Random Commanders Thoughts

So, now having fully awoken from my Game induced coma (due to me being up till 4am and then getting up again at 6am to go to work!) I've been reflecting on the game.

I'm gonna fill this post with sunny optimism so here goes.

Many people are jumping on the Eagles bandwagon and proclaiming them as the best team in the league. So if that is true... then the only games we've lost are against the Eagles and the Chiefs... who could very well be the Superbowl opponents from each division this year. What's more we played them close despite being beaten up in the worst way, especially this weeks game.

Our O-line has now lost Scherf, Williams and Moses (or if not lost, they are MORE than a little banged up!) Scherf is getting his knee MRI'd this week but it could keep him out a while, Moses has BOTH ankles sprained and Williams is struggling to warrior his way through his Patella injury. The fact our line looked anywhere close to decent last night is a miracle.

Flip that to the D, our line is missing Allen, but even without him we got pressure on. We were in pretty good shape till the injury bug hit. At one point last night we were without Norman, Breeland, Moreau and Holsay. Our Secondary being held together with spit and duct tape and the efforts of Dunbar and Swearinger.

So I'm actually enjoying the fact that we're competitive even with injuries EVERYWHERE! Just think what we could do if we were healthy across the board!

Which brings me to my ray of sunshine.

How many times have we seen teams start fast and stumble during the season? Going deep into the playoffs is all about peaking at the right time.
Can the Beagles and the Chefs sustain this all season? Can they avoid the injury bug themselves? Or are they peaking too soon?

As for the Skins, our offense is misfiring, our D is banged up. But like we saw in 2012... don't count us out.

Reed and Doctson started to show life on the heart monitor yesterday. Fat Rob is back! Thompson is still a beast and even Crowder had a moment. And I've not given up on Pryor just yet, there's time for him to be something to this team.

Here's hoping our O-Line might be able to get a little time to recover, and gives our second stringers some valuable game reps. Norman will be back in the next couple of weeks and we'll also get DHall back (Much as he might be done right now, you can't say our secondary couldn't use a little help!).

We've played the 7th hardest schedule in the league with a banged up team, losing key blue chip players and with new pieces trying to find their groove on both sides of the ball. We're 3-3 despite all this, and hopefully can get healthier and play into form as other teams go over their peak and decline.

Plus we don't have to face Houdini at QB again.

One thing that might help Crowder get back to being productive would be to finally, and permanently, take away punt return duty.

Save for 1 TD and a handful of decent returns since he started doing it, the guy is not good at it.

Has had trouble fielding the ball since the beginning. Our return game, sucks, to put it nicely. He needs to concentrate on being a receiver, only.

I don't think the team played it close last night. Take away the late game window dressing TD and our scoring was doubled. Wentz is going to be a monster when he learns how to play the position and be a pain in our ass for more than a decade. He is a bigger, stronger, and faster Roger Staubach.

Ax said:

Our guys need everything to go as planned to win. Their guys make things happen.

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Easiest, most simple way to put it. We have a HC who can't motivate and neither he nor the QB can improvise. This FO in its basic structure has had four years to get right and the team still isn't good enough to be real good or bad enough to put it in a position to get better. Injuries? Sure... everyone has them. The Eagles lost Jason Peters for the season. It'll affect them, but it won't kill them. The Skins just can't seem to get the right combination of anything and the Eagles have done it in under two years.

The apathy has finally settled in for me. As long as this ownership group and this FO are what they are, it'll truly never change.

Nick

We have enough playmakers to beat anybody. And I know we're not out of anything at this point.

But the two most important positions, HC & QB, are manned by reliably inconsistent men.

Gruden has shown, to date, more Norval traits than I care to see. Every time I want to think he's turning a corner, he demonstrates that he's earned no benefit of doubt.

Same for Spurt. All he's ever done is show he can put up fancy numbers.
He still wilts in the big games. I couldn't care less about stats.

Seems like there is some consternation between Jay and Cousin Kirk. Not sure is this has anything to do with last night or if this has been brewing for a while.

Enforcer said:

Also, Pryor can be benched. Even when he came in - he promptly dropped 2 passes. Just activate Quick/Harris.

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Harris, yes.
Pryor has been the biggest disappointment. How do you go from the those monster numbers in 2016 on the worst team in the league, with 6 different and brand new, and inferior QB's throw in at you - to being invisible for 6 games ? When that happens, you can't use "familiarity with the offense" or "chemistry with Kirk" as a reasoning for failure.
He's either been "figured out" by defenses or he's slacking. Probably the latter, due to all the dropped passes.
Harris would catch those passes. Harris would have better numbers by now. Harris has about the same size. And Harris is clutch.
Having Harris and Grant on the field at the same time would make us solid. And then add in Doctson for big play threat, since he's starting to come around.

Burgundy Burner said:

Seems like there is some consternation between Jay and Cousin Kirk. Not sure is this has anything to do with last night or if this has been brewing for a while.

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What's the basis for this BB - haven't seen anything myself?

I get the disappointment over last night's showing. Where I part ways with the vast majority here is that the season is lost. We're .500 after a brutally tough opening schedule. We've had what could only be called devastating losses on our defense, and now are very banged up on the OL as well. We got beat by arguably the best team in the NFL right now on their home turf (just like 5 other teams so far this season - including the Chargers, Cardinals, and Panthers in the weeks previous).

I don't believe:

- This is just more evidence of a doomed franchise. We're drafting better, playing more consistently competitively, have better QB play than in decades.

- Gruden is a bad coach. On the contrary, he's turned the franchise around. We're not there yet, and yes, he is still a work in progress. But I love his 'tude and these guys play hard for him.

- The season is over. Honestly, that kind of prediction is just disrespectful to the fight our guys have shown over the past 3 seasons. In 2015, we started 2-4 and got beaten by 2 TDs, not by the best team in the NFL, but by the NY Jets. We turned it around and won the division that year. I don't know what Philly will do from here on out, but I know that we are far from 'done' after just 6 games.

Boone said:

What's the basis for this BB - haven't seen anything myself?

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Perhaps from this snippet in the new ESPN the Magazine article? Although no definitive time was given for the quotes-

If he does have a weakness, it's that he's too much of a perfectionist," Gruden says. "He wants everything to be perfect. Unfortunately, I can't get guys 30 f---ing yards open all the time. There are going to be some tight-window throws he's going to have to throw some days. I'll call some of these in practice, and if it doesn't look exactly the way I drew it up, he'll [say], 'I don't know if I like that. I can't call it in a game.' I'm like, 'Bud, c'mon.'"

Cousins chuckled when told of Gruden's comments. "If I played the way Jay is suggesting," he says, "I'd throw 20 interceptions a year, and I wouldn't last. I know my limitations."

Seems like pretty minor stuff to me...certainly not anything that rises to the level of a rift or real tension...my opinion.

Sounds like a frustrated coach, and I've wondered if the lack of receiver involvement is Kirk being unwilling to risk it. You throw into tight spots and a db makes a great play on it that's ok. Just don't through picks due to boneheaded decisions. That's where it's hard to know from watching on the TV. Never really see what's developed on the filed as whole.

Anything is possible and we certainly have a nasty slate of competition in front of us.

On the bright side, our combined 3 losses have all come to the two teams with the best records in the league.

Funny, when I read that quote earlier today I thought it was fairly tongue in cheek and not serious.

Spurt does not have good anticipation. Many times he's late with the pass. Sure, they get there. But if he got it there on time, it would go for more yardage. On long balls, he often waits until the guy is completely open before he throws. Forcing the receiver to wait on the ball. Often having to break stride, and allowing defenders to make it closer than it should have been. That's what playing under the tag does, I guess. He's so worried about throwing picks, knowing it'll screw up the big contract, that he waits too long to let it go. He also seems to not see the whole field very well. There are open receivers that he fails to see. Sure, all QB's miss seeing open guys. But Spurt seems above average when it come to missing the open guy. I've heard Gruden say as much, in so many words, during a lot press conferences. He tries to encourage Spurt to just let it fly. But he can't, or won't.

He has the rest of this season to start doing so. Or he'll be somewhere else next season.

McD5 said:

Anything is possible and we certainly have a nasty slate of competition in front of us.

On the bright side, our combined 3 losses have all come to the two teams with the best records in the league.

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It's all about geography, man.
All 3 wins have been against West Coast teams.
All 3 losses have been against non-West Coast teams.
So we probably lose against Dallas, then go and beat Seattle.