Need Reasons To Get Excited

[jamf]

http://www.thewarpath.net/parking-lot/63848-boobs.html

Works for me.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by RedskinMike

Joe Barry is gone dude.

Yes, his replacement is also a coordinator that's been fired multiple times. I'll give Manusky a chance (like I have a choice) but his resume doesn't bode well. Especially for a team with minimal defensive talent and several question marks.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by RedskinMike

Joe Barry is gone dude.

Oh man. Thank you.

It's Redskins football and a new year...fuck man, how can u not be excited?

[FlyerSkin]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

I am somewhere in between right now. Not excited b/c I have lived with mediocrity and the continual promise that we will break out of it only to have fall back to double digit losses. After 25 years of this cycle, call me jaded. At the same time, I will watch and hope. I think the D has made some good acquisitions. I think the offense will be solid, but am less enthusiastic than I was originally. This is mainly because I am now concerned that the Pryor/Doctson replacement plan will be a much larger step down than I originally thought.

DJax, for all his faults, meant we were a threat to score at any time. When he played, opposing D's backed way the f* off or got burned. I thought Pryor and Doctson could make up for that by being much better red zone targets. Now, I just want to see them catch the ball and get on the field.

Now, before you pull out the "back to back winning seasons" on me, let me just say: 8-7-1, 9-7. Yes. They are winning seasons. In one, we won only one more game than half of the games played. In the other, we won half our games and only achieved a winning season by TYING A GAME (Yay! We are winners b/c we tied a game! lol). As a result of these slightly better than purely mediocre seasons, some are hopeful of bigger and better things. To me, however, this has been the cycle since the early 90's - we suck, we achieve mediocrity, fans get excited, we sink back to sucking. Rinse & Repeat.

If I felt like Gruden had turned the corner, maybe I get excited. I just haven't seen anything to convince me that he has. I think mediocrity may be the best he's got. If so, he's gone after this year or next and back to sucking we go. On the other hand, if we start fast out of the gate and are 5-3 or 6-2 by midseason, I will pull a mea culpa and be hooked all over again. I just don't see that happening. c'est la vie.

For now, I'll watch the games but will not pass up a beautiful fall afternoon with my family outside of the Plato's cave that we Skins fans have constructed for ourselves over the last 25 years.

Exactly how I have felt for pretty much over a decade. The rinse, spin, and repeat crap is what is killing my enthusiasm. It is getting increasingly harder to really be interested when my alma mater's (Univ of Dayton)football team, which is non scholarship, seems to play with more passion and a true desire to win than the bums the Skins put on the field year in and year out for at least the past decade. It is really a sad state of affairs, and it is true with most of the NFL, with the exception of the really good franchises.

[sdskinsfan2001]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

I am somewhere in between right now. Not excited b/c I have lived with mediocrity and the continual promise that we will break out of it only to have fall back to double digit losses. After 25 years of this cycle, call me jaded. At the same time, I will watch and hope. I think the D has made some good acquisitions. I think the offense will be solid, but am less enthusiastic than I was originally. This is mainly because I am now concerned that the Pryor/Doctson replacement plan will be a much larger step down than I originally thought.

DJax, for all his faults, meant we were a threat to score at any time. When he played, opposing D's backed way the f* off or got burned. I thought Pryor and Doctson could make up for that by being much better red zone targets. Now, I just want to see them catch the ball and get on the field.

Now, before you pull out the "back to back winning seasons" on me, let me just say: 8-7-1, 9-7. Yes. They are winning seasons. In one, we won only one more game than half of the games played. In the other, we won half our games and only achieved a winning season by TYING A GAME (Yay! We are winners b/c we tied a game! lol). As a result of these slightly better than purely mediocre seasons, some are hopeful of bigger and better things. To me, however, this has been the cycle since the early 90's - we suck, we achieve mediocrity, fans get excited, we sink back to sucking. Rinse & Repeat.

If I felt like Gruden had turned the corner, maybe I get excited. I just haven't seen anything to convince me that he has. I think mediocrity may be the best he's got. If so, he's gone after this year or next and back to sucking we go. On the other hand, if we start fast out of the gate and are 5-3 or 6-2 by midseason, I will pull a mea culpa and be hooked all over again. I just don't see that happening. c'est la vie.

For now, I'll watch the games but will not pass up a beautiful fall afternoon with my family outside of the Plato's cave that we Skins fans have constructed for ourselves over the last 25 years.

I think Gruden is going to be Snyder's Huckleberry.

I like Gruden. Can't put my finger on why. But I think he's going to be around for a long time. Hopefully I'm right because that means we're winning, a lot.

[MTK]

Gruden should get more credit for bringing some stability to the franchise. Given the sad state of affairs before he got here I'll gladly take 9-7 and 8-7-1 as a sign of significant progress.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by MTK

Gruden should get more credit for bringing some stability to the franchise. Given the sad state of affairs before he got here I'll gladly take 9-7 and 8-7-1 as a sign of significant progress.

Yeah agree, especially with dreck of a defense during those two seasons.

I want to see him break through, get over the hump. Norv was a player's coach, too. I think he got Snydered before we really found out whether he could break through. Based on his head coaching performances at stops since, I think the answer was no all along. But there's this nagging thing in the back of my mind - is Gruden a little too lax?

The constant turnovers and penalties that plagued the Norv teams had an undisciplined feel about them. Is our tendency to start games slow, and our tendency to lose in week 1, a sign that the coach needs to instill more discipline and urgency? Can we be a proactive team, rather than one that reacts to being punched in the mouth in the first quarter?

But these are nice problems to have, we're over .500 the last two years. Gruden deserves credit for designing an offense that gets players open, identifying their strengths and playing to them. He deserves credit for developing Cousins into a good quarterback. And most of all, deserves credit for making the tough decision to bench the organization's superstar high draft pick at QB, to go with Cousins in the first place. That was not an easy decision, and he was proven correct.

Let's see what he can do with a better defense. I want to see if he knows how to hire a defensive coordinator. I felt, when Manusky was selected for DC, that Gruden should have broadened his search. He did meet with Gus Bradley and others, and ultimately went with Manusky. A good head coach is a good CEO, does he know how to identify leaders who can effect change? If Manusky was the right choice, we'll know it based on the defense. And if the offense stays in top gear without McVay, then we'll know that Gruden has always had a hand in it.

This season will tell us a lot. There are enough questions where I can't blame anyone for having doubts, but Gruden has also shown enough to justify optimism as well. All in all I'm glad he's our coach, and he's easy to root for. It's nice to be able to hope for better and know that there are genuine reasons to think it could actually happen.

HTTR

[metalskins]

I think by week 8 or 9, we need another thread to reevaluate our feelings upon the team and see if they have changed since this thread. Have expectations been reached, not reached, or have they been exceeded?

Personally, I view this year as a make or break year. It is only a successful year if they win more than 8 games, make the playoffs, AND win a playoff game. Naturally #3 can't be had without #2, but if they go 9-7 and miss the playoffs, I think the year is a failure. 10-6 and no playoffs? Maybe not much of a failure, but still disappointing.

[Schneed10]

But if they went 9-7 would you tear it down and start a rebuild with a new coach?

Not sure I'd do that.

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

But if they went 9-7 would you tear it down and start a rebuild with a new coach?

Not sure I'd do that.

It would depend on the losses right? There are certain time management issues that JG has consistently struggled with, as well as early season dumb losses.

That said, I truly expect to see Gruden take an important step this season, starting with winning his first opener in his 4 years here.

[insane4theskinsi]

gruden is more like the players friend,not coach.they need a coach that will tear a yard out of their asses if they screw up.can you imagine the hell the players would catch if a player came out and said that pro practices were easier than college ones if bill parcells,bill cowher or even joe gibbs was the coach?redskins organization is terminally ill and i dont see it changing.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by insane4theskinsi

gruden is more like the players friend,not coach.they need a coach that will tear a yard out of their asses if they screw up.can you imagine the hell the players would catch if a player came out and said that pro practices were easier than college ones if bill parcells,bill cowher or even joe gibbs was the coach?redskins organization is terminally ill and i dont see it changing.

That's the nature of the current CBA, not a Redskins issue.

[mredskins]

Su'a Cravens of Washington Redskins, 22, pondered retiring

At this point Scott's best pic is Scherff and I can't really think of another good one. The lost McC has not been that big of deal.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by mredskins

Su'a Cravens of Washington Redskins, 22, pondered retiring



At this point Scott's best pic is Scherff and I can't really think of another good one. The lost McC has not been that big of deal.

Crowder?

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by MTK

Crowder?

Ok 2.