Nothing is Easy, but Redskins Tough it Out

Nothing is easy for the Redskins.

Making a first down is a struggle, scoring a touchdown is dam near impossible. Winning a football game is always complicated and even the losses are challenging.

The road to the playoffs is very stressful.

The Redskins have one of the best defenses in the NFL; yet, you’re e never relaxed when they are on the field. Maybe each possession is so important because they always seem to need another stop. More likely it has become obvious that the offensive scoring is more often a field goal than a touchdown. Helping the defensive anxiety level rise is the fact that the opposing quarterback always seems to have enough time to make a sandwich before throwing.

Making it complicated is the fact that the NFC East is still the best division in football. Question: Would you rather be in the NFC East fighting for a wild card spot with Dallas or in the NFC North where 4 teams are struggling for the division title and the rest go home? Answer: who cares as long as we are competing for a playoff spot!

Are the Redskins lucky to be 7-4?

They have only scored 201 points; the fewest of any of the playoff contenders. Put it another way and the Skins have only out scored Kansas City (196), Detroit (193), Cincinnati (148) and St. Louis (147). Thanks to the Redskins, St. Louis is the only one of those who has won 2 games.
Yet, there isn’t a victory where you come away saying they won because of a lucky play.

It is wrong to say to the Redskins are lucky, Washington is tough.

They are following their leader, Clinton Portis, who is the toughest offensive player in the NFL. The rest of the team is the same tough, just not spectacular. They do not have a glamorous pass rush, but others can’t run on them. They don’t make 40-yard passes down field, but they do make short passes that depend on breaking a tackle. Every Sunday the Redskins tough it out.
Stressful yes, but it’s good hard-nosed football.

Will they make the playoffs? You will have to sit on the edge of your seat and watch.

Rating the Redskins' O-Line

Want to shout, “Cerrato, hey, Vinny -- what about the offensive line? Why not select a lineman with one of the 3 second-round picks? Did we really need another tight end?”

The Washington Redskins offensive line is much maligned lately after giving up 10 sacks in back-to-back losses to Pittsburgh & Dallas.

Ever wonder how the Skins’ O-line compares to the rest of the NFL?

Very hard to measure statistically as the only readily available stats are rushing yards and sacks allowed.

Many other factors should be taken into account like Philly would rather pass than run while Minnesota can’t put the ball in the hands of Adrian Peterson enough, or the Jet’s Brett Favre isn’t as mobile as Jacksonville’s David Garrard, and there are teams with porous defenses, which means the offense often has to abandon the run.

Here is how the numbers below work. Take the team rankings for rushing yards and fewest sacks and combine them. This is not rocket science; in fact, it is not science at all. However, its gives us a measurement that produced some interesting results.

Team Yards Rank Sacks Rank Total
1 NY Giants 1,727 1 12 6 7
2 Tennessee 1,327 7 6 1 8
2 Atlanta 1,534 2 12 6 8
4 Carolina 1,337 6 13 9 15
5 Baltimore 1,468 3 18 13 16
6 Tampa Bay 1,151 14 11 4 18
7 Denver 1,089 18 8 2 20
8 Dallas 1,159 13 17 12 25
8 NY Jets 1,251 9 19 16 25
10 Redskins 1,394 5 26 22 27

28 49 ers 1,095 17 36 30 47
29 St Louis 959 25 32 26 51
30 Pittsburgh 998 23 35 29 52
31 Detroit 809 31 37 31 62
31 Bengals 837 30 38 32 62


Now we understand better why the New York Giants and Tennessee have the best records in football. On the top of the list of surprises is Atlanta, maybe we should stop giving credit to rookie quarterback Matt Ryan and start giving it to the O-line. How about Pittsburgh? The Steelers are only ahead of Detroit & Cincinnati. How is that possible?

Despite all of the obvious missed variables that go into making a great offensive line, there was hope of finding some secrets to success of line building by looking at the top four O-lines, as they all rank in the top 10 in both rushing and fewest sacks. Want to shout to Vinny, “Look how it’s done.”

Well, healthy is a big plus. Both the Giants and Tennessee lines have started all 10 games, while Atlanta had 4 ten-game starters. Both Redskins tackles Steven Heyer and Chris Samuels have missed games, but they do have 3 10-game starters.

Giant’s average age is 29. Tennessee’s is 28, but if you take 15-year center Kevin Mawae away, the age drops to 26, which is the same as Carolina & Atlanta. The Redskins average age is just under 31. If you replace Heyer with Jon Jansen it is over 32.

The Giants also have the team experience as all have been playing for New York since 2005 and Tennessee’s have been on the Titans since 2006. For the Redskins Heyer and guard Pete Kendal came aboard last year.

Tennessee, Atlanta & Carolina were built through the draft as each has 4 home grown starters. The Giants have 3. Samuels is the only starter drafted by the Redskins.

The Redskins’ O-line is a microcosm of the whole team. The line, like the Redskins, is built through free agency. Jansen (1999) and Samuels (2000) are the last high round draft choices. There are 9 linemen, but only 3 were drafted.

The O-line points to what appears to be a design flaw when building with free agents -- age & continuity. This enables a team to be playoff competitive but maybe not a serious title contender. Since Dan Snyder and the “build through the free agency” philosophy took over, the 3 playoff appearances have all been via the wild card. They have never won a division title much less reached a championship game.

Book'em Dano.

It's Not Over!

We will find out what drives the Redskins.

Nothing like a little 2-game losing streak adversity to see if they have broken down or if it was just a pot hole. DC is known for its pot holes and life goes on. Last year they rallied to the playoffs from not only a 2-game losing streak but also losing 3 in a row. Of course, the Redskins were coached by Joe Gibbs, Mr. December, who finished winning the last 4 games.

Thank God, that home record isn’t on the list of playoff tie breakers. Since Dano Snyder bought the team, the Redskins have made the playoff just 3 times – 1999, 2005 and last year. Each time Washington has had a winning record at Fed Ex. To have a winning record at Fed Ex this year, they would have to win the last two home games against the Giants & Philly. Take a split and hope to win three of the four on the road.

It is way too early to look at tie breaker scenarios, which are way too complicated to predict before the season is over. Really, after Head-to-Head and Division record, it is Common Games followed Conference Games and Strength of Victory. Just understand, the Redskins are not out of it by any stretch of the imagination. There are six games left and 4 wins are more than possible.

How many times have you seen a team come out and look like world champions with an opening touchdown drive only to watch the offense disappear for the rest of the game? Of course, the Redskins, offense has been doing a Houdini act for a month now.

Why can’t the offense find any rhythm? If we knew the answer we could be making the big bucks coaching. Gut feeling wants to blame the offensive line. However, that would diminish the dropped first-down passes by Randle El & Devin Thomas or how about the continual short passes to Santana Moss that finally lead to an interception that ended a 3rd quarter drive in Dallas territory?

The Redskins should not have to play perfect offensive football to win a big game. They have all of the tools needed: better than average quarterback, an offensive line that has allowed Clinton Portis to rush for over a 1,000 yards with six games still left, outstanding wide receiver Moss and excellent tight-end Chris Cooley and an underrated (and under used) fullback in Mike Sellers.

We have not discussed the Defense. Anytime the Defense holds Dallas to 14 points, it should be a victory. However, pressure on a hurt quarterback would have helped.

Going into Sunday the four 1st-year coaches who have their squads making playoff runs – Baltimore’s John Harbaugh, Atlanta’s Mike Smith, Miami’s Tony Sparano along with the Redskins’ Jim Zorn – only Sparano won and they have the luck of playing Oakland, the NFL’s most dysfunctional team. Has the rest of the league figured the rookies out?

More importantly has Pittsburgh & the Cowboys given the rest of the NFL the blue print on beating Coach Zorn offense?

Three Losses

The Redskins have three losses left.

If they only lose three more games, then they will finish 10-6. This should get them into the playoffs. If they finish 9-7, which made it last year, they could make it, but most likely fans will be cursing the loss to St. Louis.

The schedule is Cowboys, @ Seattle, Giants, @ Baltimore, @ Cincinnati, Eagles & @ San Francisco. Win four and they advance.

The good news is that the toughest games are at home. Thanks to owner Dan Snyder, the High Priest of Greed, home is finding a large number of visiting team’s fans. Expect a large Dallas contingent Sunday night. Also, Giants & Philly fans will be well represented. They have been since Dano made corporate ticket sales a high priority.

One last word on this subject of who is in the crowd: the Redskins fans, who made RFK one of the biggest home field advantages, are mostly gone. They have been run out by Snyder’s “fans are cash cows, let’s milk them for every dollar” game plan.

Let’s get back to talking football.

Clinton Portis is hurt and may not play. Losing a running back who is having an MPV season has to hurt. Yet, it is not the end of the world. A game plan which uses the West Coast Offense first to set up the run should be able to compensate.

The good news is that the defense may be as healthy as it has been all year. Jason Taylor is expected to play at end. More importantly Shawn Springs is expected to come back to cover Terrell Owens. Add the addition of cornerback DeAngelo Hall, the Redskins’ pass rush now does not need sacks, just pressure the quarterback. The Redskins could have the best man-to-man coverage package in the league.

Quick note: What is Vinny Cerrato doing releasing cornerback Leigh Torrence? This may or may not be the correct player to release, but isn’t this the coach’s decision? Isn’t Vinny’s job to get the players and let the coaches decide which ones make up the best team?

Expect Dallas to emphasize the running game as quarterback Tony Romo returns. Reportedly, Romo will have a splint on his passing hand.

The game should be a low scoring affair.

If the Redskins win, it would almost eliminate the Cowboys from the playoffs. Redskins fans could start singing to Dallas coach Wade Phillips, “Hey, hey, hey Good Bye.” Probably the Dallas fans would sing too.

Redksins Fans are not to Blame

The hot topic in Washington this week is the Redskins fans.

Well, that’s not quite true. The Presidential election has electrified the town. In fact, the spontaneous dancing in the streets Tuesday night into Wednesday morning is something the town has not seen since, well, the 1980s when Joe Gibbs was leading the Skins to Super Bowls.
Back to the second hottest topic: Redskins fans.

The beginning of the conversation could be found on the Front Page of Tuesday’s Washington Post in Liz Carpenter’s story about the Pittsburg drubbing of the Skins Monday night.

"Then, in the third quarter of the Redskins' showcase game this year, Campbell's first interception came. It arrived on a soft pass tossed high to running back Clinton Portis in which the ball bounced off Portis's hand, then landed in the arms of a Pittsburgh Steelers player named Deshea Townsend. And when it happened, a great roar filled FedEx Field, and three levels of stands rising to the sky were filled with the twirling golden rags called Terrible Towels that have become a talisman to Pittsburgh Steelers fans. It would be that kind of a night for the Redskins in their 23-6 loss to the Steelers: Their quarterback's prodigious streak had come to an inglorious end and their home stadium had ceased to be exclusively their home. "Man, was that weird or what? All I saw were terrible towels in the stands," said Redskins defensive end Demetric Evans. "Even when we were on offense and it's supposed to be quiet, all you could hear was the Steelers fans cheering."

Wednesday the Post’s Dan Steinberg had a story with players’ reaction to the offense having to use a silent count for a home game. The discussion reached its peak on Thursday with Washington Times’ David Elfin and Post’s Michael Wilbon both having pieces about the fans. Wilbon’s column was the strongest for taking the fans to task for selling their tickets.

This is not a fan issue! The selling of a large number of tickets is a recent phenomenon. It can be traced back to Dan Snyder buying the team. It never happened before.

The High Priest of Greed treats the fans as cash cows. Dano is milking them for every dollar. Mooooo!

When Snyder bought the team, the stadium had a capacity of 85,407. He expanded it to over 90,000. Of course, this was done without adding parking places around the stadium. Finding a parking spot would be easier in a pasture. Herd the fans. Make them pay big time parking fees to park miles away and bus them. Mooooo! They do things like raising the parking prices but forget to update the parking map.

In 2007 the Redskins had the second highest ticket prices in the NFL. The value of the Redskins has risen over $700,000 since Dano bought the team but this year the team stopped the bus rides from the Metro stations. Mooooo!

Try bringing in a bottle of water to the stadium. Not allowed! They will tell you it is for security reasons. However, this is not the case at other stadiums. Mooo!

When you finally get into the stadium you are greeted with six-pack prices for a single beer. Mooooo!

Then the fans are treated like dumb cows. There is music BLARING over the speakers. S ome DJ tries to fire up the crowd before the game. In the old days, the stadium announcer use to give the ball carrier’s name, the yardage made or lost, who made the tackle and the new down & distance, all in a very civil tone. Now the DJ is shouting things like “third and looong.” Like, the cows are too dumb to know.

Dano promotes the StubHub ticket selling site. Why? Because he makes more money. What he didn’t consider was that the cash cows would take a chapter from his playbook selling their tickets to the highest bidder, other team fans.

Anyone remember when moooo-ing at RFK was a good thing?