The Redskins need…

• …to cut Sean Taylor.
  I love the guy’s huge hits, but this is something like the 8,000th time his overzealous rules-flouting violence has cost the ‘Skins at a crucial time.
• …to fix the kicking game.
  I’m not saying we should cut Hall–he’s an accurate and dependable kicker, most of the time. But shouldn’t we think about paying somebody with a strong leg $200k/year for touchbacks and realistic chances at 45 yard field goals? Many teams do this, and the strong-leg guy is often the punter. Which brings me to the other aspect of the kicking game that needs work: Frost. He wasn’t horrific last night, but he was horrific throughout the preseason. It’s not hard to round up a decent punter who has the leg for kickoffs and long field goal attempts–let’s do that.
• …to start gambling on defense.
  To be honest, our defensive struggles are the least of our worries. We’ve got dependable personnel and a terrific defensive coordinator, and my guess is last night was a blip in the radar. But the fact remains that all we could do was stop the run, and even that fell apart by the end of the game. We’ve got to take some chances on blitzes and trust our secondary to keep the receivers covered. Hopefully the return of safety Shawn Springs in a week or two will help with that.
• …yes, to get a real quarterback.
  Brunell wasn’t bad last night, and he’s not the reason the ‘Skins lost. But our ultimate goal isn’t to manage to beat run-of-the-mill teams like the Vikings; we’re trying to win in the playoffs. And I just don’t see Brunell contributing to that goal. Unfortunately I don’t see many reasonable ways to make this happen–good QBs don’t get passed around during the regular season. There is one option, and it’s a risky one, but I’m not sure it’s too early to start taking risks in an effort to salvage the season. Thats right, it might be time to trade for Brett Favre. Give Green Bay some young guys or draft picks for him and just hope that with a supporting cast around him Favre might have another season in him. Is the trade likely to happen? No. If it were to happen, is it likely to work? No, I can’t say that it’s likely to work. But what we’ve got going on now is a recipe for mediocrity. We gotta make a move.
• …to beat the Cowboys on Sunday.
  I don’t really need to expand on this one, do I?

And of course we have to hope that LaVar Arrington continues to play like out-of-shape undisciplined crap in our two games against the (0-1) Giants this season, but a) that’s out of our hands and b) I’m pretty sure there’s no damn chance whatsoever that he’s not going to end at least one Redskin’s season a la Troy “Bobblehead” Aikman.

Clearly, I wasn’t exactly heartened by the Redskins’ play last night, and I’ve certainly got some serious concerns about their chances this year. But there were flashes of greatness–well there was one, the emphatic blocking on Randle-El’s punt return in the first half–so I’m not giving up hope yet.