Redskins Paranoia?

[Bulldog]

Given the events of the past week plus it seems as if the Redskins collectively could use a few sessions on the psychotherapy couch.

A garrison state psychology has taken over this team and both coaches and players appear to be cracking under the pressure only 2 weeks into a 16 week season.

If this is Week 3 one can ask the question, what is this team going to look like against San Diego at the end of the tunnel?

Is anyone still going to be standing up, literally or figuratively?

Fan and media criticism at 1-1 is that loud? I didn't see any players jump out of a window in Detroit last year at 0-16. Nobody suffered a breakdown in KC leading up to 2-14.

But the Redskins are different. A team with a lot of preseason veteran swagger each year, but brittle. Susceptible to coming apart quickly when things don't go the team's way.

First, there was Robert Henson, soon to become a footnote in Redskins history for his use of Twitter which has helped put himself on the outs with not only fans but his owner by calling the paying customers 'dim wits' and 'people that work at McDonalds from 9 to 5' who 'don't make in a year what I make in a week'.

Ole Robert doesn't know the demographics of the people occupying the club boxes at Fed Ex Field

Then, there was Mike Sellers coming out and saying that the media here in DC is much too hard on the players and that a coach on the team told him things 'weren't like this in other cities where he had been'.

Really? I bet that coach hasn't spent time in New York or Philly

Sellers as a veteran should know better. Players never win a war of words against the amorphous 'fan politic' in the media. Their complaints and 'woe is me' only make them look smaller.

Wasn't this a guy that just dropped a TD pass that could have done a lot to help shake some of the pressure off his quarterback?

How about just taking responsibility for that mistake and shutting up until redeeming yourself against Detroit?

It is said that people take cues from those in a leadership position.

If that's true, the example of Jim Zorn is not one that is going to lead to positive results here in quick order.

Zorn is a rare combination of projected confidence and masked anxiety.

His post-game interviews with Sonny Jurgensen are becoming the stuff of legend. Some day they may rival Frost-Nixon and merit their own movie deal.

In these sessions that date back to the preseason, Jurgensen has continually asked Zorn about the lack of scoring and as each week has passed Jim has gotten more and more defensive even though it is obvious to anyone what questions he can expect based upon what his team is doing on the field.

And you would think he would come up with some answers that at least served to maintain a plausible dialogue. Some insights on personnel or the actions of the other team that prevented some big plays from being made.

But what do we get?

Sonny: Didn't score any touchdowns today, Coach.
Zorn: Thank You. Yes, I know. Going to work harder on that.

Sonny: The halfback option - do you really feel it was the best call to make inside the 10 yard line?
Zorn: We had it in our playbook.
Sonny: But it didn't work. The Rams had it defended.
Zorn: I know it didn't work. But we diagram the plays to work. We expect them to work.

In my opinion, Zorn is VERY close to crumbling under the stress and coming out with the ultimate Marty-ism from 2001:

WHAT WE DO WORKS!

And the rejoinder would be the same now that it was then:

THEN SHOW US BECAUSE IT'S NOT WORKING NOW

 

[Bulldog]

You are quite correct in that the Redskins are the Show here in DC and the following of the Caps and Wizards is passionate but exponentially smaller.

Which makes Snyder's high stakes game of chicken with the fans potentially explosive.

Instead of hiring a solid proven OC or DC and building quietly through the draft witha veteran GM, Snyder has infused hope and hype with the "big signing" and trading draft picks for veterans.

Except after 10 years the club is still an 8-8 afterthought in the NFL.

No division titles since 1999. One playoff win since 2000.

The current players are facing the accumulated frustrations of fans and media.

Zorn and the players perhaps not unexpectedly are not handling it well.
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[Hog Fever]

Yeah, it’s not fair for this group of players and coaches to be held accountable for the sins of past coaches, players and organization as a whole. Still, it is what it is. The players need to suck it up and play. The coaches need to coach. If they do that to the best of their ability that’s all I or anyone else can ask. I don’t think that’s happening though and a lot of folks agree. Year after year the expectations for the team are fueled by the Redskin’s hype machine, management, coaches and players. I guess all teams are guilty of that to one degree or another. Gotta sell those season tickets you know.

My expectations are not out of line. They’re certainly not out of line with the expectations the team creates for itself year after year. It’s early in the season and there are a lot of twists and turns to come. Most of us agreed that this was about a .500 team this year and would take a lot of things to go right to have a sniff of the playoffs. That would mean 7 more weeks of general happiness and 7 more weeks of being disappointed to some degree. I still feel that way. I’m going to try to stay as mellow as I can and try to keep things in perspective. It’s getting harder to do that though.

The booing last Sunday was as much for a decade of futility for the whole organization as it was for a sloppy win against the Rams. The fans in DC WANT to have a reason to cheer so badly. Maybe we were spoiled but the decade of success under Gibbs but I don’t think that explains everything. A lot of fans are too young to even remember that era. I’m convinced the fans here would be willing to endure a year or two of rebuilding if they thought there was a plan in place for sustained success. The frustration comes form seeing management repeating the same mistakes over and over with players and coaches. If it weren’t for the Gibbs return the coaching situation in DC would be a complete joke. Zorn is a good guy and I’m rooting for him, but he seems like he’s over his head. Most people would be. It takes a special type of person to run a football team. Until he starts winning and some of the front office issues are resolved there is always going to be an undercurrent of frustration from the fan base just waiting for an excuse to come to the surface.

The Caps are a fantastic example of the right way to do things. They made a Stanley Cup appearance a few years ago when Peter Bondra and Olie Kolzig were the center pieces of an older team. They could have kept throwing money at an old team in order to stay competitive but they were never going to be able to have sustained success because old players simply break down at some point. That doesn’t even bring into consideration the cost. They blew it all up and built through the draft. The result: a team that has one of the best young players in the game and is absolutely loaded with young talent. They should be good for the foreseeable future. It doesn’t guarantee a title but they have put themselves in a perfect position to contend year in and year out. That’s how to do it. The crowds were a little smaller for a couple of years but now….good luck getting playoff tickets.

The Skins, as we all know, have gone a different way. They like to keep the buzz going with big name players. Those big names come with big expectations that can almost never live up to the hype. When that happens, fans feel cheated or mislead. Things that fans don’t pay any attention to when the team is winning become huge issues: Parking, vending costs, season ticket issues, rowdy fans, fans who don’t get rowdy enough and yes, the coaches and players. If the team wants to pursue this line of building a team and hiring coaches……ok. Just don’t be shocked when you are questioned when your plans don’t work out. Make these mistakes long enough and I might decide to boo some. Keep doing it and I might just find something else to do on Sundays. That’s not a threat I make lightly, I just have my limits.

It’s almost like watching Gilligan’s Island. You KNOW they aren’t getting off the freakin island. I want this team to build a boat and get the hell off the island. I’m tired of the re-runs.

 

[Jimbo]

I thought "What we do works" was a Norv-ism. Either way, Zorn continuously proves he's in over his head. Why not just say, "We thought sure it would work but the Rams did a nice job defending it". Maybe a little more coachspeak and a little less defensiveness and duncity would go a long way.

 

[Hog Fever]

I thought "What we do works" was a Norv-ism. Either way, Zorn continuously proves he's in over his head. Why not just say, "We thought sure it would work but the Rams did a nice job defending it". Maybe a little more coachspeak and a little less defensiveness and duncity would go a long way.

Good point. I tell my kids the same thing. "When I bust you for doing something don't try to shuck and jive me. I can smell BS. Just admit it, say you're sorry it's not going to happen again and move on." I can take that a lot better than all the drama.

 

[Boone]

I don't have many rules, but any post where you can work a 'Gilligan's Island' analogy into the conversation, that's an automatic BGO Overdrive nomination

Nice Hog ...

And yeah, I think 'what we do works' was Norv...

 

[Bulldog]

We shall see but Zorn wasn't able to rally his troops last year in winnable games against Dallas, Cincinnati and SF.

I see the same "winning is hard" and "every week the other team plays to win too" garbage that used to be a staple when Norv was coaching here.

By the time folks had stopped making excuses for Norv we had lost almost 7 years of our lives!
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[Pravda]

I wonder whether the players can take someone like Zorn seriously...

They aren't oblivious to his credentials (or lack thereof) and they all know at the end of the day that they are getting paid almost irrespective of what happens on the field.

You think someone who's idea of a rallying cry is "Hip, Hip, Hooray" (what century is it?) is someone that 20-something millionaires are going to buy into?

Nope--

And the thorough disingeniousness displayed in the face of the Culter/Sanchez fiasco coupled with the current confidence-gap in Campbell only goes to undermine whatever faith the other players might have in Zorn--

Are you going to believe or be inspired by a guy who gives you nothing but praise and support to your face, but then does nearly everything in his power to get someone else to do your job and then, with that doesn't work out, takes the power for you to execute your job out of your hands?!

Campbell is not going to be the only one affected by this.

The players' professionalism notwithstanding, there's no way other players aren't looking at Campbell's situation and thinking "that could have been me" or "that could be me next."

That's not how you build confidence in the coach or foster a confident, winning team.

 

[Elephant]

We shall see but Zorn wasn't able to rally his troops last year in winnable games against Dallas, Cincinnati and SF.

I see the same "winning is hard" and "every week the other team plays to win too" garbage that used to be a staple when Norv was coaching here.

By the time folks had stopped making excuses for Norv we had lost almost 7 years of our lives!
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And a long 7 years it was. Do you guys think Danny is foolish enough to fire him if we lose Sunday? I have been asked that question a lot the past few days by fans of other teams.

I don't think he would, but I have heard a lot of negative press on Zorn.