And the Skins hating continues...

[MTK]

Did this guy lose money on this game or something?? LOL

Try to find one positive thing in this article about the Redskins, I dare you.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ucs/index.html



By John Donovan, SI.com

WHAT WE LEARNED

Washington: OK, Tampa Bay has the No. 1 defense in the league. I know, I know. But, come on. The Redskins' so-called offense was much more brutal than advertised. Once Derrick Brooks and the rest of Tampa Bay's defense did the job on Clinton Portis -- finally -- the Redskins were absolutely lost. Portis, who ran for 144 yards on Tampa Bay in November, was fresh off five straight 100-yard games, but he was stopped from the start by the middle of the Bucs' line. And when Portis flamed out (53 yards on 16 carries, a pathetic 3.3-yard average), the team's lack of receiving depth was painfully evident. Big playmaker Santana Moss caught only two passes for 18 yards -- and he was the big playmaker on Saturday. Mark Brunell threw only 15 passes and wasn't very good with any of them (thus the 25.7 passer rating). Really ... 120 total yards of offense? (Which, by the way, is the worst ever by a winning playoff team.) Only 42 yards in the second half? And this is a winning playoff team? We knew the 'Skins had issues. But, man, that was a no-show, even given the fact that it was against the top-ranked defense.

Tampa Bay: Clearly, the Bucs are no ball-pounding juggernaut, either. Rookie Cadillac Williams was worse than Portis (18 carries, 49 yards, a more-pathetic 2.7 average). Young QB Chris Simms was efficient, if not especially bold, and the Bucs were patient enough offensively to win this game. If not for a dropped pass in the end zone in the final minutes by Edell Shepherd -- a beautiful throw by Simms -- the Bucs could have won this game, despite the early turnovers.

PLAYER WHO IMPRESSED ME

It's easy, and maybe a little strange, given the defensive nature of Saturday's game and the last killer interception that he threw, but I'm going to give some credit to Simms. He's still young, and he has a long way to go, but he showed a nice touch against a good defense in the first playoff game of his career. He didn't make too many completely dumb throws -- maybe other than that final one -- his timing was good with his receivers and when he had to make the big pass to Shepherd to get the Bucs back in the game, he did. (It's not Simms' fault the guy dropped it.) He took an early sack he shouldn't have, but he showed a knack for escaping the pocket in a couple of instances. He overthrew a guy or two, too, and he wasn't very bold with his throws (his long was 24 yards). But, all in all, after his 25-for-38 passing effort, Tampa Bay fans have to think good things are ahead for Simms.

LOCKER ROOM CONFIDENTIAL

Nobody in the Washington locker room was bold enough to defend safety Sean Taylor and his spitting on Bucs running back Michael Pittman. Instead, most fell back on the ol' "heat of the moment" line. Better, I guess, than "Spit happens" ... A couple of Redskins players, in the dingy Washington locker room after the game, were having fun acting like Buccaneers. Or, I guess, that would be buccaneers. "Arrrrrr, get off my bag," one said. "Arrrrrr," the other replied. Some pirates, somewhere, are probably offended by that. Daggone PC police ... Portis said after the win that his shoulders were "killing him" going into the game, which might account for his poor day. Or, of course, it might have been an excuse ... Best play by the Tampa Bay defense -- and there were plenty -- was Simeon Rice's embarrassment of left tackle Chris Samuels on the first play of the fourth quarter, bull-rushing him back into Brunell. Rice then reached around Samuels, grabbed Brunell by the front of his jersey -- Samuels was still kind of between them -- and pulled the QB down for the sack ... Why, I have to ask here, was Brunell throwing on 3rd-and-three with less than four minutes left, deep in Redskins territory, leading to an interception by Brian Kelly? If Shepherd would have caught the pass from Simms on the next Tampa Bay possession, that was a call ripe for ripping.

THE BIG PICTURE

There was nothing "wild" about this wild-card game. A couple of early turnovers -- both of them flukish, if you want to get right down to it -- sealed Tampa Bay's fate, leaving us to watch a game with two suspect offenses against two fairly formidable defenses.

The Bucs, to their credit, turned things around from last season and have to be thinking that they're on the right track. Williams should mature as a back, Simms will be fine and the aging defense probably still has some good years left in it. This might have been fullback Mike Alstott's last game -- that's still TBD -- but NFC South champion Tampa Bay should be fine for the 2006 season.

The Redskins, in fact, don't need to look nearly that far ahead. In fact, they may not want to look as far ahead as Saturday, when they face the Seahawks in Seattle in the next round of the playoffs. No one knows better than the 'Skins that the effort against the Bucs will not cut it against Seattle. If Portis plans on showing up with sore shoulders again, the 'Skins might just as well skip the whole thing and save the cross-country airfare.

[BigSKINBauer]

You're a... BItch..... You're a......BITCH. I hope you lose your job because You're a......Bitch. I hope he gets ****ed up fan mail till his e-mail is full, i hope he gets his mailbox at home filled up and i hope someone puts a big pile of flaming shit on his doorstep and i don't mean just his article.
You're a.....bitch!!

[BigSKINBauer]

Nobody in the Washington locker room was bold enough to defend safety Sean Taylor and his spitting on Bucs running back Michael Pittman. Instead, most fell back on the ol' "heat of the moment" line. Better, I guess, than "Spit happens" ... A couple of Redskins players, in the dingy Washington locker room after the game, were having fun acting like Buccaneers. Or, I guess, that would be buccaneers. "Arrrrrr, get off my bag," one said. "Arrrrrr," the other replied. Some pirates, somewhere, are probably offended by that. Daggone PC police ... Portis said after the win that his shoulders were "killing him" going into the game, which might account for his poor day. Or, of course, it might have been an excuse ... Best play by the Tampa Bay defense -- and there were plenty -- was Simeon Rice's embarrassment of left tackle Chris Samuels on the first play of the fourth quarter, bull-rushing him back into Brunell. Rice then reached around Samuels, grabbed Brunell by the front of his jersey -- Samuels was still kind of between them -- and pulled the QB down for the sack ... Why, I have to ask here, was Brunell throwing on 3rd-and-three with less than four minutes left, deep in Redskins territory, leading to an interception by Brian Kelly? If Shepherd would have caught the pass from Simms on the next Tampa Bay possession, that was a call ripe for ripping.

------------------------------
I love it!!!

[70Chip]

What a joke! Chris Simms played better than I expected which only begs the question, Why is he the starter anyway? The tipped balls that th reporter calls 'flukish'? Guess what? They count too.

People who really love football will appreciate the unbelievable team performance of the Redskins defense. It was beautiful. I think it must be an anti-Redskins bias because Sports Illustrated thought it was terrific when the 85 Bears and the 2000 Ravens won with defense. I guess they will come around as soon as we make an embarrasing rap video.

The national press shouldn't be so smug about next weeks game either. The Hawks will have their hands full.

[rome108]

I guess this guy can't count. UUUmmm, the final score was 17-10 you idiot. That's the stat that matters.

[SUNRA]

This idiot obviously lost money or his brother plays for the Bucs. Either way, he fails at writing an objective article because he fails to mention the play our defense and what Arrington's performance did against this team. I don't give a damn how many yards Brunell threw for in this game. He led this team through the thick and thin and I'm not throwing him under the bus at all. Next week will be a different offense and Gibbs will see to that. Let's celebrate our 6th win and the elimination of the Buccaneers.

[skinsguy]

What a freakin' moron! He's just another idiot biased pawn. You can't get credibility out of a cracker jack box.

[hurrykaine]

He does have a point about Samuels being owned by Rice. Other than that, its just a regurgitation of what we've been hearing on TV - 120 total yds of offense and all that baloney.

The reason we didn't do anything offensively was because we didn't have to. The D was lights out. All we had to do was not turn the ball over. For god's sake, Brunell only threw 15 times. What would they expect? 300 yards passing in 15 attempts?

Who the hell is John Donovan? Is he part of SI's class of 2005-06 along with chumps like Nunyo Demasio?

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

I tried sending him emails (at john.donovan@si.com, jdonovan@si.com, and johndonovan@si.com). I blasted him for acting like our defense didn't make great plays and pretending that the Bucs simply gave the ball away. If anyone gets him email address please let me know. If I get through to him, I'll let people know what it is.

[dgack]

Apparently this guy is their baseball writer, and he's foolish enough to solicit feedback on those articles.

Someone on ExtremeSkins posted this URL:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...eball.mailbag/

I just sent him the following piece of my mind:

Could your post-game wrap of the Tampa-Washington game have been a little more of a Tampa lovefest?

We are all now acutely aware of the man-love you have for Chris Simms, but I have news for you. Those "fluke" turnovers are no different than the bad breaks Washington was catching early on this year. And if it wasn't obvious, Gregg Williams' defense was executing all day long to bend but not break. Give up the short yardage and stand their ground when it counted. So harping on the Redskins' offensive "woes" while pretending Tampa had their way is pretty disingenuous. The fact is, this was a defensive brawl and the #9 defense prevailed over the #1 defense.

So sorry that Joe Gibbs played to win and not to entertain you.

Next time you want to badmouth a team, maybe you should wait until they've lost.

[saden1]

Who is this clown? Should I know his name or care what he has to says?

[redrock-skins]

It's just killing people we won the game with a mere 120 yards on offense. It's really just starting to be more fun watching critics get riled up at this point.

I don't make the rules, but when you're ahead after time runs out in the 4th quarter, you win!

[dgack]

Everyone's hung up on the 120 yards, but the game stats tell a different story... we outgained them on the ground, 95-75.

The only real difference in offenses is, that Williams left the middle open all game long, to prevent the depleted corners from getting burned by a quick Galloway strike. And with the exception of the break on the dropped/reffed Shepherd TD, it worked, all game long.

On the other side of the ball, we were playing classic conservative Gibbs football with a lead. Of course they Tampa put up some yards, they had to be aggressive, and that's evidenced by the almost twice as many passes thrown.

The real reason these writers are having a field day with the 120 yards is because they're trying to portray the Skins as this broken down van rolling up to the start line, racing against a Ferrari. We've got no offense, and Seattle's starting O is basically the entire Pro Bowl roster. What a story!

This is nothing but good for us. It's bulletin board material for our defense who are going to come out angry, and it puts all this pressure on Seattle to come out and just smoke us because we don't deserve to be on the same field as them. And that has a way of backfiring on you.

[steveo395]

i just hate how they still dont give the redskins defense any credit...the redskins didnt force the turnovers, the bucs messed up and lost the turnovers

all of the turnovers were great plays by the redskins...the 2 ints were tipped at the line and the fumble was a great hit by marcus washington

[Luxorreb]

Let 'em hate.
Who won?
Um well we did. Perhaps not pretty, but in the playoffs survival is the most beautiful thing. After this weekend they'll be 8 teams remaining active of 32 teams. Joe Gibbs and the Washington Redskins will be among those final 8 teams. One of those 8 teams wins it all. We've won 6 str8. Sure we didn't have a great offensive game, but it was good enough to win. Next week you'll see a different approach. This game was coached not to lose once we got up early. And we didn't. GO REDSKINS!!! MIDDLE FINGERS TO THE MEDIA!!! We're in the 2nd round of the playoffs!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!