What is Gibbs holding back?
 

Well, it's my 500th post so I thought I'd use it on a question.

We have seen some long passes and stretch plays, but what are we not being shown?

I think that the way Cooley is going to be used, especially in the redzone, is being protected. Also, I'm betting that Gibbs is still working on that WR screen that he ran so much last year. He saw something that we didn't see and I bet he is has not given up on it.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

[QUOTE=GoSkins!]Well, it's my 500th post so I thought I'd use it on a question.

We have seen some long passes and stretch plays, but what are we not being shown?

I think that the way Cooley is going to be used, especially in the redzone, is being protected. Also, I'm betting that Gibbs is still working on that WR screen that he ran so much last year. He saw something that we didn't see and I bet he is has not given up on it.[/QUOTE]

Great question!!! I agree Gibbs is likely holding back on plays for TE/H back in general. These plays have been big for us, Cooley will have to be the go to guy in the red zone when passing. The lack of size at WR will hurt us in the short field. In terms of passing I hope we have a large shotgun package, and more quick routes to our darty receivers. This only makes sense with our off season moves and improved pass protection. Wide receiver screens are best used as an adjunct to a functioning offense...I hope we function well enough to see these plays executed appropriately.

The running game I think won't change much fundamentally. I feel we are betting on improved execution, and experience taking us to the next level.
:cheers

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

[QUOTE=GoSkins!]Well, it's my 500th post so I thought I'd use it on a question.

We have seen some long passes and stretch plays, but what are we not being shown?

I think that the way Cooley is going to be used, especially in the redzone, is being protected. Also, I'm betting that Gibbs is still working on that WR screen that he ran so much last year. He saw something that we didn't see and I bet he is has not given up on it.[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah congrats on your 500th post!!!

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

POST WHORE!!!

jk ;)

We are being shown very basic routes and formations.

what we are missing is spacing. in gibbs's''''ssssss''s'es perfect world, ramsey hits all his deep balls causing the safeties to play deep. portis breaks all his stretch runs causing the linebackers to play up, this will leave the middle of the field with alot of open space for cooley, royal and the slot WR. so we dont see anything from cooley because we dont want to give away his short routes.

thats just my opinion.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

I don't think we've seen many stretch plays, to be honest. I've seen a couple, but mostly it's just Betts off left tackle or Betts off right tackle. That big play Betts had against Cinci wasn't really much of a stretch play, it was intended to be an off-tackle run and he just decided to bounce it outside when the LB filled the gap off-tackle.

The stretch plays with zone blocking are most recognizable when you see the RB (Portis) running parallel to the line of scrimmage, and then all of a sudden make a quick cutback through the moving line of blockers. I haven't seen any of that yet.

On the pass plays, we haven't seen too many routes. Patten seems to run that same corner route on every play (the one where he breaks it off flatter instead of going to the corner). All of his balls were caught on that route against Cinci. I think there are more routes to be seen.

And yeah, Cooley seems to be held back as a secret weapon of sorts.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

To suspect what is in the mind of a genious is impossible


Congrats on 500!

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

[QUOTE=Schneed10]The stretch plays with zone blocking are most recognizable when you see the RB (Portis) running parallel to the line of scrimmage, and then all of a sudden make a quick cutback through the moving line of blockers. I haven't seen any of that yet.
[/QUOTE]

Your right, but I think I saw it one time in the Carolina game. It looked like the linemen did pretty well. Modest gain on the play. It will be fun to see it working in a real game when Gibbs has found some poor DE or LB to pick on.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

[QUOTE=GoSkins!]Your right, but I think I saw it one time in the Carolina game. It looked like the linemen did pretty well. Modest gain on the play. It will be fun to see it working in a real game when Gibbs has found some poor DE or LB to pick on.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I think you're right, and if my memory serves Rabach got out to the LB level of the defense and made a good block. That's something Raymer couldn't do last year, he kept getting caught up by the DTs and could rarely make it to the LBs. That's an encouraging sign to see an athletic center like that.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

My guess is there are lots of formations that Gibbs is holding. I thought his MO was to run a few basic plays out of lots of formations, to hide what's going on.

But, yeah, I bet we haven't seen much of the Clinton Portis play-book yet. I have a feeling we're going to see Clinton catch the ball a fair bit this year as well.

We'll see!

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

Whatever Gibbs and the Redskins are holding back on offense is about the same as the defensive coordinators that they are playing against are holding back on defense. Neither side of the ball on offense or defense has shown everything they have in their arsenal yet - - and they won't until the beginning of the season.

Remember, when Gibbs calls his new formations in Sept/Oct, it won't be against the opponents' scrubs. And when opposing defensive coordinators call for some new blitz scheme, it won't be against the Skins' scrubs either.

Watch the exhibition games to see how fundamentally sound various players or units can perform their tasks. That is the important information to take from these otherwise meaningless games.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

maybe in the red zone he'll call more lateral passes to moss/patten etc and let them try to make it with their speed/running skills, since its obvious they're not going to win many jump balls and the short field negates their chances to use speed to break away (this would also limit ramsey's chances on really bad decisions). Either that or hopefully he's got TE heavy pass and run packages...

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

[QUOTE=That Guy]maybe in the red zone he'll call more lateral passes to moss/patten etc and let them try to make it with their speed/running skills, since its obvious they're not going to win many jump balls and the short field negates their chances to use speed to break away (this would also limit ramsey's chances on really bad decisions). Either that or hopefully he's got TE heavy pass and run packages...[/QUOTE]

For short yardage I bet it's all Nemo all the time.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

It seems like he's holding back just about all of the running plays. The "stretch" plays are in for Portis, who isn't seeing a lot of action. Considering no back has more than 15 carries this preseason, we haven't seen much ground game at all - and this from an admittedly "run-first" attack.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

those stretch plays are custom made for Portis, who's an expert with them, the other bigger backs don't have the experience or quickness. Cooley's routes have also been hidden, and he's gonna be THE guy over the middle and in the flats, our sole "possesion" receiver.

those are our most solid and tested weapons, and that's why we've seen everything ELSE these pre-season games, the things we really need to practice. (also why people shouldn't be freaking out over Ramsey's two INTs, he's only playing that part of the playbook!).

i think Gibbs should stay right on this track, teach Ramsey how to do deep progressions, and practice touch passes over defenders. the rest will take care of itself (and in closed practice), the underneath stuff was ALL our offense was last year. having the airgame down and be an actual threat will only multiply it's effectiveness x10.

Re: What is Gibbs holding back?
 

Based on how pathetic the offense was last year, I hope to God that Gibbs is holding back something. If this season starts off anything like last year with no offense, it will be another very looooonnnnng year.