Redskins Colts Reviews Are Here Early

[JWsleep]

Thanks, Tripp. I do hope that with McNabb, part of this is his struggle to make his reads in this new offense (his first in 11 seasons) as automatic as they were in Philly. That takes real game repetition, and, of course, enough pass protection to allow him to throw.

[SBXVII]

GTripp,

you said:

Kyle has called two pretty good games back to back, I think. He loves Mike Sellers a little bit too much, and he's dealing with personnel flaws, but I think he's got a better understanding of his personnel than he did in the first four games of the season.

I loved M.Sellers also big frame, muscular, nice weight, and has ran over people, up until it seemed he only would catch 1/2 of what we thrown to him. Is there something else I'm missing? are you refering to personnel flaws as something else or what I refered to?

Let me ask you this.... does it seem like the team has too many weapons and the coach's are unsure when to use each one and how often to use them?

I ask cause Moss gets used a lot in one game. Then Cooley the next. Then Portis. Then Torain. Maybe I'm way off but instead of trying to use the same weapons each week say Moss, Cooley, Torain, AA, and perhaps Davis or Sellers in one game, I get the impression the team is trying to use everyone of it's weapons. Moss, Cooley, Davis, Torain, Galloway, AA, R.Williams, Williams (RB), Sellers and whoever else. Except for those players de-activated. I get the same feeling for the DL. Each week it looks like a different bunch of guys pooled together. I just wonder if players could get into a better rythm if there were not so many weapons.

and I'm one of the fans who has said the team could use all the weapons it can get. So I'm kinda re-evaluating my thought process.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

GTripp,

you said:


I loved M.Sellers also big frame, muscular, nice weight, and has ran over people, up until it seemed he only would catch 1/2 of what we thrown to him. Is there something else I'm missing? are you refering to personnel flaws as something else or what I refered to?

Let me ask you this.... does it seem like the team has too many weapons and the coach's are unsure when to use each one and how often to use them?

I ask cause Moss gets used a lot in one game. Then Cooley the next. Then Portis. Then Torain. Maybe I'm way off but instead of trying to use the same weapons each week say Moss, Cooley, Torain, AA, and perhaps Davis or Sellers in one game, I get the impression the team is trying to use everyone of it's weapons. Moss, Cooley, Davis, Torain, Galloway, AA, R.Williams, Williams (RB), Sellers and whoever else. Except for those players de-activated. I get the same feeling for the DL. Each week it looks like a different bunch of guys pooled together. I just wonder if players could get into a better rythm if there were not so many weapons.

and I'm one of the fans who has said the team could use all the weapons it can get. So I'm kinda re-evaluating my thought process.

Well, not all of our weapons are created equal. Moss has Randle El's role in the offense from last year when we are in 3 WRs, and he's got his old role when we are in 2 WRs.

Cooley is having a career-worst sort of receiving year. McNabb has a comfort level with Cooley that he has with no one else, and that causes him to throw balls to Cooley that absolutely should never be thrown. We've never had this kind of barrage of incompletions for Cooley: 17 in 6 games, by my count. In the past, our wasted offensive passes were marginally useful 4 yard completions to the back. This year, they are passes thrown at Cooley that are wasted throws from the start.

We're not using Fred Davis enough and we're using Mike Sellers too much. The playing time of those two players are directly related. Sellers: 19 passes this year. Davis: 9. It's honestly not an excusable use of the strentghs and weaknesses of those two players. My run blocking numbers have Davis as a greater contributor than Sellers fwiw.

I don't think we should use Cooley less often in either the run or pass game, but I think that we need to send him downfield more to get him open. He's good at option routes, but our opponents know that.

Torain has impressed me this season as far as waiver wire players go (runs hard, tough to tackle and such), but I don't think he's done anything to suggest he can be a feature back even in a Shanahan offense. We're missing Portis' productivity. Torain is good enough to make defenses scheme to stop our power running game, but he's not good enough to run the ball 30 times per game with. He's also fairly useless in the passing game.

The team certainly doesn't have too many weapons. Moss and Armstrong are a good but not great receiving duo. The depth behind them is horrible. Fred Davis needs to be playing, and yet, is not. There are no weapons in the backfield except, well, McNabb's arm and legs. Cooley's role in the last four games or so has been pretty uninspired: the focus has clearly been on the receivers.

Anyway, I don't think Davis is a victim of too many weapons. Perhaps just a lack of offensive initiative by the coaching staff since week 2. If Cooley misses this week with a concussion, Davis will get his chance.

[SBXVII]

^ I guess what I'm trying to say is it seems like either one person is the weapon of the day or they try to use all the weapons and each week it changes. Perhaps it's because of what they think the opponant will give them but it just seems like they throw to AA and he doesn't get the ball and you don't see or hear from him all game then 4th quarter he makes a catch leaving me wondering where he was all day.

The last 2 games the run has gotten better but it was similar with the run for the first 4 games. Have Portis or Torain run the ball and if it goes no where there would not be another run for several plays if not a couple of possessions later.

One game Cooley got the ball all game, Moss only caught like 2 passes (Houston I think), then the next game you don't hear anything out of Cooley maybe one 1st down.

[Hog1]

GTripp,
I frequently shy away from lengthy reading that is as tedious as this....but the level of value here offsets my fears. It is great stuff!
I know it must take take much to prepare and I appreciate it. As much as I try to watch other stuff going on other than who has the football, it is difficult to do while scrambling between bootleg......cybercasts on my laptop. Your weekly post fill in many gaps for me.
Thank you!

[GTripp0012]

Thanks for the kind words, Hog1. And everyone else. Every week.

[freddyg12]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Thanks for the kind words, Hog1. And everyone else. Every week.

much deserved, this is exponentially better work & more worthwhile than Lavar's blog, comcast's shows, etc.

[GTripp0012]

I wanted to wait a while and throw some diagrams into this review, but luckily I don't have to because Ben Muth did it for us:

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Word of Muth: Stretch Slice