Why all the complaining?

[scowan]

Guys, if the playoffs started today.......1. Cowboys, 2. Packers, 3. Panthers, 4. Seahawks, 5. Giants, 6. Redskins.

We 're IN!!! Everyone chill. We should not have won today, but we should not have lost to the Packers either. Its all good.

[Daseal]

Nick Saban once said, the last thing I want is an ugly win. Said some people don't understand that just because you won the game doesn't mean all is well. At first I thought he was an idiot and everyone can see that after every game, especially wins you have to look at your flaws and try to fix them. After reading through these threads, I see what he means.

Is our Oline beat up, yes. Are we having injury problems? Yes. Welcome to the NFL. It's called depth, and we don't have any. Hell, when you have to trade for a starting guard two weeks before the season starts, you've already set yourself up for failure. Regardless of our offensive lines shape, I can't blame our entire poor performance on it. On the rare occasion that we actually threw the ball, often time Campbell didn't seem to be horribly rushed. A few times, sure -- that's to be expected. but not an abnormal amount.

The real question is, why aren't we working with our athletic QB, rolling him out, and using his feet to make up for problems with our offensive line, instead of trying to force them to make blocks and run the ball. We had a horribly conservative offense in the 2nd half, as usual. If you can't play offense because of injuries, you did something wrong as a team. We will not make the playoffs or even have a winning record if we keep this type of offensive performance up.

[FRPLG]

I am a staunch believer that we were too conservative in the second half against the Giants for no good reason but before that and since our offensive strategy has been fine in my estimation. Our "conservativeness" today was dictated by the personell we had. Plain and simple. I really think that all these people blaming intensity or play calling in general are missing the fact that having a decimated offensive line doesn't just affect how well you do things but it affects the things you can even try to do.

We had to pare our play book back based on personell and then they executed the reduced play book about half as well as our normal guys would have. The offensive line IS THAT IMPORTANT. It is the key to everything anyone does. It is the reason we struggled today.

[rypper11]

If the we make the playoffs as the WC, don't be suprised if we play @ the winners of the West (the Cards). They might not finish better than 8-8 but wow is the west weak.

[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

So by your logic, nothing will work until the O-line gets healthy. If that's the case, then we might as well mail in the season now. I prefer to think that you can get creative to try to make something happen. We haven't seen Randle El or Portis throw an option pass all season. We haven't seen Saunders try to roll the pocket to one side to buy Campbell more time on deeper pass plays. We haven't tried no huddle to prevent defensive substitutions, possibly resulting in mismatches. I noticed when we did go jumbo today, Thrash was the lone WR in that package (instead of Moss). That strikes ZERO fear in opposing safeties, who may as well put 9 in the box against that package. The only thing that I saw on offense today was coaching scared.

First of all, the offensive line is what makes everything work. If it's not there, it's not going to happen.

Secondly,you're talking about relying on gadget plays. If you're having to run gadget plays to jump start your offense, you're in trouble. It may work once or twice a game, but that isn't how things work.

Thirdly, rolling the quarterback out is a nice thought and something I'd like to see more often as well. However, while it does buy some time, roll outs still require protection from your offensive line. So, once again, it comes back to the trenches.

As far as mailing it in for the season, I do believe the 2000 Ravens' O was quite pathetic, and they relied on their defense just as much as we have. Yet, they did come away with a Super Bowl trophy. While I don't believe we're as good as that team was, we do have a strong defense that will at least give us a chance to win games for us, but we have to fix our offensive line to have any improvement with our offense.

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by scowan

Guys, if the playoffs started today.......1. Cowboys, 2. Packers, 3. Panthers, 4. Seahawks, 5. Giants, 6. Redskins.

We 're IN!!! Everyone chill. We should not have won today, but we should not have lost to the Packers either. Its all good.

Honestly, have our standards as Redskin fans dropped to where we are just happy to get in as a 6th seed? I want to be a Super Bowl contending team.

[rypper11]

The Giants are playing lights out and the Cowpokes won't lose more than 4 games this year. I think WC is our best option. Though we could still end up with a better record than anyone in the rest of the NFC outside of the East.

[FRPLG]

I shudder to think: Imagine how well that personell set would execute some of the less conservative stuff if today is how they executed the easier and more conservative stuff?

[dgack]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

Which was my point in posting it.. Gibbs seemingly is satisfied with squatting on 2 TD leads despite losing so many leads in his 2nd stint..

Not sure why this is so shocking. As we saw in the GB game, put the ball on the ground just once and you very well could be done for the day. With the defense playing the way it's been playing, getting up early then riding it out seems like a perfectly reasonable philosophy.

The trick is that we don't have an earth-moving front line anymore, so we can't run it down opposing teams' throats and control the clock in the second half. But turning to the air exclusively is way too risky.

[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by rypper11

The Giants are playing lights out and the Cowpokes won't lose more than 4 games this year. I think WC is our best option. Though we could still end up with a better record than anyone in the rest of the NFC outside of the East.

The thing about the Giants is that the only team they have beat with a winning record has been the Washington Redskins. We gave away that game.

[mheisig]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

100% agree. Remember our line is 4/5 new from last year and down 3/5 of the starters from opening day. It is destroying our offense.

Today:

-Cooley was kept in for pass protection far more than normal.
-Sellers and Co. were kept tighter for pass protection.
-We took no shots downfield because they coaches were afraid we couldn't pass block for any extended period of time. Gibbs said as much in his post game presser
-Our run blocking was average and with the lack of any downdfield attack they were able to devote their front 7 to run stopping almost singularly.

So we coulcnd't run because of bad not so great run blocking and the lack of any pass threat and we had no pass threat because we couldn't pass protect.

All in all our line is killing us and nothing will get better until we get healthy there.

Interesting note: Joe Jacoby said he thought Pucillo missed a lot of line adjustments whih to me is to be expected from the backup center who hasn;t played there in awhile.

Very well put, and it all boils down to us being one dimensional on offense, or perhaps "none dimensional."

As long as the o-line is this banged up and patched together opposing teams, especially teams like New England, are just going to hone in on the fact that this offense is inept without an offensive line (just as any team would be.) If you can't trust your line to pass protect for more than a second or two then all of your pass plays are going to be short. Add to that having to keep the backs and Cooley in to block just to manage what little pass protection can be scrounged up and you lose even more weapons.

Basically everyone but the WRs are in blocking all so we can manage a 10 yard pass at best. Add to that WRs who apparently can't catch anymore and you've got about the easiest pass attack in the NFL to defend against. Even our own coaches are admitting what the gameplan is.

Nobody will respect our run game either. Portis appears either unhealthy or in a funk, Betts isn't terribly useful and the run blocking is about as good as the pass blocking.

It's basically a heyday for opposing defenses - just T-off and do whatever the hell they feel like.

I think this defense is good enough to ride to maybe .500 or a little better and possibly a Wild Card spot even with the offense as bad as it is now. But even this defense won't be able to shut down the likes of New England, Dallas, Indy or a few others. Holding those teams to 28 points would be considered an accomplishment, and right now our offense can't put up 29 to win it. At some point the offense has to contribute, and right now they just can't.

[dgack]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

Honestly, have our standards as Redskin fans dropped to where we are just happy to get in as a 6th seed? I want to be a Super Bowl contending team.

There's a long way between here and there, dude. Right now, for this team, yes, playoffs are a first start. JC needs playoff experience. Not many young QB's get to traipse on into the Super Bowl like Rockthisburger did; usually it takes a lot of playoff experience to get out of that round.

I think we would all agree we're not strong enough to defeat most of the AFC playoff teams, so I think slipping in as a 6th seed is probably great considering what a mess the injury situation has been. I'd rather it happen like this this year and Jason get some valuable experience than for us to go in as #2 or #3 seeds and get trounced by a playoff-seasoned team like Seattle or Tampa, personally... at least this way we aren't "wasting" a great season.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

And I argue that it's foolish to try to go smashmouth with the O-line in shambles. I've said it before, and it bears repeating, you can spread the field with 3 and 4 WR sets to create more running lanes. Today was an obvious lack of willingness to adjust on offense, and it probably should have cost us the game.

This requires a complete adjustment of offensive philosophy. That doesn't happen overnight. And what happens when Wade and Kendall aren't gimpy and Rabach is fine? Our line is tremendously better and we're supposed to simply switch back to our original plan? It doesn't work like that. e're calling the stuff we can run right now.

[mheisig]

Originally Posted by skinsguy

As far as mailing it in for the season, I do believe the 2000 Ravens' O was quite pathetic, and they relied on their defense just as much as we have. Yet, they did come away with a Super Bowl trophy. While I don't believe we're as good as that team was, we do have a strong defense that will at least give us a chance to win games for us, but we have to fix our offensive line to have any improvement with our offense.

Good point about the Ravens. I don't recall the 2000 season all that well, but were there any offenses then that rival the Pats or Indy? I know the Rams were damned good, but I think you're looking at a potentially record-breaking offense with the Pats, and Indy is always just incredible.

If I got real imaginative I could even see our defense just carrying the team deep into the playoffs like the Ravens, but I just don't see us stopping a Brady or Manning for a championship.

[rypper11]

I was noticing something interesting. The Skins are ranked 4th in the NFC in net points with plus 34. Cowboys are +69, Giants +38 and Packers +35.