Reflecting on the Detroit Meltdown...Looking Forward

Fail to the Redskins

So I figured I'd let the dust settle for a few days before really reflecting on the Lions game. The D.C. media has had a field day with this thing and it seems almost like half of our fan base was rooting for this type of a shit-the-bed game to illustrate the futility of the entire organization. No true Redskins fan could say they were surprised or caught off guard by what happened in Detroit. Everyone knew Detroit had improved this year and the Redskins didn't hide the fact that they have apparently forgotten how to put the ball into the end zone. Obviously there is no excuse for being the first victim to lose to the Lions in their last 20 games but it couldn't have happened to a more hapless group that the Redskins. I found myself so frustrated during the first half of the game that I began writing down my thoughts in an attempt to prevent my self from spitting on the television whenever they showed Zorn looking clueless. Here are those notes unedited from when I wrote them:

1st half

-It all starts with the coach…this team lacks discipline and motivation

- WR fumbles and D-Hall literally stood over the ball and watched a Lion slide in and cover it. Neat.

-The coaching decisions have been atrocious, even if it had worked out you never give a team another chance. 4th and 3 or 3rd and 13? Make them attempt the FG. You haven’t stopped them all day and then you call a Time out on 3rd down to save them time and then they go down and lay another score on you. Well done Zorn. Maybe you should have asked Tom Cruise (Stefen Djordjovic) to talk to the defense because his game in 'All the Right Moves' looks tougher than Blache's D right now.

-Defense jumping offsides multiple times...way to help out their rookie QB. Discipline. Where in the F is our pressure? Why aren't we blitzing?

-Guys hanging their heads right and left on the sideline. It's only 10-0 but it feels like 30.

-Only person I ever see Zorn interact with is Campbell

-No on is held accountable for their mistakes

-Is LaRon Landry still on the team, haven't seen him make a form tackle all year. Take out that damn lip ring bro! Please.

-Haynesworth collapses after first sack of season – like we didn’t see that one coming. See ya in 2010. (He came back into the game in the 3rd quarter).

-Have to feel bad for Portis he is a victim of a terribly predictable playcalling system, 4th and goal from the one, shocker that you are not going to run to the side without 2 backups on it. Not to mention we lined up for the play, they called timeout, and we came out in the same formation and ran the play anyways. Why run wide?! If you can't get one yard when you need it from your offensive line things need to change.

-Playcalling is always predictable. Nothing is ever set up, the Lions have been setting up Calvin Johnson’s reverse from the beginning of the game and the Skins D has to respect that while Kevin Jones rips off nice runs up the middle. (Lions then went on to finally hand the ball to Johnson on the reverse late in the 4th quarter to help run out the clock).

-Ive seen 4 people show any emotion in this game, Rocky McIntosh, Reed Doughty, Cooley and London Fletcher (as usual). 13-0 at the half. Lifeless. God please take my life.

2nd half

-Moss scores, somehow this doesn't feel like the start of a comeback but more like a lone highlight for Sportscenter.

-Randle El is telling Campbell to hurry up and snap the ball. Delay of game.

-JC is missing open guys high again, got WRs coming back to the huddle telling JC they were open.

-Obviously the refs should not be a factor in the games but calls like waving off a facemask after a ref saw it and called it from the best possible angle is egregious and obviously a product of some error. Questionable interference call on Horton but I almost find myself rooting for the Lions, they have dominated this game and are in 'Holy shit we are going to win, let's run out the next 15 minutes mode.'

-Skins gave the game away, refs finished them off. Two biggest plays of the second half for the Lions were a waved off facemask call and a pass interference on a desperation heave on third down to give them the ball inside the 10.

-One complement to Campbell is that his play-calling is better than Zorn we seem to move the ball better in a two-minute offense than we do throughout the game. Take the leash off him Zorn, there is nothing left to lose!!!

-I take that back Campbell, checking the ball down to a RB for a 3-yard gain with under a minute left is worse than throwing the ball away. This isn't news.

-Matt Stafford, put your fucking tongue away in this league if you want to keep it.

-In the NFL it boils down to this, either you are a playoff team or you aren’t. As a Redskins fan would you really want to be led to believe this is a playoff team with a weak schedule early in the year only to be let down this winter? Not me. I’ll take a consistently awful team, which we are. A team who may have the chance to ruin some teams playoff runs down the line but will in no way deserve to be involved ourselves. Our opening schedule is extremely weak but it will get much tougher should be a 6-10 season at best if changes aren't made.


End of notes.

A couple days later I have settled down but I don't really have anything to retract from my in-game comments. We show no passion out there and our potential is not even close to being represented on the field. The question then becomes, why? Who is to blame? Players? Coaches? Front office? LaVar Arrigton and John Riggins think it is the owner, the media think it's the coach (probably because they can't say anything negative about the owner or they will find themselves bound and gagged and thrown in the Anacostia River because he owns pretty much every media device in the area), and the players seem to be blaming themselves. It's only week 3 and we are on the heels of a full-scale implosion. Luckily for Zorn's job security he is a "yes-man" to Snyder and will likely hold onto his job more than someone who actual had testicles would.

Strangely my feelings about this game have gone from depression, to apathy to a weird sort of pseudo-optimism. Maybe I just hate the majority that much. Right now people are pissing on us for losing to the Lions because it ended their futility streak. Fair-weather Skins fans are jumping off the bandwagon (good riddance) and generally people in the District are overreacting (typical). Granted the Lions suck but you'll see them win 4-6 games this season and then this loss will just look like another blown opportunity to win a game away from home. It's no worse than any other loss we've given away over the past 10 years, and this in no way approaches the feelings durring the Spurrier era, it's just that this gives fodder to Redskins haters to say "haha...you all are a joke" which currently is dead on. The good thing is that losses like this usually inspire change, whether it be people getting fired, the team fighting each other and finding out who really wants it OR it could just lead to the wheels falling off: people not showing up to games, the team quitting on each other and generally finishing the season 3-13, which I don't think can or will happen with our potential.

Don't get me wrong we suck, 8-8 at best, but at least now we can play spoiler to legit teams and not have the false hope of actually making the playoffs like we do most years.

On a more depressing note the Terps are absolute do-do. I would love to incorporate some college football into this blog but they have made the thought of covering games less appealing than bathing with a toaster. I may just start betting against them every week to pay back my student loans. They couldn't get worse and until they prove otherwise I don't think they are worthy of taking the field against another D-1 school. They could conceivably only win 3-4 games this year and that is AT BEST. We've come a long way since Fridge led Vanderlinden's players to the Orange Bowl haven't we? Too bad he'd have to literally take his pants off, eat nachos and crap on the 50 yard line during a game in which the Terps are losing by 100 to be fired because Debbie Yow is a two-timing bull dyke (just speculating) and best friends with a coach who would rather see players graduate than win football games. I love having a woman for an Athletic Directior. Long live Title 9. Idiots.

In a rare attempt to end on a positive note the Caps season starts tomorrow and expectations have never been higher. The rest of the Washington area sports world has let us down royally and all our hopes and dreams will be riding on #8 this season. I'm trying not to get too excited because apparently the sports gods don't like to see me happy and they will spitefully tear his ACL in November if I start talking about the C-U-P potential of the Caps. I'll hold off on that for now and leave you with another D.C. area bright spot. The Nats locked up the #1 pick in next years draft last night and they are looking to draft Superman AKA the LeBron of Baseball (this kid is 16) and tonight Sherwood-UMD product Justin Maxwell hit a sweet walk-off grand slam to end the game, which I would enjoy even more if the Nats didn't have the worst play-by-play guys in baseball history. Smile while you can children, smile while you can. Happy Hockey Season.

And for your moment of Zen, I've figured out how to get the Redskins to perform better...more monkeys in Gucci bags!!!

Redskins @ Lions: There's a hoe down in Mo-town

We need more Mike Sellers in the world

Unlike other gameday previews this one comes to you free from: Papa John's ads, Daniel Snyder Puppeteering, or genuine hate for the Burgundy and Gold that comes from unbiased "experts" the likes of fat asses Peter 'the burger' King and Len 'Don Vito' Pastabelly. While I love the Skins I am probably the most pessimistic fan you will ever encounter and I try to at least be honest with myself before each game and not to get too high or low after wins or loses. Not getting to high after a win was easy this week when the entire nation treated an ugly 9-7 win over the Rams like a loss. Unsurprisingly experts all over the league began predicting that Detroit's 19-game losing streak was going to come to an end when the lowly Skins rolled into Ford Field this Sunday. A Vegas line that opened at 7 points has slid all the way down to 5 points (meaning there is a shit load of people betting on the Lions) and instead of breaking down the next opponent it seemed the Redskins were spending more time talking about Twitter and defending it's coach and QB from the criticism of the media and fans.

Needless to say this is a team that is feeling less than confident and to boot they find themselves limping into week 3, literally, as Campbell and Portis have been limited in practice throughout the week. The worst part of last weeks game was not the impotence of the offense but the loss of Randy Thomas (RG) who was the second most valuable part of an offensive line that lacks depth.
Filling his void will be second year lineman Chad Rinehart who will have to hold his own if the Skins are going to make any noise on offense this year. Luckily for the offensive side of the ball they may be up against the worst defense the NFL has seen over the last decade. Injuries are part of every NFL match-up and the Lions have their own share to worry about without Ernie Simms heading their LB-corps. Look for Jim Zorn to open the playbook and take more than one or two deep shots down the field. Santana Moss needs a breakout game just to remind himself how bad-ass he is and Malcolm Kelly can smell his first NFL TD. Cooley should be Cooley and catch 7 for 86 yards so Campbell will have plenty of opportunity to quite his critics. Clinton Portis should be salivating to finally break the 100-yard mark as he faces a defense without their best run-stopper. CP has traditionally run well on turf and this Sunday should be no different unless the Skins somehow find themselves behind early in which case the entire D.C. area will have already blown their brains out.

Reading the last few sentences you may think I was writing about the New Orleans Saints and not the Redskins but up against the Lions D there is absolutely no reason why everyone on offense shouldn't be able to execute. They will move the ball but will they be able to put it in the end zone rather than settling for FGs? Time will tell but from my experience watching the NFL just when the "experts" have a team pegged, in this case, "the Redskins can't score TDs," that team usually comes out and does the exact opposite the next week. No member of the media ever owns up to this or stands by their pre-season predictions they just go on making more ignorant assertions each week until the public is so inundated with the asinine comments of Michael Irvin, Mark Schlereth and John "Poindexter" Clayton that they can't tell their assholes from a hole in the ground. Must be nice to be an expert.

On the other side of the ball the Lions really do have some weapons on offense. Calvin Johnson IS Megatron and holding him to 100 yards and a TD, even with a rookie QB throwing the ball, has to be considered a good day, he's that good. Kevin Jones can find holes and pound the ball but he is nothing the Skins haven't seen after facing two of the biggest bruising RBs in the league (Jacobs and Jackson). Detroit's big TE, Brandon Pettigrew, will be a good NFL player someday but he is a rookie and still learning so he shouldn't be difficult to neutralize. The man under the center will be the storyline regardless of the outcome on Sunday. If rookie Matthew Stafford can lead the Lions to a victory and stop their losing streak from hitting 20 he will be proclaimed the second coming of Jesus Christ, he will be named the president of GM and he will turn Flint, Michigan into a bustling suburb of Detroit revitalize the worst city in the country. He'll basically become Bill Brasky. The reaction would be the exact opposite in Washington. Dan Snyder would fire everyone: Jim Zorn, Jason Campbell, the fans, Obama, no one would be safe. All Papa John's restaurants would close and the first born sons of all Redskins fans would be sold off to the highest bidders. The Redskins losing streak would be longer than the Lions. I would cold and alone.

I do not want this outcome but it is a very real possibility unless the Redskins show some fire on offense and for God's sake get pressure on the fucking Quarterback! In the off-season we ignored depth on the offensive line and instead went for game changers on the D-Line (Haynesworth and Orakpo) which cost us more than the GDP of 33% of the Nations in the U.N. **Sidenote: Haynesworth's contract isn't "worth" nearly as much as the idiots of the world would have you think, potentially it is worth $100 million but it's much easier to hate the Redskins and say, "they are trying to buy a championship" than it is to actually learn how NFL contracts work and tip your hat to the Skins for the being the best salary cap manipulators in league history.** Back to the game, because we ignored the O-Line in the off-season the defense has been improved and has looked as such over the first two games besides some lazy tackling by D'Angelo Hall and LaRon Landry. Hopefully Greg Blache is dialing up a defensive gameplan that consists of about 75% blitzing. I will be perfectly content with getting beat by a rookie QB if we put pressure on him and he makes the right reads and beats us straight up but I will not be able to swallow a loss if we stay back in out dime defense and allow him to plod his way down the field like he's fucking Eli Manning. Though they both have terrible Southern Frat Boy bitch haircuts the similarities end there. The Skins have no reason not to try to exploit the young QB on one side of the ball and to stave off the criticism of Zorn and Campbell for a few days on the other side of the ball by scoring some points.

Vegas sees this game as 19-13 struggle going the Redskins way and, despite the fact that the Redskins have a far more talented team than the Lions, I find it hard to stray from that prediction seeing how little firepower the offense has shown over the first two weeks. Making predictions about this team is like picking which one of your grandmothers you want to give a Brazilian wax to, you can't win. All things considered I am going to go with: Redskins 26, Lions 16. God save the Queen.

As always, remember Sean Taylor. In video #2 you can see what he did to the guy who was asking for it before the game: here. We miss you Sean.