Hello World

I’m still not sold on Gibbs as Head Honcho (can’t we get him out of the coaching box and into an office?), but there’s no arguing with the results of the last three games. He makes his mistakes, but the man is a great motivator and a diligent game-planner. The Redskins have dominated three teams known for their toughness on both sides of the ball, played smart football, and won the turnover battle, and now all they’ve got to do is beat a Cowboys team that will surely be resting most of its starters.

Of course, it would be just like the Skins to lose against the Cowboys’ second stringers, but this feels different from the franchise’s annual collapse. And, truth be told, no matter how next week goes, you’ve got to be impressed with what they’ve done since Sean Taylor’s death. Just watching them actually step up in big games, play their best, and give themselves a shot at the postseason is enough to satisfy me this year.

Most promising is the fact that they’re doing this without a ton of contributors–Sean Taylor, of course, but also half of their offensive line, Carlos Rogers, Rocky McIntosh, Jason Campbell, and quite a few others. If they can maintain this year’s focus and intensity while plugging those big talents in next year, these guys have a shot at really making some noise. In the meantime, they’ve got as good a chance as they could ask for at getting into a playoff game against a beatable Seattle team.

Yeesh.

The Redskins started out the game with 10 players on the field–the missing safety was a powerful tribute to Sean Taylor’s untimely death last week. That was a great start to a game with a miserable finish.

First, let’s be fair: it looked like that kick would have been good from the original line of scrimmage. The Redskins would have probably lost the game anyway.

But to make that kind of mental error–calling two timeouts in a row (which is against the rules)–is completely ridiculous. And, in this particular situation, more or less unforgivable. This is the kind of mistake the Redskins have been making all season, sometimes in critical situations, and sometimes when it didn’t make much of a difference. Suffice it to say you won’t see Bill Belichick doing this stuff. There’s no question that the mistake was Joe Gibbs’s fault. But there’s plenty of blame for this loss to go around.

As far as I can tell from what I’ve been reading on the internet, the offensive line didn’t do a great job today. That doesn’t surprise me in the least, and I don’t blame the players for it. The coaching staff has been throwing inexperienced backups out there all season long. The frustrating thing about that, though, is it makes things impossible for everyone else on the field. Can’t pass-block, can’t run-block. QB doesn’t have time to find open receivers, running backs don’t have holes to run through.

So we can’t play offense and end up depending on our defense to bail us out. And, to be honest, they have been doing that all year long. They haven’t been invincible (they’re suffering from their own injury problem, encompassing just about their entire secondary), but they have been good in just about every game (except the New England contest, about which we need not speak). It sounds like they weren’t at their best today, but they certainly didn’t lose this game.

So far I’ve said it’s not the offense’s fault, and it’s not the defense’s fault. Just to be clear, it’s not the special teams’ fault, either.

Two people are responsible for this game and this season: Joe Gibbs and Dan Snyder.

First, the coach. Joe Gibbs has to retire. He has yet to demonstrate an iota of creativity or flexibility in his return to coaching. His reign has been typified by mental errors (by his players and by him) and come-from-ahead losses. He hasn’t adapted to the new league, trying instead to shoehorn his old strategies onto his new roster. He gives good press conference, but at this point all he ever gets to say is how proud he is of the effort his team has given in a tough loss. He’s still the coach for one reason: pride. I’m sympathetic–he’s got an incredible history with the franchise, and he won three championships before I hit high school, and no matter how this ends up he’ll still be one of the greatest coaches ever, in my opinion–but past glory has not prepared him for the current reality of the NFL. He and his ancient coaching staff are tarnishing their own legacy with every crushing disappointment.

As for Dan Snyder… For some reason, probably the fact that he actually seems to care about how the team does (rather than just how much money it makes), I like Snyder, but he needs to understand the difference between “hands-on owner” and “meddlesome despot”. He needs to hire someone who knows how to evaluate players and let that person handle the GM duties–identifying draft picks and preventing idiotic trades/free agent signings. And Snyder needs to have a quiet chat with Gibbs, advising him that it might be a good idea to step down to “spend more time with his family.”

Ugh. I hate myself for even writing this stuff, but things have gotten absurd. There’s no reason for the Redskins to be in this situation. They have a huge fanbase and an owner willing to spend whatever it takes to put a good team on the field. But Snyder’s enthusiasm and resources have blinded him (and us, to be honest) to the fact that the organization is pursuing success in a completely backwards way.

Almost every decision they’ve made in each offseason of the last decade has been gilding the lily–polishing the turd. They have been spending money for short term gains, trading picks for aging veterans, and ignoring the low-profile positions that make the biggest difference (the line). They need to start over by focusing on drafting smart, dumping old players before they get decrepit, emphasizing line play and intelligence over glamor positions and “potential”. And, oh yeah, hiring a coach who was born after the Great Depression.