Sunday, November 21, 2010

Week 11: Redskins 19, Titans 16: Knee Jerk Reactions

Football's regular season is past the halfway point! The hair pulling, TV-screaming, remote control throwing and furious cigarette smoking have aged me about 10 years in these 10 games. Before I let rationality cloud my judgment, here are my knee-jerk reactions from the tenth game of the season:


Huuuge win. That would have been a season-ender if we were 4-6 and 3 games out of the last wild card. 
  • So, I was really excited about this win and staying in the playoff race, but with 6 games to go, we are 2 games out of the last wild card spot. There are 4 teams ahead of us, with only 2 spots available, so we have to leapfrog 3 of the Giants/Eagles, Bears, Saints, and Bucs.
  • As if you didn't already know, but Brandon Banks! 1 tough clutch catch in 1 opportunity. Can we just give him Joey Galloway's job immediately? I mean right now, seriously. 
  • I have been thinking of some other nickname ideas for Banks and like "The Wire," because he's electric and maybe thin and wiry or something.
  • I want to like Graham Gano, but he is still straddling the line of acceptability. Missing a 51 yarder is no biggy, but being that far off is concerning. The 47 yarder into the wind is a little tougher to swallow, but okay in and of itself. He still hit from 40, 42, and 48, and was providing great distance on kickoffs.
  • McNabb had time to throw. Weird. 
  • McNabb's stats may sound impressive, but he was once again mediocre, even with tons of time.
  • Reed Doughty is an absolute disaster in coverage. I know Kareem Moore makes 1-2 big mistakes a game, and today was no different, but he is a much better option than Doughty. I was watching Doughty specifically as much as I could, and it seemed as thought he almost never successfully covered anyone. I think is fine as a backup strong safety, but free safety is not where I want to see him.
  • Yeah, Vince Young is efficient, and his passer rating will look great, but there is a lot to be said for the low volume output. 
  • The Buchanon, Hall, Doughty, Moore secondary provided an opportunity on a platter for VY and the Titans to exploit. I thought that pathetic unit would cost us the game, but VY could not take advantage, and that speaks volumes about how good he is. You are kidding if you don't think any great QB doesn't shred that group.
  • Randy Moss looked lazy running routes. Glad we didn't get that guy.
  • D******* Hall was okay today, but how about you don't beat your chest after Randy Moss runs by you in the endzone and VY throws it about 10 yards over everyone's heads. That was not a good play. 
  • Who is Rusty Smith?
  • Seems like we played a lot more 2 TE sets today to get Fred 'Sleepy' Davis involved. Niiiiice.
  • The gold pants are money.
  • Coming into this game, the Skins's offense had been historically bad on 3rd down, which is usually a fluky stat that will regress to the mean. In layman's terms, the Skins have likely been unlucky not to perform better on offense. 8-16 today on 3rd down, so there ya go.
  • My friend works for UStream and alerted me to the fact that Skins have their own channel. I have no idea what they show on here, I think pregame and postgame type stuff, but here you go: http://www.ustream.tv/redskins.
(Image courtesy of www.tsn.ca)

5 comments:

  1. I admire your ability to retain hope for a playoff berth. Realistically, I think we're cooked and I'm just trying to keep an eye on what pieces are going to be worth keeping around through the offseason.

    I was also surprised by the effectiveness of the patchwork O-line, I think this just goes to show how the Shanahan zone blocking, when learned properly and executed, can make the most out of mediocre talent. That and Silverback is awesome.

    Last picky point, 3rd down performance reverts to the mean, not regresses. We've done plenty of regression already in that department...

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  2. Why is Horton buried on the depth chart.. he might not be a starter.. but before you go to an unproven, undrafted rookie free agent why not go to Horton... what has the Predator done that he is collecting a game check for hanging around...

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  3. Yeah, Horton is out for the season. Thought Heyer did a decent job as a guard. Much better than any job he did as tackle.

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  4. Yeah, I was thinking we're right in this thing, but 2 games back with 3 teams to pass in 6 games is pretty crazy.

    And ha, yes, thank you, I had a long weekend and it is definitely revert

    Horton had a lost season, but his issues were also in coverage. From what I've seen of Doughty though, I'd at least give Horton a shot.

    On a related note, the most glaring holes for this team are still O-line. Silverback is obviously a keeper, and Jammal Brown needs at lesat another year, but everyone else can be replaced. I want to have Moore try FS for another year, so the other needs top of my head are WR, DL, young QB, and OLB.

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  5. I totally forgot about Horton being out for the season. Heyer should never be back at tackle again, he might not like guard, but hes def. better there.

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