Public enemy #1 for the Skins this year has been...

[The Zimmermans]

agreed, scoring on long epic 80 yard drives is not necessary in todays NFL...we need to be starting on a shorter field= less chance of screwing up.....need to cause more TO's favre was trying to lose the game yesterday

[GMScud]

I'm amazed that I am only the 4th person to vote for play calling as public enemy #1. We could be 5-0 easily despite the O-line injuries if Saunders and the rest of the staff could remove their head from their ass in the 2nd half. Some of play calling has been downright comical. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and I think it's starting to rear it's ugly head.

[Twilbert07]

Originally Posted by gibbsisgod

Dropped balls. That includes fumbles. Portis is making a habit out of fumbling the football and it has to stop. I have noticed in past years that it seems like he fumbles in bunches and then has long streaks of not coughing it up. Lets all hope he gets that shit out of his system. And for the drops, Moss has been doing that since week 1 and its becoming a problem. He is not the only one who drops passes so I dont want it to seem like I am calling him out but it is magnified by his status as a "playmaker".

I say we do call out Moss. He's having a terrible, injury-filled season. The question is, Was his great year in 2005 a fluke?

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by Twilbert07

I say we do call out Moss. He's having a terrible, injury-filled season. The question is, Was his great year in 2005 a fluke?

I think Moss' great season in 2005 was absolutely a fluke. He's been hobbled by groin and hamstring issues his entire career dating back to his days at the U. It showed all of last year and so far this year. He's super fast and can change a game with one play, but in terms of staying healthy and consistency, 2005 was in fact a fluke. I'd rather have Coles frankly. At least he plays every game and makes clutch catches. Plus he can go over the middle and he's tough as nails. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Moss, and when he's clicking he's really fun to watch, but it just hasn't happened since '05. Coles in the meantime is quietly putting together a nice year on an extremely offensively-challenged Jets team...

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by The Zimmermans

agreed, scoring on long epic 80 yard drives is not necessary in todays NFL...we need to be starting on a shorter field= less chance of screwing up.....need to cause more TO's favre was trying to lose the game yesterday

Didn't we start at the 50 yard line (thanks to Rock's great return) when Moss fumbled and CW ran it back for the deciding TD? Short field didn't help us much there

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by GMScud

I'm amazed that I am only the 4th person to vote for play calling as public enemy #1. We could be 5-0 easily despite the O-line injuries if Saunders and the rest of the staff could remove their head from their ass in the 2nd half. Some of play calling has been downright comical. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and I think it's starting to rear it's ugly head.

The plays themselves aren't the problem, excluding some typical "what the f was that Al" 3rd and short play calling. Saunders on the whole does a good job mixing it up and keeping the defense on it's heels throughout the game. His situational play calling is utter shit, but again, this makes only about one iota of difference in the outcome of the game.

Course, the situational play calling wouldn't look nearly as bad in the short run if 1) we could block for the runner, or 2) the quarterback could hit an open receiver 7 yards away.

I am worried about how Saunders and Gibbs never seem to be able to be on the same page regarding 3rd vs 4th down calls. Now, this isn't a problem at all, only because Al doesn't usually consider down and distance when picking his play. But Gibbs is making the decision whether or not to go for it on 4th AFTER Saunders has called in the 3rd down play. On 99% of teams, this would really hurt the offenses' chance of converting. But again, Saunders already makes awful situational calls, so in this case it doesn't matter.

To me, the only way to rectify this is for Gibbs to call both the 3rd and 4th down play on a situation where the clock is an issue.

I don't think Coaches can do a whole lot to help their team out, and our coaches certainly are not. I guess the playcalling being generally unpredictable balances out the predictably awful short yardage playcalling so we really don't have a big disadvantage in the coaching staff relative to other teams.

Anyway, while the coaches do a lot of frustrating moves in-game, they are pretty much about par for the league. There are a lot of bad coaches in this league, and neither Gibbs, nor Saunders, nor Williams is a bad coach at all. It's just that I know theres a lot of things they could be doing better, and it's finally starting to frustrate me a bit.

[The Zimmermans]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Didn't we start at the 50 yard line (thanks to Rock's great return) when Moss fumbled and CW ran it back for the deciding TD? Short field didn't help us much there

True True.....think we started on like the 35....but we did cost ourselves at least 100 yards of field position by not picking off some of those gimme's and failing to recover fumbles. With a wet field and a shaky run game....we really really needed those plays

[MTK]

Originally Posted by GMScud

I'm amazed that I am only the 4th person to vote for play calling as public enemy #1. We could be 5-0 easily despite the O-line injuries if Saunders and the rest of the staff could remove their head from their ass in the 2nd half. Some of play calling has been downright comical. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and I think it's starting to rear it's ugly head.

I didn't see the coaches out there dropping balls or fumbling yesterday. Take away those drops and turnovers and we win that game easy.

Blaming the coaches is an easy cop out.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

The plays themselves aren't the problem, excluding some typical "what the f was that Al" 3rd and short play calling. Saunders on the whole does a good job mixing it up and keeping the defense on it's heels throughout the game. His situational play calling is utter shit, but again, this makes only about one iota of difference in the outcome of the game.

Course, the situational play calling wouldn't look nearly as bad in the short run if 1) we could block for the runner, or 2) the quarterback could hit an open receiver 7 yards away.

I am worried about how Saunders and Gibbs never seem to be able to be on the same page regarding 3rd vs 4th down calls. Now, this isn't a problem at all, only because Al doesn't usually consider down and distance when picking his play. But Gibbs is making the decision whether or not to go for it on 4th AFTER Saunders has called in the 3rd down play. On 99% of teams, this would really hurt the offenses' chance of converting. But again, Saunders already makes awful situational calls, so in this case it doesn't matter.

To me, the only way to rectify this is for Gibbs to call both the 3rd and 4th down play on a situation where the clock is an issue.

I don't think Coaches can do a whole lot to help their team out, and our coaches certainly are not. I guess the playcalling being generally unpredictable balances out the predictably awful short yardage playcalling so we really don't have a big disadvantage in the coaching staff relative to other teams.

Anyway, while the coaches do a lot of frustrating moves in-game, they are pretty much about par for the league. There are a lot of bad coaches in this league, and neither Gibbs, nor Saunders, nor Williams is a bad coach at all. It's just that I know theres a lot of things they could be doing better, and it's finally starting to frustrate me a bit.

Yeah, I wasn't saying that every play, every down is a problem. But when a head coach and offensive coordinator can't get on the same page repeatedly on crucial 3rd and 4th downs (this has been a problem going back to early last season), then to me that makes play calling a huge issue. I was screaming at the TV when Gibbs sat there with a confused look on his face and didn't call a timeout as the clock ticked down to the two minute warning. I just don't know if this offense will ever get it together. We're averaging 16.75 pts a game against teams not named the Lions. That's awful. We're 53 regular season games into Gibbs 2.0. I'm so over the excuses.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I didn't see the coaches out there dropping balls or fumbling yesterday. Take away those drops and turnovers and we win that game easy.

Blaming the coaches is an easy cop out.

See my post below. Play calling isn't the only reason, but it ain't helping either.

Of course yesterday the main reason for the loss was drops/turnovers, but I'm talking about overall. How about not being able to get a first down until very late in the 2nd half in the Giants game? That's a defense that adjusted well to us, and we failed to readjust. How about scoring a measley 16 points at home against a miserable Dolphins defense that leaks like a sive? Coaching...

[warriorzpath]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Blaming the coaches is an easy cop out.

I agree. On offense, there were mistakes that were made by both the players and coaches. The players' mistakes cost the redskins the packers game. But even if the players cost the game, all of the mistakes need to be identified and corrected. Luckily for the redskins, there are mistakes and not entire schemes that need to be revamped or players that need to be changed (hopefully the oline gets healthy).

There usually is a fine line between winning and losing in games. That's why it's important to not give a game away (ala giants and packers). Because if you are on the losing side of the fine line too often, it can snowball - and "too often" sometimes may mean 1 or 2 losses in the nfl.

[SmootSmack]

We had dropped passes in the Dolphins game as well. Didn't have Moss have three drops in that game? The receivers are getting open and not making the catch. If you're open but don't catch the ball, that's not coaching.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Yeah, I wasn't saying that every play, every down is a problem. But when a head coach and offensive coordinator can't get on the same page repeatedly on crucial 3rd and 4th downs (this has been a problem going back to early last season), then to me that makes play calling a huge issue. I was screaming at the TV when Gibbs sat there with a confused look on his face and didn't call a timeout as the clock ticked down to the two minute warning. I just don't know if this offense will ever get it together. We're averaging 16.75 pts a game against teams not named the Lions. That's awful. We're 53 regular season games into Gibbs 2.0. I'm so over the excuses.

Well, the main culprit for the offenses' struggles has been the run blocking. It was BADLY overrated last year, and it's just simply been hurt this year. We still lack a TE who is good enough to play every down and who can block better than Cooley. Sellers helps, but we need Sellers and Cooley in to run the ball, and that isn't good.

For the first time last week, the pass pro was awful. Campbell was setting up 12 yards deep like every play and this was likely contributing to the dropped passes. You don't practice throwing curl routes 30 yards in the air during practice, thus all the drops. Problem is that it's hard to blame Campbell for that because he was simply trying to do his job. Samuels had a good game. No one else did on that line.

While Saunders usually is ignorant of the down and distance, that COULD be an advantage if we had the talent on offense to execute the play he calls. Now with all the guys on the offensive line out, his conveluted play calling is a huge disadvantage. He's totally unpredictable all the time, and that means our 3rd down offense will also be totally unpredictable, even when the stats say we should pick up the first 80% of the time.

Give Gibbs some credit for going for it on 4th and 1 though, that was in most cases the right move. Maybe he should have called the play while he's was at it.

[GTripp0012]

Still: crazy 30 yard curl routes or not, Campbell is still hitting receivers in the hands. NFL receivers. Catch the ball.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Well, the main culprit for the offenses' struggles has been the run blocking. It was BADLY overrated last year, and it's just simply been hurt this year. We still lack a TE who is good enough to play every down and who can block better than Cooley. Sellers helps, but we need Sellers and Cooley in to run the ball, and that isn't good.

For the first time last week, the pass pro was awful. Campbell was setting up 12 yards deep like every play and this was likely contributing to the dropped passes. You don't practice throwing curl routes 30 yards in the air during practice, thus all the drops. Problem is that it's hard to blame Campbell for that because he was simply trying to do his job. Samuels had a good game. No one else did on that line.

While Saunders usually is ignorant of the down and distance, that COULD be an advantage if we had the talent on offense to execute the play he calls. Now with all the guys on the offensive line out, his conveluted play calling is a huge disadvantage. He's totally unpredictable all the time, and that means our 3rd down offense will also be totally unpredictable, even when the stats say we should pick up the first 80% of the time.

Give Gibbs some credit for going for it on 4th and 1 though, that was in most cases the right move. Maybe he should have called the play while he's was at it.

I think people are missing what I'm saying here. I think our problem is a combination of the miscues- i.e. drops, and coaching confusions/play calling. Look, even with Thomas and Jansen out, there are too many coaches and playmakers on this team to only average 17-20 points a game.
I think with the rash of injuries and 2 VERY tough losses in our last 3 games, coaching is going to be VITAL for the rest of the year. How will they adapt? Can they can keep the chemistry together in the locker room?
Hey Tripp, with the O-line in shambles, do you think we'll start throwing to set up the run instead of running to set up the pass? We've already been limited to running only to the left side. Now what?