Must-Read Article on GW and the Defense

[Skins_4_Lyfe]

Originally Posted by 70Chip

Any particular reason?

Springs was the only player that came to mind as I was reading this article. First of all I felt that the anonymous player was a veteran who seems to be familiar with the way the league works, and had to have been here since Gibbs and Williams came aboard. The player seems to frustrated with the way things have been run since he's been here and he doesn't allude to the Spurrier and Marvin Lewis days so he has to have came in the same year as Williams. Some players are eliminated when mentioned by the player in the article and you are leaned towards a secondary player because of all of the in depth info given about the secondary...the comments just fit his personality.

I ain't mad at Shawn…he's just saying what everyone else is scared to say. He's not the only player that feels this way.

[Skins_4_Lyfe]

Originally Posted by Redskins_P

Exactly. Either Springs or Troy Vincent.

The player seemed to be speaking from experience with the coaching staff. Whoever the player is was here when Williams came on board or came in the same year. I doubt if it's Vincent, he hasn't been here long enough and it doesn't seem to fit his personality. I am almost certain that it is Springs.

[shallyshal]

couple of things..

this thing has been burning up every redskin website since it hit. it is huge.

but.. i find it odd that no one else other than espn has picked up on it.. not the post.. not the times.. i do not believe any of the local sports reporters.
the official site was mum.. it looks like only the XXX site worked the story even a little.

so, is this real, or is someone making up this crap to do a job on GW or the team? do you really think that gibbs would not know that the corners and the safeties were not meeting ? c'mon.. i might easily believe that of spurrier, but is it even remotely possible that gibbs would not know of this all season ? and that he would tolerate the open pouting of one of his coaches or a refusal of that coach to help out his players ??

i know that gibbs has given authority to AS and GW to run the offense and defense.. but gibbs was always a micromanager, could he stand to be that far away from so toxic a situation ? and allow it to go on all year ?

something is really rotten and i am not sure whether it is the skins defense or the story...

[djnemo65]

Originally Posted by shallyshal

couple of things..

this thing has been burning up every redskin website since it hit. it is huge.

but.. i find it odd that no one else other than espn has picked up on it.. not the post.. not the times.. i do not believe any of the local sports reporters.
the official site was mum.. it looks like only the XXX site worked the story even a little.

so, is this real, or is someone making up this crap to do a job on GW or the team? do you really think that gibbs would not know that the corners and the safeties were not meeting ? c'mon.. i might easily believe that of spurrier, but is it even remotely possible that gibbs would not know of this all season ? and that he would tolerate the open pouting of one of his coaches or a refusal of that coach to help out his players ??

i know that gibbs has given authority to AS and GW to run the offense and defense.. but gibbs was always a micromanager, could he stand to be that far away from so toxic a situation ? and allow it to go on all year ?

something is really rotten and i am not sure whether it is the skins defense or the story...

Pick what up? It was Friend's source. It's not like there was a press conference or anything.

[mheisig]

I guess I'm the only one here who doesn't really care who the source is.

A lot of the article is not based on what that player has to say, and a lot of the information is common knowledge: GW being an arrogant prick, the clusterfuck of a hundred different coaches not working together, the secondary being split and not meeting together, poor handling of personnel, bad FA signings and poor drafting.

A lot of this information can be picked up just watching the games or following the news and connecting the dots.

Plenty of other people in the league get it too. Bill Parcells (yes, the sworn enemy, but he knows his football) has made comments about the Skins fading offensive line and the "gadgety" offense. Ron Jaworski noted the same things about the O-line, and Jansen and Samuels in particular. The anonymous Colts player clearly has the same feelings about the predictable Redskins defense as the anonymous Redskins player. And what does the Colts player have to gain from comments like that? All I can figure is it's just an honest opinion.

And morale? No one should be shocked that morale at Redskins Park is at an all time low and that there are a lot of disgruntled players. This is a team that made it to the playoffs last year and had legitimate Super Bowl hopes this year, only to go 3-7. You think everyone is a little pissed off?

So maybe this anonymous player is Springs, or Taylor, or AA, or whoever. The fact is I doubt his sentiments are all that unique.

Anyone questioning the integrity of the article is really grasping at straws. I'm a die-hard fan too, but it's ok to admit when it looks like this team is circling the drain. It doesn't make you less of a fan or a "Godless Joe Gibbs Hater." Hollering that the article must be fake, or the author just hates the Skins, or the player is made up and his comments fabricated is just absurd. This is legitimate journalism, an actual article from a published, well respected magazine. It's not someone's blog, it's not a quick online article thrown up to sensationalize and draw readers. As far as I can tell it's a well thought out, well researched, well written examination of a team with some serious problems.

[#56fanatic]

sweet article. I am going on record as saying it sounds like a younger player. someone like Rogers. No way any of the vets rip the coaches like that. they stand up for themselves and call themselves out. Rogers started the mess last week saying it was the coaches fault he got burned by "the fastest guy in the league" 100 year old Galloway. i said in the beginning of the year there were too many cooks in the kitchen. What is the most frightening thing of that article is the Sean Taylor part. that he lost his confidence, that he doesn't play with instinct. that he doesn't listen to coaches, the safety coach has him playing like a robot. I definately see a difference in his play this year. GW has always been arrogant and like the player said, you need players, the scheme doesn't mean much if you dont have the players. I said that when they let pierce and smoot go, and arrington because of the way he played at the end of the year last year.
interesting point about carter, maybe he isn't that bad, maybe they just are not letting him do what he is best at?? arch, definately not being used as he should. when did cover 2 become reading the receivers?? you always play with you back to the endzone, watch the QB and respond accordingly. that seems like a guy with too much ego trying to come up with "his D" to land himself a D-coordinator job.

[SmootSmack]

I thought it was interesting to read that Prieloeau was supposed to start over Archuleta in game 1 (I never knew that) and that Reed Doughty is getting more reps than Arch this week. Also, I wonder about the part about how AC is being misused.

[mason4415]

had to be 1) springs, 2) prileau (since he's kind of watching from afar), 3) jimoh, 4) rogers, 5) washington...

the player is definitely someone that has been with the team for at least the past 2 or 3 years.

i think this article was dead-on. the coaching (especially on defense) has been absolutely horrendous this year. that 3rd down play against joey galloway was the worst play call i have EVER seen. WHY??? are we blitzing 9 guys and making it known. Not only that, we had taylor blitzing on the snap, down on the line, and then some kind of delayed blitz by the linebackers. awful! what's the need? just play straight up and let the defensive line try and get some pressure. hell... just play straight up. a young guy like gradkowski will make a mistake and throw it to the wrong team. i absolutely loved reading the article because it's not the players. we have more than good enough players on BOTH sides of the ball to be a playoff team. IT IS THE COACHES! a good coach will adjust to the players that they have and put them in places they can succeed. This is just ridiculous. gregg williams is a piece of sh*t as a coach.

[mason4415]

i don't think the player is a "younger" player. the reason is that the quotes from the player sounded like a savvy veteran who has been around a while and none of the quotes sounded very bitter at all. they sounded like an un-biased and truthful analysis of what has been going on. i don't think the "mole" is someone who had an agenda. i think it was someone like springs who has been through the ringer and doesn't have a chip on his shoulder and really has nothing to prove. it definitely wasn't someone like archuleta or rogers. rogers would've sounded a lot more bitter.

[70Chip]

It may well be Andre Carter. TAFKAS had a good catch there. Would a player other than Carter go out of his way to point out how unfair the system has been to him? I don't know.

As for Williams being arrogant, just about everyone connected with professional football is like that to some degree. Hell, just about everyone connected to pee-wee football is arrogant. I can remember sitting in a bar next to a youth coach who was talking about how he was the master of the single-wing or some such antiquated offense. He even had an assistant there playing the Smithers part. On and on he bragged. I rather enjoyed it.

When you win, it's confidence. When you lose, it's arrogance.

[5RINGS]

70chip - I don't think that Williams is as much to blame as the article makes out. He's playing Cover 2 to try to protect that horrendous secondary which won't meet together. Indeed, Cover 2 is not ideal for stopping the run, but good defenses do it all the time. Dallas comes to mind. Us, last year. I do think the blitzes are predictable, but the players can't expect a free run at the QB every time. Sometimes you have to work to get the QB.

Yes Dallas gets great Run Defense in Cover 2. But Dallas runs a 3-4 not the Bear Defense – or 4-6 – that Williams runs. If your NT is playing well it is very hard to run on a 3-4 (but easier to get TE/LB mismatches) : Lots of big Jam ups at the line and 4 big hitters at LB waiting for the RB’s head to pop through. Our front three are all 300 pounders. They don’t move very far from the LOS.



Jason72 - Parcells doesn't speak to players for long periods too, I don't hear anyone criticizing him for it.

Actually Parcells goes out of his way to try and find out what makes a player tick so he can use that information to push the player into a better performance. He definately still micromanages. If there is one thing that I found really shocking it was that Gibbs doesn't micro manage anymore.


Ther has been an obvious breakdown in the Redskin Defense. It has to come from the top. There are too many things going wrong at the same time. Get rid of Williams and get a motivated coach in there - Jeff Fisher might become available he knows the Defense.....

[dall-assblows]

yea. i hear that parcells rips his players everyday. he even rips thm n there press conferences. like romo, he said that he was doing ok but he could be better.

parcells is a great coach.

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by 5RINGS

70chip - I don't think that Williams is as much to blame as the article makes out. He's playing Cover 2 to try to protect that horrendous secondary which won't meet together. Indeed, Cover 2 is not ideal for stopping the run, but good defenses do it all the time. Dallas comes to mind. Us, last year. I do think the blitzes are predictable, but the players can't expect a free run at the QB every time. Sometimes you have to work to get the QB.

Yes Dallas gets great Run Defense in Cover 2. But Dallas runs a 3-4 not the Bear Defense – or 4-6 – that Williams runs. If your NT is playing well it is very hard to run on a 3-4 (but easier to get TE/LB mismatches) : Lots of big Jam ups at the line and 4 big hitters at LB waiting for the RB’s head to pop through. Our front three are all 300 pounders. They don’t move very far from the LOS.

.....

The Dallas secondary would be every bit as shaky if they played behind the Skins front 7. Dallas can defend the run quite well from Cover 2 because they have a playoff quality front 7. They also have the horses to pressure the QB rushing only 4, especially since Ware has to be accounted for at all times.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

If Springs is "deep throat," I'd like to tell him to pack his bags and get the f--- out and not to let the door hit his ass on the way out. I liked Springs up until this point, but if it's him who talked all of this trash he needs to ride the bench. Who the hell does he think he is? He's old and perceived by many as a malcontent (talk to Seattle).

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

As much as I've defended Williams, I am beginning to question my support for him. His deal with Arrington definately seemed personal. His deal with Arch certainly seems personal (Doughty starting over Arch?). Seems like Buffalo was right and Williams doesn't play well with others.