First of all, these guys said it would take Joe Gibbs LONGER to get this team turned around, but they’re not saying that Gibbs can’t do it. The only ones I have heard that said the game has passed Gibbs by is Terry Bradshaw (and anybody would be a fool to believe what he says), and the media.
Secondly, just because I am backing my coach up does not mean it’s a suggestion of my following Joe Gibbs blindly. It also does not point to my refusal to look upon the coach as objectively as I can be. I have stated and admitted over and over again that Gibbs has made mistakes – plenty of them. Gibbs has been out of coaching for 12 years, so I give him a year to play a little trial and error. By the second year, I believe a coach knows what he has as far as players and he sees what adjustments should be made in the system. I have all the confidence in the world that Gibbs is smart enough to see both and make the proper changes.
Thirdly, I do not get this crap about being “blinded with optimism.” I just treat that as some sort of cop out or inability to exhibit patience. The closer you get to thirty and beyond, the more you’ll come to appreciate a little patience. Knowing we have an older coach who will have an agonizing amount of it, we as fans have to realize that is how he is going to dictate his team. The “win now at all cost” just is not long term, and I would much rather go through the growing pains we are facing right now and have a team that will play solid and perform at a high level season in and season out, than to have one year of a good team and continue as a losing franchise the next season. And, going back to looking at things objectively, I believe if one actually follows that premise, they’ll find that we really have not been THAT far off from winning more than what we have so far. Seeing things through objective eyes means also seeing the whole picture, not just from the offensive point of view.
As far giving a coach three years, why don’t you do just that? If that is the case, why complain about what all he has done wrong with this team and back him for what he hopes to accomplish while he’s in Washington? Why compare him to what Steve Spurrier has done in Washington? There is no comparison. Steve Spurrier couldn’t cut it and he quit regardless of what you might hope to believe. Spurrier admitted he was not cut out for the NFL and would much rather coach in college. For Pete’s sake, talk about being down on an offensive system, everybody could see Spurrier’s system having no pass protection in it whatsoever; Ramsey’s injuries could attest to that. I still, however, felt that Spurrier could have done more to reinforce pass protection, but he felt the need to quit. I’ll continue to back Joe Gibbs and recognize what mistakes he will make along the way as well as commend him on the progress he’s making with the team as well. If he feels he stands in the way of progress, I’ll back the next guy that comes in just like I have done with Turner, Marty, and Spurrier. I will not, however, burn a Hall of Fame coach at the stake just because he does not magically make our dreams come true after one season.
