The Curse of Rypien and Williams

[Mc2guy]

I'm sitting here reading the rants and raves on yesterday's game. Seems about 70% of us still aren't happy with Brunell despite his record setting performance and giddy 119.3 QB rating (and you can put me squarely in that group). It made me start to think (every one duck and cover).

Are we, as long-time Redskins fans, tainted by the legacy of William's and Rypien's Championship seasons? Are we setting wholely unrealistic expectations from our QB based on the spectacular past performances during those two championship runs? In particular, those offenses were keyed by strong between the tackle running peppered with play-action bombs when the safties came up for run support. They were executed extremely well by big, slow, cannon-armed, QB's who relied on 5-7 step drops and had plenty of time to get the ball out.

For me, it's almost as if any Washington QB since 1992 has had to compete against the legacy of two of the most prolific long-ball scoring teams in the history of the league. In this day and age, with the complexity and quality of defensive play, are we fooling ourselves into believing ANYONE can live up to our expectations?

I'm not throwing my support at Brunell because I do think he has a lot yet to prove, and I'm not conviced he can get it done, but I'm beginning to think that as a group, we need to re-evaluate our expectations. I think we're all tainted by our rosy memories of bygone days. Perhaps that's why the lure of a big, slow, cannon-armed, QB like Campbell is so appealing. That just might be a curse that no one can live down.

Thoughts?