That's why Gibbs does not trust him to be his QB. Forcing one in there that results in a drive killing and potentailly game ending play just wont cut it in Gibb's eyes.

[QUOTE=sportscurmudgeon]What's going on with Portis?

The last two weeks he has stunk out the joint. When they give him the ball he goes down as soon as he is hit. When they throw him the ball he drops is. When it is a passing down and he is in the backfield, he has been a marginal blocker. Other than that, he's been fine the last two weeks.


Cooley catches the ball well, but figure him to break a tackle after catching a 4 yard pass and rambling for 30+ yards about once or twice a season. Good hands/slow feet.[/QUOTE]
You're right, SC. Lately, Portis has been looking a lot like Trung Canidate. He's definitely not a "mudder", as Bettis likes to describe himself. Like Canidate, Portis needs a fast track to make the most of his speed and agility, and like Canidate, Portis does not do well at running inside or following lead blockers. Betts is definitely the better back for sloppy conditions and inside running.

As for Cooley, I don't expect him to ever be a Shockey/Gonzalez/Heap type of tight end, but he has been and will continue to be a very good safety valve for Ramsey, and hopefully, Ramsey will learn to rely upon Cooley when the blitz is on. If the Redskins can hit a 4-yard pass on every down, with the occasional 30 yard rumble after the catch, that's better than they've been doing. Of course, they will need to stop putting themselves in long-yardage situations with stupid penalties like the ones that have been killing them for the past three seasons.

So what are we going to live with?

Brunell not daring to make any sort of tight throw and instead tossing it out of bounds or Ramsey who's going to take a shot down the field and on occasion throw a pick?

Ramsey hasn't been the INT machine that some said he would be since he took over as the starter.

To me he's proved he is capable of playing smart and within the system.

Ramsey has played about as well as could be expected since taking over, too bad he's not getting much help from the guys around him.

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]So what are we going to live with?

Brunell not daring to make any sort of tight throw and instead tossing it out of bounds or Ramsey who's going to take a shot down the field and on occasion throw a pick?

Ramsey hasn't been the INT machine that some said he would be since he took over as the starter.

To me he's proved he is capable of playing smart and within the system.[/QUOTE]


Thank you.

[QUOTE=joecrisp]...Of course, they will need to stop putting themselves in long-yardage situations with stupid penalties like the ones that have been killing them for the past three seasons...[/QUOTE]

That's really not what I had expected at this point in the season from a Gibbs/Bugel-coached team. But then, nothing is what I'd expected this year.

The middle of the line, along with inconsistent play from Chris Samuels are the main culprits along the line as I see it.

It already appears that Derrick Dockery is not panning out as expected, and as others have mentioned, it's about time we addressed the center position seriously rather than relying on has-been free agents and converted guards like Lennie Friedman.

[QUOTE=irish]That's why Gibbs does not trust him to be his QB. Forcing one in there that results in a drive killing and potentailly game ending play just wont cut it in Gibb's eyes.[/QUOTE]
I think Gibbs will probably chalk that one up to poor pass protection and Ramsey's learning curve. All quarterbacks-- even seasoned veterans-- make stupid mistakes like that, and it's usually when they're under pressure and trying to make a game-winning play.

Let's put this in perspective-- Ramsey was up against the #1 defense in the league, a defense that leads the league in sacks, and his team is down 16-7 with 4:48 remaining in the game. He's already been sacked 5 times, including once on this particular drive, and he should have been sacked several other times, but was able to elude the pass rush and get the ball away. His team needs two scores, and his defense is showing signs of wearing down under the Steelers rushing attack. His offense has never scored more than 18 points this season, and they need 17 to win this one. He needs to put points on the board NOW. [i]That's[/i] pressure.

Did he make the right decision? No. Could he have taken the sack and put his team in yet another 2nd-and-long situation with time running off the clock? Yes, but either way, you're talking about a very bad situation, with very little evidence that the rest of the offense was up to the task. Gibbs won't put all the blame on Ramsey-- just as he didn't with Brunell-- and he shouldn't. Ramsey never would have been in that situation if the pass protection had been anywhere near adequate, if his receivers could catch passes that hit them in the hands, if the punt coverage team could stop Randle-El, or the team as a whole would stop committing stupid penalties.

Sound familiar? It should, because those are the things that have killed this team this year, even when Brunell was quarterback. Only difference is, with Ramsey at quarterback, the Redskins passing offense was actually able to outgain their opponents' passing attack-- even if it was only by a few yards. Without that third quarter scoring drive-- which is where the bulk of those passing yards came from-- the Redskins never would have been in the game to begin with.

So, I think, in Gibbs eyes, Ramsey broke even in this one. He threw a stupid pick, but he also put together a scoring drive against the league's top defense. It was the myriad other issues that have plagued this team all season that lost this game for the Redskins-- not Ramsey.

Well put JC.

It's time we admit that our offensive problems go well beyond the QB position, and perhaps now we can see that it wasn't all Brunell's fault.

Ramsey has played better than Brunell and we should be encouraged by that, but we have some serious problems that need to be addressed in the offseason. The line needs some work and perhaps we could use a bit of a shakeup at WR. How many drops have we had this year? It really seems to be out of control.

Someone said that Ramsey played better than Roethlisberger yesterday - as if that were really important.

Let me show you how meaningless single game stats can be in terms of evaluating the overall value of players.

Yesterday:


Roethlisberger 9 for 20; 131 yards; 0 TDs; 0 INT; sacked 4 times

Ramsey 19 for 34; 138 yards; 1 TD; 1 INT; sacked 5 times

AJ Feeley 17 for 33; 159 yards; 1 TD; 1 INT; sacked 1 time


So obviously, if you were starting a new team and had to take a QB and these were the three options open to you, you'd take AJ Feeley, right? And of course Roethlisberger is clearly the worst of the lot, right?

[QUOTE=sportscurmudgeon]Someone said that Ramsey played better than Roethlisberger yesterday - as if that were really important.

Let me show you how meaningless single game stats can be in terms of evaluating the overall value of players.

Yesterday:


Roethlisberger 9 for 20; 131 yards; 0 TDs; 0 INT; sacked 4 times

Ramsey 19 for 34; 138 yards; 1 TD; 1 INT; sacked 5 times

AJ Feeley 17 for 33; 159 yards; 1 TD; 1 INT; sacked 1 time


So obviously, if you were starting a new team and had to take a QB and these were the three options open to you, you'd take AJ Feeley, right? And of course Roethlisberger is clearly the worst of the lot, right?[/QUOTE]
That kind of comparison [b][i]IS[/i][/b] important and meaningful, SC, when all other things are equal. But that is so clearly NOT the case that, of course, it becomes a moot point to argue that Ramsey performed better than Roethlisberger. There were so many other problems for the Redskins in that game, that Ramsey would have had to put up at least 250 yards and 3 TDs with zero interceptions for his stats to be relevant. Considering that no quarterback has put up that kind of performance against the Steelers all season, I'd say that's a pretty tall order for a quarterback starting only his second game this season.

And I don't think anyone's saying Ramsey-- or Feeley for that matter-- are better quarterbacks than Roethlisberger. I think folks are just trying to point out that maybe Ramsey didn't do all that bad against the league's top defense. He actually did better against this defense than some of his counterparts who have faced this defense and also lost...

And in this particular game, he actually [i]did[/i] perform [b]statistically[/b] better against the top defense than everyone's favorite golden boy did against the league's #2 defense. But it didn't matter because the Steelers are a better [i]team[/i] than the Redskins-- and that's something that nobody can argue against.

[QUOTE=That Guy]bettis and randal-el were the difference, they won the game...

meanwhile our WRs did everything they could to lose it, and our Oline was still barely approaching average...[/QUOTE]


I couldn't agree more with this WR assessment. On this site(Myself included) we blame the redskins problems it seems on everything from O-Line to QB play to special teams and the WR's seem to get a pass. These guys as a whole come up so small week in and week out. Do they eat greesy fried chicken every Sunday for the pre game meal. Coles & Gardner can't catch anything. They drop every other pass. How can an offense get in rythym when the WR's only catch 50% of the passes. Coles gets up looking for a pass interference penalty on every play. Maybe that's why he gets no calls, becasue he always wants one. And that pass at the end of the half where he was interfered with still went right through his hands. Coles is supposed to be a #1 WR, that means he should be in the same class as Moss, Owens, Harrison, Holt, Ward etc. He doesn't need to be as good as those guys but to be a #1 he should be close to their level and he not close. He can not be depended on in the clutch. He is a #2 WR at best. And Gardners terrible hands are not even worth discussing becasue we are all well aware that he can't catch. His team mates call him 50/50 for f-s sake! I am just losing confidence that these WR's can ever be the starting WR's for a playoff team. They are just to inconsistent. Whenever the Redskins need a catch on 3rd or 4th down they seem to throw to Cooley now becasue he is the only offensive player they have who they know will catch the ball.

I agree Celts.


I think Cooley is easily our MVP on offense yesterday.

[quote=celts32]Coles is supposed to be a #1 WR, that means he should be in the same class as Moss, Owens, Harrison, Holt, Ward etc. He doesn't need to be as good as those guys but to be a #1 he should be close to their level and he not close. He can not be depended on in the clutch. He is a #2 WR at best.[/quote]
believe or not, when we got coles he could compare to ward etc, and even with the injury and tim hasslebeck throwing to him in 5 games, he still was #7 in yards last year... but its obvious that he's not nearly as fast and can't cut nearly as well as the beginning of 2003. I agree he'd be a great #2 right now, but without that surgery he's just not getting open, and with his other injuries, he can't catch as well either (when we got him he never dropped anything)... shame to see such a good player insist on playing when its obviously making his injuries worse.

[QUOTE=sportscurmudgeon]Someone said that Ramsey played better than Roethlisberger yesterday - as if that were really important.

Let me show you how meaningless single game stats can be in terms of evaluating the overall value of players.

Yesterday:


Roethlisberger 9 for 20; 131 yards; 0 TDs; 0 INT; sacked 4 times

Ramsey 19 for 34; 138 yards; 1 TD; 1 INT; sacked 5 times

AJ Feeley 17 for 33; 159 yards; 1 TD; 1 INT; sacked 1 time


So obviously, if you were starting a new team and had to take a QB and these were the three options open to you, you'd take AJ Feeley, right? And of course Roethlisberger is clearly the worst of the lot, right?[/QUOTE] let me show you why you think those stats are misleading:

Defensive Ratings:
Pittsburg: #1, #3 passing (244ypg, 169 passing (54.5% completion), 36 sacks)
Washington: #2, #5 passing (267ypg, 176 passing (58% completion), 27 sacks)
San Fransisco: #14, #17 passing (325ypg, 211 passing (62% completion), 22 sacks)

roth got 45% completion vs a 58% completion defense
feeley got 51.5 completion vs a 62% completion defense
[b]ramsey got 56% completion vs a 54.5% completion defense[/b]

if you include the relevant information, they're on target...

btw, while looking up the stats, i noticed the redskins have the best run D... we're number 3 on the stat chart, but the skins have had over 100 more running plays against them then either pittsburg or san deigo (#1 and 2)... average yards per run is 3.1 for the skins, next lowest is 3.5... and our D is on the feild nearly 5 minutes more a game...

oh well, found it kind of interesting...

(forgot to mention, the stats in the above post include sunday's game, before then the skins and niners would have had even higher numbers for completion percentages etc, and if you go by passing yards yesterday to average passing yards, ramsey still wins there too...)

[QUOTE=irish]Of course he was trying to win the game but they could not win the game if they didnt have the ball. He could have taken the sack or thrown the ball away, either way the skins still have the ball and the chance to win. That was the only decision he could have made that would cost the team the game and unfortunately he made it.[/QUOTE]

EVERY NFL QB has tried that kind of throw and made that mistake. Favre does it, Manning does it, just like crappy QB's and young QB's do. When trying to win a game and time is running out, they will take risks. Was it a bad decision? Yes. Would Brunell have done better? I doubt it. Ramsey evaded a sack and tried to make something happen, but just didn't get enough air under it (Coles was just a few yards upfield). Who knows, a year or two in the same system with most of the same players, and he makes that throw...