The Real Problem of the Redskins ...

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

The legend of 'smashmouth football' is a past it's time. The team that has dominiated the NFC East for a decade has been the Eagles, a team that passes no less than 60% of the time. We've got to get away from our past and the 'pound the rock' mentality. The Hogs, Riggo, Joey T, Coach Gibbs are all the past, the present and future is winning through the air. By the way, New England plays in a cold weather area, how did their passing game fare the past few years? They've never been a running team and I think for the most part they did OK the past decade.

While Spurrier was a joke of a head coach, I'd bet as an offensive coordinator he'd be damn successful. Points are scored in the passing game in today's NFL. We've tried to get with the times but we've failed miserably at establishing franchise cornerstones at two positions, QB and #1 WR. Yes the lines are very important, but two teams with terrible OL this season were the Steelers and Cardinals. How did that work out for them? They have however elite QB and a legitimate #1 WR. You can get away with less than elite OL if you are elite at other positions. We're not elite anywhere, merely 'good' at a few spots.

I respectfully disagree. Yes your right the Eagles have dominated our division with a passing game over the past decade. On top of that the Cardinals and the Steelers are in the conference championships despite shaky o-line play. However all three of those teams have the most important asset in football. More important then a good head coach and quality coordinators, hell way more important then the O-line and the D-line combined. And thats elite QB play, if you have an elite QB you can do practically anything on offense. Wide Recievers don't mean anything without a QB, I mean just look at the Cardinals with Josh McCown or Matt Leinart and then again with Kurt Warner. The Lions tried to build with Recievers look how far that got them.

If you're trying to overacheive nothing will get you there faster then a Quarterback with 25+ TD and a 90+ QB Rating . In fact if you don't believe me then check out this article about how unimportant a true #1 reciever actually is. My favorite part being this:

SI.com - Writers - Reuben Frank: Big-time WRs don't win Super Bowls - Thursday January 17, 2008 6:07PM

"Of the last 14 Super Bowl teams, only four had a receiver with 1,200 or more yards -- and three of those teams lost: The 2001 Rams with Torry Holt, 2002 Raiders and Jerry Rice and the 2004 Eagles with Owens. The only exception was last year's Colts, the first team to win a Super Bowl with a big-time wide out since the Rams in 1999."

Now I'm not as into smash mouth football as you might think in fact I make as much fun of smash mouth football as I do air it out football, though it seems to be more of a slant against air it out here on the Warpath as it relates to me. However in building a team I feel that Smash Mouth football will win you more games. Still like any logical person I would like a balanced attack, though with a slight tilt towards the run considering how effective we were during the first half of the season.

Originally Posted by firstdown

Yea we saw that high flying O this year and Snyder stayed with Zorn so your argument does not hold up. Also last year we had several linemen we wanted that were gone by our pick.

That was after the fact. Zorn was originally brought in here to reshape the passing game. In fact in terms of offense it was the only thing he really changed that and maybe a few new formations. So that doesn't really hurt the argument I'm presenting that Snyder is an air-it-out junkie who dreams of a day where the paper reads something to the effect of "Snyder was right as Redskins get it done through the air". Plus if he gets rid of Zorn who is he going to hire? My guess is that keeping Zorn was a combination of a promise he made to Vinny, the fact that no one sexy enough was avaiable to justify firing an 8-8 first year coach, and lastly the possibility that admitting the month + long coaching search was a huge mistake.

As for looking at the lineman before the draft last year. Well to tell you the truth thats my last ray of hope for this front office and I'm holding onto that like my life depends on it. So yes your right they did look at Branden Albert, Chris Willimas, Duane Brown, as well as Sam Baker so I do see that as a plus. Yet the bottom line is they came away with three pass catchers at with three picks in the second round. On top of that they were willing to part with their first round pick to acquire Chad Johnson as well as Anquan Boldin. So I cede the floor to you, but I stand by my point that Snyder's attempt to acquire a passing game have cost this organization dearly. Either way this is fun I haven't had a debate this engaging in a while.