Quote:
Originally Posted by fanarchist
We are talking about the same McNabb who had the most passes over 50 yds throughout the first half of the season in an offense that could barely find a spark in the ground game over the same duration. The same dude who threw for over 400 yds in a game against Houston in an offense that, according to the coaches, his grasp of was tenuous at best. 5 of his 14 games he threw for over, or on the cusp of 300 yds and only 2 of those 14 games did he throw for under 200 yds. This all did occur in his first season learning a new offense in which the reads and progessions that he had become so accustom to in Philly after 12 years in the same system were completely reversed. Sometimes we as Redskins fans can be a fickle bunch. Buying into the sensationalized bs that spans the radio, TV, and other online sports media outlets. It's about time we use a little citical thought to define our opinions about this team and what would be best for its prolonged success. There's no way you can convince me that Grossman is a better option then McNabb unless the competition happens to be, who would make the best human ball warmer.
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The sensationalized BS has pretty much fallen squarely into the "McNabb was screwed, Mike Shanahan is a hack, Kyle Shanahan is a moron, everyone else on the team sucks" category. Pretty much no one is on the Shanahan's side in the media-at-large.
Yeah, he threw for a lot of yards. But...take the Texans game. He threw for over 400 yards against a pass defense that was the worse in the league. For comparison's sake, rookie quarterback Tim Tebow carved up the Texans secondary. That game was an abberation, and even then, he only threw for one touchdown, and couldn't close out the game with a score.
Most of the time he was throwing for that many yards because the team got down early and had to throw the football to get back in the game. That's why how many yards a quarterback throws for is a cruddy indicator of their overall in game performance. If you throw for 300 yards, but you only have one touchdown and one pick, then you're not really being effective.
He had a lot of passes over 50 yards, but even with that cannon of an arm of his, a lot of those throws were underthrown. How many times did we see Anthony Armstrong take the top off the defense and have no defenders around him, only for AA to have to come back to the ball or slide down to make the catch. Easy touchdowns if he makes the throw, but he doesn't.
And when the Redskins managed to go on length drives, he couldn't thrown touchdown scores. Everyone kept going on about needing taller receivers or running it or whatever...but pretty much every time Rex drove the Redskins into the red zone, the Redskins walked out of those situations with touchdowns.
Rex's four touchdown passes against Dallas were ALL in the red zone. Quarterbacks make their money on 1.) converting third downs and 2.) production in the red zone, meaning touchdowns. McNabb couldn't do either of those things. Some of it was what was around him, but a lot of it was him just not getting the ball out, or sometimes him only reading half the the field.
That pick he threw in the Tennessee game, where Joey Galloway actually managed to pop wide open? He's only reading half the field. He's reading right and doesn't even think to come back to the left until it's WAY too late.
It's the stuff like that that makes it clear that he was struggling, and it wasn't just a "he doesn't know the offense" thing. He had a whole training camp and thirteen games to get the offense down, and the only time he looked really comfortable with it was against Indianapolis.
It's not that Rex gives the team the best chance to win. It's that Donovan [i]doesn't[/i.]