The Om Field: 2009 Redskins - One Split Second Away

[Om]

Have you seen this man?

(Photo by Brian Schurman)​

If you have seen him—sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating, ever the work-in-progress—the Redskins will remain what they have been for years … a team capable of beating the best in the NFL one week, and losing to the worst the next. A team that will, ultimately, fall short of expectation.

If you have not seen him, however, and the man wearing "17" in burgundy and gold jogging onto the field at Giants Stadium on September 13 turns out to be the guy they were talking about in Ashburn just a week ago … hold on to your hats.

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[Neophyte]

Nice read, brother. Maybe you have hit on something. Something in the same ballpark as what I was thinking a few days ago here. Something that I had forgotten myself over the last few days amid the hand wringing over the offensive line.

Namely, that with a few made plays by others the pressure on the O-line should lesson. Make a few defenses pay early and often for ignoring anything but pressure and containing Portis and they will then have to play honest. Making that happen starts with Campbell, as you have so capably noted.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Om]

Thanks Neo. I remember talking during the winning streak early last year about how Jason had finally forced defenses to play us honest again, and the result was startling. Portis had room to run. Jason had time to throw. Zorn had the luxury of dictating to the defense rather than the other way around.

Unfortunately, as the OL disintegrated around midseason, defenses were able to test Jason, and when push came to shove he was unable to meet the challenge.

As the season wore on, it became clearer and clearer that opposing coordinators were utterly unconcerned about exposing their secondaries by sending the house after Jason. And it wasn't just a matter of blitzing on passing downs either, I'm certain it was as sometimes as subtle as simply allowing their linemen the luxury of sacrificing some lane-management and run responsibility and simply going after the QB.

Couple Jason's inability to make them pay with the OL's inability to stop the bleeding, and 2-6 is the not-surprising result.

Until we find someone behind center (hopefully JC this season) who can burn a defense consistently even when his protection breaks down, we're going to remain treading water. Teams just don't built lines like the one we had in '91 very often. Nine sacks? Please.

QB's have to be able to out-think, out-quick and out-execute good defenses often enough to keep them honest. This year's Skins have the supporting pieces in place to be, if not a title contender, certainly a legitimate playoff contender. All that's missing from my point of view is a properly dialed-in trigger man.

 

[Pravda]

If Jason doesn't make it work this year, then I think a lot of the excuses for why he hasn't performed that well have to be dismissed in favor of an honest assessment that he just isn't that good of a quarterback.

I think this much is generally agreed by all his reviewers: He's not terrible, but he's not the second coming of any NFL great. At best, as I think he was during the 6-2 turnover free run last year, he was competent, not brilliant.

He's a good guy; he's done a lot for the Washington community, but he hasn't done anything to show that he's close to a Franchise Quarterback (and that's not to say that I think Colt Brennan or Todd Collins or Patrick Ramsey or Sage Rosenfels or anyone else is the answer). Some may even argue that his turnover-free run is as good as it gets.

I've never been sold on Campbell--and I think his defenders as well as his detractors will be a lot closer to having their arguments proved conclusively after this season: either Jason, in his contract year, shows us something he hasn't yet shown the fans or the Front Office, or he sinks to mediocrity again, which nearly all the excuses in the world, short of say, an unforeseeable injury, will prove somewhat more unequivocally that Jason, is not, in fact The Man.

 

[China]

I haven't seen him, but apparently someone from Warpath Confidential has:

Jason Campbell, Quarterback – Not

Campbell is the starting quarterback, and that won’t change anytime soon. However, Campbell has been late on a lot of throws this preseason, throwing behind receivers too often. As a result he has thrown more than his share of picks, as he did today on a ball that was thrown late to Antwaan Randle El. Randle El slipped on the route, but Justin Tryon had such good position because of the late throw that it may not have made a difference. Further, Campbell continues to check down too early and often. With this offensive line however, this may be understandable.

http://www.warpathconfidential.com/?p=420

The early returns don't look good. Sounds like he's still having the same problems of being slow, and thus late. Hopefully he can pick up the pace in the preseason games.

 

[Om]

I saw the same thing last week at camp, China. Jason still looks one split second late on his read/delivery. To what extent it has to do with early camp dynamics we won't begin to know until the preseason games under semi-live fire. If he still looks slow then, we'll be left with the hope that come the regular season, with full game-planning Zorn will be able to cover for JC enough to let the team succeed anyway.

Sigh.

 

[China]

I came across this in Jason's comments after the scrimmage:

In scrimmages it’s hard to get in the rhythm anyways, but I thought for the most part we made quick decisions and got the ball out of our hands.

If he thinks he's making quick decisions, despite evidence to the contrary that he is late with the ball, it doesn't bode well, as he doesn't seem to see the need to speed up his decision making process.