive coaches who know how to mask defensives and take advantage of observable QB risk patterns.

it's also a false statement. the over-whelming majority were quite content THREE YEARS AGO in 2012.

here's one prediction based on the observation this head coach isn't controlling his team. one can easily predict that the league is going to start elevating the visibility and penalties for all these altercations. the Skins may be demonstrating admirable fight and spirit. it might not have reached critical mass yet - but the Skins are definitely on the radar screen. it's gonna cost them some time downstream if it continues. we have seen over and over how the league uses the referees to clamp down on behaviors its disapproves. last night was an embarrassment for the league in respect to how both coaches interacted - and what their teams were doing.

anywho, it was a nice victory against a ratbird team that was clobbered by philthy the previous week. you are right in that it's nice to not have to be discussing griffin every other nano-second.

peace and quiet in Redskins land

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Ya, and it will last about 24 hours if that.....

I wanted to reply to it last night and laugh but the bait on that troll cast wasn't tempting enough. Glad someone did it

tr1 said:

So true.

Kudos to Kirk. He had a nice game against a Ravens defense that was awful last week...and awful last night. I'm glad Trent was back shoring up the left side. The o-line still can't get the running game going, though. I thought that was the emphasis this year, but hey, it's early.

So, we hear Kirk is starting game one, but Gruden says he hasn't made a decision. Any idea who leaked the insider information? It would be great to know who's making the decisions, and doesn't care about players hearing it from the coach. Oh well, the drama continues. But, it's on par for the league right now. Looks like we're gonna have a pretty expensive guy sitting on the bench.

At least we're not focused on RG3's footwork anymore. I wish we could not have to talk about Kirk's INT problem. He had one last night, and the TD deflection was thrown into double coverage and batted up by the defender. We were very lucky Crowder got it.

RG3 may have pocket issues he'll never shake, but I don't think Kirk is done with his INT problems. I hope he can go forward as our qb and overcome the issue.

And, Colt looked terrific against the 3rd stringers.

Man, I'd love to be competitive this season. Special teams still sucks badly, but who is that guy Rogers who ran down the returner? Shades of Green. The defense is still a bit of a question mark. We did get some turnovers. This should be the most interesting part of the team because there are so many new faces.

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you caught that too! what occupied my attention was two receivers very close in the same space. that does not usually happen. the possible reasons that I can think of:

- one of the two receivers ran the wrong or imprecise pattern

- the play was poorly designed

- Kirk threw into double coverage

nice that we are getting the breaks on offense finally. but something to think about just the same.

Kirk had some other issues. but it's still at the stage of giving this some time to play out.

McD5 said:

For the first time in 3 years we finally have peace and quiet in Redskins land. And it feels promising.

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Did you mean the past three weeks? Because pre-season games haven't been a problem for the Redskins over the past three years. It's what happens during the regular season games that seems to be the sticking point.

fansince62 said:

Kirk had some other issues. but it's still at the stage of giving this some time to play out.

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Is it me or does Kirk look like Chad Pennington? I just see no arm strength on that kid. I hold my breath every time he throws it.

EDIT: Yeah ok, I don't want to be some big downer when the team actually played not bad last night. Kirk's a smart guy and he does have his strengths and he played well last night. I just think his throws look awfully soft.

I don't see it Henry. He was zipping that ball in there last night. He may not have the best arm strength in the NFL, but he can fire the ball in there and make all the throws. McCoy - yeah, there's a difference when he's throwing the ball. I love the way Cousins throws though.

Cousins, with the exception of the 3 yard INT and the fumble, played great last night. Not 'okay', not 'decent' - he did a great job. I'm not anti-Griffin (I swear some of you post like you are his love-child and worried about getting made fun of at school when Daddy isn't starting anymore), but the stark difference in what we saw last night was obvious. And it wasn't because the Ravens are so bad they got run over by Philly the week before. It's because Cousins (and McCoy) know the offense, know their 2nd and 3rd options if option 1 isn't there, and execute it. They know what the coaches want them to do on most plays, they know how to get rid of the ball and live for another when that's called for, they know how to combat a blitz by hitting a safety valve receiver, they know how to elude the rush, hell - they even know how to read a defense. They know those things and they DID those things - over and over and over again.

The Robert Griffin era is over as far as I'm concerned. We had one amazing uplifting season with him and I will never forget that. But he has shown for 2 years (and so far this year) that he cannot handle the position mentally or physically. Sometimes, you just have to acknowledge the obvious and discard the wishful thinking and excuses.

I don't know if Kirk Cousins has grown and learned from his mistakes. He has had several chances to unseat Griffin and hasn't been able to do it either. But he shows flashes of not just good QB play, but great QB play. In terms of starting opportunities, he's still in his rookie year. If he is our season starter and proclaimed the #1 guy, he has to take advantage of it. If he isn't able to overcome negative plays (because he will have them like all QBs do), then I'll wait to root for the next QB. That's what Redskins fans do. We root for wins. Not individuals.

The best part of seeing Griffin hit the bricks - we can finally stop with the incessant lovers vs. haters stuff which has made this place a lot less fun to be over the past 2 years.

fwiw- According to Joe T Kirk was putting touch on the ball, I did see one that was rifled pretty well but was behind the WR.

The double coverage tip drill TD with two WR in the area I suspect was a missed pattern by one of the players, wasn't it first NFL game rookie Crowder who caught the ball?
He admitted after the game that he was nervous as hell and was he not the guy who needed to be placed at the LOS by Kirk?
I also suspect that the double coverage was caused by the routes run, maybe something Kirk just didn't 'read'.

As always, if we had all of the physical/mental attributes of our 3 guys rolled into one we'd have our QB

Cousins reminds me of Drew Brees, but it's so hard to say. I know D-Jax stated last year that Cousins threw the best deep ball. Arm strength is only a part of it I suppose.

Kirk has plenty of arm. He threw the 2nd fastest ball ever recorded at the combine, 59 mph. The record being 60 mph.

What i see in Kirk is a Qb who knows how to throw the ball at different speeds. If he has to throw early he throws it easier to give time for the Wr to get out of his break.

He went 20 for 27 last night. If last night RG3 had to throw 27 times in a half he would be in traction at the local hospital this morning.

I knew the Gruden haters and RG3 lovers wouldn't be able to contain themselves for long.

This whole thing is starting to remind me of the Lavar situation years ago and i predict pretty much the same ending.

Oh I think it's pretty clear Kirk will get the nod over Griffin at this point. Then again, I don't think that's saying much.

I don't think he was awesome or anything last night. He was ok. The offense moved in fits and starts until the defensive starters started getting pulled. Clearly that's better than the QB getting flattened every time he drops back but ... I do think we've set the bar pretty low here.

If Griffin's not the The Guy I don't think our starter is on the roster.

One thing that was refreshing was watching a game and seeing the focus be on the team rather than one individual.

The Redskins are a rebuilding team. There are good news stories about guys like Preston Smith, Jackson Jeffcoat, Moses, Jamison Crowder, Matt Jones that hopefully over time are going to help improve the compete level of the Redskins in the NFC East.

Kirk Cousins is in the same position as many of these other players. A guy with some talent that may or may not end up being a contributor on a contending team down the road, but someone that competes and understands the offense and can run it well enough that we can envision GROWTH and IMPROVEMENT by the UNIT.

What's ironic is that in his first two series in the game, Colt McCoy showed the kind of 'off script' playmaking ability rolling out and finding secondary receivers that is really at the heart of what we have NOT seen from Griffin in the past 2 plus years since he decided he wanted to be a Peyton Manning type drop back passer.

And McCoy has the most limited arm of the bunch.

Anyone else feel a 5,000 pound weight come off this team with Griffin inactive for the game and all of the issues surrounding him in a basket with the lid firmly on top?

Sometimes it really is addition by subtraction.

Great summation.

Henry said:

If Griffin's not the The Guy I don't think our starter is on the roster.

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But what are you basing this on? Kirk and Colt have looked very good in preseason. They have both looked like NFL starters. I know it's preseason, but look how bad Schaub looked last night and every other back-up Qb we've played against this year.

Again, the Redskins are a rebuilding team. We need to develop a 53 man roster.

Kirk may be a top shelf QB in the NFL over time or merely an 'average' guy that can look good in some starts and mediocre in others.

But what he does with his knowledge of the offense is allow others in the OL, backfield and at WR develop at a faster clip than they would with Griffin under center.

His limitations are ones that a developing team can live with.

He is still able to get guys lined up and is able to deliver the basic throws.

Really, THAT is the start. It's not an end point, but it's a beginning.

Crowder, Grant, Reed, etc. need that kind of consistency to develop into playmakers for this team.

And until a better physical talent shows up to take his place, a very cheap Kirk Cousins on his rookie contract is a good option for 2015.