Re: Concerns about the offense
 

I agree with the concern about Ramsey's deep throws, for this reason. Our wideouts are getting serious separation on those deep routes. Those should go for TDs. When a WR is 3-4 steps behind the D, you've got to hit it. We're are going to have lots of opportunities like that this year, if our running game looks like it did against Pitt. The play action on 1st-2nd down is going to be devastating. So Ramsey has to get that throw to work.

I agree with Matty that he's trying to adjust his deep ball and get more air under it--but it's time to get it to work! He more often overthrew the deep ball last year, if I recall correctly, so he's clearly got the arm, as we know. Let's just hope he finds the happy medium and starts hitting it. If he does, we're going to light it up.

The o-line looks great to me, and I'm not so worried about the depth issue, though our starters are obviously much stronger than the backups.

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

I don't think many will ever be happy. Is their something about finding something bad to say about the skins consistently in regards to Ramsey. The guy is performing much like your other quarterbacks in the league with an interception here and an interception there. Every interception that is thrown is considered a bad decision. Bad decisions are made by all the quarterbacks and the agressive defenses and blitzes create a problem for all quarterbacks when they are rushed. Ramsey can underthrow all day as long as he gives his receivers a chance to make a play on the long ball that we so desperarately missed last year. Many people would argue for a good quarterback those throws were great put where the reciever had a chance or only where the receiver could have gotten it. It would be ideal to hit receivers on the run, but it just does not happen that way all the time and never will. We will win a lot of games this year due to a greatly improved offense if we compare to last year and considering Gibbs still has plenty to show when the regular season opens. I feel good about our chances.

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

I agree that Ramsey is working on putting more air under his deep balls, so he is underthrowing a bit, but as we saw the WR's started adjusting better on Friday and coming back to the ball. They go over these plays every day in practice, so I'm sure that once Ramsey gets it down, they'll be right with him. Plus, a couple deep balls with only few or no YAC is better than no deep balls at all like last year!

On another note, I can't help but notice how our new receivers CATCH THE BALL! Practically anything close and they have it! Quite a nice change from "drop it like it's hot" Gardner, and "my toe hurts and now I jammed my finger" Coles! Thrash has always been very consistent too, not to mention Cooley.....VERY promising!!! :biggthump

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

[QUOTE=SkinsRock]I agree that Ramsey is working on putting more air under his deep balls, so he is underthrowing a bit, but as we saw the WR's started adjusting better on Friday and coming back to the ball. They go over these plays every day in practice, so I'm sure that once Ramsey gets it down, they'll be right with him. Plus, a couple deep balls with only few or no YAC is better than no deep balls at all like last year!

On another note, I can't help but notice how our new receivers CATCH THE BALL! Practically anything close and they have it! Quite a nice change from "drop it like it's hot" Gardner, and "my toe hurts and now I jammed my finger" Coles! Thrash has always been very consistent too, not to mention Cooley.....VERY promising!!! :biggthump[/QUOTE]

yeah, i'm a big fan of receivers that can catch... its a good quality to have, and something we should demand.

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

Don't get me wrong--I'm am not unhappy with Ramsey--he played a great game against Pitt and is going to lead us to lots of victories this year. All I'm saying is that he isn't hitting the deep ball yet (Moss did a fantastic job coming back to the ball on at least 2 plays), and when he does, he will really take us to the next level. The fly route is going to be there, and it needs to be hit properly--ie, hitting the WR in stride so they don't have to slow down. Given our speed, that's going to equal TDs, and it's going to put us over the 21 point mark on a regular basis. But it is not there yet, and it needs to be there soon! We'll be fine with passing like we saw against Pitt; but if PR hits the deep one right, we'll be a force.

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

gotta agree with jw here, his bombs aren't that great yet...

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

This is the first pre-season game I have seen this year. To make a long story short, I saw something I haven't seen in burgundy and gold in more than 10 years.............a damn football team! I thought the o-line was monstrous. Running game kicked ass. good protection for Ramsey. Defense will AGAIN be a Juggernaut. Lavar seemed to be everywhere. One more thing. Ramsey is a work in progress. He looked on the solid side of decent, nearly good!!! Much better than I expected. I might point out a dude named Joe Theisman sat the bench for numerous seasons, because he did stupid rookie stuff and could not get ahead of Billie Kilmer. So much for the short story

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

Good post, Hog1. I agree with you--been a while since we've seen it!

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

Didn't Ramsey have a problem with overthrowing in the past instead of underthrowing like he has this preseason? My guess is that he's over-compensating. Give him time, and he'll probably have it under control soon enough.

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

[QUOTE=paulskinsfan]After watching the Pittsburgh game for the 2nd time, I have some real concerns about our O this year. First off, Ramsey continues to underthrow his receivers. There were at least 2 long throws that became "jump balls" and easily could've been picks. IMO he continues to make poor decisions, even his completions make you hold your breath at times, Moss made a tremdous adjustment to come back to the ball once, and the td to Cooley was close to a pick as well. I think Gibbs' leash on Ramsey will be short this year, 2 bad games back to back and we could be right back to Brunnell. For some reason I get a pit in my stomach when I think of Ramsey facing the Dallas defense, in Dallas, on Monday night of week 2. Thankfully we open against Chicago and a rookie QB in week one.

Is anyone else concerned about our lack of depth on the O-line? They are playing awesome right now, but our depth seems really poor, and certainly there is a better backup center than Raymer available somewhere right now. Just some thoughts for discussion.[/QUOTE]

I get a 'pit in my stomach' no matter who's starting at QB for the Redskins against Dallas.

I think Ramsey's slowly improving with each performance. If he can just stop making stupid mistakes and throwing picks, he'll be OK with the help of a strong running game. Which by the way, is what we saw against Pittsburgh. For most of the game, the Skins O-line completely manhandled the Steelers.

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

Take it for what it's worth being that it's preseason, but the Skins are ranked #2 overall in total offense.

[url]http://www.nfl.com/stats/teamsort/NFL/OFF-TOTAL/2005/pre?sort_col_1=4[/url]

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]Take it for what it's worth being that it's preseason, but the Skins are ranked #2 overall in total offense.

[url]http://www.nfl.com/stats/teamsort/NFL/OFF-TOTAL/2005/pre?sort_col_1=4[/url][/QUOTE]

against defenses you'd hardly call "pushover". we may not be scoring enough yet, but we're moving the ball on the ground AND the air. thats 500% improvement anyway you look at it. plumb that stat a bit more and see we're #2 to last in penalty yards. even more improvement.

Re: Concerns about the offense
 

[QUOTE=illdefined]against defenses you'd hardly call "pushover". we may not be scoring enough yet, but we're moving the ball on the ground AND the air. thats 500% improvement anyway you look at it. plumb that stat a bit more and see we're #2 to last in penalty yards. even more improvement.[/QUOTE]

Good points.

I know it's the preseason, but I'm encouraged by these #'s.

It's a good start.