Redskins' Strength of Schedule: We Are A Decent Team

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by Ramseyfan

The bottom line is, it’s easy and sexy to say that the record is the ONLY way to determine the quality of a team. It’s also incredibly simplistic to take that approach. As I said earlier, for purposes of determining who gets into the playoffs, the W-L column is all that matters. But, if you don’t take into account the strength of schedule in assessing how “good” a team is, I think you are being pretty simplistic.

What can I say, simple things for simple minds. Actually, in this case, I believe the simpler the logic is the more profound approach. Yes, the stats and strength of schedule give interesting comparisons to other teams.

BUT - Because the bottom line in this game is determined by actually winning games, by relying on anything other than the record to determine your greatness or mediocrity in comparison to other teams, you begin a process of, at best, making excuses, and, at worst, self-deception:

We are few dumb mistakes from being good.
Boy those refs screwed us.
If the ball had just bounced our way.

In each case, you make or allow yourself an out from self-improvement (even the "dumb mistakes" one b/c the usual response is "I/we just need to concentrate more", If more concentration was all it REALLY took to win, then I think their would be a lot more concentration going on - I mean really, did the Pats win the SB three times b/c they concetrated more?? No - they did ALL the things good/winning teams do. A feat we have yet to duplicate).

I am not just saying that making the playoffs equals a good team, what makes a good team is winning and doing what it takes to win - regardless of the bad bounces, the teams you play, or the refs calls. Once a team starts to believe that anything other than a failure to strive for perfection is responsible for losing, that team is on the road to losing. On that account, I think the Skins are walking a fine line.

Regardless of these various factors - good teams win more than they lose. We have not demonstrated an ability to do that. For the Skins, regardless of the circumstances, we win as often as we lose.

Good teams win more often than they lose regardless of the circumstances. Bad teams lose more often than they win regardless of the circumstances.

simple, schmimple - my logic, as always, is deeply DEEPLY profound. Your are probably just to simplistic to understand my depth.