Cash Cows

What was heard on FedEx on Sunday wasn’t booing, but Mooing. Dano Snyder’s favorite Cash Cows, known to other owners as fans, were milked dry and then put in a No-Touchdown Zone field. One wonders if Dano isn’t contemplating suing the fans for some sort of breach of contract. Have we checked the fine print on the back of tickets? Booing the Skins must be a sueable offense.

Dano is coming very close to breaking the Golden Calf. While technically a sellout, the house was not full on opening day. The Redskins maintain that there are 160,000 people on the waiting list, but everyone who has received phone calls from the Redskins trying to sell tickets thinks the list is bogus.

Here’s Snyder’s most recent good-will tour: sue fans and move the loyal tailgaters from their favorite spots.

Just who are the fans booing? Not the players, even though one never-heard-of linebacker took time to call them terrible fans. I’m sure Snyder has already called what’s his name and told him to never bad mouth sucker-fans in public.

Since Snyder is smart enough not to go out in public, they can’t boo the arrogant owner with the Napoleon Complex. So they booed his latest mistake. No I’m not talking about cornerback DeAngelo Hall, but head coach Jim Zorn.

In an interview after the game Redskins Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen told the coach he would have audibled out of the halfback option call. Zorn said he would have bench him. Maybe he would but the Redskins would probably have scored on Sonny’s play. Sonny did that to George Allen once. Came in for one play, when Billy Kilmer had to sit out a play because of an injury time out, Sonny was suppose to hand the ball off but instead threw a TD pass.

Jurgensen has forgotten more football than Zorn knows now. In eight quarters so far the Redskins have scored one offensive touchdown. The other came on a fake field goal, which is why the coach called the halfback option -- the Redskins do not have an offensive play inside the 10-yard line.

Let’s face it. Zorn is the coach because Book’em Dano ran off all of the real head coach candidates. We’re about to have another Dano search again with his famous all day & night interviews. Who is Dano kidding? He doesn’t know enough football to handle such a conversation.

One thing is for sure, Dano will ask the Cash Cows to pay for it.

For a quick laugh, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1O7rs6dEdY

Fantasy Team Goes Down

Once again Book’em Dano’s fantasy team proved that they could not stay with a good football organization. This is why the NY Giants & Philly are thinking about the division title and possible trip to the Super Bowl. The Redskins are hoping for a wild card spot.

The talent gap between the two teams was decided years ago when Dano skipped the draft and went expensive big-name free agents. On offense the Giants started 9 players they picked on draft day while Washington had 5 free agents with another acquired by trade. Defense much the same with the Redskins built with 6 free agents including the whole defensive line; Giants with 8 drafted starters.

Which team seemed faster on Sunday? Redskin’s second biggest weakness, after lack of depth, is lack of speed.

After the game gut feeling: Redskins are not a playoff team, again.

Then you think, well, they were playing the Giants, who may be the best team in the NFC East. They were on the road. They never beat New York in New York and seldom look good losing there. Hey, they covered the 6 1/2 point spread.

By can your eyes and gut be wrong?

They had NO offense, until they scored that meaningless touchdown late in the game. The TD may not have been so meaningless if the offense had not wasted 2 of its time outs earlier. Campbell looked like he’s all arm and nothing else. Portis did nothing of importance. Or, was it the offensive line that couldn’t open a hole.

Who knew after all the money Dano spent on defense that it was for a bend-but-don’t-break style. Where was the pass rush? Can DeAngelo Hall cover a bad check? Before anyone jumps up and down about his interception, please, understand that his man was wide open, he just caught safety LaRon Landry’s defection.

Hope springs eternal and optimism comes in the form of the schedule. There are many NFL teams with bad organizations. In the last 3 years the Redskins record is 22-26. In the next 5 games we play three teams: Rams (13-35), Lions (10-38) and Kansas City (15-33); whose football building operations make Dano look good. The Skins MUST win all three of these games for playoffs to remain a dream. Also they play Tampa Bay (22-26) at FedEx field. This is a very winnable game. The only game in the 5-game stretch that looked like a sure loss was Carolina (27-21). However, it appears that Panther QB Jake Delhomme has lost his touch, which may turn this into a possible win.

Washington needs to win 4 of these games. If they only win 3, they do make not playoffs and if they only win 2, Jim Zorn will be unemployed.

Redskins 2009: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Let’s start with The Ugly, Book’em Dano Snyder got called out by the Washington Post for being outright greedy and proving once again he treats fans as Cash Cows whom he milks for every dollar. Maybe this does a disservice to the word ‘ugly’ and should be renamed: ‘Repulsive.’

Ok, I’m sorry; there is a reason to be positive and feel good. The season starts on Sunday. If you can’t be a believer before the season starts you might as well cash it in. But if you want to have hope you better pray for good health as that is the key to a successful season, and a successful season means making the playoffs.

The Good: the brightest light of hope is the defensive line. This should be the best D-Line since the glory years of the early 80’s. The addition of tackle Albert Haynesworth, end/linebacker Brian Orakpo and end Jeremy Jarmon all give the Redskins a pass rush. One of the keys to making the Super Bowl is sacks. Since 2000 only the Arizona Cardinals (last year) and the Indianapolis Colts (2007) have made the championship game with less than 40 sacks. Last year the Redskins had only 24.

The fresh blood could allow Andre Carter to have another banner year like 2007 when he had 10.5 sacks. Throw in veterans Cornelius Griffin and Phillip Daniels and the Redskins have good balance to stop the run and nice depth. This may be better than The Good, let’s be optimistic and call it The Great!

Speaking of nice depth, the Redskins also have it at Safety with Chris Horton & LaRon Landry starting with very capable back up by Reed Doughty. This is, also, The Good.

The Good would also go with the starting cornerbacks of DeAngelo Hall, Carlos Rogers and Fred Smoot. However, if one goes down we’re talking not so good and if they lose 2, then we’ve got The Ugly.

Finding The Good on offense may take Sherlock Holmes. Santana Moss is good, but right now supporting cast could be The Bad.

The starting offensive line could be The Good, or at least OK, but it must stay healthy for 16 games. If the injury bug bites again they become The Bad quickly and hopefully not The Ugly they were at the end of 2008.

It is time for quarterback Jason Campbell to step up and be The Good. If he doesn’t both he and Coach Zorn are gone. Zorn was hired to make Campbell an NFL playoff QB. It’s not a huge leap to get there. After all Rex Grossman, Rich Gannon, Brad Johnson, and Trent Dilfer all lead their teams to the Super Bowls in the last 10 years. No one is saving any of them wall space in Canton.

Let’s be optimistic. If the offense can average 17 to 20 points a game, the defense can set up another 6 to 10, then the schedule is such that they could win 10 games. This would be The Great!

The season starts on Sunday against the NY Giants. Normally this game is The Bad bordering on The Ugly. However, an upset and The Good season is off to a quick start.