What You Don't Realize about the Redskins - We Still Stink

While everyone keeps talking about McNabb's greatness and our pathetic running game, the horrid performance of the defense is being completely overlooked. I know we seemed to hold the Cowboys, but we are dead last in total yards against, giving up 453 yards per game! This mostly comes from having the 2nd-worst passing D in the league. Here is my imaginary exchange with everyone drinking the kool-aid.

The Skins are middle of the league in terms of points allowed thanks to holding the Cowboys and even scored a defensive TD!
That is a product of luck. Football Outsiders (FO) makes the point clear by ranking us as the #31 defense, with the #30 pass D and #24 run D...ouch. That defensive TD thing is a fact, but also pure luck. I thought our defense would take a step back after last season thanks to the switch to a 3-4 and the fact that the scheme is not a great fit with our personnel. I should also note that any grandiose ideas D******* Hall has about being on the level of Revis are just absurd. He might be our best cornerback, and certainly putting him, instead of Phil Buchanon, on Andre Johnson in certain situations would have helped, but he is not elite by an measure except in ego.

So what, we are in first place and obviously heading to the Super Bowl behind heroic D-Mac's heroics! 
FO actually has us as the #25 ranked team overall! The reason that is possible is because the Cowboys outplayed us in week 1, but lost because of several mistakes and unlucky plays. The offense has indeed improved, but it is not clear how much just yet.

Well at least we can beat the Rams! 
Not so fast, we are actually going up against FO's #23 team, and on the road. It should be noted if you combine FO's preseason projections with actual performance, we come out as the #13 team in the league, so we have that going for us.

It's only 2 games into the season, so who knows what will happen!
Fair enough, we are only 2 games into the season, but don't be surprised if we lose on Sunday and are headed for a 6-10 season......not that we ever get our hopes up.....

(Image courtesy of media.timesleader.com)

Grandmama Leaves the Building!

Hallelujah! The Redskins finally admitted a mistake today and cut RB Larry Johnson. Maybe the offensive line isn't producing holes for the running game, but fact is that Larry Johnson stinks. As I wrote when we signed him,

"...LJ is even worse than most people realize. How bad? By Football Outsiders' metrics, he was the 2nd worst RB in the league last year! He was 64th out of 65 RBs with 100+ carries. On the bright side, he was the the 97th best pass-catching RB, although he was really only ahead of a few fullbacks. So instead of following the seemingly smart plan used by the Eagles, Chargers, and few other teams of taking a young RB to groom and split carries, we basically signed a locker room cancer who might be the worst at his position in the league."

You're damn right I just quoted myself. See that picture in the top right? LJ looks pretty slick there but is actually running backwards for what would be a 10 yard loss. He appears to think very highly of himself and is a world-class dick on top of his pathetic performance.

I know he only had 5 carries, which is a tiny sample size, but has already been the 3rd worst RB in the league on a per play basis. There is no fountain of youth, LJ was a horrifically bad signing from the start. His roster spot should have been used on a better player (just about anyone) who is young with some upside.

The running game can only go up from here, and almost anyone taking LJ's place will be an improvement. Good riddance!

(Image courtesy of www.washingtonpost.com)

Week 2: Texans 30 - Redskins 27: Knee Jerk Reactions

Football season is finally upon us! The hair pulling, TV-screaming, remote control throwing and furious cigarette smoking has finally commenced. Before I let rationality cloud my judgment, here are my knee-jerk reactions from the second game of the season:

31, 9, 11, 16, 25, 23. I only wish those were the Redskin point-scoring totals of our last 6 games. Those are actually the rankings of the Redskins special teams from 2004-2009, the years Danny Smith has been in charge. Let me throw another number at you: 9. That's the Skins special teams ranking in the year before he arrived. How does Danny Smith still have a job?!? Just because he seems so peppy, but the special teams have only gotten worse since he arrived, and generally been awful. Instead of slowly bleeding us to death, we got stabbed in the heart. I know that the blocked FG was not the only play to cost us the game, but seriously, enough is enough. Dan Snyder, in his infinite wealth, could lure just about any guy he wants, but sticks with Danny freaking Smith, astounding.

• Double-move and D******* Hall were victimized pretty equally today. Kevin Walter wrecked double-move.
• Rak has to do more than that. I know they doubled him quite a bit, but other than the one sack he seemed pretty quiet to me. The stats show a couple QB hits, a TFL, and the one pass he tipped, but he wasn't the constant terror we need.
• Laron Landry had a modest 11 tackles, but still had a great game. I only see 1 sack in the stats, but thought he had 2. I noted that he did missed plugging a hole on one of Foster's better runs, but made a lot of important tackles and has all over Schaub.
• The corpse of Joey Galloway ghosted downfield on that 62 yard reception and the oh-so-slight McNabb overthrow. That is the good, but 3 catches in 7 targets is not, and those 4 incompletions were among only 10 thrown by McNabb.
  
• I was in Portis' corner, but this has to get better. We win that game if we can run down the clock with a few first downs on the ground.
  
• Larry Johnson really thinks he can bounce backward and then around the entire defense?
  
• I thought we all agreed McNabb wouldn't throw to Mike Sellers anymore.
• I am still not a big McNabb believer, and he missed a few throws today, but Campbell never makes any of those long throws.
• On the game-deciding 4th down play, how about we double team the best WR in the league with the best guys we've got instead of leaving the short white guy who can't cover on him. I realize Phillip Buchanon should have been there, but why is our #3 corner on Andre Johnson!
  
• Free safety is a major area of concern. Doughty and Horton are not good enough.
• Trent Williams better be okay. I was surprised the Texans didn't switch Mario Williams to going against Heyer on the left side on every play after the injury.
  
• Ovie in this Capital One commercial definitely is helping me stay sane:

• The TV show Airwolf, was on when I immediately clicked off the game, and was actually the primary reason I didn't jump off of my balcony. One hilariously bad thrill ride. I'd never heard of it, but immediately turned it on after reading the description in my TV guide, "The better of two helicopter shows (1984)." There were multiple helicopter shows in 1984?
  
• Looking at the schedule ahead and considering what I've seen from 2 weeks of football, I have the Skins going 9-7 right now. We are also still in first place, and St. Louis next week should be the cure for what ails.

(Image courtesy of Hogs Haven)