The main reason the Skins lost to the Eagles?

[724Skinsfan]

I want to go with "Other". It all started with Sellers trying to launch his 284 lb body into orbit 6 miles behind the line of scrimmage and failing to pick up the first down. I'm pretty sure I saw those wavy, gravitional flux lines pulling at his heels when he left the turf.

Seriously, the first Eagles drive with all of those penalties was killer. Philly goes up 7 to start the game and achieves an overall high sense of offensive confidence.

[Daseal]

There's no "right" answer to this poll. I went with the defense just because they got carved almost all day. I really thought we should have tried to bring some pressure. Of the teams we face, I'd rather try to 1v1 the Eagles WRs and hit McNabb all day than having our safeties 20 yards back.

A change on any of the options could have saved the game. Running 7 times inside the 10 and not scoring. Overall, I thought the offense played pretty well. I'd still like to see us use the middle of the field a bit more in the passing attack. Seems like defenses are trying to take away the sidelines at this point.

And penalties.. ugh. Especially that first drive.

[Cowell]

I agree this was maybe the hardest poll up in a while and there really is no "right answer", that being said I voted penalties because that first Eagles drive kept moving due to our penalties and I believe there were a couple other drives for the Eagles were our penalties kept it alive.

[firstdown]

I went with the D and big plays because I count their penalties as part of the big plays.

[Dlyne8r]

How about "All of the above?" Seriously, if I had to pick only one it would be the penalties. Aside form the obvious blunders (i.e.-Cooley's jumping off side on the goal line, etc.), it's almost automatic that the 'Skins will get penalized on a punt or kick-off.

[davy]

The most obvious reason is that we're just not a good football team.

Why we aren't a good football team is more difficult to answer.

[Twilbert07]

Defense, which incorporates the stupid defensive penalties that extended Philly drives. The D had the 9-point lead to protect and went to sleep. I know injuries hurt, so to speak, but someone needed to step up. No one did, and now maybe Gregg should step down - or at least shut up.

[GTripp0012]

I agree with SGG, that there are a lot of reasons, and changing only one would have resulted in a win.

I do believe one reason is more right than the others, and it's got to be the big plays on the defense. For those to be touchdowns, multiple players had to have total breakdowns. That simply can't happen often to an NFL football team, and for us, it happened twice in the same quarter.

Goal line play calling? Yeah but...it's not like any other call guarantees success. Penalties? Yeah, but...that's part of the game. A good defense, especially one that plays it's safeties so far from everything should be able to prevent the big play, and we gave up two too many.

If your defense isn't going to try to play aggressive and force mistakes because as your coordinator reasons it, you have to prevent the big play at all costs, and then you give up not one but TWO huge plays in the same quarter, it's very obvious where the blame falls.

I'm tired of watching Gregg Williams drop 7-8 on every play and not cover the short routes. For him to give up any big plays this season playing that kind of coverage is completely inexcusable. This scheme sucks, and needs incredible talent to make it work.

It worked early because our DL was playing incredibly well, but now that it's only playing at it's talent level, we can't stop anybody anymore.

It's OK though. Next year, we won't draft any help on the Defensive Line and this BS will happen again.

[warriorzpath]

I don't think you can rely on defense to win games every week. The offense needs to win games when given the chance. The offense had the chance to win the game this week and just didn't do it.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by warriorzpath

I don't think you can rely on defense to win games every week. The offense needs to win games when given the chance. The offense had the chance to win the game this week and just didn't do it.

Ugh.

But you have to rely on both units to pull their weight. The offense missed pefection by a little bit yesterday down in the red zone twice, but the defense was awful all day.

I think you have to rely on your defense to not be total and utter crap every week, and in the event that it is, then you have to call a spade a spade, not make excuses for it, and move on.

[warriorzpath]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Ugh.

But you have to rely on both units to pull their weight. The offense missed pefection by a little bit yesterday down in the red zone twice, but the defense was awful all day.

I think you have to rely on your defense to not be total and utter crap every week, and in the event that it is, then you have to call a spade a spade, not make excuses for it, and move on.

The defense hasn't played like crap every week. The redskins defense has probably been one of the top defenses this year. Look at the entire league, for some reason (maybe - rules, offensive trends, whatever) there seems to have been more games dominated by offenses than by defenses compared to past seasons.

The defense have pulled their weight this season and won a few games on their own. The offense needs to do the same regardless of how the defense is playing. And I think the offense is far from perfect, especially at the end of games - when they tend to fall apart. I am always scared when the redskins are down (even by only one) at around 6 minutes to go- and it's not because of the defense.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by warriorzpath

The defense hasn't played like crap every week. The redskins defense has probably been one of the top defenses this year. Look at the entire league, for some reason (maybe - rules, offensive trends, whatever) there seems to have been more games dominated by offenses than by defenses compared to past seasons.

The defense have pulled their weight this season and won a few games on their own. The offense needs to do the same regardless of how the defense is playing. And I think the offense is far from perfect, especially at the end of games - when they tend to fall apart. I am always scared when the redskins are down (even by only one) at around 6 minutes to go- and it's not because of the defense.

The defense was pulling it's weight and we were winning.

The offense has pulled it's weight the last two games and we are losing. Why? Because the defense has fallen to well below average.

And yes, the passing games have dominated this season. Our's has not, and that is a problem. But on Sunday, it's hard to blame the offense for anything considering their overall performance.

Either credit the Eagles offense, or blame the Redskins defense, but those are the units that changed this game, not the Eagles defense or Redskins offense.

[irish]

For anyone that still does not understand why I gave the Skins D a C grade last week please rewatch yesterday's game.

[warriorzpath]

And to me, it's harder to win games defensively (especially at the end of games) rather than winning it by the offense. You just have more control over the score on offense.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by warriorzpath

And to me, it's harder to win games defensively (especially at the end of games) rather than winning it by the offense. You just have more control over the score on offense.

That's definitely true, but we put up 25 points on only 8 drives yesterday.

Point is, if a team loses a shootout, you still have to look at the defense for not stopping the other offense. Obviously in a loss, neither unit was perfect, but if one is close, and one is nowhere near close, which unit needs to be corrected first?