Reality Bites!

Sports, you're of course right about the record: numbers don't lie.

But I'm not sure about what your overall point is. JUst focus on the defense of this team. Other than your complaints about Taylor (which I for one am willing to chalk up to the learning curve as of yet), aren't you getting just what you asked for? No name players playing intelligently and pratice squad players plugging holes, etc? And here they actually have had significant injuries. No offense to Ryan Clark, but Bowen is better. Remember his performance in week one when it looked like "Year of the Bowen." So maybe the team is only half broken, and with a good model of how to get better.

As for Ramsey, do you really see no change in his play since he came in for Brunell? No sign of improvment? And you say he's been "starting on and off for two and a half years," but how many games is it, and how may in a pro system (no offense to Daseal and Spurrier)? Last night's int was terrible, no doubt. But he's played 4 games, in this stretch and 3 have been against Pitt and Philly. Those teams have excellent defenses. Let carson, Carr, Brian, etc have a go against that lot. My guess is that they'll make some big plays and blow some big plays. The jury is still out on Ramsey, but I for one am encouraged.

As for the o-line, upgrade if you can. Find a better available QB. Get some good WRs. But you speak against splashy free agent signings, so you must mean draft them. My guess is that's just what they'll do, coupled with a few less exciting FA pickups. They've got to re-sign Smoot and Pierce, and deal with Samuels, so they won't have any real cap space anyway. I figure in the end you'll get your wish about the direction of this team: it sounds a lot like the sorts of things Gibbs and Buges say. So things are looking up, Mr. Curmudgeon! Turn that frown upside down! ;)

Taylor is well on his way to being a great player in this league. Once the mental part of his game catches up to his physical part he's going to be extremely dangerous. I don't understand all the negativity towards him, SC. He's a rookie and playing pretty damn well for a rookie. There are 31 other teams that would love to have a young player of his caliber. You like to pick out the 1-2 negative plays he has per week and put them under a microscope. How about the INT he caused? Why does he seem to always be around every tackle? The way you talk about him one would think he's a complete bust.

Are you willing to let him develop, or since he's not all-world and playing flawless football in his rookie season you're ready to replace him?

Same for Ramsey, yes he's been here for 2+ seasons but he's also in his second system, one that is radically different than the one he spent his first two seasons in. He has 4 starts in this current system and less than 20 for his career.

He's already much more consistent under Gibbs than he ever was in his first two seasons. Personally I'd like to see us commit to him for next year. Otherwise we're going to be grooming yet another QB next summer and probably going through the same growing pains as yet another QB has to learn the system.

SC, I'm still not quite understanding why you want them to get blown out by the Vikings.

What would that accomplish?
I think SC's fear - and it's valid - is that if we win four of our last five, we will stand pat, or worse; we will add three or four "superstars" to make the next step. The problem with that thinking is that we really aren't that close to being dominant, we are that close to being mediocre. There is one dominant team in the NFC right now - two pretty good ones and three mediocre ones will be playoff bound. Our goal for next year should not be to be one of the three mediocre teams that makes it to the playoffs. That turned into an admirable goal for this year, but we should be aiming higher than that for our future.

One thing I have to (shudder) admire about the Eagles is that they've been unafraid to jettison their mistakes. Even if the player stays on the team, no one is starting because of their draft position or salary. Freddie Mitchell's no good? He won't start, then. I wish we had the same fortitude and could sit Gardner, or Samuels, or Dockery. Maybe a wake-up call would help them be better players. I don't think it's Gardner's fault he hasn't improved. I think all Gardner's learned is that he can drop balls without fear of losing his job. Maybe that's because we haven't pushed him, or signed guys who will push him for us.

Guys, I really wanted to win out and show the naysayers how wrong they were. They're still wrong, I believe, but it has to be a matter of faith now. Going 7-9 isn't going to validate the return of Gibbs, but being a better team in year two will.

Sports, you're of course right about the record: numbers don't lie.

yeah we don't need a superbowl. whoever has the best record is clearly the best team.

Someone said I wanted everyone - here and at Redskins' Headquarters - to take off their burgundy glasses. Thank you for understanding. That is exactly what I want.

What is the purpose of wanting the Skins to get blown out by the Vikes in the last game and finishing 6-10? Let me say it again. I do not want any of the geniuses in Redskins Headquarters who have tried to build this team through the splashy free agent signing mechanism to get the idea that they are "close to getting it right this time" and just need to do it once more. I want them to go into their magical post-season skull-sessions with the idea that this is a work in progress and that the team has to be built to win in 2006 and not necessarily in 2005. It will be great to make the playoffs in 05, but the goal should be to get there in 06 and to win a game or so once they are there.

So that takes a plan. And a plan is not simply a linear extrapolation of the recent past. You don't do this March what you did last March just because "we've always done it that way." Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So I want the Skins' braintrust to do something different this time.

I want them to look at this team really critically and make some tough decisions about who should be back next year and who can be REASONABLY be projected to be a real contributor to a winner in 2006. That allows them to look critically at a Derrick Dockery and to decide if they think he will continue to improve because he is coachable. Or it could lead them to conclude that this is what you are going to get from him...

It gives them the opportunity to ask the same questions of players like McCants, Jacobs and Gardner. I like McCants and Jacobs for their physical skills; I think both of them are seriously flawed when you think of them as cogs on a winning football team. So, can you fix the flaws or not...?

Can Coles overcome this injury that seems to have dragged on for next to forever now? If so, he's part of the core for the future as the #1 receiver. If not, then maybe you have to find/draft a #1 WR and have Coles as the #2 guy. This is part of a planning process not a "quick-fix".

There has to be a new center next year so somebody has to go out and find one. It does not have to be someone from the All-Pro team, but it has to be an upgrade from what has been there for the last two years. OK, who has the assignment to identify that player?

There has to be some depth on the OL. If anyone mentions Man Mountain Kenyatta or Ray Brown in terms of a winning team in 2006, dismiss them from the room and do not let them back in. How good are these young OL? Maybe we should play them a lot in the last three games just to see? Or can we tell from the practice field? Can you count on Vaughn Parker getting over his injuries sufficiently to start? How about as a back-up? Can he play multiple positions effectively?

Oh, by the way, what is the deal with Chris Samuels? Is he going to renegotiate or not? If he does not, what is the plan? Do the Skins suck it up and live with that monstrous cap number or do they try to trade him or just cut him and move on? Suppose the only way to get cap room to sign Smoot and Pierce is to cut him??? What's the plan, gentleman? This is not as complicated as finding a path to peace in the Middle East, but it is something you do have to think about just a little bit...

There is ONE tight end on this team who can catch a football reliably. That is not enough. So, I understand how important it is for a Joe Gibbs tight end to be able to block, but there has to be some kind of way to upgrade the catching abilities of the tight ends without making them utterly useless as blockers. Cooley is a keeper. All the other TEs should understand that they are one bad mistake removed from a pink slip.

Obviously, you have to keep Patrick Ramsey as a QB and if Hasselbeck is still under contract and comes for the league minimum, you keep him also as the disaster QB. Now what to do with Senor Brunell? That's a tough one. If you cut him, you will take a cap hit that could be really bad. If you keep him - and pay him his roster bonus in April - then you are one big hit on Ramesy away from going through a multiple game stretch with Brunell at the helm. I'd keep Brunell next year because my vision is that next year is not the important one; 2006 is the important one. But after 2005, I think I'd have to suck up the cap hit and ditch Brunell in order to get a real back-up in place for Ramsey.

Notice, I've assumed that the coaching staff has confidence that Ramsey will develop into a serviceable starting QB. However, if they are convinced that Ramsey is nothing better than a career back-up, then they need to find a way out of the QB morass they have created for themselves and they need to find that way out creatively and quickly.

On defense, they need to re-sign Smoot and Pierce and at least a couple of the young DL players whose contracts are up. They have to look carefully at the safety position and figure out if Taylor/Ramsey/Clark/Lott is the core of a trio there that can be the last line of defense on a winning team in 06. Notice I said a "trio" because they have to think about depth and not just a starter who has some kind of flashy past credentials. I'm not convinced; I'd be looking to draft help here, but I'll defer to the braintrust if they approach this with a long-range planning focus.

Here is a simple question for them. Is John Hall still worth it as a kicker? Let's just say the results this year have been less than stellar and he is making more than the league minimum and you can find a whole lot of kickers who will play for league minimum. In addition to limited field goal productivity, his kickoffs have been kinda - - short.

The focus in 05 should not be on stars and starters; it should be on building a solid roster for 06. It would be nice to break even in 05 and maybe sneak into the playoffs, but if the cadre is in place and growing on 05 and the team is ready to make a push in 06, that will be fine with me.

Someone said I wanted everyone - here and at Redskins' Headquarters - to take off their burgundy glasses. Thank you for understanding. That is exactly what I want.

That would be me SC! I'll take all the credit for that.

:D

WOW! SC, bitter, party of one, your table is now available.. I understand the frustration of another lost season and yet another tough defeat and the unabshed optimism of some of us on the site but I don't know that all of that was warranted.. Your glass isn't half empty, it's shattered on the floor..

Yes we are 4-9 and we are what we are. That being said, I think that if we played all season like we played the last 4 weeks then we would have at least 3 more wins. Fact is we didn't so that's why we are 4-9, but if you don't see improvement recently I don't know that we are watching the same games. Yes it's making excuses, but in the past 3 weeks we've lost by a total of 12 points to teams that are a combined 24-2! That indicates to me that we aren't too far off. In either one of the past 3 games if we scored 21 pts we'd have won. If we scored 21 pts each game we'd have 6 more wins! I know if wishes were :drink we'd all be drunk, but let's try to have some perspective here.

Every team has players that do dumb things. McCants penalty, while stupid, didn't actually hurt us. The next play Ramsey hit Cooley at the 1 yd line. Sellers on the other hand should have been cut by now. He makes dumb, selfish decisions, on and off the field (arrested in Cleveland, served a 4 game drug suspension) with no regard for the team. He hurt us on 3 occasions last night alone. Overall as a team and a coaching staff, everyone needs to be smarter and crisper. Hopefully continuity with this staff and team will make that happen.

While you can't throw out Ramsey's stats under Spurrier, I don't think that it's really a fair assessment of who he is as a QB to judge him on those games. He had NO running game, no protection and was a sitting duck so he was banged up a lot. Over the past 4.5 games I think, OVERALL, we have seen improvement. I would like to see him throw the deep ball better, but his pick was no worse than I've seen Favre or Marino or even the walking Jesus himself Peyton Manning throw. If he's making bad reads consistently and missing open receivers at mid-season next year like he did last night with McCants, who I thought was open in the middle on that pick, Portis, who was open on the Cooley overthrow and Coles on the sideline, then I will say it's time to start looking at a different answer at QB, but he has made 20 starts in the NFL. That's less than Kyle Boller, Joey Harrington, David Carr and I don't see them setting the world afire either. You listed a bunch of QB that you think are better than Ramsey, at the same stage in their careers would you make that same assessment? You listed such digintaries as Brian Griese, who was cut by 2 teams, Aaron Brooks, who does some of the most mind boggling things I have ever seen and Drew Brees who was a holdout away from being a camp casualty.

You say Taylor gives up big plays. Show me a rookie DB who doesn't. He gets sucked in by play action, which he will hopefully learn to grow out of. I only remember him being beaten on 1 TD, the Anderson pass to Glenn in the Cowboys game. He makes more plays than he gives up IMO. Sure he should have wrapped on the Levens TD, but Levens was already being wrapped up by one of the LB and he was looking for the kill shot. Not to excuse the missed tackle but again, that's something that he will hopefully learn from.

You say you want to see the overpaid dumbass players cut, specifically who should be cut? If Samuels doesn't renegotiate then I agree he needs to be let go because his salary doesn't match his production. I don't know that this team has anymore players that are grossly overpaid (other than Brunell obviously) that consistently hurt the team.

My offseason wish list would just be for continuity, return to health of Morton, Bowen, Arrington, Coles and Hall, the development of Jacobs who needs to step up and contribute to the passing game, the addition of depth along both lines and a solid draft. The tear-down and rebuild of this team that you seem to be proposing has shown over the past couple of years that it just doesn't work.

Taylor is way overhyped. if it wasn't for him our defense would be no.1 instead of lowly no.2

:rolleyes:

My glasses look pretty clear, and I see a lot of gray.

Some black.
Some white.
Not burgundy.
Could be half-empty or half-full.

But a lot of gray.

Maybe it's just that gray time of year... you know, that time of year when it gets really gray and cold, and once again, the Redskins aren't in the playoff hunt? That time of year when we begin pondering what was, what is, and what ever shall be?

And the curmudgeon, once again, is our Scrooge.;)

I agree with most all of SC's points and posts like that are the reasons I enjoy reading his threads more than anyone else. He's brutally honest and able to display his emotion in a nice fashion that people as myself don't quite accomplish.

Also, for those of us who wanted to throw more, I can't go totally against that playcall, I liked it and it was on Ramsey to check down or throw away, but that point in the game I think I would have tried to run some clock and kick a FG. Short passes and runs, I don't like the timing of a lot of the play-calls. However, I see why he'd go for it there.