Concerns about the offense

[paulskinsfan]

After watching the Pittsburgh game for the 2nd time, I have some real concerns about our O this year. First off, Ramsey continues to underthrow his receivers. There were at least 2 long throws that became "jump balls" and easily could've been picks. IMO he continues to make poor decisions, even his completions make you hold your breath at times, Moss made a tremdous adjustment to come back to the ball once, and the td to Cooley was close to a pick as well. I think Gibbs' leash on Ramsey will be short this year, 2 bad games back to back and we could be right back to Brunnell. For some reason I get a pit in my stomach when I think of Ramsey facing the Dallas defense, in Dallas, on Monday night of week 2. Thankfully we open against Chicago and a rookie QB in week one.

Is anyone else concerned about our lack of depth on the O-line? They are playing awesome right now, but our depth seems really poor, and certainly there is a better backup center than Raymer available somewhere right now. Just some thoughts for discussion.

[12thMan]

Originally Posted by paulskinsfan

After watching the Pittsburgh game for the 2nd time, I have some real concerns about our O this year. First off, Ramsey continues to underthrow his receivers. There were at least 2 long throws that became "jump balls" and easily could've been picks. IMO he continues to make poor decisions, even his completions make you hold your breath at times, Moss made a tremdous adjustment to come back to the ball once, and the td to Cooley was close to a pick as well. I think Gibbs' leash on Ramsey will be short this year, 2 bad games back to back and we could be right back to Brunnell. For some reason I get a pit in my stomach when I think of Ramsey facing the Dallas defense, in Dallas, on Monday night of week 2. Thankfully we open against Chicago and a rookie QB in week one.

Is anyone else concerned about our lack of depth on the O-line? They are playing awesome right now, but our depth seems really poor, and certainly there is a better backup center than Raymer available somewhere right now. Just some thoughts for discussion.

On the contrary, sir. I think Ramsey had a solid, in fact a good game - 12 for 19 isn't bad and he's completed about 63% for the preseason. So on paper he's not having a bad preseason by any stretch. The one int. he had in the Steelers game was simply a miscommunication deal. He probably should have eaten the ball. Is he still learning - yes. Look, I've said it a dozen times, this kid is never going to be a prolific passer. He won't turn into Marino or Manning or McNabb even. He'll be a good solid QB most of his career with a few 3,000 yd seasons to show for it, IMO. But overall I think he's doing most of what Gibbs & Co. are asking of him right now.

As far as the O-line, I couldn't disagree with you more as far as the depth.
I think they have been just short of dominating so far and I like our deph, literally at every position, Raymer included. Don't forget he started last year and although he lost out to Raybach he's still a center most teams could use.

[MTK]

Ramsey has been up and down, but let's remember he's played against some pretty damn good defenses this preseason. And until last week he didn't have the benefit of much of a running game behind him due to playcalling and Portis sitting out.

As for the line depth, if anything this preseason has made me feel much better about the line overall, depth included. We've run the ball and protected the QB the entire game, whether it's the starters or the backups in there.

[Schneed10]

The O-Line is the unit I feel best about on the entire team. Maybe I feel just as good as I do on the RBs. Ray Brown makes great depth at guard. Raymer is definitely high quality backup C material, I mean he was a starter for a long time. I think Molinaro and Wilson are coming along well enough to solidify T.

Ramsey's deep accuracy is definitely still a concern. But I think it will take time for him to synch up with his new WRs. You can tell how much faster Moss & Patten are than Gardner and Coles. Coles has the potential to burn like that, but with the toe issue he was significantly slower. Ramsey seems to underthrow a lot right now, he's probably not used to their speed yet. Hopefully that will come.

I'm encouraged by how good the running game looked though. Ramsey just needs to do enough to keep the D honest. That should set Portis loose, he should go friggin nuts this year.

We're still in the NFC East, and Joe Gibbs is still our coach. We're a RUN FIRST team, the way it should be.

[BrudLee]

I'm looking at this preseason like Tiger looks at the tournament before the Masters. For years, Tiger would enter a tournament and do poorly - because he was working out new stuff for the Masters. Hitting fades when he didn't need to, laying up when he could easily reach the green, that sort of thing. It would drive golf guys crazy... at first. Then they'd see him at the Masters. He hadn't lost his big driver, he wanted to make sure he had the other shots.

Ramsey has always had a lot of zip on his passes. Watching him underthrow these passes means the coaching staff wants him to feel comfortable with something other than a laser. We should see a greater range of throws when it counts.

By the way, lose all the confidence you want to lose in Ramsey. His teammates and coaches seem to trust him, and that's enough for me.

[Redskins8588]

Why is everyone so scared of Dallas's D? I mean have you watched any of there preseason games at all? Yes, Ware is someone to look out for but thats it, there secondary has Williams and it stops there too, Newman and Henry both couldnt cover a blanket...

I just dont get it, maybe Parcells is holding back, but if he is than why does he always looked pissed standing on the sidelines?

[BrudLee]

Originally Posted by Redskins8588

Why is everyone so scared of Dallas's D? I mean have you watched any of there preseason games at all? Yes, Ware is someone to look out for but thats it, there secondary has Williams and it stops there too, Newman and Henry both couldnt cover a blanket...

I just dont get it, maybe Parcells is holding back, but if he is than why does he always looked pissed standing on the sidelines?

I don't know why we should be especially scared of Dallas's Defense. We just ran and passed very well against Pittsburgh's 3-4 defense - and they know what they are doing. Half of the Cowboys defense is playing in a 3-4 for the first time in their careers.

[Ade Jimoh Fan Club]

I know everyone is optimistic after the Steeler's game, and I want to see Ramsey do well as much as the next guy, but....

Fact is, Ramsey was not very impressive. Let's be honest, his deep ball is GAWD AWEFUL! It was so consistently underthrown, I was starting to think it was intentional.

As posted earlier, Santana and Cooley made some great adjustments to keep Ramsey from having another 3 INT game.

I was really nervous about this season after watching him (no, I don't care what the box stats were). He really needs to show us the *POTENTIAL* everyone keeps talking about. Hell, I've got *POTENTIAL*.

Having said that, I think we should support him for the first few games and not talk about pulling him unless he's absolutely horrible. Nothing I'd like less than to see the Brunell Bandwagon starting rolling after a bad Week 1 performance.

[MTK]

Ramsey is still adjusting to trying to get air under his throws, and like someone already said I think he's also adjust to the speed of Patten and Moss.

They obviously have some work to do, but the only way he's going to get better is by playing.

[scowan]

Guys, I think Ramsey made some really good throws in the Pittsburgh game and some that the receivers made him look good on. But that happens with every team and every QB. My only concern is that he stares down a receiver too much. A couple of his "out patterns" were almost picked, but he had a lot of velocity on them so they turned into completions. Unless our receivers make some double moves, I worry about CBs watching his eyes and "keying in" on where he is going with the ball. I would love to have Musgrave work on that with Ramsey and I wonder if he does. Ramsey actually had a really good night if you take away the INT. The problem is that the Skins have had one of those type of plays "INT for a TD" a lot in the last couple of years. We need some breaks on stuff like that this year.

[FRPLG]

I dont see how anyone can quibble with our depth on the o-line. The depth ahs been remarkable. In fact the worst performance of th o-line were the first scrimmage and game when the starting unit looked average. At no time have the backups looked anything but capable. I am encouraged by our depth on the line.

As far as Ramsey I am in a wait and see mode. The offense has looked by any strech of the imagination at least twice as good as last year. I think some people are forgetting just how bad the offense looked last year. It was completely incapable of doing anything. This year at the least the design seems much better. Ramsey has never been a bad QB. He has more TDs than interceptions for his career and has always been under serious pressure. I think given a decent chance and protection he is going to blossom. Just gie him some time guys.

One other thing I have noticed at both the games I was at...Our receivers are fast. Not like a little fast but like run fly patterns and they are open by 6 yards every time fast. Once they hit a couple fo these the offense is going to open up. This offense really has a chance to be good if they can keep Ramsey's confidence up and stay healthy.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Speaking of out patterns though, I think Ramsey to Cooley/Patten on intermediate outs is going to be HUGE this year. Ramsey DOES always throw with a lot of velocity that allows him to complete those. He seems to have pretty good accuracy with them too.

[BrudLee]

Concerns about our offense should be directed to the last five minutes of the first half on Friday. With 5:01 on the clock, with our #1 RB on the sidelines, with a seven point deficit, our offense did everything it was supposed to do. When that 10 play, 55 yard drive was over, the game was tied and Pittsburgh had 38 seconds on the clock. Our QB was 5/5, we never rushed for a loss, and Pittsburgh's first team defense was left apologizing to the coaches.

[firstdown]

Jump balls are in the play book and all teams use them its a matter of putting the ball where the receiver has the advantage as Ramsey did with Cooley. In the Pit game we would have ran the ball alot more because we were so efficent in running but Gibbs wanted to see more of the passing game. I think we would have had another TD before the half if we would have run the ball more and then they would have stacked the line and our passing game would have been even better. If our Oline stays healthy and can keep playing the way they are our O will have alot of success this year. Last year we all talk about if we could only get the running game going and protect the QB our passing game would come along and from what I'm seeing thats what we are doing.If you think we should have concerns look at Roethisberger's stats. 30 attemps 14 completions 0 TD's 2 interceptions and a passer rating of 30. That would realy have me concerned.

[RedskinRat]

Originally Posted by BrudLee

Concerns about our offense should be directed to the last five minutes of the first half on Friday. With 5:01 on the clock, with our #1 RB on the sidelines, with a seven point deficit, our offense did everything it was supposed to do. When that 10 play, 55 yard drive was over, the game was tied and Pittsburgh had 38 seconds on the clock. Our QB was 5/5, we never rushed for a loss, and Pittsburgh's first team defense was left apologizing to the coaches.

That's exactly how I felt. The offense worked the way I've envisioned it working. More of the same, please.