HarleyHog wrote:Kilmer72 wrote:SkinsJock wrote:it's a team game and people want to blame the coach or the players and even the refs - what about asking "are they playing well together?
fact is if you don't have 11 guys on the field doing what they have to do TOGETHER you're going to have FAILURE
- the salary cap hurt our depth but if Danny Smith left because he felt like Mike was making it difficult for him to do his job, then that tells us a lot
there's a lot of excuses for this franchise not playing well together for over 15 years - it's got to come down to 1 of 2 things - the owner or the HC or both
Well if we ask "are they playing well together?" and it isn't the coaches or players or refs, then what else would you figure to be the problem?
It is not sound logic to assume that it was the same problem all along.
Snyder has gotten the rap as a 'bad owner', but I never saw it at all. He grew up a fan, loves the team, and willingly spends. He made bad DECISIONS, but has evolved and stepped back and essentially LISTENED to some of his critics.
Those bad decisions, sadly, have included coaches. Shanny clearly improved the team, despite two years of capgate, but 3-13 ...
but those 13 losses came for varied reasons. Some were RGIII not up to speed and clearly way out of synch, some were coaching inadequacy, some a talent gap, and other crap mixed in and all around. Personally, I include John (I'm a big pile of Mara) Mara and his goon squad of zebras as well, but, of course, I know that the officials treat all teams equally
What it comes down to is it's a tough league, especially in the age of parity. The gap between W and L is really quite small, hence 'any given Sunday'.
Let's just hope that Gruden's balance of strengths and weaknesses, the will of the injury gods, the luck of the bounce, and the wrath of Mara hit the scales tilting a little in our favor.
Disagree with your Danny sentiment. Whether people want to believe it or not some of the "strengths" -- like his love for the skins being a home town kid -- have actually hurt this team due to his ignorance to the general game of football. When he first bought, he wanted to BUY (via FA) a winner --- the problem was, he didn't know how to and knew NOTHING about football. This was obvious by his free agent spending spree. In the NFL, teams are built --- not bought. He had no understanding of that simple concept.
It took him a decade to figure out that a GM was actually necessary to win (and I'm still not 100% sure he does). Meanwhile we sat thru his coach firings (like the team being horrible was Turner, Schotts, or Gibbs' faults --- hell, even Zorn was put in a position to lose) and dumb FA pick ups. Then he goes out and gets a big name coach with nothing to prove and a management type GM...... That didn't work out. Now he hires an "up and coming" coach with something to prove and doesn't hire a pure player personell GM in charge of scouting, drafting, FA, etc. (and yes, some say this is Allen, but he did NOT do with while MS was here)....... We'll see how this turns out, but based on his history, he will continuing making different mistakes due to his ignorance, lack of understanding regarding the game of football, and his inability to learn football. The only way he'll win is by COMPLETELY taking himself out. Hire a real GM and collect checks --- but he is unwilling to do this due to his "love of all things skins"...... so these "strengths" you speak of are actually weaknesses.
When determining whether someone is a good owner, being a fan or the ability to spend DOES NOT
IN ANY WAY MAKE SOMEONE A GOOD OWNER. Winning does. And winning come from making good decisions --- something Danny has never done (other than the 1 case where he was able to get Gibbs out of retirement). A good owner is one that wins ---- NOT one that spends or likes his team. So, none of the things you list above, have any relevance to being a good owner. They would make him a good
FAN -- which is what he should be.
JKC was a GREAT owner --- and he didn't grow up in DC (he was born in Canada after all), didn't grow up loving the skins, or spent the way Danny does (since no one does). The reason he was great was because he lead us to 3 SBs. This being said even though he moved the team out of DC......
Winning is the measuring stick by which all owners should be judged. Nothing more, nothing less.
RIP Sean Taylor. You will be missed.
