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Originally Posted by hurrykaine
Brunell was called upon to pass two times on first down the entire game. 15 attempted passes the entire game. As Paul Mcguire would say..."Are you kidding me?"
Listening to Trev Matich on the Fox Redskins extra - once Gibbs had a 14-0 lead, he was going to take the long passing attack out of the equation and stick to bread and butter run plays and short dink passes, AND FORCE CHRIS SIMMS TO BEAT US WITH HIS ARM. The way our defense was playing, Gibbs probably figured this strategy gave us the best shot at winning. He didn't care about the slew of 3 and outs in the late 3rd and 4th quarter. He just didn't want to throw it up there and give the TB defense a chance to pick it. That said, Brunell only made one key mistake in the game - he should've thrown that ball away instead of the risky pass to Jacobs.
All the great analytical geniuses such as Sean Salisbury and Tom Jackson, the chumps from SI etc. chose to ignore this angle and simply focus on net yards of offense.
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I'm not sure I agree with this completely. Yes, everyone is ecstatic that the Redskins won. In the grand scheme of things, like so many have said, you'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss every time.
But first of all, when you force Chris Simms to "beat us with his arm" (which he'd already done to us, by the way), that usually means the defense commits to the run. You're not forcing Chris Simms to do anything by going 3 and out and getting zero points in the second half.
To say that Joe Gibbs "didn't care" about going 3 and out time after time, especially after Tampa Bay closed to within 7 points in the second half would be a bit presumptuous. Are you telling me that Gibbs didn't care if his offense couldn't put together a drive of some sort to respond with so much as a field goal or to move the chains and be able to sustain more than a 3-play drive? Gibbs knows, and everyone else here should know that any game can change on just one play.
Also, it's not like Brunell is a rookie and Gibbs doesn't trust him to put the ball in the air because he thinks he'll do something stupid. If anything, Gibbs probably recognized that none of his receivers were getting open, and he really had no other choice but to keep it on the ground. Incredible Tampa Bay defense or not, when the only two receivers you've been able to count on -- Moss and Cooley -- have been thoroughly dominated and shutdown, I find it hard to believe that a man as meticulous and successful as Gibbs would casually dismiss what was essentially a 3-point performance from the offense.
Sure he's happy and everybody's happy that we won. But you can bet that Gibbs will be burning the midnight oil to figure out how to get this offense back on track. No one should be satisfied with the offensive performance Saturday night, and Gibbs wasn't either.