Friday, December 29, 2006

Redskins D: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

We are all asking, "What went wrong?" We won a playoff game last year and had swagger. Yes, it was bad to hand the play calling to Saunders, really dumb, but the blame lies with the defense, as it ranked dead last, and no team can win with a 32-ranked D. The D also broke NFL and club records for fewest interceptions and turnovers. Like by a lot. It was a train wreck.

A humiliating comparison is that of Walt Harris, a cornerback who played poorly for the Skins and was let go to free agency last year. He this season was named the NFC defensive player of the month in November as a 49er and had 8 interceptions this season, which eclipsed the Skins team total. How come as a Skin, last year, Harris only had one interception? Gregg Williams can blame the players till he is in blue in the face but at we fans might ask why a player played so poorly for Washington and then excelled on another team.

As an added bonus, the 49ers paid Harris only $875K, which is the veteran minimum plus $100K.

Aside from poor personnel decisions there are several reasons for the Skins D collapse this season.

1. They cannot execute the cover-2 yet call it all the time. In the cover-2 safeties play deep, which leaves uncovered ground in the middle. For the scheme to be successful, the middle linebacker needs to be able to read the play quickly and if it is a pass then run downfield to cover the open area. Lemar Marshall has not been able to do that this season. He had four interceptions last year, but zero this year as he has been playing injured. Also, a season lowlight occurred last week at St. Louis when Isaac Bruce managed to get behind the safeties on the cover-2 to score a touchdown. Getting behind the safeties should never, ever happen in a cover-2 formation.

2. They cannot defend the run. There are many angles to this. First, Gregg Williams calls a lot of cover-2 plays, even on obvious running plays, and that puts the safeties too far back to cover short and mid yardage runs. Second, the weak-side linebacker needs to be able to tackle, and Warrick Holdman cannot do that. Third, the D-line gets manhandled by opposing O-lines and has not been able to consistently penetrate the line of scrimmage and disrupt plays.

3. Not enough pressure on the quarterback. While Andre Carter had a great last three games, his five season sacks rank the team in the sack dungeon. In contrast, Shawne Merriman, whom the Skins passed over in the 2004 draft to pick Carlos Rogers, has 16 sacks in the 11 games that he has played this season.

4. The secondary cannot cover the pass. Even worse, they don't even seem to try, as the corners and safeties are coached to turn their back on the QB and face the receivers. An ESPN article noted,
[Safeties coach] Jackson began teaching Taylor and Co. not to read the quarterback, but to read the receivers' breaks and releases and react accordingly. He wanted them to be aggressive out of Cover 2, to help on the run, even though Cover 2 is not known to be a run-stopping defense. Williams wants to call it a lot because, ideally, if you can stop the run with a Cover 2, you have the best of both worlds, because it's specifically designed to prevent the deep ball. But Jackson kept exhorting Taylor and his early-season safety mate, Adam Archuleta, to be aggressive playing the run out of the Cover 2, and they began to get beat on the play-action pass repeatedly.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

St. Louis Game Blog

The Redskins entered their road game at St. Louis coming off of an impressive victory over the 10 - 4 New Orleans Saints. The question in fans' minds was: has the defense finally found itself, or was the Saints game an anomoly? The answer came in this game, as the Skins' offense put 31 points on the board and Ladell Betts had another 100+ yard game yet the team still found ways to lose and let the Rams gain 579 yards.

My game observations:

* The cornerbacks' hands continue to be slippery as Shawn Springs dropped an easy interception on STL's first play. The play was a deep seam pass, the Skins' Achilles Heel all season, and finally a Skins cornerback covered the predictable play (every Skins opponent seems to open with it) well, yet he dropped the interception. The Skins D is on track to break a record for fewest interceptions this season with just six going into this game. The previous worst total for the team was 11, back in 1982 when they played five fewer games.

In contrast, Walt Harris, who played average to poorly in Washington has had six interceptions himself this season in San Francisco. Even better, they pay him only $835K per year.

* The Skins first possession was perfect execution, hogging the clock, running the ball and Sellers throwing a monster block for a 5 yard TJ Duckett run into the end zone.

* On every play there is one unblocked defensive player. In this game it was almost always Warrick Holdman, the journeyman weak-side linebacker who has had only 1.5 sacks in the past five years. The Rams knew who they did not need to block. In comparison, Arrington had 18.5 sacks in his last five years on the team, despite hardly playing for most of two years. The team's poor personnel decisions continue to haunt them.

* In the 2nd quarter Wright and Taylor got burned for a TD pass. What struck me most is how both of them were facing the receiver with their backs to the QB and the approaching ball. They seem to be coached to tackle the receiver and not try to deflect or intercept. In the end zone, that strategy is ridiculous. I found myself yelling at the television: "Turn around! Turn around!" at them again and again.

* Why does Saunders keep calling Todd Yoder's number in the end zone? Yoder is a journeyman former backup TE for Jacksonville and Tampa who had only two TD's and 28 receptions in his seven seasons prior to joining the Skins in September. As a Skin he has one reception and one TD. In the red zone, smart teams turn to their playmakers. Dumb teams turn to their Todd Yoders. A smart team would throw to Sellers, who had seven receiving TD's last season and has zero this season.

* Betts has done an outstanding job, and is ranked #1 in the NFL for the past five games, but the run play calling has not been strategic in a larger sense of being designed to tire the opposing defense. The Skins run up the middle almost 100% of the time. Classic Joe Gibbs football is to the run to the outside for the first half, thus tiring the defense, and then run up the middle for the second half and break big plays. The Gibbs strategy was exemplified in the 1982 Super Bowl, in which the Miami defense was tired from side runs and then Riggo ran for 43 yards up the tired middle for a touchdown.

The team suffers from the lack of an overall, consistent strategy to win games, and that includes personnel decisions. Castoffs are placed in key roles, guys with gazillion dollar contracts sit on the bench, play-calling in the red zone is bizarre and the secondary coaching is self-destructive. Kudos to Betts and Campbell for performing well under these circumstances and scoring 31 points.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

A Christmas Trip Back Home to the Land of Big Blue

This is a Skins blog, but I grew up in New Jersey and thought that I would report back from the front line of the NFC East. I watched the Philadelphia/Giants game with my family, who are all G-Men fans, and got to talk about it and hear about it at parties afterwards, and here are my observations:

* Giants fans expect to win and make the playoffs. Their team still will likely make the playoffs but their fans are truly ashamed at the way in which they are doing it. Many of them are in fact rooting against the G-Men next week, saying that they don't deserve to be in the playoffs. In Washington, we have no shame, or we are used to it, and backing into the playoffs would not be cause for depression or rooting against the team.

* The NY media is tough tough tough on the team. See the NY Post for full team beatings.

* Public opinion is that some of the Giants players are locker room problems, most notably Shockey, so get rid of them. I even heard a theory that they want to shed Shockey and get Cooley. At least Barber is going. He had production but was such a primadonna no one in NJ can't stand him.

* The Charlie Weis theory, namely, that the Giants passed up one Weis three years ago to draft Coughlin and that Weis is game now and would have been nirvana then. The NY Post loves this theory, and has two articles today on it, here and here. I don't know if any coach could overcome the egos of Shockey, Barber and Strahan and the laziness of Plaxico Burress.

* Eli is "slow." That is New Jersey polite talk for retarded. Everyone talks about how he has physical ability but looks dumbfounded and clueless, and just plain "slow." He is not Peyton.

* This talk leads to a discussion of the famous draft three years ago in which Eli, flanked by his father and brother, looking like a spoiled Daddy's boy (which would never sell in in NY or NJ), proclaimed that he wouldn't play for San Diego, which had the first pick. San Diego feels like they got draft picks and a better quarterback, and G'ints fans don't disagree. It is hard to argue against Phil Rivers and Shawne Merriman at this point.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Unlovable

The first time the thought entered my mind was October 30, 2005. That is the day that the Giants shut out the Redskins at the Meadowlands 36 - 0, fueled by emotion at the passing of their beloved owner Wellington Mara. The players' love for Mara was palpable and moving, as Jeremy Shockey fought back tears during the singing of the national anthem and the team played with intense passion. It was Big Blue's biggest rout since 1988. The lopsided game stats are here.

The thought that I had that day was I wish that Washington had an owner who was lovable, instead of Dan Snyder. It was a feeling similar to being sad at a wedding because you do not have the joy in your life that the married couple does and that you are missing out on something important.

When I lived in Boston I remember being on the US Airways shuttle to New York when Patriots owner Bob Kraft boarded. The passengers erupted into cheers and applause for Kraft, and this was when Tom Brady was in college and no one could imagine the super bowl glory that lay ahead. Kraft wasn't perfect, and his meddling in personnel decisions lost the team Bill Parcells, but he was lovable.

The recent passing of Lamar Hunt, founder and long-time owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, brought back that feeling that we are missing out on something in Washington. So does every time jut-jawed Bill Cowher gets warm and fuzzy over the Rooney family's stewardship of the Steelers, set in image in the picture on the right, which was snapped just after Cowher handed Art Rooney II the Vince Lombardi trophy.

As an NFL owner it is hard to be unlovable, as you are the face of the franchise that all the fans love. And of all the franchises in the nation Washington ranks at or near the top in terms of fan base and tradition, which is reflected in the team's vast and deep media coverage. If you want to make friends in a strange neighborhood in DC wear Skins gear on game day, and someone soon will approach you to talk about the team. The staff of the Safeway on Georgia Avenue in Petworth set up grills and have a customer tailgate on Sundays during the season. Most cities do not possess anything close to the fan intensity that Washington does. The team unites Washingtonians, Virginians and Marylanders from all walks of life around a common affection and pursuit, something nothing else has accomplished. So why, with everything lined up in his favor, is Dan Snyder so unlovable?

It started early. Almost as soon as Snyder bought the Skins in 1999, for a record-breaking $800 million, problems arose and Snyder's flamboyance and meddling caught attention. In a December, 2000 article Slate defended Snyder and against some memorable comments from the football establishment. The article was prescient, but not in the way that its author intended. Here is an excerpt:
The Redskins' implosion has rather predictably precipitated an outbreak of Schadenfreude. Eminencies throughout the league have stepped forward to spank Snyder. Fox Sports analyst Cris Collinsworth pronounced him "Mini-Me playing fantasy football." Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell denounced him for running roughshod over the wholesome values of the game. And when Snyder fired Turner, John Madden and a host of other pundits wagged their fingers at Snyder, chiding him for impatience.
Those comments were on target, way back in 2000, as Snyder's stewardship of the Redskins has been a total failure. Since he bought the team it has made the playoffs only once, despite spending more on players and coaching than any other team. Only a few teams ranks below the Redskins in terms of wins and losses since 1999, and they are Arizona, Oakland, Detroit and Cleveland. That is not good company for a storied and very rich franchise. I won't go into Snyder's bad personnel decisions and the damage that not having a General Manager has done to this franchise, as the Wa Post has done a great job covering those topics and Wilbon can tell you about the need for a GM.

But I can tell you why Snyder has a private jet, called Redskins One, because if he boarded a flight at Reagan National he would not be cheered like Bob Kraft was on that flight of mine. Rather, he would be jeered and lucky to escape with his life and limbs. That is how deep the hatred in Washington runs toward Dan Snyder. Fans feel beleaguered and upset over the team's performance. They also feel exploited and angry. The Redskins charge the highest ticket prices in the league, and Snyder raised them by 40% after the team's one playoff appearance since he bought the team. He might look like a savvy businessman, as a Forbes article portrayed him, but he is really a monopolist and monopolies only work when they are in the hands of benevolent monarchs like the Maras and Rooneys, and Dan is no Mara or Rooney.

I was a club seat season ticket holder but did not renew last year. My two tickets cost me roughly $1,000 per game plus $350 for a season parking pass. I wanted to enjoy spending that kind of money, as anyone would, but instead I kept getting irritated as I found that I was nickled-and-dimed every step of the way and the marketed benefits of club seats were not there. The wait at the understaffed bar was typically 15 minutes, I took to carrying around napkins as the women's room was frequently out of toilet paper and when I took an elderly neighbor to the game, her life's dream, she was frisked out of her Hershey bar and had to buy a bad $10 cannoli instead. The food in general was horrible. They would fry burgers ahead of time and then sit them under a heat lamp. My friend Glen and I would joke that you need a lot of pickles to make that burger moist, exactly one pickle for every bite. And each burger cost $10. Is that any way to treat your best fans who pay through the nose for seats?

So the club seat fans despise Snyder, and every time Lloyd drops a pass scream, "My $8 beer is paying for you," but what about the rest of Washington? Snyder has been unlovable in so many ways it is hard to believe. He ticked off environmentalists, friends of the C&O trail and his neighbors by bribing the Park Service into allowing him to cut down the trees that obstructed his view of the Potomac.

Snyder also moved all Redskins radio programs from good signal channels that were independent onto his own stations that get incredibly poor reception. I used to love to hear the pre and post game talk, but now I just get mostly static, even though I live in DC. I miss hearing the games on independent channels and that is what made me launch this blog in the first place. Oh, Snyder also bought every other independent web site, such as www.extremeskins.com, which is why that formerly good site now hosts the Brandon Lloyd show, instead of telling the truth about how Lloyd might have been our worst pick ever.

In order to kill any affection left in any Washingtonian Snyder just bought the last remaining classical music station in the city and is planning to change it to a Redskins house organ. Classical music fans are outraged and are joining the ranks of club seaters in feeling that Dan Snyder is a pox upon our city and we wish that he could somehow go away. Columnist Marc Fisher of the Washington Post said it all,
Having won a place in the ranks of local luminaries as the guy who wrecked the Redskins and ravaged the riverside near his Potomac mansion, Dan Snyder now appears ready to put his special touch on another abiding passion of Washingtonians: the music of Bach and Beethoven.
Snyder is young and could be here for a very, very long time so we fans could be in for a very, very long unhappiness. But we can all dream, so in my fantasy Snyder will sell the team to a Mara, Rooney, Kraft, Hunt type of person and let us fans enjoy the wedding and not feel like we are missing out on something.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

The NFL Rogue's Gallery

Skins players have avoided the rogue's gallery of 2006, which has been a horrible, if not record, year for NFL players being arrested. The Wa Post had a great summary of the year at the police station and courtroom for NFL players. Some teams, especially the Bengals, seem to be fielding a prison team. Kudos to the Redskins for avoiding this list.

What I find notable is that so many of the infractions are DWI-related. These guys make big money, so can't they afford taxis or hired cars? My solution to players: get a driver or pay for a taxi if you want to party.

Then they consort with pals who carry guns and they party at nightclubs where they are sure to bring attention. Jealous men in clubs who challenge you + friends with handguns = disaster. My solution to players: party in less scene-y places and make sure your friends aren't packing. You are not the President and don't need your own personal security force. You have an amazing house, so have a party there.

Lastly are the domestic violence cases. My solution to players: leave the game on the field and treat women with respect. If you lift a hand to them you will, and should be, thrown in jail.

With the money and ability to play for the NFL so compelling I wonder why these guys are so dumb, like the Bears' player who was arrested two years ago for a gun charge and when the cops checked out his house this year he had a complete unregistered arsenal there and is in big trouble again.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Redskins Shock New Orleans and Everyone

Perhaps it was the red pants that the Redskins wore that helped them execute a huge upset of the New Orleans Saints, 16-10.

The Skins looked good, controlling the clock, and the D finally had a great game.

The D still had familiar problems, like when Marcus Washington dropped an easy interception that should have put 7 points on the board. But Sean Taylor was a stud, knocking out a big seam pass in the second quarter and having tons of great tackles.

The refs missed a major Q2 delay of game on the part of NO. It was so obvious on tv, with 11:32 in the second and NO 3rd and 9. The play clock went to zero and then there was another second before Brees threw. I have it on TiVo. NO converted, and scored a touchdown on the next drive.

But despite that bad call the Skins excelled and Carlos Rogers had his first good game of the season, with one interception and a key deflection on the Saints' last toss.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Walt Harris' Success in SF Points to Skins D Coaching Problems

To demonstrate how poor the Redskins secondary coaching is look no further than the case of Walt Harris, who played cornerback for the Skins and was picked up by the 49ers in free agency last off-season.

Last year as a Skin Harris had one interception and was generally viewed as a poor player. In SF he is a stud. He has six interceptions so far, which is more than the entire Skins defense has (5), and made a critical forced fumble against Seattle Thursday night that helped the Niners win a crucial division game. He was also named NFC Defensive Player of November.

The SF Chronicle, which has generally thin coverage of football, has had two stories this season on Walt Harris. The latest one is titled "Investment in Harris Has Paid Off for 49ers."
The 49ers signed the 32-year-old Harris, an unrestricted free agent, in the offseason to a two-year contract worth $835,000 per season. For that modest investment, Harris is tied for the league lead in interceptions with a career-high six and would have had seven but for a defensive penalty that nullified the pick last week in St. Louis.
Gregg Williams let Harris go and gave $10 million guaranteed money each to Adam Archuleta and Andre Carter, who were both stars but are bombing as Skins. Methinks the problem is not the players that we have on the D but the coaches.

The critical question is why couldn't Williams coach Harris up to where he is now? How could Walt Harris be a loser in DC and a newsmaker in SF? Why are we fans, who pay through the teeth, paying Williams a salary that exceeds almost every other head coach when his players fail in his system and excel elsewhere?

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Wa Post Coverage of D Failings is Getting Better

Yesterday the Wa Post's Jason La Canfora had this article focused on the fact that the D has been pathetic on interceptions and turnovers in general:
Washington's defense is on the verge of becoming the least opportunistic in NFL history, with only five interceptions and five recovered fumbles -- two of them by special teams -- through 13 games. The NFL low for take-aways in a 16-game season is 15, by Green Bay and St. Louis in 2004.

The Redskins also rank last in the NFL this season in sacks per passing play and have just 15 sacks as a team. They have been held to one sack or fewer in eight of 13 games and have played eight games in which they failed to register a turnover.

The inability of the defense to make big plays has forced the offense to produce long drives, since the offense has rarely been provided good field position as the result of a turnover. Washington has scored only 13 points off turnovers, a figure that could be among the worst all-time. The Redskins have been outscored 51-13 in points off turnovers, and outgained 279-25 in return yards off interceptions.
I think this is important as so much attention has focused on our offense, which ranked 11 is and not losing games for us. If we had a decent D we would be a playoff contender.

But Gibbs is pledging to keep ego-maniacal Williams, who keeps trying to justify his outrageous salary on his skills versus the skill of studs we lost like Antonio Pierce. Yet based on Williams's ego we went from 4 to 11 and now to 28. I would call that a destruction of the defense, not a building of it.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Philadelphia Game Blog

How can you lose a game in which Ladell Betts runs for a heroic 177 yards and you control the clock?

Simple: you get away from what you do best, running the ball, and call plays that put your young quarterback in a tough position. Ugh.

Some observations from the game:

1. Carlos Rogers is a bust draft pick. On the Eagles first drive he dropped an easy interception (the Skins only have 5 INT's this year, last in the league). Then when Philly was third and long and Garcia missed his receiver Rogers was called for a penalty, which gave them first and goal. The Birds converted that into 7 points. Rogers was also burned for their one big pass play for a touchdown. Is Rogers just a product of bad coaching?
Scapegoat No. 3: Rogers. He's the cornerback that was left on an island on the go-ahead touchdown Sunday against Tampa Bay's Joey Galloway. Williams blitzed and missed, costing the team the score. Afterward, Williams took public blame for the call, a rarity, but a Redskins player said, "No, he didn't. In meetings, Carlos still heard about it."
2. The D's 3rd down blitz is predictable and does not work: Just think Romo's pass to Witten oh and in the 3rd quarter it happened to us again. Here we go again:
They know he's going to come and blitz [leaving corners on an island] on third down, and none of our blitzes are getting there anymore.
3. The play calling: 5:36 left and third and two, when Betts has run for 177 yards, and you call a pass? And btw isn't that what we traded draft picks for TJ Duckett to do? The pass was incomplete in the end zone.

4. At least in Suisham we finally have a good place kicker. He was 4 for 4 and did a great job on punts.

5. Frost is also good as most of his kicks were within the 5 despite one touchback.

6. Williams finally started Rocky McIntosh in place of a very weak weak-side linebacker Warrick Holdman. Why did it take so long to start a first round pick? Even worse, I believe we traded another pick to get him. For comparison, look at the Jets, who are having a surprisingly strong season with credit to their first round picks, Ferguson and Mangold, who have started every game.

Atlanta Game Blog

My dear friend Mary took me to the Atlanta game and scored club seats. We were fat and happy as the Skins took a 14-0 lead despite the fact that Dan Snyder has taken all of the good beer from the club level. I mean, if you are paying about $500 a seat can't you at least get a decent ale? Not anymore, as all of the decent microbrews they had, which were still a far walk from most seats, have vanished and been replaced by Michelob. We did discover that you can get Bass Ale delivered in your seats, and did partake of that. I think my best financial decision of my life was not to renew my club seats this year.

But what went wrong with the Skins after the 14-0 lead that looked like a slaughter? Everyone blames the play calling on our third drive but I blame our run defense. I mean, if Betts, who is a total stud, runs for 155 yards and you have a 14 point lead how do you blow it? Ask Gregg Williams, whose D let Atlanta run for 256 yards. We watched it and it was awful. Not to obsess on the ESPN article, but it did note the lame predictability of our D:
"Gregg Williams, I don't understand. They're so arrogant around here, they think they can stop the run in Cover 2. When it's an obvious running down, he calls Cover 2. That's a seven-man front. They're going to get 4 yards a carry every time. There might be some games where, hey, we're playing the crap out of the run in Cover 2. Well, that's great. Then, you call it. But when you're getting gashed Cover 2, Cover 2, and they come out in two tight ends, two running backs, and one wide receiver and we're in Cover 2. … And if we don't call Cover 2, we blitz. And you live by the blitz, you die by the blitz."

Washington Post Fumbles in Skins D Coverage

The Washington Post's Skins coverage has focused on the problems of the offense or blamed individual defensive players, most notably Adam Archuleta, while doing a profile of Gregg Williams post this devastating ESPN article.

But the O is ranked 11 while the D is ranked 30, ergo the D is why we are losing games.

The non- Wa Post reality is that Gregg Williams inherited an amazing D from Marvin Lewis and has destroyed it over three years, trading his best players away every year, in an almost maniacal drive to prove that his system (which justifies his insane salary) is more important than the players who execute it. Williams has systematically destroyed the D by tossing away great players.

If one could build a dream defense, it might consist of Champ Bailey, Fred Smoot, Antonio Pierce, LaVar Arrington (face of the Redskins), Ryan Clark and Walt Harris. Yet Williams deemed all of those players replaceable. Worse, he let Pierce, who was the captain of our defense, and Arrington, go to a division rival. I can argue that Pierce's knowledge of our O caused our 2005 rout in the Meadowlands and lost us home field advantage in the playoffs and possibly a Super Bowl position.

So why is the Post's coverage, which is otherwise outstanding, missing the point on the D? Well Wilbon is great but he doesn't write much anymore (though when he does it rocks), Boswell is often off-base and perhaps the rest of the reporters need access so don't tell us what we need to hear, like ESPN can.

Walt Harris is a Stud in San Francisco

Walt Harris was middling at best when he played corner in Washington. I recall many defensive plays last year when Harris gave up the big play. When the Skins let him go last year to free agency I thought, good riddance. So how surprised was I when I was in San Francisco two Sundays ago watching the 49ers and Walt Harris was the hero of the game, with highlight reel tackling and interceptions?

Not nearly as surprised as when I read that Harris was named the NFC defensive player of November.
Harris accounted for 19 tackles, three interceptions and one forced fumble in the 49ers four games in November. Harris had three tackles and one interception against the Vikings. In Detroit he had eight tackles and a forced fumble and his best performance of the month came against an upset win against Seattle when he finished the day with three tackles, two passes defensed, and two interceptions. During those four games the 49ers finished with a 3-1 record, all wins when Harris made some noise.

Harris has a career high six interceptions this season. His previous high was five when he played with Chicago back in 1997. Harris was signed in the offseason to bring veteran leadership to a young defensive backfield. Harris took over Shawntae Spencer's spot after he was moved to the left side due to the departure of Ahmed Plummer.

The last time a 49ers player earned player of the month honors was when Jeff Garcia won it back in November 2001...
Six interceptions. The entire Skins D has only five this season. Harris' stellar performance as a 49er versus his middling-at-best performer as a Skin makes me believe that the Skins' secondary coaching is terrible.