Two major concerns
 

The two areas I'm concerned about as we head into the regular season are turnovers and penalties. Two areas that plagued us last year and continue to raise their ugly heads this preseason.

Some of it you can chalk up to the backups/rookies playing, but it seems like these are two areas that could be problematic all year for us.

How concerned should we be? Will things settle down once things get rolling and the backups aren't seeing as much playing time?

I wish we had a breakdown of penalties and turnovers committed by the starting units compared to the backups. It might help put things in perspective.

Re: Two major concerns
 

Honestly, I think it's more of a back-up/preseason thing. We'll find out for sure in about 10 days.

But here's the thing, last year a lot of our penalties were things like motion, false start, delay of game, holding. I don't think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Mr. Dockery has not one penalty called on him this pre-season and Jansen has only one. The offensive line is really focused! So it seems like these are very correctable penalties - mainly special teams and a few illegal contact downfield by DBs.

Re: Two major concerns
 

If memory serves me right, I think we've had only 4 turnovers by the starting units. All of them being Ramsey's 4 INTs. The good news is, he's gotten better and better as the preseason has gone on. Last night he took the sack rather than trying to force something that wasn't there. Those were, without a doubt, coverage sacks.

Penalties are purely disciplinary. The penalties on special teams that were committed seemed to be just a bad game. The people who committed them (Thrash namely) are usually great special teams guys. I hope that was just a fluke last night. As far as the offense and defense was concerned, both starting units did fairly well penalty-wise.

Re: Two major concerns
 

Yeah, penalties killed us last night, but I also didn't see many from either the starting offense or the starting defense. It was mainly special teams. I couldn't believe some of the stupid blocks in the back and holding penalties they committed. I don't remember so many special teams penalties in the other games, so I hope it is because we were letting some of the younger guys play more.

I personally think things will settle down, but if they don't it will be another long season marching backwards out of the redzone due to penalties.

As far as turnovers go, Ramsey looked indecisive in the pocket, but at least he didn't throw an interception or fumble, especially since our starting field position was regularly poor due to special teams penalties. Also, the Ravens have a great secondary, so it could be they were just shutting our receivers down. Hard to tell from the poor camera angles and replays from Redskins.comTV. Either way, the game would have gone completely different had we kept running Portis at them regularly. The few plays he had, he looked good. In a real game that would have opened up the passing a bit more.

Re: Two major concerns
 

[QUOTE=CooleyAsCanBe]Yeah, penalties killed us last night, but I also didn't see many from either the starting offense or the starting defense. It was mainly special teams. I couldn't believe some of the stupid blocks in the back and holding penalties they committed. I don't remember so many special teams penalties in the other games, so I hope it is because we were letting some of the younger guys play more.

I personally think things will settle down, but if they don't it will be another long season marching backwards out of the redzone due to penalties.

As far as turnovers go, Ramsey looked indecisive in the pocket, but at least he didn't throw an interception or fumble, especially since our starting field position was regularly poor due to special teams penalties. Also, the Ravens have a great secondary, so it could be they were just shutting our receivers down. Hard to tell from the poor camera angles and replays from Redskins.comTV. Either way, the game would have gone completely different had we kept running Portis at them regularly. The few plays he had, he looked good. In a real game that would have opened up the passing a bit more.[/QUOTE]

Ramsey did looked a little indecisive...Brunell on the other hand.....naw, I won't even go there:)

Re: Two major concerns
 

I'd rather Ramsey take the occasional sack than force a throw and get picked. Better yet throw it away.

Re: Two major concerns
 

[QUOTE=TheMalcolmConnection]If memory serves me right[/QUOTE]
Start calling you Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef.

I think the penalties will lessen once the season starts. However, the turnovers to worry me. At least 2 of Ramsey's 4 picks were extremely ill-advised, and worries me that those mistakes will continue.

Re: Two major concerns
 

Hahahahaha! I thought I was the only one who watched that show.

"Today's secret ingredient is... KISS MY ASS." (a clip from Best Week Ever)

Re: Two major concerns
 

Iron Chef is awesome, but I only watch it occasionally, as it butts up against Family Guy and me falling asleep.

I just love how it's dubbed though...it's hilarious.

Re: Two major concerns
 

Yeah, I want Iron Chef before I fall asleep because I love the pure 80s clothes they wear.

And they make the nastiest things I've ever seen. And sadly, I know all the Iron Chef's by name. Iron Chef Chen Kenichi is a bad ass.

Re: Two major concerns
 

I'm not worried about Portis or Betts fumbling very often. I am worried about Broughton fumbling if he gets goalline carries. The question is, will he even get goalline carries? Because he's been fumbling, I'll bet Gibbs lets Portis try early in the season, since he has bulked up a little bit. If that doesn't work, he'd probably try Betts.

I'm very concerned about the INT rate of Ramsey. If you add up all of Ramsey's playing time in the 4 preseason games, it probably amounts to close to 60 minutes of action. And he threw 4 picks in that time. 4 picks over the course of one NFL game would certainly kill us every week. The underthrowing of receivers is what bothers me most, I need to see deep accuracy. I'd be very worried about INTs and it's why a small small part of me wants to see Brunell starting.

Penalties, I'm not so concerned about penalties. Most of those were committed by backups. I don't see our starting offensive line having much trouble during the season.

Re: Two major concerns
 

Thing to remember is Ramsey likely won't be throwing as much.

With the way Portis and Betts have run this preseason and the offensive line is blowing people off the ball, look for a total smashmouth attack.

Re: Two major concerns
 

Not that I'm advocating Brunell as the starter, but he was ridiculously accurate last night. If Ramsey falters in the first four or five games, Brunell very well might be the man for the job.

Re: Two major concerns
 

And look at the guys we have been running against. These are the best defenses in the league and we are moving the ball well.

I think that Ramsey has played outside of his comfort zone during the preseason. He played well down the strech last year and I don't believe he has regressed. A run first mentality will definitaly help the passing game but I think that the passing game will come into it's own around the 6th game or so. We have a defense that should provide us some comfort while waiting for the chemistry to fully develop.

Re: Two major concerns
 

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]I'd rather Ramsey take the occasional sack than force a throw and get picked. Better yet throw it away.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but the only problem is it is hard to throw it away when a blitzer is in your junk within three seconds and you are still in the pocket.