Thoughts on the game

[Beemnseven]

Matty, this is Palmer's second year as a starter after watching Kitna in his rookie season. Palmer looked shaky in the first few series against a still depleted Redskin starting defense, but warmed up a bit as the first half continued on. If you're trying to correlate his performance with Ramsey's, you needn't bother. Palmer, while younger with not as much experience as Ramsey, isn't projecting himself as such the way Ramsey still is.

Overall, I think Ramsey had a better game than he did against Carolina, with 9 completions for 190 yards. That's a very nice yards per pass percentage. The problem is that when Ramsey's off, he's WAY off, throwing to guys in opposing jerseys.

At this point in Ramsey's career, I think most of us, including Joe Gibbs expect more than that. Ramsey still hasn't settled down, and it's showing. Somebody opined that Ramsey simply cannot seem to handle pressure. But this is the preseason, when he's basically been awarded the starting job, and he's still playing as if he's a wide-eyed rookie trying to atone for himself on just about every play. That makes him restless, trying to go for the jugular instead of missing open receivers underneath and in the intermediate patterns. On two occasions last night, those exact scenarios played out, and he threw two interceptions that completely took the wind out of the team on their way to certain scores.

I'm not calling for Ramsey to be benched. Just the opposite -- he needs all the playing time he can get. I still say though that we really should see Brunell start against the Steelers next Friday. But I would say that even if Ramsey had a flawless game. Give it to Brunell against the Steeler first teamers, and get Ramsey some confidence while playing against Pittsburgh reserves.

And don't take this observation as "panic". It is what it is -- an observation. But to say that 'everything's fine' and 'all is well' would be stretching. That's all.