Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins at Eagles)

[mooby]

Well today the way I look at it we had some positives and some negatives. The positives are why we won the game but the negatives could just have easily been the reason we lost the game. And I'm honestly still getting adjusted to how different this team looks from what we've been accustomed to seeing these last few years. I'm enjoying this win until midnight and then it's on to next week, and if we expect to beat the Packers we have a lot of work to do.

Stephon Heyer is getting a weekly spot in this thread, and it's mainly because he's such a 50/50 guy. He has his bright spots, like blocking good on some plays, and then he has his negatives, like holding guys who he just isn't talented enough to block, and his false starts, which always come at bad times.

And the offense needs work too. The running game was working today, but McNabb didn't capitalize in the second half. 3 points over the last 3 quarters usually means a losing effort, but we had a huge first quarter which gave us the cushion we needed. Consistency on offense is what we need. We aren't going to win like this every week. We got lucky when Kolb had to come in for Vick.

Defense did good today but I would've not liked to see Kolb waltz down the field at the end there to score a touchdown to bring it closer and make that final drive actually worth something.

Carlos Rogers, well what else is there to say? You catch that ball and game is over. I don't know why he has such horrible hands. I don't know who he needs to take lessons from, but something needs to be done. Time to bring back Stickum?

It's not even worth mentioning Mike Sellers anymore. If Mike Sellers and Stephon Heyer are gone in the offseason I won't be complaining. They are almost permanent presences on this list. Stephon isn't for lack of effort, he's just not that good, and I feel his negatives outweigh his positives. And Mike Sellers is in the same boat. Everything that used to be a positive about him is now such a negative.

[MTK]

If only Los could catch

[JWsleep]

Huge win.

But as far as smack goes, the failure of the Redskins for the last 5 years at least to EVER ice a game on offense. It kills me. DMac going out of bounds. A false start. Missed WIDE OPEN short passes. A long bomb when we just need 7 yards. And then the shanked punt everyone KNEW was coming. Come on! A few more yards and we take a knee on Philly's home turf. Instead, we're plagued with negativity and doubt. We get that first down and everyone feels better, even with all the same stats.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by JWsleep

Huge win.

But as far as smack goes, the failure of the Redskins for the last 5 years at least to EVER ice a game on offense. It kills me. DMac going out of bounds. A false start. Missed WIDE OPEN short passes. A long bomb when we just need 7 yards. And then the shanked punt everyone KNEW was coming. Come on! A few more yards and we take a knee on Philly's home turf. Instead, we're plagued with negativity and doubt. We get that first down and everyone feels better, even with all the same stats.

Great post, well said. If I want to get my heart rate up it should be from running around the block, not sitting in front of the Skins game.

Thanks KS & DMac

[hooskins]

Good call JW. What the heck was up with Bidwell's shanks? Was he hurt? I thought this guy was suppose to be the consistent punter to solve our woes.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by hooskins

Good call JW. What the heck was up with Bidwell's shanks? Was he hurt? I thought this guy was suppose to be the consistent punter to solve our woes.

That was Hunter Smith. I don't know if Bidwell has scandalous pictures of Bruce Allen hidden away or what, but clearly he has a choke hold on this job.

[saden1]

I am sorry that I want and expect more from this team. Is it too much to ask for them to put together a whole game? they are playing like shit...there iys no denting that. Are they making progress? Sure. Is that good enough for this team to go anywhere? I don't see it.

[hooskins]

Originally Posted by saden1

I am sorry that I want and expect more from this team. Is it too much to ask for them to put together a whole game? they are playing like shit...there iys no denting that. Are they making progress? Sure. Is that good enough for this team to go anywhere? I don't see it.

I would love for this team to "go anywhere" but that's not realistic this season. I think we are talented and we could make the playoffs, but that's a big could. I don't think we are ready on the personnel and cohesion level to make it. Hence why I am not saying this team should make it. They could.

I don't understand how we can be upset if we see clear improvement from last year, knowing we are in a rebuilding phase. Everything that happened pre-Allen/Shanny is the past. Learn from the mistakes and move on to the future. It starts with rebuilding, acquiring talent and giving the players a chance to succeed. A chance involves several full seasons and not a judgment after 4 games, especially if you are 2-0 in the NFC East.

[MTK]

Mooby, GB switched to the 34 last year and struggled early on.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Mooby, GB switched to the 34 last year and struggled early on.

I wasn't aware of that, but did they struggle enough to blow a 17 point lead and were also nearly last in yards given up and 10 play drives given up?

Now granted we're only 4 weeks in and there's a lot of football left to be played, but so far we experienced more of a dropoff than I figured. Some of what I've seen is poor tackling, some I feel is the result of overthinking and being too slow to react, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

Like I said before there's plenty of football left to be played and they did play much improved d today, so I'm not going to judge them too harshly anymore. I'm probably gonna hold my tongue for the rest of the season in fact because I feel like there isn't a good enough sample size to accurately judge what kind of defense we will have for the rest of the season.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by mooby

I wasn't aware of that, but did they struggle enough to blow a 17 point lead and were also nearly last in yards given up and 10 play drives given up?

Now granted we're only 4 weeks in and there's a lot of football left to be played, but so far we experienced more of a dropoff than I figured. Some of what I've seen is poor tackling, some I feel is the result of overthinking and being too slow to react, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

Like I said before there's plenty of football left to be played and they did play much improved d today, so I'm not going to judge them too harshly anymore. I'm probably gonna hold my tongue for the rest of the season in fact because I feel like there isn't a good enough sample size to accurately judge what kind of defense we will have for the rest of the season.

They gave up over 300 yards of offense in each of their first 4 games and they were 2-2.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

They gave up over 300 yards of offense in each of their first 4 games and they were 2-2.

Touche.

[hooskins]

Originally Posted by mooby

I wasn't aware of that, but did they struggle enough to blow a 17 point lead and were also nearly last in yards given up and 10 play drives given up?

Now granted we're only 4 weeks in and there's a lot of football left to be played, but so far we experienced more of a dropoff than I figured. Some of what I've seen is poor tackling, some I feel is the result of overthinking and being too slow to react, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

Like I said before there's plenty of football left to be played and they did play much improved d today, so I'm not going to judge them too harshly anymore. I'm probably gonna hold my tongue for the rest of the season in fact because I feel like there isn't a good enough sample size to accurately judge what kind of defense we will have for the rest of the season.

GB struggled quite a bit. They got shredded too in yards when they first transitioned. I remember this quite well as a good buddy of mine is a diehard GB fan. He complained for quite some time how he hated the 3.4 switch. They also had players playing out of position like Aaron Kampman(sp?). I think they have made some moves for better suited players and have had more time to absorb the system.

On another note, I don't care if we give up the most yards in the league. If we can hold teams to FGs that's fine.

[SmootSmack]

But they never trailed the entire game. The played physical football with two of their starting OL out for most of the game, if not all. They shut down one of the best playmakers in the game. They won a tough road against a division opponent, and apparently all that is overlooked and ignored. With very few exceptions every winning team has to win a few games like this. It's not always complete game cakewalks.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

But they never trailed the entire game. The played physical football with two of their starting OL out for most of the game, if not all. They shut down one of the best playmakers in the game. They won a tough road against a division opponent, and apparently all that is overlooked and ignored. With very few exceptions every winning team has to win a few games like this. It's not always complete game cakewalks.

It was a quality division win, on the road no less.

A game we would have had no shot at winning last year.