2.) Portis should consider a little more "protection", if you know what I mean. I was watching the game with my son and three of his friends (all Giant fans, BTW)...and the hit I'm referring to was felt by all.
3.) Nice to see ARE getting something for his efforts. I do wish he would quit running backwards, though.
4.) AA is looking like a bust. The jury is still out, but it's not looking like we made a good call there, letting Clark go.
5.) I'm sorry, Jake...but it looked to me like Buges had a saloon door installed on our line and painted a number 60 on it. He was absolutely owned.
6.) I agree with not putting Campbell in at garbage time, because of Samuels. He throws right, doesn't he? Ouch. The announcers didn't see it my way, either...but there's no way I throw the kid under the bus like that.
7.) For some reason, Addai was havin' his way with us. It's always the no-names, isn't it?
8.) It never occured to me, at halftime, that we are absolutely an awful 3rd quarter team this year. I doubt I'll forget that in two weeks.
9.) I'm trying hard to remember the last time I didn't worry about our kicking game, but I think it goes back to MM. We always seem to come up short with the kickers. Novak was terrible...and his poor play was magnified by the Matt Bryant miracle during the 1:00pm game. The stat that three games had been won by last minute field goals by 4:00pm on Sunday really got under my skin.
10.) It occurs to me now that the offensive system that we had in place last year would likely have been good enough for us to maintain our record this year, given the added targets. I'm starting to think that the addition of some many new players AND a new playbook might be too much for us to overcome. Forgive me if I'm stating something that's been obvious to you for some time...but I always thought that the new scheme was going to be added in slowly, a few wrinkles at a time. I didn't think we were going to start every game with it, and only fall back on the old system when we were down.
11.) Have we had a reverse work yet this year? I keep seeing them start, but fail. I also think I've seen a few flea-flickers develop, only to be turned into a mad one-yard dash by the RB.
12.) I think our focus during the bye week should first and foremost be...get these guys out of town for a couple days. I saw some looks on the sidelines that make me feel like maybe the guys are getting used to losing again. When everybody comes back, we need to develop a slimmed down, fundamentals-only scheme...and stick with it. Don't get cute with trick plays, because right now it's kind of like watching a bunch of 1st graders perform a ballet...only, with less skill.
13.) When did (edit) Frost become the new Grammatica? I haven't seen a Redskin take his helmet off on the field since Westbrook...and there's a good reason for that.
14.) I'm not gonna kid you. You guys were right. For all intents and purposes, we're probably done as far as post-season play is concerned. With that in mind, I'd like to see us start from scratch, and just play some sound, fundamental football without the pressure of having to win ten in a row to get in. I don't know where I stand on bringing in Campbell right now, although I can't help but think that Brunell can still get the ball into some awfully tight places when he has the people open and the time to do it. To me, it looks like his checkdowns are forcibly rushed, and that maybe he's a little too smart for his own good. Sometimes, like when you're losing, throwing it away is like giving up. Take a shot here and there. Remember Dallas last year?
15.) I'd like to see Duckett in on 3rd and 1 for a fake. It could work...and makes more sense to me than running back eight yards and then throwing underneath to CP and getting him killed five yards away from the line of scrimmage.
16.) I love my team, and my coach...and I'm having a really, really crappy week to prove it. Just like everybody else, I really need for Joe to tell Al that we're going back to regular football for now, and we'll work in the complicated stuff once we've shown that we've mastered the basics first. The bye came at a great time. I, too, need a week away from football.
