Hail To The Redskins

[W. Unseld]

Brandon Jacobs is a beast. I'm kicking myself for not keeping him in a fantasy league. He used to run upright which subjected him to fumbles and injuries but I think he's running lower these days.

We all know Zorn shouldn't be in this position. With that said, the WC offense generally takes 2 years to learn. We all know Snyder doesn't have the patience for that. I guess what I'm trying to say is I could patiently wait and give the guy time to rebuild IF I thought Snyder would actually wait for it to lead anything. My guess is we spend next draft, just like this draft (3 tall WR picks in the 2nd round w/glaring needs on defense) trying to make the team into a WC team, only to start over as soon as some big name expresses interest in coaching here. I could handle a rebuilding effort if I thought they were actually heading towards something but I just know Snyder will scrap it all in 1-2 years and start over.

[LyricalRico]

A few thoughts:

- Zorn is out of his league.
- Campbell doesn't know the offense.
- The offensive line is Charmin soft.
- Cooley can't block.
- Jason Taylor will be run on all year.
- Carlos Rogers is worse than last year.
- Justin Tryon snuck on the field wearing a Smoot jersey.
- Landry isn't anywhere near game shape.
- Reed Doughty is to safeties what Brian Leonard is to RBs.
- We kept the wrong punter.

Last night was truly Spurrier-esque. Mass confusion, bad play calling, and soft play on both sides of the ball. It's going to be a long year, folks. A very long year.

Oh and the Giants really aren't that good. They should have killed us by at least 3 touchdowns. Eli is going to have a horrible TD/INT ratio this year. At least it looks like they won't miss a beat with Kiwanuka at end.

[W. Unseld]

Unfortunately, all of this makes way too much sense:
Vinny takes over the team and decides they will be a WC offense (he hired his WC guru before hiring the head coach only to make him head coach).
Jason Campbell was brought in for a vertical offense. Gibbs fell in love w/him b/c his big arm and 7 step drops reminded him of Doug Williams.
It will take at least 4 years to dig out of this if JC isn't the right qb for the offense:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redski ... .html#more

[LyricalRico]

Colt Brennan anyone?

[yungal07]

Yea, because it would be a great idea to throw a 7th round rookie quarterback into the starting lineup after week 1...

[Donkey McDonkerton]

Yea, because it would be a great idea to throw a 7th round rookie quarterback into the starting lineup after week 1...

EJ >>> JZ

[pancakes3]

6th round qb, and oh how quickly we have forgotten todd collins.

[W. Unseld]

6th round qb, and oh how quickly we have forgotten todd collins.

Collins made infinite sense when we were running Saunders offense, since he could run it to near perfection. From what I've seen of him so far in the WC, he's not all that comfortable either.

[LyricalRico]

^ I'm listening to 980 and they're saying that Reed Doughty has a hearing impairment. WTF? The guy is already undersized and short on athleticism. If he can't hear, why is he a starting FS in the NFL? People with disabilities shouldn't be denied jobs they can do because they are disabled. But if your disability prevents you from being able to do the job, you shouldn't be taking the place of somebody that is qualified to do that job.

They also had a caller bring up the point of why didn't Jason Campbell know to call a time out or to hurry up the offense when the situation called for it? I mean, he's been a QB all his life and if fans know that after completing a pass for a first down near the red zone with a minute left on the clock you should call a time out, why doesn't he just do it instinctively?

The point that was made was: "Is Campbell being micromanaged by Zorn?" We saw Spurrier try to live vicariously through his QBs. Could Zorn have the same mindset? Maybe Campbell is so over-coached by Zorn that he feels like he can't make a move without asking Zorn first. Maybe that's why he's focusing on one receiver because he knows how what his coach wants to happen on a particular play and if it's not there he doesn't want to do something else because he wants to please his overbearing coach.

[Skins 2008]

Stop with the Colt Brennan talk what he did in the preseason was nice but it was against guys who are not in the NFL anymore he isn't ready. I say we give Jason more time he has had to learn 4 systems in 5 years give him a break and besides I'm sure he will be much better against the Saints next Sunday he can't play any worse then he did yesterday.

[Higga]

Campbell is the root of our problems. We all saw it last year. With Campbell we were a 5-7 mediocre football team. Collins comes in and we suddenly win four straight and all by double digit points while putting up 21+ points in all four games. If Collins had started all last year we win 11+ games easy.

Unfortunately Collins won't be as effective this year with a new offense and Brennan, while talented, is still very raw. As bad as Campbell is he may still give us the best shot to win...ugh this is going to be a long season.

Defense did play well in the 2nd half though and our Special Teams was excellent. Zorn is going to have to reshape this team around the running game and grinding out drives on Offense while hoping the Defense can stay healthy enough to force stops and get takeaways and the Special Teams maintains solid field position. Only chance we have at a respectable season. Really sucks when your QB is hamstringing the team so badly.

[Dat2U]

Unfortunately, all of this makes way too much sense:
Vinny takes over the team and decides they will be a WC offense (he hired his WC guru before hiring the head coach only to make him head coach).
Jason Campbell was brought in for a vertical offense. Gibbs fell in love w/him b/c his big arm and 7 step drops reminded him of Doug Williams.
It will take at least 4 years to dig out of this if JC isn't the right qb for the offense:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redski ... .html#more

Man this is so dead on it isn't even funny.

I honestly think Campbell is a lost cause if he's going to be forced to play in the WCO. He's not made for it. Physically, he can make all the adjustments he wants, quicken his release, shorten his strides...etc. However, he just doesn't read & react quick enough to be effective. Jason is just an ol' country boy. A heckuva nice guy and a hard worker, but he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He processes things too slowly. He was okay to decent in Gibbs system, but he's going to be overmatched in the WCO, because the system requires the QB to think quick on his feet.

This all goes back to possibly the worst football mind of our generation outside of Matt Millen, and that's Vinny "The Snake" Cerrato. Cerrato doesn't have a **** clue of what he's doing. Of course, he sees a bright young guy like Zorn and likes the WCO but never gives a thought that the personnel on the roster is a terrible match for that system. He acquires players like he's drafting for his fantasy league. You'd think he'd learn something over the years after making one horrible personnel decision after another. But he's so friggin stubborn he just doesn't get it. You think somewhere along the line, a bright guy like Snyder would finally realize "this guy is never right, and all our moves backfire year after year", but for some reason Cerrato is allowed to have a job in the NFL that doesn't involve wiping the **** out someone else's ass.

This organization is basically dead in the water until the day Cerrato leaves Redskins Park for good.

[lupin]

I thought JC played in a WCo in his last year at Auburn. Didn't he do well then?

Something I read on the Webskins mailing list (good place) was that they should stop trying to run Portis straight up the gut like he's built like Brandon Jacobs or someone. They need to run him more outside, let him create something.

[LyricalRico]

I thought JC played in a WCo in his last year at Auburn. Didn't he do well then?

I think that a lot of times people look at an offensive coordinator's background and if he comes from the "West Coast Tree" they call his offense the West Coast Offense. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the coach is going to be a pure WC guy who doesn't augment his system for his personnel.

From what I remember of Campbell's run with Auburn that last year, he was a play action QB. They had two stud running backs and they would get going before Campbell would play-fake and launch a bomb. That's why Gibbs was so enamored with him because he saw the kid doing exactly what he wanted out of his own QBs.

Maybe there were some short passes mixed in there somewhere in that Auburn offense. Maybe they practiced some WC stuff that never made it into the games. But what he ran didn't look like what I'm used to seeing from guys like Hasselbeck, Garcia, and McNabb. I'm sure some of the basic principles of Zorn's offense sounded familiar but I don't think he was asked to do even half of what Zorn want him to do now when he was at Auburn.

Something I read on the Webskins mailing list (good place) was that they should stop trying to run Portis straight up the gut like he's built like Brandon Jacobs or someone. They need to run him more outside, let him create something.

I was under the impression that they were going to run a zone blocking scheme for Portis (similar to what he saw in Denver) but again the problem goes to personnel. The Denver line was much more mobile than the Skins current group. We've got some straight ahead "maulers", but no "dancers" as Jamie Dukes would say. So maybe they tried to implement more runs to the outside but the O-line just couldn't do it.

Again, another example of the system being the wrong fit for the players. It's going to be interesting how this plays out come the offseason. Either Snyder's going to have to take the fall for hiring Zorn or Vinny's going to take the fall for not building a team that fits the coach. Of course we know who will win that battle. But could Danny Boy really fire his loyal caddy? Like I said, it's going to be interesting.

[pancakes3]

As poorly as our offense did perform, I didn't see a reason for benching Campbell and didn't see him react slowly, or being totally overwhelmed. Yes the 2 minute drill was botched, but being down by 9 makes running the 2 minute an exercise in futility and you could see it in Zorn and Campbell's eyes. They were going for the score, to cut into the margin, and to save a little face.

There were a few drops, most notably one late to santana, and then another one to kelly sometime in the 3rd, which i'm going to attribute the former to trying to do too much, and the latter to nerves. Campbell played very conservatively and checked down quickly to crossing routes instead of making a ton of gamble plays, though he did air it out on a few exceptions.

Portis looks healthy but he is running differently. He seems to be overguarding the ball, if that can happen. Even when he's out in space, he's still covering up in front rather than tucking it away on the side and slowing him down. Maybe he had a few fumbles in practice and now it's in his head? Also, though he did through a nice chip block, is it necessary to keep him and cooley in as blockers? Can you run a west coast with only 3 receivers? With our personelle shouldn't there be a TE seam and a TB flare on every other play?

I thought with consensus that Betts is a good running back, he'd get more carries than the 1 carry he got. maybe it's because there weren't enough touches to go around. we could not convert on 3rd down and that was probably the key to the game. The G-men ran 67 plays to our 51, so the won on time of possession and offense that way. Zorn should be drilling the 5-6 yard hitch/out and quick slant this week.

Another interesting bit of monday morning quarterbacking reveals objectively that we could not handle their offensive line. Our D-Line was nowhere to be found on the tackle list. Though Fletcher did rack up an impressive 17 tackles, 12 of those were solo, which meant the ball carrier had broken through the defensive line. Rocky M had 6 out of 8 solo tackles. Our DEs had less combined tackles than Smoot, our 2nd leading tackler.

So in summary, D-Line needs to wake up, Campbell and the receivers need to shake off their poor/mediocre performance, Cooley needs more touches, Portis needs to show some speed, and catch some balls (preferably not delay dump offs for 2 yard gains and getting smeared by MLBs)

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Jesus, haven't we needed to upgrade the d-line for like three years now? What is the matter with these people? And now we need help on the o-line as well.

[pancakes3]

the meteoric, brady-esque rise of matt cassel. i've seen this scenario played out before. maybe we can pick brady up like dallas picked up bledsoe.

[lupin]

Very detailed defensive breakdown of the game.
http://www.postgameheroes.com/?p=3227

[LyricalRico]

the meteoric, brady-esque rise of matt cassel. i've seen this scenario played out before. maybe we can pick brady up like dallas picked up bledsoe.

Nah, Brady is in his prime. If Cassel blows up they can just trade him for picks and resume their dominance with Brady next year. If Brady was a lot older or if this was like his 5th major injury then maybe they would think about it. But at this point I see no reason to expect Brady to be anything other than a Patriot next year.

[Wizards2Lottery]

I don't know who sucks more. Pete Kendall or Casey Rabach. Rinehart will most likely replace Kendall and we should cut Rabach next year.

Frankly, I think Randy Thomas is overrated too. We never convert short yardage runs.