Week 3: Rams 30, Redskins 16: Knee Jerk Reactions

Football season is here! The hair pulling, TV-screaming, remote control throwing and furious cigarette smoking is in full swing. Before I let rationality cloud my judgment, here are my knee-jerk reactions from the third game of the season:

Ummm, I told you so? Not sure what else to say, but this is a huuuuge loss. Sure, maybe fans will drink the Kool-Aid and say we're only a game back of Philly and playing them next week, but we have some major problems on our hands, mainly that we just lost to a team that was 1-27 in their last 28 games!!! After going 1-15 last year, with their only win over the pathetic Lions, they already lost to Arizona and Oakland, 2 of the NFL's worst teams this year. So where does this leave the Skins? You guessed it, pretty much where Football Outsiders had us pegged coming into this game, as maybe the 25th best team in the league.

Other quick thoughts, and I apologize in advance for the excessive amount of exclamation points:

•  Is it too soon to start the Urban Meyer countdown? We'll take his roster too.
• The #1 culprit is the defense. 365 yards by the Steven Jackson-less Rams?!? Hey, I have a great idea is, let's take the Skins best unit for years that is solidly built for success in a 4-3 defense, and make everyone switch positions.....Andre Carter and the D-line are struggling, which is crazy, because arguably the best defensive player in the NFL is on our team and playing a role that makes him just another dude. I though the defense would regress while adjusting this year, but not fall off of a cliff. Jim Haslett has talent at his disposal, so there is not much of an excuse.
• Special teams has not been much better. A blocked punt, and just when I was starting to like Graham Gano, he sends the opening kickoff out of bounds.
• McNabb was not good enough. I know Campbell got benched in Oakland, but this trade is not looking good. Take off your sweet rose-tinted shades and see that McNabb is we thought he was, an aging, expensive, mediocre QB. So maybe he gives the Skins 2 more wins from last year (and that's removing the contributions of Shanahan and several others) and we go 6-10 this year. Well la-dee-freakin-da! Can we get our draft picks back?
• I didn't think there could be anything better than the Red Zone channel until I found old NBA dunk contest replays on the NBA HD channel.
• Clinton Portis, sliding, are you kidding?!? He just surrendered what would have been at least 2 more yards. That play didn't directly appear to get him benched, but maybe it did.
• Our inability to get 7 points instead of 3 might have cost us the game. What happened to Fred Davis in the red zone?
• Stephon Heyer needs to get sniped so the Skins don't continue to make the mistake of thinking he is an NFL-caliber lineman. 
• Another point on McNabb is that even with injuries on the o-line today, the protection and personnel blocking for him was better than anything Campbell got last year; Jammal Brown and Artis Hicks have been major upgrades.
• I am not sure if it was the Rams inability to throw downfield, but despite 2 huge missed tackles, Kareem Moore appears to be a nice upgrade over Reed Doughty. Any more missed tackles like those and I will change my mind, but the coverage issues for Doughty were a big liability. So now we only have to fix the d-line, linebackers, and corners........
• The offseason will be interesting. The long list of positional needs is: RB, WR, C, OG, OLB, and DE.
• The schedule is still easy, and our division is still ripe for the taking. I wouldn't be shocked to see us beat Philly, but I also wouldn't be shocked to see us go 4-12 again.

(Image courtesy of www.kansascity.com)