As the Washington Redskins move away from last Sunday’s shutout at the hands of the Buffalo Bills and toward the challenge of hosting the 6-1 San Francisco 49ers, the mood out at Redskins Park became less bleak. Whereas Wednesday’s atmosphere during practice was more positive than on Monday, yesterday the players appeared focused and expectant. They looked relaxed but appeared more intense than on the previous day.
And they should be expectant. With each new Sunday, each new opponent and each new game comes a new opportunity. As a matter of fact, there are new opportunities in a multitude of the areas of the coming contest and that’s why there’s room for optimism.
1) The “Any Given Sunday” rule.
It’s cliché and I even get tired of hearing those words but the fact is that in any game, on any day and in any stadium, it’s possible that any team might win. Stranger things have happened than a down-and-out, hit-rock-bottom team beats a team that is hot or that is supposed to be better. Just look at the past few weeks.
In Week 6, the 1-4 Philadelphia Eagles beat the 3-1 Redskins. OK… maybe this is not a good example. But what about the Seattle Seahawks beating the New York Giants the week before?
In Week 7, the 1-5 Carolina Panthers beat the Redskins. Alright. OK… another bad example (sue me!) but try this on: the 1-5 Jacksonville Jaguars beat the mighty Baltimore Ravens 12-7 on Monday Night Football.
The game that really proves the ‘any given Sunday’ rule was last week when the lowly 1-6 St. Louis Rams beat the 5-1 New Orleans Saints. The Rams’ defense and offense were playing lights-out that day and, of course, once they realized they could score on New Orleans, they simply never let up. The Redskins are familiar with this paradox as St. Louis has done the same to them. It helps the Rams that they now have an additional weapon in receiver Brandon Lloyd and running back Steven Jackson has always been a beast.
The point is that one should not just concede this Sunday’s game to the 49ers simply because they are 6-1 and the Redskins have had troubles. Look at the Rams.
2) The Redskins have talent. They just also have injuries, lots of youth and lots of change.
I would love to see this team were the offensive line still fully intact and quarterback Rex Grossman had not been benched. We’d be singing a different tune, I feel sure. Center Will Montgomery and guard Kory Lichtensteiger were coming into their own before Kory and left tackle Trent Williams got hurt and the line was getting more and more in synch every game. I believed when it happened – and I believe now – that Grossman should not have been pulled when he was. It was too early.
Every QB has a bad game every now and then and, despite the fact that “he is who we thought he is,” Grossman still knows the offense and he knows how to get the ball out of his hands. That experience and timing would now be helping the young receivers like Terrence Austin and Niles Paul, being asked to step up with wide out Santana Moss’ absence due to injury. As well, it would be helping running back Roy Helu, Jr. with Tim Hightower out. It would be helping Jabar Gaffney, who clearly has a rapport with Grossman. The change at signal-caller + John Beck’s inexperience + the youth and inexperience of some of the starters + the change itself = the haunting of the Washington Redskins. Now, they have no choice but to stick it out and let the quarterback and youngsters go through the growing pains that come with being starters in the NFL. While no one expects a shut-out, we need to be patient with the situation.
All three coaches spoke to the media yesterday and I always find them extremely interesting. I have found that the two coordinators are very candid – probably because they’re not the head coach.
Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, under fire recently for his play-calling, knows that there are grumblings out there about him and, appropriately, says his main concern is that his players believe in him. He joked that even his wife won’t talk to him when the Redskins lose.
“That’s life,” the younger Shanahan commented. “Any time you get shutout, I expect to get criticized. I expect it from you guys, I expect it from my wife and I expect it from myself. It’s embarrassing. I’ve never been shutout before and I don’t want it to ever happen again. But it is what it is and you’ve got to man up and deal with it. Really what matters to me is whether the players believe in me or not – that’s really what it all comes down to. If the players have confidence in you and they believe in what you’re doing, then you have a chance. I believe in these guys and I think they believe in me and we just have to go to work.”
Along those lines, the media asked Shanahan whether or not his dad was involved more in this play-calling now than his former boss, (Houston Texans head coach) Gary Kubiac, had been.
“It’s pretty much the exact same,” the coordinator answered. “I think what Gary was used to in Houston… Gary came from being with my dad for so long. It’s pretty much the exact same style with what my dad is used to here. Play calling is probably not what you guys would expect. I call the plays. I talk to the quarterback. I’m the one who gives it in. I’m the actual offensive coordinator who calls the play and gives it to him. When it comes to calling the plays, it’s not like you’re just dialing them up – you guys see that big sheet. It’s something that we work on as a staff hard through the week. [We] break them down in each situation. Most of the plays are already called before the game. It’s just what situation are you in, what down and distance, what part of the field. But yeah, he’s heavily involved and it’s the same as it’s been my whole career.”
Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, always engaging, addressed a couple of issues that I’ve wondered about: 1) the squabble on the sidelines last week between linebacker London Fletcher and – well, the entire defense, 2) whether or not the defense gets frustrated being on the field for so long and; 3) when the defense struggles so much in a first half, why we don’t see obvious adjustments after half-time.
His answers were interesting.
1) On Fletcher and Landry’s confrontation:
“He was frustrated. Guys are frustrated,” Haslett said. “I understand what happened. All week, we worked with short yardage and they ran a play and they ran a dive. Obviously, when the play happened, they motioned to it and it looked like on the play they were going to run a dive. LaRon thought it was a running play and he kind of guessed on it. We should have had two guys on the deep route and London was frustrated. That’s understandable. That happens on the field at times. Everybody wants to be perfect and it’s not going to be perfect. You try to get as perfect as you can and that was just one of those ones we didn’t play it right.”
2) On if his defense gets frustrated when the offense can’t score:
“Players have to do what they have to do,” the D-coordinator said. “We’ve got an obligation to this football team to keep people off the scoreboard. Obviously, in this league, it’s hard to get a shutout. You’re not going to do that. Our job and things get magnified being on defense – if you’re starting on one side and you give up a 43-yard run, it’s like the world’s coming to an end and you can’t stop the run. Another team is scoring a bunch of points and you give up a long run and it’s no big deal because it kind of gets washed under the rug. Our guys know that, but our guys understand that we’re in this together and we’ve got to do whatever we can to get turnovers to try to help our offense score points until they get back on track. Our guys practice hard. They came out yesterday and they practiced hard and they do everything you ask them to do. And that’s all I can ask of them.”
3) On adjustments at half-time:
“We make them all the time,” Haslett explained. “That halftime stuff is a bunch of baloney. People say you go in at halftime and make the adjustments – you make them throughout the whole game. One time when they were empty, we were checking to something. I think you make them throughout the game because you work on things you think you’re going to get, but you don’t know until you get there. So that’s something you make during the game. Halftime – you’ll go over the stuff you need to work on, but 12 minutes, think about it, by the time you get in there and go to the bathroom and come back, you’ve got about three minutes. It ain’t like you have a big strategy program. You make adjustments throughout the game.”
Keep the faith, Redskins Nation. Sunday is another opportunity.
Hail.