The day after a loss like the one the Washington Redskins suffered this past Sunday at the hands of the Buffalo Bills, finds a team pretty somber. The locker room during these times can be understandably quiet while players try to digest what happened the previous day.
By mid-week, teammates have had a chance to review film, get required treatments and de-brief with coaches. On Wednesdays, the installation of the upcoming game’s plan-of-attack takes place.
My experience with Washington players is that they are always gracious when talking to the media – even after losses. But one could hardly blame them if they were NOT this week. Three straight losses, each worse than the one previous to it, is hard to take and talking about them with reporters is no fun.
On Wednesday, several guys spoke to the press and the sense I got from them was not one of resignation or defeat but a matter-of-fact attitude that said “We’re going to fix this and that’s all there is to it.”
Of course, they can say and do all of the right things and if they don’t actually go out and execute their assignments, anything said is just lip service. But they were relaxed and energetic on the practice field and that says to me that their confidence is intact. This is so important. It was good to see and proves that all the talk of a culture change and different mindset is true. Confidence is different from arrogance.
Quarterback John Beck was sacked ten times by the Bills (the NFL found one more than the originally thought nine – couldn’t they just let it go?) and had said several times that he wanted to “go back and look at the tape” so he could figure out exactly why.
While the former BYU star is physically older than other rookie quarterbacks, the fact is that he has about the same amount of game experience as many 22, 23 or 24-year-old guys just starting out in the league. Just getting out there during regular season games is going to be a huge part in his improvement. Unwilling to dwell on last week’s game, he is ready to do this.
“The thing about this week is [that], any time you don’t feel like you played your best; it’s exciting to come back to a new week, new game, and a fresh start for this week. You just want to start working with the guys again and get focused on our opponent.”
‘Moving forward’ was a common theme among several players’ responses to questions Wednesday.
“We’re… …the only ones that can fix it,” defensive lineman Kedric Golston said. “We need to go out there and win a football game. I know it’s disappointing to the fans but it’s disappointing to us – I mean it’s our jobs. So, we know what we’re doing wrong, we just need to go out there and fix it.
“The sky’s not falling. You deal with ups and you deal with downs so it’s ‘how fast can you get out of the downs and how long can you stay in the ups’? Like I said, we just need to go out there and win a football game.”
These guys don’t feel the “snowball” effect much talked about among fans and in the media. Despite the unfortunate familiarity of a three-game losing streak, there is a steadfast insistence that the locker room is different this season.
“We’re all going in the same direction,” Golston went on to say. “We understand what our mission statement is. The leaders on this football team and the character that we have… it doesn’t really matter what the negative things are. We just need to win football games and we know how to do that. We’ve got the guys in this locker room that can do it.”
Injured left tackle Trent Williams said, among other things today, that the chances he might be able to play this Sunday against the 6-1 San Francisco 49ers are in the 60-40%/70-30% range. Although he wasn’t exactly cheerful, he seemed relaxed and upbeat when talking to reporters about whether he would take the field this weekend. When pressed about to be more specific that the percentages he’d offered, he never gave in, he just joked about an uncomplicated method of deciding:
“It just depends on how the day goes.”
Head coach Mike Shanahan is in a precarious position with this losing streak. As the head coach, it is ultimately his responsibility to get the team prepared to play each game. When he said that he needed to prepare the team better after the loss to the Carolina Panthers two weeks ago, he was talking more about the mechanics and execution of plays rather than the attitude of the players. And yet this mentality is so important to winning.
The last thing Washington needs right now is friction in the locker room on top of execution and assignment problems. Shanahan understands what guys are going through.
“Everybody’s disappointed when you lose,” the head coach said during his press conference Tuesday. “No question about it, especially when you lose the way we did, without scoring a point. That’s always disappointing. You find out what type of character you have by work ethic that the players have, how they come back. Hopefully, we’ll put a full game together.”
Speaking of a full game, former Redskins cornerback Carlos Rogers was released this past off-season and signed by the San Francisco 49ers who are coming to Washington this Sunday. The media enjoyed a pleasant conference call with Rogers and, while the entire conversation was entertaining and informative, one of the things he said about being a Redskin, I thought, was noteworthy.
“Fun. I had some fun times with Washington,” Rogers said. “On the football field, off the field, I had a lot of good relationships with guys on and off the field. The fans are unbelievable. They want to win. My brother is still down there and hearing comments about the fans saying how much they miss me. You can’t count out the guys that are going to have your back through the good and the bad. I played for some good coaches. I am always going to remember Coach [Joe] Gibbs. I’m still a friend of Gregg Williams, Jerry Gray, Steve Jackson, Coach Danny Smith — that’s one of my closest coaches to this day. I’ve built some good relationships with teammates. It’s a lot of stuff that I remember and a lot of good stuff that I can take from that team. Even with last year’s coaches, they were just hands on with me learning this defense and learning this nickel position. That allowed me to come into this situation right now where when I came into training camp it was just about getting the calls down. I already knew the defense by how much time me and him spent together. It’s a lot of stuff I can mention. It’s not always negative with me towards that team.”
San Francisco had a 6-10 record last season. They are playing well and, at 6-1 now, in order to have the same record as last year, they’d have to lose every game from here until January. That’s not likely to happen. Their head coach Jim Harbaugh said during another conference call that he had more questions than answers about why their quarterback Alex Smith was having such a great year.
“A lot of people have asked that question too,” he said during the call yesterday afternoon. “We really don’t have any answers for anybody or even ourselves, just more questions. Are we good enough to keep winning? Are we disciplined enough to keep learning? Are we smart enough? Are we going to learn from mistakes that we’ve made? Are we tough enough? Do we have the right amount of work ethic and can we do it week-in and week-out? Can we get motivated to where we need to be?”
I think all of the questions he asked could be asked of the Washington Redskins.
It seems that these Redskins players have moved on from the Bills’ thumping and are really just looking towards the 49ers.
“I think we’re all programmed to move forward,” Shanahan said Wednesday afternoon after practice. “This is the way we’ve been playing the sport our entire lives. We’ve all had to go through games where you lose and you lose badly.
“It hurts inside and there’s that pain that goes along with it but you learn that ‘Alright, I have to move on and I have to put that behind me.’ If I want to be able to give myself the best opportunity this week, I have to be able to move forward and more forward strong.
“I feel like this team has already done that,” the coach said in closing. “I can just kind of tell from the way the walk-through went that we’ve moved forward. We’re totally focused on the 49ers right now.”
Hail.