What's Considered Success for Next Season?

[MTK]

Anything less than the playoffs is always a disaster.

[Smurf85]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Anything less than the playoffs is always a disaster.

AMEN!

[onlydarksets]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Anything less than the playoffs is always a disaster.

Making the playoffs doesn't mean it isn't a disaster, though. 8-8 will make the playoffs this year - would that be a success next year? Obviously not. Playoffs are a component, and it's good you bring that up, but we need to rack up some wins too.

[12thMan]

Originally Posted by onlydarksets

Making the playoffs doesn't mean it isn't a disaster, though. 8-8 will make the playoffs this year - would that be a success next year? Obviously not. Playoffs are a component, and it's good you bring that up, but we need to rack up some wins too.

This is what I'm trying to get at, sort of. Is a successful season gauged by total number of victories or a playoff appearance?

[dmek25]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

This is what I'm trying to get at, sort of. Is a successful season gauged by total number of victories or a playoff appearance?

to me, its about getting into the playoffs. once in, anything can happen

[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by dmek25

to me, its about getting into the playoffs. once in, anything can happen

I can sort of agree with that too, although having a better record is "Supposed" to make it easier for a team to get through the playoffs, but you are right...once in anything can happen.

I just want to go back to the feeling I had in Gibbs I where each and every Sunday, you expected the Redskins to win, and if they lost, then it was unusual!

[Beemnseven]

I think the offense picks it up, gets into the top ten, and I'll even venture to say there will be slight improvement with the D (how much worse can it get?).

Still, there are too many problems with the team overall, and not enough solutions.

7 - 9.

[Gmanc711]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Anything less than the playoffs is always a disaster.

Exactly.

With the talent we have on this team, thats gotta be a minimum. We have the talent to win in this league, and against the teams we play. I only really saw us outmatched once and that was against Indianapolis and the first game against Dallas/Philly; other than that there isnt a game I can look at and say we shouldnt have won.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Gmanc711

Exactly.

With the talent we have on this team, thats gotta be a minimum. We have the talent to win in this league, and against the teams we play. I only really saw us outmatched once and that was against Indianapolis and the first game against Dallas/Philly; other than that there isnt a game I can look at and say we shouldnt have won.

I agree with you that only a few times this season we were significantly outplayed, although I would add the first New York game to that list.

In spite of everything that has happened to us, injuries, playcalling, subpar performance, midseason QB change, inability to force turnovers, there is still no real reason why this team doesn't have 7 wins. Looking at the six close losses; Minnesota, Tennessee, @ Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and @ St. Louis, and even throwing in close wins like Dallas and Jacksonville...our record was 2-6 in those games. In a fair world, should we not be 4-4 in those games? If you just look at those 8 games, we weren't outplayed at all (on the average) by our opponents in those 8 games. So how else can you explain us only winning 25% of those close games other than it not being our year?

The very simple answer is this: We got better than expected efforts from most of our opponents this year. We had a lot of games with teams coming off their bye or teams with their backs against the wall. Tennessee was 0-5. They are 8-2 since playing us. Philly had lost 3 in a row going into the Week 11 matchup with us. Atlanta and Tampa Bay were both on losing streaks.

It gives me hope for next year because even if we play no better than this year (something that shouldn't be too hard), if things even out and we go 6-2 in close games next year, that puts us in great shape to go 10-6 with no improvement. And I fully expect us to improve.

[djnemo65]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Anything less than the playoffs is always a disaster.

Yeah, but that's not unfair, because this is a team that mortgages its future every year in order to win right away. Rebuilding is one thing, but we haven't had a rebuilding season since Snyder bought the team.