Next Day Thread: That Saint Pretty

Voice_of_Reason said:
The second halves have been a problem, no doubt.

I do wonder how much of that is what they’re doing, and how much is bad luck. For whatever reason, I feel like they’ve had some just bad luck in second halves.

But we’ll see. They need to play 60 minutes of football. They haven’t really done that in a while.
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For sure, there's always an element of luck in games, but IMO this is much more of a pattern than what bad luck alone could accomplish. I think part of it is that when teams make adjustments at halftime, we don't seem to do the same and simply keep using the same tactics, even if they're no longer working. Not sure if that's lack of preparation/innovation on Kliff's part or just plain hubris.
 
I wouldn't worry too much. The 2nd half was just kinda wacky. We had penalties take away scores. The Saints got two iffy roughing the passer penalties and a ticky tack penalty on a 3rd and 10 stop. JD missed a wide open McLaurin bomb.

Having Biadasz be a last minute(literally) scratch had a huge effect. We had to put a backup C in who had no practice reps. Biadasz is the one who calls all our protections and gets our OL in position and not having him clearly threw the guys off. I wouldn't anticipate this being anissue moving forward.

Lattimore makes a huge impact on how our D can play. He literally took away 1/3 to 1/2 of the field away. With that said, we'll see how much it matters in the next three(possibly more) games against teams that will have much more potent WRs. If not for penalties and some fluky big plays with a QB chance we probably pitch a shutout.

We were the better team. We deserved the W and we got it. Move on to Philly.
 
burgold said:
Amen, Kdawg.

One thing I was thinking about while people are groaning about us barely being the Saints is that Kansas City barely beat the Panthers. Yes, I know we are no Chiefs, but that makes the point. If the class of the league can struggle against the league's worst then a developing team can too. What's important is earning or lucking your way out of that rough game. We did it and that's what teams learning to be good need to do.
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Also the Eagles barely beat the Browns, Jags, and Panthers.
 
I kind of disagree that we have no business being 9-5. We can not underestimate what a difference a guy like Jayden Daniels makes. His passing will make even average receivers productive, he is constantly avoiding sacks and picking up first downs with his feet. Those are the plays that wins games.
 
Have we posted the PFF grades for the OL? I watched a bit of the center on passing downs and he was mostly helping and I did not see a lot of head to head losses. Wondering if his play was a big reason for the struggles.
 
Darrell Green Fan said:
I kind of disagree that we have no business being 9-5. We can not underestimate what a difference a guy like Jayden Daniels makes. His passing will make even average receivers productive, he is constantly avoiding sacks and picking up first downs with his feet. Those are the plays that wins games.
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I'm with you. The reality is that except for maybe Tampa and Philly, we've been in and competitive or ahead in all the games we've played. Where we suffer is that we're not good enough to ever play conservative. When we do and try to nurse a lead (whether on offense or defense) we let the other team storm back. For example, against the Saints, I read in the Post that we stopped blitzing almost entirely in the second half so part of the reason Ratler did well was we never tried to rattle him as we did with Haener.
 
Chris said:
There is one viable reason that the team has won 9 games, the schedule.

Arizona 7-7
Cincinnati 6-8
New Orleans 5-9
Chicago 4-9
Carolina 3-11
Cleveland 3-11
Tennessee 3-11
NYG 2-12
NYG 2-12

They took advantage of the opportunities that the schedule provided and proved that, even though they are ahead of schedule, they have a considerable way to go to become what they and all of us want them to become.
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Darrell Green Fan said:
I kind of disagree that we have no business being 9-5. We can not underestimate what a difference a guy like Jayden Daniels makes. His passing will make even average receivers productive, he is constantly avoiding sacks and picking up first downs with his feet. Those are the plays that wins games.
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Yeah I don’t totally agree either with the schedule…every week in the NFL any team can win specially if the refs are off their games.

Also, go back to the Ravens game, up till this season that’s a game we lose 45-10 or worse… our worse loss this season is by far the Cowboys game… the Steelers game if Ertz goes past the 1st down marker who knows how that ends….but we were in the game the entire time.

I get the easy schedule thing, I truly do but every team has some cup cakes and those are the games good teams are suppose to win, even if ugly like this past Sunday against the Saints.

I do thing Daniels and so many other additions has truly flourished above anyone’s expectations this early
 
Interesting nugget- Philadelphia & Detroit are both 12-2. Philadelphia & Detroit both lost to Tampa Bay.
 
In no way did I imply that we have no business being 9-5. We are 9-5 because we have played a very easy schedule and beaten the teams we should have (-Dallas).

This is borne out by the fact that Washington currently has the 3rd lowest Strength of Victory (winning % of teams defeated) in the NFL.

32. Carolina Panthers- .214
31. Cincinnati Bengals- .226
30. Washington- .278
 
So, my quibble with the "we beat teams we should have beaten" line is we were 4-13 last season. There isn't a single team in the NFL that we "should" have beaten. There is no such thing as an easy schedule for a 4-13 season. There was literally only one team worse than us. So, there were no gimmees for us.

The fact that we now think of these games as ones we should win is a sign that we have been elevated at least to the good ranks. Something we were not. We were everyone's cupcake last year. Arguably, we were most teams "get right team" for the past three years.
 
This is not last year’s team by every factor possible, led by the fact that the team has an NFL QB.

It’s not an apples to apples comparison.
 
We are not last year's team. We are now a good team. regardless of the schedule or the weakness of the opponent. We have elevated. Last year's team facing this same schedule would have been lucky to pull out five wins.

I just don't like the way we put asterisks on our season. We have come very far. We moved from the second worst team in the league to the upper middle or the lower band of the very good. We can take a punch from a Superbowl contender and keep our feet. We aren't ready to floor them yet without a little luck, but it's okay to credit us and not diminish how far we have come and who we are now.

It's also okay to say we are an unfinished product and need better talent, but I'm proud of how this team has scrapped to remake itself. I'm proud of the way these castoffs and blue collar signings have overproduced and overcome. We're not there, but we are what our record says we are.

No asterisks needed. No disclaimers or excuses for winning required.
 
It’s not an asterisk. It’s simply a statistical fact. I get your point, this is a vastly improved team, no question.
 
burgold said:
I'm with you. The reality is that except for maybe Tampa and Philly, we've been in and competitive or ahead in all the games we've played. Where we suffer is that we're not good enough to ever play conservative. When we do and try to nurse a lead (whether on offense or defense) we let the other team storm back. For example, against the Saints, I read in the Post that we stopped blitzing almost entirely in the second half so part of the reason Ratler did well was we never tried to rattle him as we did with Haener.
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They were never in the Tampa game, or the Ravens game for that matter. But they were up 12-10 in the 2nd half with the ball in Eagles territory, they were most certainly in that game until the Eagles blew it open late.
 
burgold said:
We are not last year's team. We are now a good team. regardless of the schedule or the weakness of the opponent. We have elevated. Last year's team facing this same schedule would have been lucky to pull out five wins.

I just don't like the way we put asterisks on our season. We have come very far. We moved from the second worst team in the league to the upper middle or the lower band of the very good. We can take a punch from a Superbowl contender and keep our feet. We aren't ready to floor them yet without a little luck, but it's okay to credit us and not diminish how far we have come and who we are now.

It's also okay to say we are an unfinished product and need better talent, but I'm proud of how this team has scrapped to remake itself. I'm proud of the way these castoffs and blue collar signings have overproduced and overcome. We're not there, but we are what our record says we are.

No asterisks needed. No disclaimers or excuses for winning required.
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It's not an asterisks so much as an extra level to the discussion. No one is taking wins away or trying to give Washington's playoff spot to a team with a worse record. The easy schedule is just PART of the discussion. It's not something people need to take personally. Washington is going to get a shot to win playoff games against good teams in about a month.
 
Awesome write up 👏 . Appreciate the reality-based optimism. I will note that it’s Marshon and not Marcus
 
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