[Daseal]

Daseal, why in the hell would you want to throw deep against Minnesota when you are up on them the whole game?? Even if the receivers are getting separation, that doesn't mean it makes any sense to throw 45 yard post patterns to them. When you're up on them, you keep the chains moving. The Skins won that game with conservative play calls down the stretch.

Maybe, just maybe if you read my post you'd see I never once mentioned us throwing it deep on MN. If you would have bothered to look I said we had good playcalling that game. So, please read before you ignorantly spout shit that I didn't say. I said our receivers were getting plenty of seperation. Since I went to 1/8th of the Redskins games last year, and the WRs had seperation in both I can assume that those aren't the only two games the receivers had decent seperation on.

The cause of the problem was poor offensive line play, receivers that couldn't run deep routes, receivers that couldn't catch the ball consistently (Gardner), a QB who forgot how to throw the football, and a general lack of familiarity with the offensive system.

The O line had a horrible center and an old backup Tackle who is no where near the calibre we're used to. Granted, but ask Portis how bad the line was behind being the 3rd (?) rusher in the NFC. The line played well enough to throw the ball. As I said, most of the times the receivers WERE getting seperation. Problem was the game plan was too conservative to toss it. You need to establish an intermediate passing game, get a rapport between your QB and WRs in game situations, then go deep. Coles and Gardner both had their share of the drops, but if that's why we stopped throwing the ball completely that's stupid. Both of them caught it more often than they dropped it. Brunell was horrible.. who was it that left him in the lineup? That's right! I think lack of familiarity had partial credit too. However, there were other teams under new coaches that did very well offensively, so I can't use that as a total cop out. I'm sorry, but the problems came 75% coaching 25% playing.

Neither of you mentioned how SIMPLE the system was. I'm sorry, but even if it's a new system you need it to be complex enough so other teams don't know what plays you're running. What do you guys say about that?

Could you step back for even one moment and consider the thought the play calling was a direct result of the lack of offensive talent last year?

FRPLG - couldn't I easily flip this around? Could you stop dry humping Gibbs long enough to realize that he would run three times up the middle in the red zone? What makes you think our offensive talent will be superior this year? The fact that our supposed top WR isn't even working out with our QB? Besides the upgrade at the Oline - which is significant, we've degraded or stayed the same elsewhere. I think Portis will do better because of the line, slightly. Unless they start blocking to his style.... that and he has a tendency to run all over the AFC West.

It's not like we had Indianapolis type talent or anything close to it. I would imagine that maybe, just maybe, we didn't run certain types of plays becasue WE COULDN'T.

Am I asking for a pass-happy offense? Nope. I'm perfectly content to let Portis carry the ball to his hearts content. However, every team MUST be able to throw the ball. I'm sorry, but this isn't the 50s. The passing game is KEY. I'm not asking for a balls to the wall passing attack. Just from time to time. Are you telling me the only plays we COULD run were WR screens and curl routes? If so we should have picked up some people off the street to play, because routes get more advanced than that in pickup games.

If you can tell me why our offense was so bad based solely on the play calling of Joe Gibbs with absolutly no other direct causation from any other player or coach then you will convince me.

I haven't said it's 100% Joe Gibbs fault. It's not. I put 25% on the players, and 75% on the offensive coaching staff as a whole. They plain did a poor job. Playcalling and clockmanagement are absolutely critical in football. I love how in years past we've always blamed the coaches and not the players. Now Gibbs comes back and the players suddenly suck, whereas they just didn't have the correct guidance before? He handcuffed the offense by scaring them with turnovers. Turnovers aren't something you want, but they also can't be something you fear to the point of no return. With a defense like we had, we could afford to take chances, especially in the redzone. We saw how his last batch of strategy turned out -- why not try something new.