Adam Schefter: What's Wrong with the Redskins

[Hail to the Redskins]

Hey... anyone have ESPN Insider?

On the front page to ESPN, there is a link to Adam Shefter's mailbag... apparently he talks about the Redskins at some point cause the link on the front page says "Adam Shefter: On what's wrong with the Redskins"

I couldn't access it b/c you have to have ESPN Insider access...

Can someone that can... post that info here? Thanks!

[DBUCHANON101]

Q: Hey Adam, when you think of the Redskins' hiccups over the last couple of years, do you look at [coach Jim] Zorn or personnel? I tend to think the coach has a good model, but from a talent standpoint yesterday, I feel like we were way outclassed by the Giants. -- Shaun (Lynchburg, Va.)



A: Shaun: It's one game. Let's not get too carried away just yet. I happen to like the Redskins' personnel. I think they could use an infusion of youth on the offensive line, and the team needs some of its young receivers to take a step forward. But the truth is, this team will be only as good as its quarterback, Jason Campbell. I really expect him to play very well this season, and he still might. But he must play better than he did in the opener.

[skinsfan_nn]

Originally Posted by DBUCHANON101

Q: Hey Adam, when you think of the Redskins' hiccups over the last couple of years, do you look at [coach Jim] Zorn or personnel? I tend to think the coach has a good model, but from a talent standpoint yesterday, I feel like we were way outclassed by the Giants. -- Shaun (Lynchburg, Va.)



A: Shaun: It's one game. Let's not get too carried away just yet. I happen to like the Redskins' personnel. I think they could use an infusion of youth on the offensive line, and the team needs some of its young receivers to take a step forward. But the truth is, this team will be only as good as its quarterback, Jason Campbell. I really expect him to play very well this season, and he still might. But he must play better than he did in the opener.

I do agree with the statement 100%. JC HAS to step up and be the leader of this team, and bottom line no matter how you spin it and it doesn't matter two shits who is on the field with him. He has to put points (20+) up on the board,for us to be successful.

[Paintrain]

Originally Posted by skinsfan_nn

And I agree with the statement 100%. JC HAS to step up and be the leader of this team, and bottom line no matter how you spin it and it doesn't matter two shits who is on the field with him. He has to put points (20+) up on the board,for us to be successful.

No disagreement here. If only he was put in such positions to do so (shotgun, 65-35 pass:run ration) it'd be nice to see what he could do.

[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

No disagreement here. If only he was put in such positions to do so (shotgun, 65-35 pass:run ration) it'd be nice to see what he could do.

Well, against the giants, we've seen what he can do when his offensive line gives him a ton time and his receivers get open - he holds on to the ball too long, overthrows open receivers, makes poor decisions, and locks on to Cooley and Randel El.

All last year the Campbell-lovers here blamed the offensive line and the fact that it was his first year in the system for Campbells lack of production. Now hes in his second year, the the line is doing a great job in pass protection and giving him time, you're saying we ran the ball too much and didnt use the shotgun enough???

why pass more when Campbell was doing a horrible job at passing? Why use the shotgun more when Campbell dropped a pefect shotgun snap that could have resulted in another turnover?

All we saw of Campbell against the Giants was just more affirmation for those that beleive he is not a starting-caliber QB. I'm willing to give him another two or three games, but if his line continues to hold up and Campbell continues to make poor decisions, he's never going to start in this league again. He's simply running out of excuses.

We lost the game by 7 points and Campbell lost us atleast 7 points when the Giants took the ball out of his hand and ran it in for a TD. If we had scored even a field goal on that drive, or the one where he threw the INT, we would have had enough points to win the game. If not, we would have atleast been in an overtime situation. Yes, some of Zorn's playcalling sucked; Yes, our secondary looked mediocre; but Jason Campbell's poor decision-making cost us the game.

[hail_2_da_skins]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

Well, against the giants, we've seen what he can do when his offensive line gives him a ton time and his receivers get open - he holds on to the ball too long, overthrows open receivers, makes poor decisions, and locks on to Cooley and Randel El.

All last year the Campbell-lovers here blamed the offensive line and the fact that it was his first year in the system for Campbells lack of production. Now hes in his second year, the the line is doing a great job in pass protection and giving him time, you're saying we ran the ball too much and didnt use the shotgun enough???

why pass more when Campbell was doing a horrible job at passing? Why use the shotgun more when Campbell dropped a pefect shotgun snap that could have resulted in another turnover?

All we saw of Campbell against the Giants was just more affirmation for those that beleive he is not a starting-caliber QB. I'm willing to give him another two or three games, but if his line continues to hold up and Campbell continues to make poor decisions, he's never going to start in this league again. He's simply running out of excuses.

We lost the game by 7 points and Campbell lost us atleast 7 points when the Giants took the ball out of his hand and ran it in for a TD. If we had scored even a field goal on that drive, or the one where he threw the INT, we would have had enough points to win the game. If not, we would have atleast been in an overtime situation. Yes, some of Zorn's playcalling sucked; Yes, our secondary looked mediocre; but Jason Campbell's poor decision-making cost us the game.

Jason Campbell definitely needs to show more awareness but I'm not buying your statement that the offensive line gave him a ton of time and is doing a great job.

On the Jason Campbell fumble. The protection was not that great. Tuck blew right around Samuels and applied pressure from the backside. Campbell should have more pocket presence and stepped up into the pocket. Both the protection and Campbell are at fault.

There was another running play when Hester let a defensive end come free and stuff a third down run attempt. The offensive line did okay but the Giants kept Campbell under pressure and forced him into hasty throws. I'm not sure a quarterback with more composure would have done anything differently. I don't think you are giving the Giants defense enough credit for keeping the pressure on.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

Well, against the giants, we've seen what he can do when his offensive line gives him a ton time and his receivers get open - he holds on to the ball too long, overthrows open receivers, makes poor decisions, and locks on to Cooley and Randel El.

All last year the Campbell-lovers here blamed the offensive line and the fact that it was his first year in the system for Campbells lack of production. Now hes in his second year, the the line is doing a great job in pass protection and giving him time, you're saying we ran the ball too much and didnt use the shotgun enough???

why pass more when Campbell was doing a horrible job at passing? Why use the shotgun more when Campbell dropped a pefect shotgun snap that could have resulted in another turnover?

All we saw of Campbell against the Giants was just more affirmation for those that beleive he is not a starting-caliber QB. I'm willing to give him another two or three games, but if his line continues to hold up and Campbell continues to make poor decisions, he's never going to start in this league again. He's simply running out of excuses.

We lost the game by 7 points and Campbell lost us atleast 7 points when the Giants took the ball out of his hand and ran it in for a TD. If we had scored even a field goal on that drive, or the one where he threw the INT, we would have had enough points to win the game. If not, we would have atleast been in an overtime situation. Yes, some of Zorn's playcalling sucked; Yes, our secondary looked mediocre; but Jason Campbell's poor decision-making cost us the game.

It's probably erroneous to say it was Campbell's decision-making that cost us the game since failing to step up in the pocket away from pressure does not fall under the category of "bad-decision". Audibling to a run on 3rd and 8 does constitute a bad decision, but, if the defense would get off the field, it's a meaningless play.

You can't confuse the fact that we didn't convert the 3rd and 8 in part because Campbell made a boneheaded audible with the fact that the combination of ineffective running and crappy defense made that 3rd and 8 an unreasonably high-leverage situation for a third quarter play. Sure, THAT play was the point at which it became unlikely the Redskins would win, but considering that the league-wide conversion rate on third and eight is ~25%, Campbell's decision to run the ball simply turned it into roughly a ~15% conversion.

It's a mistake, but on a team with a good defense, a error with 5 minutes to go in the third quarter does not give you a team that will only see the ball twice the rest of the game.

Let's put this another way: if our passing game does not get any more effective than it was on Sunday, I would still expect a balanced team to win 10+ games. If the Redskins only win 6 or 7, it's because they are a horribly unbalanced team with a decent pass offense and liabilities elsewhere.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

Well, against the giants, we've seen what he can do when his offensive line gives him a ton time and his receivers get open - he holds on to the ball too long, overthrows open receivers, makes poor decisions, and locks on to Cooley and Randel El.

All last year the Campbell-lovers here blamed the offensive line and the fact that it was his first year in the system for Campbells lack of production. Now hes in his second year, the the line is doing a great job in pass protection and giving him time, you're saying we ran the ball too much and didnt use the shotgun enough???

why pass more when Campbell was doing a horrible job at passing? Why use the shotgun more when Campbell dropped a pefect shotgun snap that could have resulted in another turnover?

All we saw of Campbell against the Giants was just more affirmation for those that beleive he is not a starting-caliber QB. I'm willing to give him another two or three games, but if his line continues to hold up and Campbell continues to make poor decisions, he's never going to start in this league again. He's simply running out of excuses.

We lost the game by 7 points and Campbell lost us atleast 7 points when the Giants took the ball out of his hand and ran it in for a TD. If we had scored even a field goal on that drive, or the one where he threw the INT, we would have had enough points to win the game. If not, we would have atleast been in an overtime situation. Yes, some of Zorn's playcalling sucked; Yes, our secondary looked mediocre; but Jason Campbell's poor decision-making cost us the game.

Wow, the OL did a great job??

Yikes, have our expectations sunk that low?

They did a fair job in my eyes. If I'm grading them I'd give them a C.

As for the bobbled shotgun snap, the snap came in low and hot (hardly perfect) as pointed out by Aikman. JC turned it into a 23 yard gain to Betts, not sure why you are trying to spin that into a negative.

There are many factors that went into the loss, it's kinda shortsighted to finger one guy but I guess that's par for the course when it comes to JC.

[roth74va]

Originally Posted by skinsfan_nn

I do agree with the statement 100%. JC HAS to step up and be the leader of this team, and bottom line no matter how you spin it and it doesn't matter two shits who is on the field with him. He has to put points (20+) up on the board,for us to be successful.

Zorn has to take the shackles off of Campbell, put him in shotgun with 4wide sets, and I believe he will do much better. Again, the playcalling Sunday was pathetic IMO, and thats the bigger problem that needs to be addressed.

[Hail to the Redskins]

Originally Posted by roth74va

Zorn has to take the shackles off of Campbell, put him in shotgun with 4wide sets, and I believe he will do much better. Again, the playcalling Sunday was pathetic IMO, and thats the bigger problem that needs to be addressed.

Could not agree more... Zorn is so predictable in his play calling overall, especially in the run game... then, only trying a pass over 20+ one time in the game, NEVER stretching the defense to get them off of Portis...

Between that, and the other GLARING fact from yesterday...

Anyone else notice the HUGE CHASM between Eli Manning & Jason Campbell? One QB reads the defense every play, scanning, and audibling to a play that will take advantage of the defense, whereas Campbell look like a deer in the headlights at the line sometimes, then making terrible audible call the one time I saw he did it (a -3 yd run).

Add in the that their D-Line is just flat out too strong & fast for our line, and I'm thinking we were lucky to score 17.

[The Goat]

Originally Posted by Hail to the Redskins

Could not agree more... Zorn is so predictable in his play calling overall, especially in the run game... then, only trying a pass over 20+ one time in the game, NEVER stretching the defense to get them off of Portis...

Between that, and the other GLARING fact from yesterday...

Anyone else notice the HUGE CHASM between Eli Manning & Jason Campbell? One QB reads the defense every play, scanning, and audibling to a play that will take advantage of the defense, whereas Campbell look like a deer in the headlights at the line sometimes, then making terrible audible call the one time I saw he did it (a -3 yd run).

Add in the that their D-Line is just flat out too strong & fast for our line, and I'm thinking we were lucky to score 17.

This fact is almost as glaring as the defense's mistakes from yesterday. It's sort of mind-boggling how the offense goes back to the same form entirely regardless of who is calling plays or what kind of scheme we're supposed to be running. Under Gibbs we constantly ran to the left on 1st and 2nd then a lousy and predictable pass play. Under Gibbs/Saunders it continued. And now under Zorn, even when JC is 8 for 11, we return to that terrible pattern: run left, run left, pass play w/ lousy and predictable routes (routes that often have the WR catching the ball in front of the LOS ). That's what is sticking w/ me from yesterday's game. I expected the defense to be underwhelming cuz GTripp has convinced me Blache's scheme is a real problem. What I also expected was a nice surprise from the offense. Zorn has me worried at this point.

[Longtimefan]

Is there anything else that can be said that hasn't already been said about what's right, and what's wrong with the Redskins?


If you read what's been said here the last two days, it just about covers it all. I don't see Adam Shefter eclipsing anything said here.

[MTK]

The Giants didn't play all that great either. I'm kinda perplexed over those saying we got outclassed or dominated.

[skinsfaninok]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

The Giants didn't play all that great either. I'm kinda perplexed over those saying we got outclassed or dominated.

I was just frustrated with our damn TO'S in the first half.. but it's obvious that the Giants own us! We never play good up there and they are a better overall team..

[44Deezel]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

The Giants didn't play all that great either. I'm kinda perplexed over those saying we got outclassed or dominated.

They were up 17 at one point and 13 with less than 2 minutes to go. But you make a point. Maybe the Giants aren't that good. Maybe the Skins got whooped by a middle of the road team.

From Boswell's column:

While the game was still in the hat, Campbell never got untracked. By the time the Giants hit a short field goal for a 23-10 lead with 3:12 to play, Campbell had passed for only 145 yards with one interception and two fumbles, one lost. However, his final drive, completing 5 for 6 for 66 yards, including a 17-yard score to Chris Cooley, raised, or padded, his quarterback rating to 93.6.