Should Gibbs Flip The Script: Passing Team Now?

[Paintrain]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

But aren't you arguing for the Martz philosophy? All due respect to the Redskins WRs, but we don't have Roy Williams, Calvin Johnson, Mike Furrey, and Shaun McDonald lining up for us. Or even Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison and Dallas Clark. Or even Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, and Ben Watson.

I'm all for the hurry up, spreading the field, and striking quickly in the passing game. We look good, and it is a clear strength of our offense.

Notice that by no means am I suggesting that we always run. I think we should run draws and such out of spread formations to keep the defense off balance. We should feature screen passes which keep aggressive defensive lines in check, and can be used as an extension of the running game. And we should continue to use the hurry up. I definitely don't think we should crowd into the line of scrimmage with a jumbo package and run up the middle all the time, like we've been doing. We should switch the scheme up and modernize it.

But to say that because Campbell threw successfully yesterday after having 50 attempts, that we should approach the game trying to pass 4 out of five times, that's how you give your defense short fields with which to work. It's how you tire your defense out.

In the end, you play to your strength. We've got Clinton Portis, Chris Cooley, solid WRs, and a developing QB. To me, that personnel screams balance.

Since you mentioned the Martz philosophy (relentlessly attack), yeah pretty much.. He got fired for his game management skills & personality, not because his offense stopped working.. I think a Martz type offense works better for this team than what we've been running.. A fast back, small quick WR with deep speed to separate, a pass catching TE to exploit the seams doesn't support a power running team, which is what we've tried to be for some reason.

I agree with your assessment of our strengths on offense but the crutch of a 'developing QB' is off base I think. Yes, he's developing but he can't fully develop unless you let him. He's a third year QB, not a fresh faced rookie.. He's into his second 'season' as a starter, there's no reason to hold back anything from the game plan for him. He has shown that he is a playmaker, when given the chance. I posted earlier, I think his rust/inaccuracy on the deep ball is because he hadn't had a chance to throw it in games much until the past 2 weeks. If you have a high performance car in the garage you don't take the minivan on a Sunday drive.

I'm not advocating a 80-20 pass-run ratio but I think 65-35 or so would yield us much better results in the W-L columns than what we've done for 80% of the games this year.