Reputation of Sherman Lewis- our new play caller

[Longtimefan]

Monday night's game cannot come fast enough for me. As improbable as it may be, it will be real interesting to hear what's going to be said if Lewis dials up a game with the highest scoring out-put so far this season. Matters less if he's old, decrepit, or crazy if he can call a winning formula. The payers don't have to know his name or what he looks like, just "execute" the plays called.

[Beemnseven]

Will Sherman Lewis be calling plays from Jim Zorn's playbook? What difference will Lewis's calls make if the plays were drawn up and designed by Zorn?

[SC Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by GridIron26

Here's real insight of Lewis' history.. Doesn't look real good..

washingtonpost.com

And just to reiterate points covered in that story, here is my favorite quotation from Reid's RI blog: "The plan is for Lewis, who will sit in the press box, to give the calls to Zorn, who will remain on the sideline and relay the information to Campbell or Collins. But Lewis performed poorly when he was permitted to call plays previously in his career, league sources said, and is unfamiliar with the Redskins' offensive terminology, personnel, running game and pass-protection schemes." What a cluster f. Besides all of the obvious problems, what are the odds on the number of time outs the team will have to call because plays are slow getting in to the QB? Game management and efficiency wasn't exactly the strong suit of this team even when Zorn was calling the plays himself.

[SC Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by Longtimefan

Monday night's game cannot come fast enough for me. As improbable as it may be, it will be real interesting to hear what's going to be said if Lewis dials up a game with the highest scoring out-put so far this season. Matters less if he's old, decrepit, or crazy if he can call a winning formula. The payers don't have to know his name or what he looks like, just "execute" the plays called.

So you are asking, what happens if the team explodes offensively and puts up 18 points?

[Swarley]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Will Sherman Lewis be calling plays from Jim Zorn's playbook? What difference will Lewis's calls make if the plays were drawn up and designed by Zorn?

It's about using the right plays at the right time. If Zorn really is scripting plays to the point where he cant react to the way the defense is playing us maybe Lewis getting a chance to call what he wants when he wants might make a difference. Not saying it will make a difference but that's the difference.

[over the mountain]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

I guess I'll ask the same question here that I asked in another thread. What is so true now that we didn't know two weeks ago?

im not skinny t but im guessin that the truth is:
1)after the lions game the DS wanted to fire zorn, vinny told him if you fire zorn you have no one that can call plays,
2) the next week, snyderatto bring in sherm lewis so that he can get familiar with skins for a few weeks and when he fires zorn there is someone who has called plays before
3) after the chiefs game snyderatto tries to embarrass zorn into quiting by "strongly suggesting" that he hand over play call duties to sherm lewis,
4) zorn not quiting before the eagles game is no biggie for snyderatto b/c the bye week is coming up, in which time they can fire zorn and allow sherm lewis 2 weeks to get up to speed as the Washington redskins head coach.

(as a side benefit, maybe one of the big name coaches might actually listen to snyderatto's sales pitch mid-season since sherm lewis is an interim coach and not a tenured coach coming into the season like zorn was. i do believe coaches, employed or unemployed, have a type of gentelmens agreement/quasi union pack where they wont go behind and usurp another HC while he is still employed. look at gruden and shanahan's responses and comments.

usurping an interim coach whom the FO has no intention of keeping past this season isnt as egregious of a violation to their coach gentlemens code as it would be if zorn is still the HC)

so business as usual for the skins.

i also think skinny was implying that the smearing campaign of snyderatto on their coaches (marty, gregg williams and now the public humiliation of zorn) hurts their chances of hiring a big time coach.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

im not skinny t but im guessin that the truth is:
1)after the lions game the DS wanted to fire zorn, vinny told him if you fire zorn you have no one that can call plays,
2) the next week, snyderatto bring in sherm lewis so that he can get familiar with skins for a few weeks and when he fires zorn there is someone who has called plays before
3) after the chiefs game snyderatto tries to embarrass zorn into quiting by "strongly suggesting" that he hand over play call duties to sherm lewis,
4) zorn not quiting before the eagles game is no biggie for snyderatto b/c the bye week is coming up, in which time they can fire zorn and allow sherm lewis 2 weeks to get up to speed as the Washington redskins head coach.

(as a side benefit, maybe one of the big name coaches might actually listen to snyderatto's sales pitch mid-season since sherm lewis is an interim coach and not a tenured coach coming into the season like zorn was. i do believe coaches, employed or unemployed, have a type of gentelmens agreement/quasi union pack where they wont go behind and usurp another HC while he is still employed. look at gruden and shanahan's responses and comments.

usurping an interim coach whom the FO has no intention of keeping past this season isnt as egregious of a violation to their coach gentlemens code as it would be if zorn is still the HC)

so business as usual for the skins.

i also think skinny was implying that the smearing campaign of snyderatto on their coaches (marty, gregg williams and now the public humiliation of zorn) hurts their chances of hiring a big time coach.

Thanks for the reply. I thought Skinny was talking more about the rumors of the Redskins reaching out to Shanahan, which is something that was reported earlier this month. The only difference now is that a "source inside the Redskins organization" confirmed it this time, whereas no one did before. But that's par for the course with these things. It's really not new news, in my opinion.

[over the mountain]

lol he probably was. SS i got a question and you probably know the answer or could come up with a knowledgable opinion:

does the skins firing of zorn (when it happens) and the naming of an old guy like sherm as the interim coach now open the possibilities that a guy like gruden or shanahan will talk with the skins FO re. coaching the skins next year during this season?

whereas, if zorn was still the HC (like he is now), gruden and shanahan wont comment or honestly enter into talks with the skins FO like they are currently distancing themselves?

go skins!!

[Longtimefan]

Originally Posted by SC Skins Fan

So you are asking, what happens if the team explodes offensively and puts up 18 points?

Considering the way things have been going 18 points would be a highlight reel.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by SC Skins Fan

So you are asking, what happens if the team explodes offensively and puts up 18 points?

Sounds good to me.

Redskins 18
Eagles 11

[SBXVII]

Originally Posted by GreekSkin

It's about using the right plays at the right time. If Zorn really is scripting plays to the point where he cant react to the way the defense is playing us maybe Lewis getting a chance to call what he wants when he wants might make a difference. Not saying it will make a difference but that's the difference.

I think there is many factors involved. We have heard that Zorn whole game plan sucks, He calls the most idiotic plays and for the first 8 weeks of last yr DC's did not believe he would call the plays called so they weren't ready for it ...now we hear the DC's are game planning around what stupid call he might call in any given situation that no other coach would call and for the most part are stopping us. We have heard he is sending in the wrong plays at the wrong time, and lately he's sending in the wrong plays with the wrong package of people on the field.

Yes it's about calling the right plays at the right time, which he has a hard time doing, but it's also about knowing what personell is on the field and calling the right play for the package on the field. Can't call package designed for Portis who is now running off the field for his one yrd run breather and try to have Betts run the play. Won't work. Part of the reason why I liked Gibbs system. Take any player out and put in any second string player and the play should still work.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by SC Skins Fan

Besides all of the obvious problems, what are the odds on the number of time outs the team will have to call because plays are slow getting in to the QB? Game management and efficiency wasn't exactly the strong suit of this team even when Zorn was calling the plays himself.

5.5

I have the over.

Of course, on the other side, you have Donovan McNabb, so his over/under is 6.5.

[SBXVII]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

lol he probably was. SS i got a question and you probably know the answer or could come up with a knowledgable opinion:

does the skins firing of zorn (when it happens) and the naming of an old guy like sherm as the interim coach now open the possibilities that a guy like gruden or shanahan will talk with the skins FO re. coaching the skins next year during this season?

whereas, if zorn was still the HC (like he is now), gruden and shanahan wont comment or honestly enter into talks with the skins FO like they are currently distancing themselves?

go skins!!

I think this is part of the problem. I do think many coach's have a gentlemans agreement about not talking to an owner about a job that is already taken. Even if the HC of the team is doing poorly.

Now, rumor has it Gruden has spoken to someone off record and not associated with the Skins about how he might like the job with the Skins.

If I was DS I would fire VC or completely remove him from having anything to do with the Skins as of today. Do a search of available candidates and candidates who are currently with other teams if available. Like Poilin or whoever. If I had to wait till seasons end to conduct certain interviews then so be it and bring in the best I could and pay him well. Give the GM some ideas as to who you might like as HC but make sure everyone and all candidates know I am backing the F-off. Allowing the GM to run the team.

With that said it might, might open up a few doors into coach's that have been hesitant to come to Washington.

Hopefully after Mon. night, which I can't wait for, VC and Zorn get canned and DS can start talking to viable candidates. but I wouldn't bring them in till seasons end. My feeling is you bring them in now and people/fans get a misconception and expect the team to start winning. If they don't I could see fans wishing DS to fire the new HC. I'd name an interim HC and keep conducting interviews until seasons end with my new GM.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

lol he probably was. SS i got a question and you probably know the answer or could come up with a knowledgable opinion:

does the skins firing of zorn (when it happens) and the naming of an old guy like sherm as the interim coach now open the possibilities that a guy like gruden or shanahan will talk with the skins FO re. coaching the skins next year during this season?

whereas, if zorn was still the HC (like he is now), gruden and shanahan wont comment or honestly enter into talks with the skins FO like they are currently distancing themselves?

go skins!!

Well no matter who is the coach (interim or not), I don't think any coach would speak publicly about it. But Shanahan and the Redskins have definitely been talking (at least through intermediaries) and I'm sure discussions will continue in the off-season. But Shanahan is being smart about it. Dallas and San Diego could both be options for him this off-season, so he's got some options to leverage against each other I hope he goes to San Diego and Norv goes to Dallas. That way we don't get stuck with GM Mike Shanahan and the Cowboys get stuck with Norv.

Gruden, to my knowledge, hasn't really given much thought specifically to the Redskins. He certainly wants to coach again, but he's loving what he's doing right now. And he's young enough that he could take another year off and wait for the right opportunity. And seeing how tight Gruden and Bruce Allen seem to be, I suspect they would look to go together somewhere. Or so it appears right now. Then again, Allen has been rumored to the Bills. But I'd be surprised to see the Bills pay for Gruden as well

[Hog1]

I did not know that both Allen, and Gruden have two more years Full boat $$$$ coming from the Buc's