Time to bench Brunell? (Mega Man Merge)

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by twinskinsfan

Benching Brunell might make alot of people happy right now. But has anyone thought that maybe it is our team collectively that blows? Our offesive line sucks. Yes, Brunell at this very momemt, the obvious, SUCKS, and the coahes suck. I think everybody on the offensive side is lost as hell, nobldy has a clue where they are supposed to be at anytime. The defense, I think the rest of the league has figured us out. They know where we are coming from, and WAHT THE HELL, IF YOU WANT TO SCORE A TOUCHDOWN ON THE REDSKINS, THEN....THROW IT DEEP!!! easy as that.

I think brunell was skipping balls 5 yards short on 10-15 yard routes. the easy way to see who's to blame is to see if another QB can do any better.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by That Guy

I think brunell was skipping balls 5 yards short on 10-15 yard routes. the easy way to see who's to blame is to see if another QB can do any better.

He's prone to inaccuracy. So is McNabb, but people love him. It's a relatively harmless flaw in his game that when pressured in the pocket he throws low.

[12thMan]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

He's prone to inaccuracy. So is McNabb, but people love him. It's a relatively harmless flaw in his game that when pressured in the pocket he throws low.

The difference with McNabb and Brunell, actually there's no comparison,
is that McNabb can compensate for his deficiencies. Whereas, when Brunell is off, his mistakes are magnified.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

The difference with McNabb and Brunell, actually there's no comparison,
is that McNabb can compensate for his deficiencies. Whereas, when Brunell is off, his mistakes are magnified.

McNabb definately has playmaking potential that Brunell no longer has this late in his career. All I'm saying is that if periodic accuracy issues were really that damning, McNabb would have busted out years ago.

They aren't, and consequently I'm happy with a QB that completes 60% and throws a pick every two games. Both McNabb and Brunell are firery competitors, even though Donovan's carelessness (among other things) probably cost Phili a win Sunday.

Brunell is almost not to blame at all for either of our losses...although I'd really like to see an improvement from him on third down.

[mike340]

We had 16 first downs before the last 2 possessions (where they picked up a whole bunch of "free" yards. Results:
8 pass plays: 5/7, 47 yards, 1 sack. First down obtained on 6 of 8 of these series.
8 run plays: First down obtained on 2 of 8 of these series.

When they run the ball on first down, the'yre usually stuck with 2nd and long, and then we know what's going to happen.

They SHOULD run the ball, all things NOT considered. But when we consider how bad our rushing is (not placing blame, but plenty to go around) it's leaving us in a hole. So, until it's fixed, we need to pass more frequently on first down, at least to keep them guessing. (For the first downs in the second half in the above analysis, we passed once and ran 4 times, thus eliminating ourselves from the game.)

[GTripp0012]

The solution to me seems obvious. Throw more short passes and spread the ball around. Get Cooley involved again. Throw the ball to the RBs, we've had great success doing it so far. Lots of screens and slants and curls to the WRs. And then, run your best back up the gut.

I have not been impressed by Saunders playcalling thus far, and even though he has a great track record doing so and will get the ship righted, I think it was a mistake in hindsight for Gibbs to give up the offense.

[mike340]

No screens for now. That assumes they have someone blocking. But with the blockers blocking like cardboard cutouts, every time they throw one there's a heat-seeking missile coming through untouched.

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

... Lots of screens and slants and curls to the WRs. And then, run your best back up the gut.....

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

The solution to me seems obvious. Throw more short passes and spread the ball around. Get Cooley involved again. Throw the ball to the RBs, we've had great success doing it so far. Lots of screens and slants and curls to the WRs. And then, run your best back up the gut.

I have not been impressed by Saunders playcalling thus far, and even though he has a great track record doing so and will get the ship righted, I think it was a mistake in hindsight for Gibbs to give up the offense.

I agree and when they used Sellers early in the Dallas game I thought thats what we where going to do (getting more players involved). I do think that we are seeing Saunders and our players going through an adjustment period. In Gibbs second year he realy knew what to he could get from each player and as of now Saunders looks as if he does not know which players to get involved in each situation. I would think that gibbs would have helped with that from the begining when Saunders first got here.

[Bushead]

I'm so amazed at ALL OF YOU! Two games down and this is what happens? JESUS CHRIST! If Portis was playing, we would be talking about REPLACING portis too. This is absolutely ridicilous. I think everyone is trying to place the blame on anything that is accessible; who is more blamable than mark Brunell? He gave us an Amazing year, and I really do mean that. Look at the Stats; they are fucking good. He played a good game last week... and this week things fell apart so it means he must be benched. But do any of you realize if we throw Jason Campell In there, its going to be a waste of a year? If the redskins dont' get a running game, Jason Cambell is going to get messed up. IF the redskins don't get a running game now, Mark Brunell isn't going to succeed either. If the Redskins dont' get a running game, the Defense is going to suffer.

So before we start blaming Mark Brunell for everything that happened to the redskins for the past 30 years, lets look at the lack of running the ball.

[djnemo65]

Originally Posted by Bushead

I'm so amazed at ALL OF YOU! Two games down and this is what happens? JESUS CHRIST! If Portis was playing, we would be talking about REPLACING portis too. This is absolutely ridicilous. I think everyone is trying to place the blame on anything that is accessible; who is more blamable than mark Brunell? He gave us an Amazing year, and I really do mean that. Look at the Stats; they are fucking good. He played a good game last week... and this week things fell apart so it means he must be benched. But do any of you realize if we throw Jason Campell In there, its going to be a waste of a year? If the redskins dont' get a running game, Jason Cambell is going to get messed up. IF the redskins don't get a running game now, Mark Brunell isn't going to succeed either. If the Redskins dont' get a running game, the Defense is going to suffer.

So before we start blaming Mark Brunell for everything that happened to the redskins for the past 30 years, lets look at the lack of running the ball.

I agree that now is not the time for Campbell, that our destiny for this season is probably going to remain in Brunell's hands, but I disagree with your assesment that this thread represents some kind of unfair witchhunt. I think the overwhelming results of this poll reflect a growing anxiety amongst Redskins nation that Brunell is no longer capable of playing big time NFL football, that he is all washed up. Yes the running game looks bad. Yes the line is porous. There are problems with this team that go beyond the quarterback position. But what I - and evidently many others - see when we watch Brunell is someone who cant get velocity on his passes, who wont plant and deliver, who wont take shots down the field, who is immobile, etc. There are, for me, discernable deficiencies in his game. I think I could throw a better ball than him, and I was a holder in Junior High School.

Anyway, my point is that there is a difference between saying that all of our problems this season can be attributed to him (they cant) versus saying that, given our many smaller problems, at quarterback we have a big problem, which is what I think the more intelligent posts in this thread argue. Like it or not Brunell is the quarterback, but are you seriously saying you are comfortable with this, at least as of right now? Trotting out his stats from the first 14 games of last season proves nothing, because we are now going on, what, 9 straight wobbly games from him? It hurts to face it, but this team just might have problems at qb that are too big to overcome. Curse at us all you want, but I think Brunell's performance so far this season at least warrants questioning.

[skinsfanthru&thru]

Sorry if anyone else posted something similar but I don't feel like reading through 35 pages of posts so here goes:
I almost started to say yes but I think with as huge as this playbook is, he should get another week. Normally there shouldn't be any major position changes barring injury but Brunell looks like an old Patrick Ramsey w/o the arm. He looked so lost and flustered last night that if I hadn't known better, I would have thought him to be a fresh rookie getting thrown to the lions. He panicked when he had protection and he couldn't throw it away or run when the pressure got close. He consistently was throwing behind his target and was always throwing off his back foot. He never attempted anything downfield even when replays showed he had a reciever with a step on the dbs. This season has too much invested in it to keep giving someone who hasn't produced in his last 8 games dating back to last year's playoffs and including the preseason. And there's something about the way Al Saunders has said that if a switch were to be made, they would bypass Collins and immediately go to Campbell and that speaks a lot of the coaching staffs belief in Campbell's abilities to me. But Brunell does deserve a full game of a healthy Portis and they MUST get Cooley and Moss involved early and often. I honestly think the team can bounce back from this rough start and be the team we all thought they could be, but someone must inject some life and energy into this team because thus far they have played like a team with no heart and desire.

[cowboykiller89]

I don't know if it means anything coming from him but Tony Kornheiser quoted Joe Gibbs in saying that our two backup QB's (Campbell and Collins) are worse than Brunell.

[DaveyFoSho]

Originally Posted by cowboykiller89

I don't know if it means anything coming from him but Tony Kornheiser quoted Joe Gibbs in saying that our two backup QB's (Campbell and Collins) are worse than Brunell.

Tony K is a jackass!! Im sure Gibbs would not flat out say they are worse. Maybe he said they needed more prep in order to get the job done. Campbell, although he would throw more INT's, would put on a show with his laser rocket arm.

[724Skinsfan]

Originally Posted by DaveyFoSho

Tony K is a jackass!! Im sure Gibbs would not flat out say they are worse. Maybe he said they needed more prep in order to get the job done. Campbell, although he would throw more INT's, would put on a show with his laser rocket arm.

That's fo' sho'!

[TheMalcolmConnection]

It's easy to say someone completes 60% of their passes and throws only a few picks, but you have to remember to look at the yards per completion. You also have to look at the amount of TD passes thrown. Brunell has GOT to make plays. I'll take an extra INT here and there if he'll take a few more chances. I've been a big supporter of him, but he's really got to turn this around and prove he can make these throws.