Putting Things in Perspective
 

After watching the preseason game once more, I am actually alot more confident about our team. I believe our offensive line is deep this year. Everbody, back-ups and all, protected all three of our quarterbacks extremely well. We have alot of very good talent at wide receiver, and Antonio Brown is my new favorite player! I think he can be a big factor for us this year....but I won't confirm that until I watch him duplicate his efforts in the next game.

We should have no problems at running back this year! I am extremely impressed with "Nemo", as long as he can hold on to the ball when he crosses the goal line! ;-) Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts should have a great season this year!

I was also extremely impressed with Jason Campbell. Yeah I know, he was playing against the second and third string defense, but he looked comfortable and showed poise in the hurry up offense. Brunell had an excellent game as well, but I want to see him duplicate those efforts in our next game.

I'm holding my breath with Patrick Ramsey right now. He didn't look very comfortable, but he did have pretty decent numbers. Maybe Patrick is just going to be one of those QBs who has to start out on the little stuff to get warmed up. I just hope he looks more comfortable against Cincy than what he did against Carolina.

I can't really assess the defense since there were so many guys out, but I believe we'll see more from them in the next game.

All in all, there were plenty of positives and negatives from the game. We only scored 10 points, same ol' story, but we had two drives that could have easily ended in scores.

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[QUOTE=skinsguy]
I'm holding my breath with Patrick Ramsey right now. He didn't look very comfortable, but he did have pretty decent numbers. Maybe Patrick is just going to be one of those QBs who has to start out on the little stuff to get warmed up. [/QUOTE]

You know I watched the buffalo indy scrimmage for a while today and noticed Losman (another tulane QB) was very fidgety in the pocket, even when working out of the shotgun, and constantly pumped the ball into his other hand. He looked decent, other than that.

I know its his first year as a starter, but in all fairness, this is kind of ramsey's first year starting too. Maybe it has something to do with Tulane not concentrating too much on footwork.

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[QUOTE=skinsguy]After watching the preseason game once more, I am actually alot more confident about our team. I believe our offensive line is deep this year. Everbody, back-ups and all, protected all three of our quarterbacks extremely well. We have alot of very good talent at wide receiver, and Antonio Brown is my new favorite player! I think he can be a big factor for us this year....but I won't confirm that until I watch him duplicate his efforts in the next game.

We should have no problems at running back this year! I am extremely impressed with "Nemo", as long as he can hold on to the ball when he crosses the goal line! ;-) Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts should have a great season this year!

I was also extremely impressed with Jason Campbell. Yeah I know, he was playing against the second and third string defense, but he looked comfortable and showed poise in the hurry up offense. Brunell had an excellent game as well, but I want to see him duplicate those efforts in our next game.

I'm holding my breath with Patrick Ramsey right now. He didn't look very comfortable, but he did have pretty decent numbers. Maybe Patrick is just going to be one of those QBs who has to start out on the little stuff to get warmed up. I just hope he looks more comfortable against Cincy than what he did against Carolina.

I can't really assess the defense since there were so many guys out, but I believe we'll see more from them in the next game.

All in all, there were plenty of positives and negatives from the game. We only scored 10 points, same ol' story, but we had two drives that could have easily ended in scores.[/QUOTE]

Good Posts.............I agree with your comments. I'm glad our O line is looking good. Antonio Brown and Nemo did play well...although Brown has a long way to go to make-up for that fumble that cost us the Dallas game last year with 1:34 to go. :rolleyes: Taylor also played well, perhaps he is concentrating on football now instead of his extracurricular activities. Interesting that Gibbs kept him in the game a long long time....perhaps to make up for his missed OTAs.........

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It's hard to judge anything from preseason,I would think especially at Qb,remember when Spurrier came in,what were the scores of those preseason games? Wuerfel and Matthews looked like allpros,got all our hopes up,then they crashed and burned

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[QUOTE=canthetuna]...but in all fairness, this is kind of ramsey's first year starting too.[/QUOTE]

No it's not. Ramsey was handed the starting job in 2003. He lost the battle in preseason last year because he looked just as bad through 5 exhibition games as he did the other night against Carolina.

I'm sick of the excuses for Patrick Ramsey. It's time to freaking show us what he's got and start winning some games.

Re: Putting Things in Perspective
 

[QUOTE=skinsguy]After watching the preseason game once more, I am actually alot more confident about our team ... All in all, there were plenty of positives and negatives from the game. We only scored 10 points, same ol' story, but we had two drives that could have easily ended in scores.[/QUOTE]

'Plenty of positives'? I don't see how there's anything positive about that game. As to your points about the O-line, the starting unit had two drives against the Panther second teamers and went nowhere before Gibbs finally gave up and pulled them.

The fact that there were two drives that could have ended in scores but didn't shows us exactly the same problems they suffered from last year.

That doesn't give me much confidence.

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I don't think it was Broughton that fumbled in the endzone. I think it was Jonathan Combs. Combs also caused an interception when he bobbled Campbell's pass.
This is my list of people that stood out due to poor play: Clifton Smith, Rufus Brown, Jonathan Combs, Brock Forsey, Ade Jimoh (aka The Toast), and Darnarian McCants.

people who made good/decent plays: Brunell (shocker!!!), Dockery (for man-handling Jenkins), Betts, Broughton, Antonio Brown, Campbell, Cartwright, and Kevin Dyson (among all the receivers, I think he performed the best)

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One thing, the offensive line didn't give up one sack - even the backups. I call that postive, wouldn't you agree? Or would you rather have our quarterbacks on their back? Brunell played well, Nemo had a great game, and Jason Campbell played pretty well. Campbell nearly lead us to two scoring drives, and one of those drives, we were going in for a touchdown when the back fumbled. I'm sure it was Gibbs' fault that the running back fumbled.

I'm sorry you don't have much confidence...maybe you shouldn't watch any games this season. :-/

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[QUOTE=Beemnseven]'Plenty of positives'? I don't see how there's anything positive about that game. As to your points about the O-line, the starting unit had two drives against the Panther second teamers and went nowhere before Gibbs finally gave up and pulled them.

The fact that there were two drives that could have ended in scores but didn't shows us exactly the same problems they suffered from last year.

That doesn't give me much confidence.[/QUOTE]

You can't read into the preseason too much, especially the first game. Its easy to be realistic, pessimistic, and quick to judge when we don't play well - but if the skins played incredible, i.e. two TD drives of 80 yards, Ramsey is 10-12, portis gets a 50 yards run, everyone would be creaming their pants ... and that would be nuts, because that could all be smoke and mirrors ... just like the mediocre performance against the Pathers could be a mirage ... giving up no sacks for 4 Qtr's IS A BIG DEAL, that TD to 50/50 WAS A FLUKE! and a BS job by the Refs, our offense was cold, but their is potential - the one thing that is unexcuseable, and that was really dishearting to see was THE DAMN PENALTIES!!!

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After reviewing the game on my VHS, I saw a number of plays lead by Brunell and Campbell that stretched the vertical attack far more than what we have grown accustomed to seeing. In the shotgun, it is very clear that Brunell can see the field more clearly and thus make the throw. I noticed his strength in zipping the ball into some tight places with great accuracy. I think Musgrave was definitely brought in to remind Brunell of how consistent he was at Jacksonville .

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wasnt the o-line amazing last year in pre-season too. and i think we all know what happened with that.

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I watched the replay today and I have to say Ramsey didn't look good, 1 thing I did notice though is he looks much more comfortable in the shotgun, I know Gibbs pretty much hates the shotgun but it may be the way to go with Ramsey, he had an ugly overthrow on a out pattern to Patten when he was wide open which I noticed is a rarity, even when we complete passes it seems theres usually a defender right there forcing a perfect throw, it kind of seems the patterns they run are right at defenders, the secondary kind of just sits and waits for our recievers to get to them, it is tough to really see everything going on in the secondary on tv though.

Brunell had a couple of nice throws and he coupled that with balls going 10 yards out of bounds, and overthrowing WR's by 5 yards, I really wasen't overly encouraged by his performance [a couple of nice throws but the same old Brunell, his arm strength seemed better though]

As for Campbell he was the most impressive of the 3, allbeit it was the last half of the 4th and the bag boys were in on defense, he defiently looked by far the most accurate of the 3, he's not a fast guy but he can get out of the pocket to make a play, defiently similar to Big Ben, so far so good for JC.

As far as Ramsey goes he looks a shell of his former self back there, he looks like he's afarid to make a play for fear he will be banished to the bench for life if he tries and fails, IMO it looked like he was almost shotputting the ball, perhaps that's the result of Musgraves teaching him to put some touch on the ball? Well we will know more next week, hopefully!

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I agree about Ramsey seeming to try to put more touch on his passes, like I said before, this whole touch thing is kinda new to a guy who has a rocket launcher for an arm.

Another posititve I thought was that we still had all three time-outs left at the end of the 1st half...

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[QUOTE=Beemnseven]No it's not. Ramsey was handed the starting job in 2003. He lost the battle in preseason last year because he looked just as bad through 5 exhibition games as he did the other night against Carolina.

I'm sick of the excuses for Patrick Ramsey. It's time to freaking show us what he's got and start winning some games.[/QUOTE]

I dont know if anyone would consider anything that happened in 2003 legitimate. He had no run support, no line support, no protection, no coaching staff, and no job security. His coach wanted werfull (or however you spell it.) Last year was like his rookie season, because it was his first year in a controlled system of professional football. He got thrown to the dogs in the middle of last year, because Brunell couldnt throw past the LOS. Hell he couldnt throw behind it either. Hell he couldn't manage a handoff, or a center exchange. I recall Ramsey won a few games last year doing exactly what was asked of him. Ball control. Look at his turnovers after he won the starting job.

No one is making excuses for ramsey because no one sould have to after the first preseason game of the season. Believe me, he's our absolute best option out of what we have.

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I just wish Ramsey would step up and settle this! It's gonna drive me nuts if we have to spend the next month bashing this back and forth--and if it bleeds into the season, oy.

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[QUOTE=gortiz] giving up no sacks for 4 Qtr's IS A BIG DEAL[/QUOTE]

Yes it is. Especially when you consider how good the Panthers defense is and how much we passed the ball.

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[QUOTE=JWsleep]I just wish Ramsey would step up and settle this! It's gonna drive me nuts if we have to spend the next month bashing this back and forth--and if it bleeds into the season, oy.[/QUOTE]

It won't bleed into the season, becaus the main point that the people defending the guy are trying to make is that its the firs preseason game. Thats all. It doesn't mean shit, and if you watched any more football this weekend, most of the first stringers didn't look good. They're off their game.

Believe me if the guy is throwing ducks and picks on into the season, I'll be calling to bench him... but he's not. People are jumping the gun wayy to quick. I know this because I'm way too quick to call for a change when somethings not workin, and if he goes 4 for 20 with 4 picks in the last preseason game, I'll be worried.

I think alot of us are saying the same thing here, He DOES need to step up. I just support the guy as much as I can (with my puny existance) while he does it.

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Obviously, one of the reasons everyone is so jumpy about this issue is tht we're so tired of not having a serious offensive team. I'm behind Ramsey 100%--it's just that everytime he doesn't go out there and light it up, I get more and more nervous... I know, I know, I should suck it up and stop worrying--but I cannot take losing to Dallas anymore. Or NY. Or Philly. Its driving me nuts!

So I too will support Ramsey as much as I can (with my even punier existence), but he better get his SH** straight soon, or I am going to loose it! We are the WASHINGTON REDSKINS, DAMN IT!!! Do not overthrow the sideline out or underthrow the friggin fly pattern! Step up and make the play! MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE DEPENDING ON YOU! :coach:

Whew! Rant over! :rant: Sorry about that! :rolleyes:

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[QUOTE=Redskins8588]I agree about Ramsey seeming to try to put more touch on his passes, like I said before, this whole touch thing is kinda new to a guy who has a rocket launcher for an arm.

Another posititve I thought was that we still had all three time-outs left at the end of the 1st half...[/QUOTE]


:lol:

Great obsevation RED!

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[QUOTE=bigm29]wasnt the o-line amazing last year in pre-season too. and i think we all know what happened with that.[/QUOTE]
Well...no they weren't. Jansen got hurt in the 1st preseason game last year and the line never recovered. Our O line is going to be very good. I didn't think the team as a whole looked very sharp, but it's one game and everyone was just poised to begin the bashing if we didn't put up 30 points. I saw this coming weeks in advance. NONE of it matters. Only thing I care about is Sept 11, week one, Redskins/Bears. When the bullets are live is when we'll really know what kind of team we have. I have a feeling that when the Washington Redskins march into Dallas on Monday night, week 2, our team will be frothing at the mouth and ready to put a smack down. Just a feeling... Keep the faith, gents and don't let a poor preseason suck all the air and enthusiasm out of you. Remember...these games, while showing us a little something, ultimately don't count.

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[QUOTE=dblanch66]Well...no they weren't. Jansen got hurt in the 1st preseason game last year and the line never recovered. Our O line is going to be very good. I didn't think the team as a whole looked very sharp, but it's one game and everyone was just poised to begin the bashing if we didn't put up 30 points. I saw this coming weeks in advance. NONE of it matters. Only thing I care about is Sept 11, week one, Redskins/Bears. When the bullets are live is when we'll really know what kind of team we have. I have a feeling that when the Washington Redskins march into Dallas on Monday night, week 2, our team will be frothing at the mouth and ready to put a smack down. Just a feeling... Keep the faith, gents and don't let a poor preseason suck all the air and enthusiasm out of you. Remember...these games, while showing us a little something, ultimately don't count.[/QUOTE]

I just remember hearing that and saying it all last preseason (he's hiding his offense, vanilla, etc) and then figuring out he wasn't hiding all that much :(

I agree though, i'm not gonna worry unless we look bad in the bears game, but there is at least a little credence in "you are what you are."

I watched the iggles game and mcnabb had no trouble passing to a bunch of no name waiver wire trash (against a steelers D that, admittedly, wasn't blitzing much). I understand ramsey isn't as good as mcnabb, but his receivers are better and the passing game didn't look half as good, so i'm hoping that they can get this on track like the protection did last week.

I [b]NEVER[/b] want to see a 2 yard dump off when its 3rd and 5 ever again. The oline seems to have their part now, portis has been good even without any passing, but QB/WR/scheme still aren't there yet (though things like shotgun 3/4 wide etc have been added to help the scheme).

Re: Putting Things in Perspective
 

McNabb has also been in the same system for how long now?

There's no comparing Ramsey and McNabb right now. They're leagues apart in terms of experience, games started, etc.

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I TIVO'd the replay on NFL Network and checked it out last night. My thoughts:

Ramsey made tremendous decisions. He saw the field well and all but one of his throws were directed at an open receiver. On those 3 misses, 2 were overthrows to David Patten where Patten was at least 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. The third was the dismal deep interception. In those misses, the receiver was open and Ramsey just missed him. So for me, the results are mixed. Ramsey appears to have a really good grasp of the offense and he seems to be reading the defense really well. He never made any mental errors. But he just flat out missed on all 3 of the deeper passes, which is troubling. I don't care how much speed you have at WR, if the QB can't get the ball there accurately, then you're not much of a threat to go deep. It's only preseason of course, but I'll be watching to see if Ramsey improves his deep accuracy. Other than that, I loved him. And kudos to the O-line for giving him enough time to read the defense.

I also LOVED Mark Brunell. My two biggest complaints about the Skins offense when Brunell was playing last year:
1) The offensive line was a seive and he got chased all over the place.
2) His arm was weak and erratic.

Last night his arm looked great, which has nothing to do with the skill level of the defense. His throws were much crisper than last year. And they appeared pretty accurate. And of course, the offensive line showed they could shut down the opposing pass rush, no matter what string was playing.

I don't want to overreact to one game, so I'm still behind Ramsey and want to see him improve his deep accuracy. But I'm not afraid of Mark Brunell at all this year. Not one bit. And if Ramsey doesn't get it together on the deep passes before the preseason ends, I'll stand up and say it right now, I'll be calling for Mark Brunell against the Bears. He looked good.

All that said, it's one preseason game. I need to see more. I was definitely encouraged by the QBs' understanding of the offense. Let's see what happens against the Bengals.

PS After watching the game, I realized what a different perspective you gain from watching the game and scrutinizing than you do from just looking at the stats.

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By the way, on third downs, I can't fault the QBs for throwing to a receiver short of the first down marker. It's the receiver's job to run a route past the first down marker. It's tough to expect a QB to read the defense, worry about the pass rush, find his receivers, and then on top of that expect him to know how far each receiver is from the first down marker. The QB has enough to worry about already, he needs to operate under the assumption that the receivers are far enough for a first down.

So I want to see the receivers quit running routes short of the first down marker. That's their fault. Shouldn't be too hard to correct.

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[QUOTE=Schneed10]By the way, on third downs, I can't fault the QBs for throwing to a receiver short of the first down marker. It's the receiver's job to run a route past the first down marker. It's tough to expect a QB to read the defense, worry about the pass rush, find his receivers, and then on top of that expect him to know how far each receiver is from the first down marker. The QB has enough to worry about already, he needs to operate under the assumption that the receivers are far enough for a first down.

So I want to see the receivers quit running routes short of the first down marker. That's their fault. Shouldn't be too hard to correct.[/QUOTE]

I too Tivo'd the game and watched it last night, and I agree with most of your posts. Ramsey was making good decisions, he just was not getting the ball there. With his arm, there is no excuse for making that interception on the fly pattern, all he has to do is air it out. Hell most of us could've made that pick, just jump up over the little guy and grab the underthrown ball. I was also surprised to see the zip that Brunnell put on the ball, that simply was not there last year, but Im not about to become a Mark Brunnell fan based on one preseason appearance. Khary Campbell really disappointed me, so did Rufus Brown.

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One thing everyone needs to remember is that Gibbs only used 7 running plays and a few passing schems. Gibbs is a coach that will use very little of his play book in preseason. I think most of the changes made during the off season will not be seen until the season opener. I'm a big fan of this. Why give teams stuff to game plan on and why show what changes we have made until then.

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[QUOTE]I just wish Ramsey would step up and settle this! It's gonna drive me nuts if we have to spend the next month bashing this back and forth--and if it bleeds into the season, oy.[/QUOTE]

Thus it has been and shall be evermore....w/ Gibbs and QBs :)

Was the same w/ Schrader/Ryp/Doug Williams/ Humpheries.....etc.

Drove me nuts back then too.

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[QUOTE=offiss]:lol:

Great obsevation RED![/QUOTE]

Very, very good observation - besides not scoring our offense was horrible at clock management, we didn't waste a timeout, our get busted by the play clock, sounds petty, but its an improvement!

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[QUOTE=Kope]Thus it has been and shall be evermore....w/ Gibbs and QBs :)

Was the same w/ Schrader/Ryp/Doug Williams/ Humpheries.....etc.

Drove me nuts back then too.[/QUOTE]

I know, Kope, I know. I can live with it if we get back to our winning ways.

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[QUOTE=Schneed10]... I want to see the receivers quit running routes short of the first down marker. That's their fault.[/QUOTE]


Amen... QB's gotta have help. Not everything is his responsibility, although he is the leader and should make sure the receivers know where to make their breaks...

Before too long we'll be blaming Ramsey or Brunell (take your pick) for all sorts of things... like for McDonald's weak breakfast hours, or cold toilet seats, or for Jessica Simpson's butt turning flat again...

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[QUOTE=crlesh]...or for Jessica Simpson's butt turning flat again...[/QUOTE]

I dont know, we may have to look at cooley for that one :FIREdevil lol

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You know guys, one thing that has not been mentioned a lot in this thread is how Ramsey did not have Portis much Saturday night. I don't want Portis hurt, so there is no need to have him in there much, and Betts played pretty well, but I think a heavy dose of Portis will help Ramsey a great deal. Gibbs has never really had a Superstar at QB, but he has always had a stud RB, except for maybe Byner and Byner was above average at least. For the most part Ramsey made good reads and had good stats. The only thing that needs to happen if for the Skins to score more. We did not run any reverses or trick plays or anything very exciting and the Panthers did some of those things and almost scored on one reverse (down at the one).

Our defense will look better this week with more DBs and LA playing and I would be surprised if the Skins give up 28 points again during the preseason.

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[QUOTE]You know guys, one thing that has not been mentioned a lot in this thread is how Ramsey did not have Portis much Saturday night. I don't want Portis hurt, so there is no need to have him in there much, and Betts played pretty well, but I think a heavy dose of Portis will help Ramsey a great deal. Gibbs has never really had a Superstar at QB, but he has always had a stud RB, except for maybe Byner and Byner was above average at least. For the most part Ramsey made good reads and had good stats. The only thing that needs to happen if for the Skins to score more. We did not run any reverses or trick plays or anything very exciting and the Panthers did some of those things and almost scored on one reverse (down at the one).[/QUOTE]

Good point. I think PR will be fine, but I don't think there will be an enormus change in the offense. It will just be enough better so we win what we lost last year by a TD.

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[QUOTE=scowan]You know guys, one thing that has not been mentioned a lot in this thread is how Ramsey did not have Portis much Saturday night. I don't want Portis hurt, so there is no need to have him in there much, and Betts played pretty well, but I think a heavy dose of Portis will help Ramsey a great deal.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but the problem is, you're going to have to resort to an all-out passing attack at some point during the season. Sometimes, the running game will be stymied, you'll get behind in the 4th quarter, and that's when you've got to be able to open it up through the air.

Portis isn't going to be there for all 16 games to save the day. There's two essential elements to moving the ball -- running and passing. Right now, we're OK with running it (and I stress OK, with Portis' 3.8 ypc average last year) and we're darn near dreadful passing it.

My guess is that Gibbs wanted to come out blazing to get a good first look at his QBs and wideouts and find out how much they've ascertained through all the minicamps during the offseason, and training camp so far.

It seems there are a few Redskins fans struggling to find excuses for another 10 point performance of which absolutely zero were engineered by Ramsey and the first teamers.

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[QUOTE]It seems there are a few Redskins fans struggling to find excuses for another 10 point performance of which absolutely zero were engineered by Ramsey and the first teamers.[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't call it excuses untill the games count for something. Pre-season is the worst time for hyper-analysis. I would not be anymore or less optomistic if they went 40-0. I hope Gibbs gives PR 4 games in the real season, he earned it last year.

I do agree, however, that if he has not played well after 4 weeks he drops to #3 on the depth chart (yes I would rather have the Rook get experience than go back to a benched PR).

Bottom line for me is: In the last 5 games last year PR went 3-2. One of those losses he put us in the position to win but the defense gave up the game. The other he lost was a close game in Philly (3 points. I know he blew a throw late but we were in it w/ a superbowl team)

If he plays like he did in the last 5 games of last year, our line plays better(Rabach) and our special teams get better we will win 10 + games and have a shot at the division or a wild card.

I think folks forget that for the first time since Gibbs left (that I can remember) at the end of last year we beat teams we should and lost close games to good teams. We dont need quantum leaps to win 10. we need to get just a little bit better

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For the last 5 games in 2004 PR was a 69% passer w/ 7 TDs, 4 INTs and a 94.9 passer rating.

I think that at least deserves 4 games this season befor I bash him

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Good posts, Kope. I agree.

ABout the 10 points, Beem--and this is a serious problem we had last year as well--our TO ratio is terrible. Last year, we simply KILLED ourselves with TOs--TOs that either took points off the board for us (in our redzone), or TOs that led directly or very quickly to scores by opponents (TOs in their redzone). That happened on Saturday (Ramsey had one; one was late; but the others took points off the board). And we didn't generate any TOs--the only real knock on our D last year: TOs and points scored.

There are some very, very basic stats in the NFL concerning TOs and wins. -4 and you lose 95% of the time or something. The TOs kill our ball control/field posistion game--they just rip the heart out of it. When we fix this, we will begin to win close games. Ramsey needs to be efficient, not turn it over, and hit the long one a few times a game when it's there--he does not need to be Peyton Manning; he needs to be Mark Rypien. I think he can do that, but we'll see--I agree with Kope: 4 games (at least!).

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[QUOTE=canthetuna]I dont know if anyone would consider anything that happened in 2003 legitimate ... No one is making excuses for ramsey because no one sould have to after the first preseason game of the season.[/QUOTE]

The first preseason game for Ramsey was also the first preseason game for Jake Delhomme and Chris Weinke -- both of whom looked astoundingly better than Patrick Ramsey.

Your statement about 2003 not being "legitimate" is purely subjective, and qualifies only as an opinion. That Patrick Ramsey did, in fact, win the starting job in 2003 is indisputable fact; and completely destroys the notion that this year -- 2005 -- is Ramsey's first year starting [I]as a rookie[/I].

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[QUOTE=Kope]I wouldn't call it excuses untill the games count for something. Pre-season is the worst time for hyper-analysis.[/QUOTE]

The fact that this is preseason doesn't change the way people are trying to defend Patrick Ramsey for his performance in Saturday's contest against Carolina. Exhibition games or not, excuses are still excuses. And this is not "hyper-analysis". It's calling it like it is: Patrick Ramsey, along with the rest of the starters could not advance the ball consistently, or score points against the Panther starters, nor the second teamers as Gibbs let them continue to play into the second quarter in a desperate attempt to get some semblance of a "drive" on which to build confidence.

And don't take this criticism to mean that I'm calling for Ramsey's head. Like you, I'm willing to give him the rest of the preseason, and 4 or 5 games into the regular season before letting someone else give it a shot.

But just the same, I'm not going to try to blow smoke up my own ass by saying that there were "plenty of positives" on Saturday's game, that it made me "confident", or go back to the disaster that was the 2004 season and say "wow, look what Ramsey did in the final five games!"

Re: Putting Things in Perspective
 

You are right about the turnovers, but Ramsey only made one. Two were made by Campbell who won't start for awhile and one was made by a guy who won't make the team. The one turnover by Ramsey was as good as a punt because it was a long interception. The bottom line on the game, was our starters could not score against the Panther's starters, which was distrurbing. The Panthers made some good drives against a depleaded Redskin's defense, not the one that was 1st in the NFC last year. And the turnovers our non-starters commited gave them great field position, which lead to points. Even at that, one of the Panther's scores took 11 plays to go 22 yards because the Redskins D was not playing smart.

I'm not worried yet. A good outing on Friday and this message board's tone will change considerably