I'm Not Sticking By Gibbs

[LRT]

Here's my two cents...

The Redskins have some good talent, but that's been true ever since the Danny first opened his wallet and started mopping up the free agent market. But, talent doesn't make for good teams. "Back in the day" when Gibbs was first here, the Skins were rarely the most talented team in the playoffs, yet did very well because they were consistently the best team in terms of teamwork, cohesion, etc.

Gibbs is trying to build that sense of being a team into a much of free agents who, let's be honest, all came here to make a buck not because they love the burgundy and gold. Now, I think many of us, myself especially, underestimated how difficult this would be. I've never wanted to admit this, but we've been in the same lower realms of the NFL as the Bengals, Cardinals, Lions and Browns these last so many years. I thought Gibbs could come in and instantly turn us around. But, realistically no one could do that.

That said, even with the struggles, we are not far from being a good team. We're playing well on defense and we've shown sporadic flashes on offense. That makes the losing all the more difficult, because we're not being blown out by three or four TDs but are losing by field goals, for the most part.

This situation, I think, makes it natural and easy to look for the key - the one problem that if we can just fix it will make everything turn around. And, since Mark Brunnell has, frankly, played attrociously, it is very easy, and perhaps even very justifiable to focus on the QB position as the one source of trouble.

Personally, if were the Head Coach of the Washington Redskins, Brunnell would have been benched weeks ago. But, my coaching prowess is limited to Madden '04 and I have no idea what is happening in practice. Neither do most of us. Maybe Ramsey is struggling with the Gibbs systems in practice as much as Brunnell is on the field. I certainly wouldn't be surprised. Given the beating he took last year and Spurriers influence, I would have been surprised if Ramsey had been ready to start this season.

Maybe, Gibbs is sticking with Brunnell because he knows that if yanks Brunnell for Ramsey and Ramsey flops, then the same chants that went up for Ramsey may go up even quicker for Hasselbeck. I remember from Gibbs' first tenure the saying that the most popular man in Washington is always the back-up quarterback. So, if we bench Brunnell and then Ramsey isn't ready and he gets benched, what does that do to his confidence and the long-term stability of the team?

In any case, Gibbs can certainly be citicized, but at the end of the day, my view is that (a) he knows more about his players than I do, seeing them practice every day and (b) he knows a lot more about coaching than I've learned from my Madden '04, so, I'm prepared to trust him.

Lastly, I think that this is just a difficult time, as some else has noted, and we need to suffer through it. The best thing for this team may just be a difficult season that DOESN'T lead to in-fight and which DOESN'T end with wholesale personnel and coaching changes.

I offered two cents worth, but I think I gave four. Sorry for going on so long.