Okay, okay, we got crushed....

[JPM36]

....by the Patriots on Saturday night. And there's a lot of negatives we could all focus on from the first 3 preseason games.

But let's just try to focus on this: THESE GAMES DONT COUNT.

The Washington Redskins are UNDEFEATED right now. Everyone just calm down. I swear there was more panic over last night's game than there was over the game in the Meadowlands last year. And that game actually counted!

The Patriots game meant nothing and by the 3rd or 4th week of the season it'll be a distant memory. Trust me.

Let's just be ready to support the team on Thursday night and get ready for September 11th, when the games start to actually matter.

If we lose to the Vikings 41-0, then it's time to start panicking. But until then, we're still UNDEFEATED.

Keep reminding yourselves, "It's only the preseason, it's only the preseason, it's only the preseason."

We'll be fine. We're in good hands.

[SkinsChic]

I've been telling myself "This is all a part of the Master Plan"...but after last night....well, I hope it's NOT !

[UK Skins Fan]

And as I said in another thread - we're winless already! No games played, and we're heading for an 0-16 season. I reserve the right to panic if I want to. Oh my God. Doomed we are. Doomed, doomed, dooooomed.

Everything is worse now, than it was before. And it was bad then. Even if things get better, we'll only be half decent. Fire the coaches, fire the players, replace the offence. The defence sucks. Let's trade for Brady or Manning. Portis is injured, Daniels, Springs and Griffin is injured. There's discontent about the arrival of Duckett.

The whole team's in meltdown. Doomed, doomed, doooomed.

There, that's better. Meanwhile, back in the real world...

[Skins21]

"But let's just try to focus on this: THESE GAMES DONT COUNT. "


>> Oh so true and Thank God!!!



"We'll be fine. We're in good hands."


>> I wouldn't just close my eyes and say everything is going to be fine. Our defense is not the same without C Griffin in there and it again showed Saturday night. Also, Brunell is going to have to play a little better at the bare minimum, so that our TEAM can carry us through. Keep in mind, this was a tough NE squad. I hope Wynn is ok, as we're gonna need em all. I think we will be fine in the end, but we can't afford injuries, we can't afford a poor Brunell, and we can't afford less than 100% from everybody.


Stay humble...

J Campbell hurry up and get ready, pleeeeeease.

[HitDoctor]

We would be foolish to NOT be concerned right now!

[MtSherwood7]

Clearly, we are heading for an 0-16 season, and the best part about that is that we will have to surrended the #1 pick to the Denver Broncos!!

We should just fire all the coaches and players, and bring back Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerfell.

[redskingush]

We would be foolish to NOT be concerned right now!

Exactlly, Why does everybody say "its only preseason" and "these games dont count" Our starting O hasn't scored a point yet, albiet in limited chances Week 1 and 2 but they had some time tonight. Training camp and Preseason games are important not win or loss importance but ececution, building a hunger and winning attitude to go out and slug week in and week out. This team has been slapped around in the preseason, what could the players be thinking, Why would they let themselves get embarrassed 41-0. It didnt look to me like Cincinatti, NY or NE went into these games saying these games don't count.

The Redskins have 15 days to Minnesota and I hope over the next two weeks they smarten up so they can build on their success from last season, Miami is the ultimate goal in February but so there is alot of work left to do.

For any players that might read this board I would like to say as a fan I am concered right now, but keep your heads up and keep fighting until the goal is reached. Lets go into the opener with confidence, a good game against Baltimore and two good and healthy weeks at practice. Myself I still believe the team has the talent, now lets put it together.

[1fan4ramsey]

I'm so not worried about the preseason I didn't even realize we had a game yesterday....relax...start worrying in a couple weeks.

[USS Redskin]

I think there is cause for concern when the starters play into the 3rd quarter to get tuned up and they get their asses kicked badly....

[patjam77]

I think there is cause for concern when the starters play into the 3rd quarter to get tuned up and they get their asses kicked badly....

EXACTLY!!!! Finally someone says what needs to be said. I could care less if the skins lose the game AFTER the 1st teamers are out. But in 3 games the first teamers have been stomped and rolled to the side. Is all hope lost... NO WAY, but am I worried, hell yeah.

[redskins-28]

Don't fool yourselves people, we SUCK. I agree it doesn't matter if we when or lose in preseason, but our starters look terrible. There is no offensive line and without that we have no passing or running.... I mean look at our stats last night..... passing was horrendous. It is time to panic, it's not like our starters only played the first series of downs, they played the entire first half and we got slaughtered, offense and defense looked terrible. It just looks like there is no fire, no pride in this team, they just go through the motions. I really hope they can get things going, it's a slap in the face the Joe Gibbs who was upset after last weeks lackluster performance.

[Mursilis]

I'm not happy either, but let me try to spin this in a positive way. Remember the middle of last season, when we lost three in a row, including to both our former coaches, and the team was looking at 5-6? They got lazy and lost heart, but with their backs against the wall (5 in a row or we don't go!), they buckled down, gathered their pride, and stepped up to make the playoffs and win the wild-card game.

I see the preseason as similar to that mid-season lull last year - guys started camp full of optimism and Super Bowl chatter, but after these three beatdowns, they've come back down to earth, hard. They know this season is not going to be a stroll in the park, and they've got to want it to win it. These ugly losses are going to be the wake-up call to our troops to step it up a few notches, and they will respond once the regular season starts.

[JPM36]

I like the angle Mursilis but those 3 games were FAAAAAAAR more disastrous than these 3 preseason games.

These games don't count!!!


If you want to call it a wake up call that's fine and I sincerely hope you're right. I just refuse to get all hot and bothered about this until we lose an actual game.

The honest truth is that if we had a rookie coach or some guy I didn't trust, I'd be very concerned about this. But we have Joe Gibbs, and the greatest coaching staff in the NFL. We're going to be fine. I'm certain of it.

[Justice Hog]

I have been, and likely always will be, one of those that profess the adage, "preseason doesn't count, so why care too much about those games?"

That being said, it is becoming harder and harder for me not to "care so much" right about now. Last night, Comcast Cable screwed me so I didn't see (or hear) any of the game so I, personally, didn't get a feel for just how bad the Redskins stunk up the joint. The score, however, speaks volumes.

I've also read how our starters are not playing well at all and, to be honest, this concerns me greatly.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to look down to other folks from my "preseason doesn't count" perch and try to continue to think that preseason, in fact, does not count.

Yes, the Skins went 0-4 in the preseason during their 1st Super Bowl run. Anyone have any idea just how badly we played in those games, however?

I, like the rest of you, am now starting to wonder: is there light at the end of the tunnel? Will this team, on opening day, finally break out of its shell and look like the Redskins that won 5 straight at the end of last year?

I hope so. I really hope so.

Preseason doesn't count?

Tell that to the guys that just got their asses handed to them Saturday night.

Regardless, I am still hoping to see a completely different team on Setpember 11th. Maybe the better word right now would be "praying to see a completely different team."

[HailSkins94]

Sure its preseason and I guess you coudl say its good to get all this out of our system now when it doesnt count, but we havent even been close to playing any kind of good football. Running game, passing game and teams are all terrible, and the defense isnt much better (although missing some key players)

I think the "it's only preseason" is starting to get used a bit too much here. It can easily be changed into "we still have X amount of games left" in a few weeks. I think the excuses need to stop already before they really get going. This team is better than what they have showed, but it's like they think they are just going to show up and its all going to happen. Like they were 5-6 last year and suddenly turned it on and made the playoffs. Its a new year and I'm sure they are aware of it but they seem a bit too laid back.

The second half of our season could be brutal schedule wise so it is definately important to get off to a quick start this year so we dont need 5 in a row this year. They need to seriously get it in gear.

[owa]

I think it just shows that our players need a gameplan to be successful. One on one, athlete against athlete, it appears we're not very good. With a gameplan that takes advantage of our strengths and hides our weakness, the *team* will be good (hopefully).

[ArizonaHOG]

I don't know to what extent it matters, but I think game-planning for our preseason games is rather limited and probably has a lot to do with our poor showing. We probably don't look to exploit opponents defensive weeknesses and likely don't play to their offensive tendancies, either. We are more likely playing to what we want to do, as opposed to what we should be doing according to our opponents schemes....vanilla means vanilla (no audibles, limited shifting before the snap, straight forward blocking on running plays, etc.). Once the real games begin our master-mind coaching staff will have us more prepared for each team and I am sure we are already starting with the Vikings and all the NFC East teams.

Last night, NE called many audibles and Watson's TD was clearly designed to attack our blitz (he "faked" pass protection and then ran out for a pass where the blitz came from.)

Do we need to practice audible, game-planning? It seems our coach staff's philosophy does not want to do these things in the preseason so we don't "show" too much.

[redskins-28]

Regardless of how "vanilla" our offense is playing, they got beat like an 8 year old girl last night, they were owned by the Pats defense, there is no excuse for that...... how many times was Brunell sacked? Way too many, the line needs to take pride in not letting the D get to their QB. One of the commentators last night made the statement of how Brady rarely gets dirty during a game due to a great offensive line, that's what they should be saying about the Skins.

[gay4pacman]

our best offensive player (portis) hasnt played and will make a huge difference. I cant read all this negativity.

[yupchagee]

I wouldn't mind being 0-3 if it looked like we were getting better every week. It looks like we're getting worse. That being said, it is still only preseason.

[USAFSkinFan]

Why do people always feel the need to remind us these games don't count? Is there anybody here that doesn't know these games don't count towards our regular season record? Of course not... They do count when it comes to their intended purpose... getting timing down, getting practice against somebody who doesn't see your plays every day, evaluating young guys, evaluating situational dision making, athletic ability in real time, etc, etc, etc... I don't care how vanilla a defense you're playing, no defense gives a tight end that much freedom to roam... none of this may have anything to do with the regular season right now, but if the 'Skins don't have success in the first couple games, you watch how this preseason will be talked about... all of a sudden the media will drill it in to the players heads that they've lost 6, 7 games in a row, dating back to last year and including the preseason... so I believe they do count, fi for nothing more than to get the players in the right frame of mind... that being said, a win over Minnesota in that first game will make all this go away, and that's what I think's going to happen...

[JPM36]

that being said, a win over Minnesota in that first game will make all this go away, and that's what I think's going to happen...

EXACTLY.


We'll beat the Vikes by 2 TDs on MNF and this whole thing will be completely forgotten.

Mark it down.

[Deadskins]

I really can't seem to get all worked up about these losses. Do you worry-warts really think our guys forgot how to play? That our coaches can't call plays to move us down field, or put guys in position to make stops on defense? When it really counts Joe will have the guys ready. He will use these meaningless losses as a motivator. I honestly believe we will come out fired up against the Ravens on Thursday, we may even show a small glimpse of game-planning, and the new scheme. We will win handily and have momentum going into the regular season.

[John Manfreda]

its preseason who cares, those Spurrier dominations never resulted in any meaningful regular season wins.

[JPM36]

Was mentioned on this site by someone else but the Colts went 0-5 in the preseason including a 38-0 loss last year.

Then they won their first 13 regular season en route to home field throughout.

Preseason means NOTHING.