This laughing stock stuff is just making me tired

I don’t have a lot to say in this post other than it is apparent that the hiring of Sherman Lewis as a consultant has made a laughing stock of the ‘Skins. (Some of you may say that the ‘Skins are already a laughing stock). Those, like me, who literaly wear burgundy and gold on my back everyday, are still trying to keep our hopes up.  (You may also say that I should start wearing my Bullets jacket or Caps sweatshirt instead of my ‘Skins jacket).

Anyway, here’s a list of people who I have read or heard have made fun of the situation:  Matt Mosely, everyone on CSN Sports night, John Riggins, Mark Schlereth, everyone on ESPN 980. I’m sure there are more.

What are the chances that this doesn’t make any difference?  What are the chances that the Redskins lose this weekend and win next weekend against the Chiefs and finish 3-3?

I guess I just wish that everyone could just talk about the actual game against the Panthers this weekend.  Maybe this is too much to ask considering the owner we have.

First it was Cutler and Sanchez. Then it was the ticket scandal.  Then it was booing at the second game.  Now it’s Sherm Smith.  It’s all just so tiring.

I guess the only thing that will change things will be if we win Sunday. But then will everyone just say it’s because Sherman Lewis is the consultant?

Maybe it will never end………

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For whom the bell might toll soon

Late in the afternoon, when many Redskins fans were away from their computers and probably getting ready for Caps/Flyers or checking out the Twins/Tigers, the Redskins announced that they are bringing in “offensive consultant” Sherman Lewis.

Not only is this the second Sherman the team has involved in the offense (Sherman Smith… what the hell does he do anyway??) but it seems to make Jim Zorn’s days in DC even more numbered.

The current knock against firing Zorn in the middle of the season, say on the bye week after the Eagles game, is that he wears too many hats and simply cannot be replaced. After all, he’s the QB coach, the playcaller, and the head coach.

This move seems to stick someone in the bullpen in case the offense continues to be moribund.

According to the Washington Post, former GM Charley Casserly called the move, “the kiss of death,” for Zorn.

I can’t disagree with bringing in someone to help with the offense; have a séance with Bill Walsh for all I care, but this seems like a further destabilizing of an already fractured team.

Any goodwill engendered by the (pathetic) Tampa Bay win has been eclipsed by the continuing Goodbye Zorn Watch.

***

Thanks to Bowles to his spot observations from section 449. I was wondering about the right side runs and that does seem to be encouraging on many levels. The team must think that Rhinehart can hold his own and Heyer has improved as a run blocker.

I am also happy to have his thoughts on my continuing question as a Skins TV watcher. On offense, he says, the young receivers simply aren’t getting open and Campbell seems to be surveying the field well.

He’ll be at the game in Carolina this weekend so we’ll have the benefit of his eyes yet again.

***

In double vision news, I watched the first period of Caps/Flyers intently and during the second period stepped away to make some linguini with clams. Big mistake on my part. I would check in intermittently and see the score going up and up.

Seems like Varlamov might have played himself to the bench for now. Still, if you’re short handed that much you’re never going to win.

One thing the Capitals don’t need is an offensive consultant.

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a point gained in a tough loss

Double vision: Rough loss for the Caps last night. Philly is good, but we committed too many dumb penalties and our penalty kill was just not up to snuff yesterday. The sad thing about this is that we dominated the flow of 5-5 play as 4 of our 5 goals came when both teams were at full strength.

The Capitals have 15 goals scored in 3 games – pretty impressive. 9 of those goals are from people named Alex. The other 6 are all from our second line ( 3 for Laich, 2 Morrison and 1 for Knuble). Obviously, we don’t have a problem scoring, but in order for us to be abe to prevent teams like the Flyers from matching up their top defensemen (i.e. Pronger and Timmonen) against our best players, the 3rd and 4th lines have to being scoring. The players I’m looking to for this in particular are Clark and Steckel.

Everyone will talk about the number of penalties that we took in this game and rightly so. This problem plagued us last year and will plague us again when we play good teams like the Flyers. I will say though that the goalie interference call against Laich in the 2nd period and the holdong call against Gordon in the 3rd period were both really bad calls. The commentators on T.V. agreed with me. Both those penalties led to PP goals.

At the end of the day though, the game could have bee won, depite all the penalties, on a brief 4 on 2 we had on the overtime after Flyers forwanrd Mike Richards broke his stick and the Capitals entered the Flyers zone with an odd man rush that unfortunately fizzled from a bad pass attempt to Mike Green from Mike Knuble I believe. At that point, I had a bad feeling that we would lose.

Depsite these problems, you have to admire the fight and passions the Caps displayed coming back time after time against a charged up Phily team in Philadelphia. After all, picking up a point in Philly’s home-opener is pretty good, but man would I have loved to win this one.

Here’s to better defense on thursday night against the Rangers

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big game tonight – “Double Vision”

Okay, so I pretty much live for this – A Washington team playing a Philly team. It defined my sports existence for the past six years and now that I am back, where I belong, here in D.C., this match up still gets my heart racing.

Philly fans, in my mind, are defined by the Eagles and Flyers fans.

Let me share a little story.  This past March, my friend Ryan (a regular in section 449) and I decided to go to the Flyers/Caps game in philly.  As we took our seats, well before the game had started, profanities starting flying our way, mostly from a young lady sitting above us whose refrain globally compared Ovechkin to various parts of the male and female genitals.

As the game proceeded, people started throwing change at us – including quarters.  We ignored their taunts and physical abuse and relished in our Caps leading 1-0 at the end of the 1st period.

Pockets full of change, we were saddened to see the Flyers tie the game in the 2nd period. When the puck slipped back Theodore, fans from two sections over came all the way to our seats just to give us the middle finger and yell rather personal profanities at us for wearing our Capitals red.  Some of them paraded in front of us their rather creative signs such as “Ovechkin is a waste of Semin”. Creativity aside, the level of depravity required to create such a sign is startling.

As the game continued into the 3rd period, the Caps took the lead on a beautiful goal by Ovechkin at which point quarters began to rain on us again.  By now, other Flyers fans were also being hit by the quarters due to the inebriation of those who had so much spare change so as to bring pockets full just to throw at innocents like me and Ryan. At this point Flyer fans began yelling profanities at each other leading me and Ryan to feel quite a sense of accomplishment as the seconds ticked away and our Capitals left Philly victorious.

On the way out, while we slapped high fives with some other Caps fans who had made the trip to Philly, one Flyers fan approached me, called me a derogatory name for gay men, and spit at me. Fortunately, I moved as nimbly as Nicklas Backstrom and dodged the loogie.

No one is as bad as Philly fans.  NO ONE! That’s why beating them is more satisfying than any other game.

GO CAPS!!!

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Tidbits from section 449

So to avoid getting too excited about this win, I’m going to share some observations that I had sitting in section 449 and see what everyone thought about them.

The Redskins ran a lot better to the right side of the offensive line than the left side.  Rinehart and Heyer were moving people off the ball much more than Samuels and Dockery. Now what I can’t tell you for sure is whether Tampa was somehow playing us to run left and was being caught off-guard when we ran right. To my eyes, Tampa did not overshift to the left side for the most part.  So, maybe Rinehart and Heyer are not doing such a bad job run-blocking?

Laron Landry played quite a bit of strong safety yesterday.  Reed Doughty and Kareem Moore took turns playing free safety when Landry played at the line of scrimmage. Now he didn’t do this on any third downs that I noticed, but this was a change in philosophy that made me happy.  I would like to see Blache send Landry on third and long blitzes because with Landry’s explosiveness and desire to decapitate people, sending  him on longer developing plays could give him the opportunity to create some of those game changing plays we have been thirsting for.

The following “young” players made plays for us on defense: Orakpo, Jarmon, Tryon, and Horton.  There may have been more, but these four players all made plays that contributed greatly to the outcome of the game.  Not all of them made big plays last week and probably not all of them will do so next week, but the point is they are playing AND contributing. 

The following “young” players made contributions on offense:   NOBODY.  Marcus Mason had one nice run in the 2nd quarter.  This is the problem with our offense. Kelly, Thomas, Mitchell, Davis, Alridge, Mason – none of these players need to be starts this year, but each of them needs to contribute meaningfully once in a while- just like the defense.  Okay, I think Rinehart is playing well as I mentioned earlier. But the reason this team is strong defensively and weak offensively is because it has had no tangible, infusion of youth on to the offensive side.

I know I metioned this problem with player devlopment last week, but yesterday it became clear that this problem does not exist as much on  defense where young guys contributing. On offense, aside from Rinehart, nothing new is happening.  This is why the defense as a unit is deep and the offense is not.

Couple other things:  As everyone talks about constantly, the Redskins have not scored 30 points since we beat Minnesota in December 2007 in week 16.  That’s the bad that everyone always talks about. According to my calculations, the Redskins defense has not allowed a team to score to 27 points in 26 consecutive regular season games which pre-dates our 30 point drought.  Not bad. (And the only team that actually scored more than 24 was San Francisco in the last game of the season in 2008.) That must be the longest streak in the NFL although I don’t have the energy to look it up.

One last thing, despite all the boos that were heard directed towards the offense, I want to mention that the fans in the stadium really stuck with the team on defense. The offense’s performance was otherworldly bad and the fans let the players know it. But the fans never stopped cheering on defense.  I guess I just wanted to mention that in case that wasn’t evident on television. The stadium stayed loud the whole game.  Anyway, I’m sure many of us think Redskins fans are the best in the NFL. I don’t know how this can be measured since there are lots of dedicated fans. I do know that we are among them. Let’s hope our team rewards us with some better play in weeks to come.

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It got pretty dark there for a second

I live in Brooklyn and found a Redskins bar near my house to watch the games this season. Attendance has been steadily dwindling through the first four weeks, and when I arrived at 1 PM sharp yesterday there were about three people in the place.

Eventually it filled up a bit to ten or fifteen, but I have to say that at halftime it was a real lowpoint. A nadir. A bottoming out. People were slamming their tables.

At the beginning of the game some people even cheered when Campbell appeared to be injured after the hit and the fumble and the announcers mentioned Todd Collins might be coming into the game.

It was a dark time. Not “calling a timeout you don’t have against Buffalo after Sean Taylor died” dark, but dark nonetheless.

I tried to continue with my zen attitude from last week. I tried to tell myself that the team would come back, make the game close and it would be decided in the last couple of minutes, but it was hard.

Next to me in the bar was some blowhard talking about how Santana Moss would be a fifth-string receiver on most teams and questioning Clinton Portis’ sexual preference.

I tuned him out.

As the second half played out the fans fell in line. I felt as if a giant weight came off my shoulders when I saw Cooley catch that post pattern in the end zone that I seem to see every other tight end in the NFL catch during one of those “game breaks” on TV.

When Moss got caught the bomb from Campbell the first thing I thought was, “Malcolm Kelly, take notes on how not to hang your QB out to dry,” and I started wondering if this might be the kind of gut-check, come from behind win that can right the ship.

I loved seeing all the emotion from the players, including generally cool customers like Portis, and I felt like maybe, just maybe, this season might turn around.

I was happy to see Justin Tryon, Kareem Moore, and Jeremy “We be” Jarmon, all BBR’s, all contributing. I thought Jarmon’s strip at the end of the game was, dare I say, Manley-ish.

I thought Rocky McIntosh continued his solid play and London Fletcher, while not a BBR per se, continued to dominate.

I’m really starting to wonder about Laron Landry and the angles he takes on some downfield plays. Seeing bust into the backfield to stop that run in the second half made me realize that he is better suited for that strong safety role.

The offensive line seemed to get it together after that awful first series. Any thoughts on how Rhinehart fared?

So, was this a weight of the team’s back or just a squeaker over a terrible—and I mean terrible—team?

Was the celebration at the end of the game overblown? They didn’t win the Superbowl after all, just a week 4 game that they should have won much more handily?

I think we might see a more solid all-around game next week and hopefully the team will continue to put it together until the Philadelphia game when they will have to be ready.

At any rate, there should be a few more folks at the bar next Sunday.

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One pick…one win…one big sigh of relief

DeAngelo Hall intercepts a 3rd quarter pass against the Bucs that turns the tide for the Redskins as they win 16-13 on Oct. 4, 2009

As this picture and title of the post indicate, as far as I’m concerned, DeAngelo Hall’ third quarter interception saved the Redskins’ 2009 season…for now.

I am not a good enough writer to come up with enough different words to describe what we were feeling in section 449 until that interception occurred. Here’s some that come to mind: disgust, exacerbation, abomination, disbelief at the utter collapse taking place  in front of our eyes.  I mean when Suisham came out to punt, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the debacle that our season had become.

When Hall picked off that 3^rd quarter pass from the Bucs’ Johnson, life was breathed into the stadium, the fans, the players. It didn’t matter that we were trying to come back against perhaps the worst team in the league. It just mattered that we find a way to win. And for one quarter, perhaps the first quarter of the year to this point, the Redskins played winning football.

They caused a turnover and turned it into points. They scored in the redzone and they hit a quick strike, 59 yard TD pass to our most dangerous offensive player. Now while they had done all of these things already at different points of the first three games, they were able to do them one after another and dominate the game for 15:00 minutes.  To show how bad Tampa really is, we were able to beat them with only one good quarter of play.

But, before we get too excited, let’s take a step back and figure out how we got into a dogfight with this pitiful team.

3^rd and 2, about half way through the 2^nd quarter, and Zorn calls a fly pattern to Kelly which gets intercepted.  Now to this point in the game, Campbell had looked awful. Why in God’s name would you call a fly pattern on 3^rd & 2? Run the ball and keep the drive going.  To me, Zorn was as responsible for our 1^st half misery as Campbell was. There was no rhythm to anything he was calling and this play sticks out for me as totally nuts.

The play-calling in the 2^nd half flowed much better with the run and passes being mixed up well. The last 3^rd and 5 on which Portis should have had a first down, but instead tripped, leading us to punt the Bucs the ball at the end of the game, was the good, Zorn-the play-caller I remember  from the 1^st part of last season.  That kind of sense as to how to call the unexpected has got to return for us to have any success this year.

The Hall interception in the 3^rd quarter, as I said earlier, really did turn the game in my eyes. What was more amazing was the contrast in difficulty between that interception and the one right before halftime that Rogers dropped.  You don’t need to make 10 big plays to win a football game, but you have to make at least two or three and Rogers let another one slip away.  There’s nothing else to be said about Rogers: Divisional playoffs @ Seattle in January 2006 (which I will remember until my last breath), Steelers game last year at Fed Ex field, 1^st game of the year this year against the Giants, today against the Bucs. I hate to say such terrible things about a BBR, but this list speaks for itself.

As everyone knows, the winning points came on Campbell’s 59 yard bomb to Santana Moss. As ugly as many of Campbell’s throws were today, that pass was a thing of beauty (as was the TD to Cooley). This play had obvious importance, but I wanted to mention that sitting in section 449, it was clear that while the Bucs were doubling Moss all day, our other receivers were not getting open, period.  I’m sure that contributed to Campbell’s miserable beginning. No other receiver besides Moss even caught a ball today.  Yikes!!!

Jeremy “We Be Jarmon” made his first significant contribution to the team by causing a fumble that Chris Horton recovered and sealed the victory for us.  While I am happy to welcome Jarmon to the BBR family, I also was happy to see Horton, despite being benched, still fighting and scrapping at the end of the game, with everything on the line, doing what he does best: finding the football.  I don’t know what will ultimately happen with the strong safety position, ( my bet is that Horton is our man for the future), but it’s great to see that one of the guys we all had begun to count on, did not lose his head after being benched and came up huge when we needed him.

I have a lot of other tidbits I will save for further analysis in the days to come.  Today I will sleep easy with my upcoming road trip to Carolina with my old man now seeming a lot more exciting, and frankly not so mind-numbingly depressing.

Am I sure of anything about our Redskins and what this season holds? No.

Can I count on them to do anything?  No.

Do I think we are going to win next week? Hard to say.

Does 2-2 seem worlds apart from 1-3? Absolutely.

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“A Change is gonna come” – One BBR takes another’s place

So here is a brief synopsis of the week that was in Washington after the Redskins lost to the Lions. It started much as you would expect: First, everybody slammed the team and the coach. Then, everyone started slamming the owner and the GM. Next, as players showed up on the injury report, people questioned their training, fitness and motivation. All of this pretty much is par for the course.

But then, something actually tangible happened: one BBR got benched in favor of another BBR and Greg Blache put all of the defensive unit’s problems on his shoulders.

I have spent a lot more time talking about Chris Horton than I have Reed Doughty. Horton is one of the rising stars on this team and until now, seemed to have solidified us at strong safety for years to come.  Reed Doughty is the totally unassuming guy who most people remember most as the guy who watched from the sidelines as the Redskins played the first snap of the ill-fated game against the Bills in 2007 with 10 men on defense.

But let’s face it, he played well in that emotionally charged run to the playoffs in 2007.  Now, I don’t know how long this change will last. Horton is more athletic and faster and maybe getting some time to correct his angles (i.e. the Stephen Jackson run in Game 2) and double-check his pass assignments (i.e. the pass-interference call in the Detroit game) will help regain his starting spot and his mojo.

It’s also clear that Reed Doughty has been one of the unit’s best tacklers in 2009 and from all accounts has played well on special teams. The one thing you have to love about Doughty is that when he makes a tackle, he does not celebrate. He just goes back to the huddle. I wish this was not so scarce these days.

Putting all of the problems of a unit or team, as Blache has done, is a very Joe Gibbs-like move and one that I admire and, because of Gibbs, have come to expect from coaches in all sports. I admire this because in truth, Blache is not the reason the tackling stunk against the Giants and players did not consistently fill their gaps against the Lions.  Hopefully though, the defense will rally and play with some fire and ferocity this weekend to save not only the season, but the image of the man who I think to present has been a great leader on defense for us.

Now beyond this hope of mine, who the hell knows what’s going to happen Sunday? Will the offense score 20 points? Well I’ve predicted it for three weeks and I guess it’s bound to happen at some point.  Will the running game get on track? It should.

[Double vision break to revel in how the Caps not only took care of business, but flat dominated the Bruins in Boston. The Bruins are no chumps, but the Caps made them look like ones. An no matter how much we believe Varlamov is the future for us in net, you had to be happy to see Theodore play so well in his first game since losing his two-month old son.

C-A-P-S CAPS CAPS CAPS!!!]

Aside from our division rivals, Tampa Bay has in recent history become one of our chief secondary rivals.  We have experienced excruciating losses: the divisional playoff loss to end our 1999 season; the heartbreaking loss in 2005 when the referees claimed that Alstott scored on a two-point conversion when it was clear that the ball never crossed the goal-line. We also had some great victories: 2005 playoff win when Sean Taylor returned a fumble 55 yards for a score to give us a 14-0 late in the 1^st quarter.

A loss to the Buccaneers that is etched in my memory is when my old man took me to see the Bucs and Skins play in 1994. We actually had lower-bowl seats and with less than two minutes remaining the Skins were ahead 21-16. The Bucs kicked a field goal to make it 21-19 then recovered the onside kick and scored a TD on the very next play. They won the game 26-21.

It was December and it was cold and rainy that day at RFK. After all of this transpired, my old man patted me on the back and seeing the look of disappointment in my eyes, chuckled and said, “Well that was stupid!”. A small moment that has left a big memory in mind.

At that moment, we could still taste the Super Bowl XXVI victory and greatness didn’t seem so far away. Now, 15 years later, I would be happy if we beat a pitiful Bucs team.

While I have a lot of uncertainty about Sunday’s game, I do know that if we lose this Sunday, I’m sure my father’s gonna have a lot more to say than he did on that damp December day in 1994.

My prediction: Redskins win 17-10.

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A rose in December

At one point last night on 106.7, Holden Kuschner talked about how he was trying to talk about the Caps to lift the spirits of all the sports fans in this town who have taken a severe blow to the psyche since last Sunday’s loss to the Lions. No one was taking the bait.

I, on the other hand, have learned about “Double Vision” and I can’t wait to watch the Caps tonight.

Because of wise player development, a commitment to the draft and savvy free-agent acquisitions, the Caps have become a team who we have begun to count on to perform at a high level each and every year. The question is however: is this the year the Caps bring D.C. its first championship in a long time? (D.C. is tied with Minneapolis for the longest drought for a city with all four major sports teams – 18 years and counting…. Boy, it does seem a long time ago when Kurt Gouveia picked off Jim Kelly’s first pass of the 2^nd half and returned it to the one yard line, thus sealing our victory in Super Bowl XXVI).

A lot of national pundits say that with the acquisition of Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison, combined with the emergence of Simeon Varlamov, along with the continued development of our young stars (Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom and Green) that this is the year we, as D.C. sports fans, will quench our thirst for a winner.

I, as you probably could guess, share that optimism, but realize that certain things about last year’s Capitals team may be hard to repeat. Is Ovechkin going to have over 50 goals again? Is Mike Green going to have over 30 goals again? Can Semin have another +25 season? Will Varlamov continue to get better now that he has been identified as the future for this team in goal?

Last year’s Caps team was actually hit by quite a few injuries, but none of the devastating nature: i.e. Ovechkin did not get hurt. Let’s hope history repeats itself this year on that count.

One piece of news that severely dampened my sprits yesterday was the news that one of our young, rising stars, Chris Bourque, was claimed off of waivers by the Penguins. Now, let’s make this clear: the Caps are filled with “BBCs” – Born to Be Caps (although this was never a term me and Walton used in our youth) – but losing a potential star like Chris Bourque to the our most hated rival, the Penguins, would be the equivalent for me of the Eagles plucking Marko Mitchell off of our practice squad. (A cold chill just took over my body- thank God that nightmare never transpired). Anyway, this major disappointment all stems from the one, already well-publicized, major move the Caps made that has come to bite them in the tail – signing Michael Nylander to a long-term contract. No one can blame the Caps for making the move at the time. But while last year, Nylander’s presence may have thrown off team chemistry, his huge contract is now the main reason the Caps lost one of the pieces of their future to our biggest rival.

However, the reality is that most likely, Bourque’s presence on the Capitals would not be the reason they win or don’t win it all this year. On the other hand, having Mike Knuble on our team now should pay a lot of dividends. First, he has already become one of our team’s captains and his veteran leadership and ability to score dirty goals is just what our boys needed. Second, by signing Knuble away from the Flyers, while not only satiating my incessant hatred for the Flyers and all Philadelphia sports teams in general, also shifted more power to us vis-à-vis the Flyers – the other team, besides the Penguins, who I believe poses the biggest threat to us in the East.

The Penguins will be strong again this year as will the Flyers (who while they lost Knuble, did acquire Pronger from Anaheim in free-agency to add to a talented core of players). The Bruins are set up to be good, but have lost their leading scorer Phil Kessel. The Devils have Broudeur and Parisi and more offense than in recent years.

But this year my friends, I would be lying to you if I expected anything else other than a Caps’ championship. The truth of the matter is that while the Caps are built to be good for a long time, you never know what will happen two, three years for now. This is the year we must take it all because this year could be forever.

As one famous man once wrote: “God gave us memory so that we may have roses in December”. This season the Caps could and hell, I’ll say it, will provide us with a rose, to put in the bouquet with 1978, 1982, 1987 and 1991, that will sustain us and warm us deep inside through those inevitably long, winters that we as D.C. sports fans surely will face.

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NFL Power Rankings Week # 4- 2009

The Fairweather Fanny provides his latest installment of his NFL Power Rankings for week 4.   Not too much to argue as far as I’m concerned.

Last year, the Fairweather Fanny’s favorite team was the Panthers. I wonder how much longer that is going to last.

1. New Orleans Saints (1): Unstoppable!  Can both run and pass.

 

2. New York Jets (2): Good win against strong Titans despite their record.  Battle Saints for #1 this weekend.

 

3. New York Giants (3): Tampa Bay no competition.

 

4. Baltimore Ravens (4): Strong offense revealed against sorry Browns.

 

5. Minnesota Vikings (6): Move up one spot with miraculous pass & catch to beat 49ers.

 

6. Indianapolis Colts (7): Peyton Manning!  Again!

7. New England Patriots ( ): They’re ba-ack!  Face a big test against Ravens this weekend.

 

8. Dallas Cowboys (9): Conservative Romo yields easy win over toothless Panthers.  

 

9. Cincinnati Bengals (HM): Validated last week’s Honorable Mention that one commentator found questionable.  

 

10. San Francisco 49ers (10): Singletary restoring dignity to a proud franchise.

 

 

Honorable Mention: Philadelphia, Green Bay, Chicago, Atlanta &    Pittsburgh

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