[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

A lot of these assertions contradict each other. You can't claim lack of creativity on offense and then question Zorn's desire to turn Mike Sellers into a GL back...because he's never been a goal line back before. That's what creativity is, it's not necessarily about being unconventional, just about doing different things to try to maximize the value of your personnel. In this respect, I think Zorn is quite creative.

What evidence do you have to defend the claim that the Skins checked down more often than other teams? Speicifally, how are they different than the Dolphins or Chargers in this respect (outside of the misbelief that some teams use their backs aggressively, but when other teams do the exact same thing they are being too conservative)?

Just to throw a stat out there, the Redskins passing game was up to a yard per attempt more effective when they blocked with 6 as opposed to 5. So if you are wondering why the Redskins don't always use Portis as a receiving threat, I think that might be a good place to start. Not that you can't use both Portis and Betts in obvious passing situations, but if you do, you lose the ability to get one of your young receivers into the game in a critical situation.

I also think you are understating the value of the Betts injury on our offense. I'm really not the biggest Betts fan, and despite the fact that he does all the small things well, he doesn't offer anything that Portis doesn't, but when he went down, you lose a lot of trick play ability in the offense. Zorn was using them together in packages, but once you lose one of them, it's understandable that they moved away from these packages. By the time Betts came back for the Seattle game, you could understand how a team on a two game losing streak was not so worried about trying to get two running backs on the field together (especially since Kelly was healthy for the first time).

I was wathcing NFL Network a month or two ago and Solomon Wilcotts broke down Jason Campbell and said that the Redskins were almost dead last in the NFL in passes completed over 10 yards. He also showed several instantces where JC had the time to throw, had wr's open downfield but checked the ball down instead. But I didn't need him to tell me that cause I watched the games and already knew it.