Official Post Game Discussion- Skins/Rams

tribeofjudah · Post by **tribeofjudah** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:31 pm

Funbunch....welcome to the boards.

The D is good but it need to get better! Where was Springs and Landry today. They must make an impact and swarm the ball. I saw Springs on 1 play and Landry on the fumble recovery. Other than that, our secondary is just ok.... could be better. Our front 4 has got to stiffen up.

Countertrey · Post by **Countertrey** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:32 pm

funbunchfever wrote:The Redskins had a bad game. Most of us fans, and probably the players, felt like they should beat this team by a significant margin. But, the Redskins are 4-2, and have already played all of the division road games AND are 2-1 in the division.

Just because the Skins beat the Cowboys in Dallas does not make them the best team in the league. Just because the lost to the Rams in DC they are not the worst team.

The Rams had a lot of motivation. They were winless coming off of a bye week. They had two weeks to prepare with their new head coach who is hoping to land a permanent return to a head coaching role. Their o-coordinator is Al Saunders. I'm sure he was quite motivated for this game. Their QB is making a return to the starting lineup after being senselessly demoted. Many of their players spoke out in disagreement about that decision. They surely were rallied around his return as starter.

On top of that the Redskins had offensive turnovers in this game. Granted, Campbell was under pressure at times but two of the turnovers and one in particular were flukes.

Through all of that the Rams had to make a 48 yard field goal with 2 seconds left to win that game. The Redskins controlled the ball during the game outside of those turnovers just like in the previous two games. The running game was excellent again. The defense was very good once again. Campbell had zero interceptions.

The Skins do need to get Durant Brooks kicking better ASAP. Suisham overall has been doing well but he has had a couple of kickoffs out of bounds. These should be correctable.

Other than that, I think if the Skins can avoid having a pass deflected, then caught by one of the o-lineman who then tries to run with it and then fumbles and then it is returned for a touchdown by the opposing team I they'll be looking pretty good.

Good post. Look, this is where we find out about the character of this team... If they have it, they are now embarassed. If they are an "elite" team, they will compose themselves, take a deep breath, and turn FedEx into living hell for the visiting Browns. If not, well, there is clearly work left to do.

Durant Brooks truly sucked this game, and I won't be surpised if he is out filling out job applications soon... but he is not the reason we lost. While it is true that a good punter can pull your fat out of the fire, it is far better to not need your fat pulled from the fire in the first place.

Leigh Torrence is being vilified for running his mouth, and then giving up a big time reception at the end of the game. Yeah... woulda... coulda... Hey, kid... turn around, and pick up the ball once in a while... But HE is not the reason we lost. We shouldn't have been in a position to be depending on him to make a play at the end of the game. Would have been nice, but once again... it's that whole fat in the fire thing...

We lost because we could not finish drives, and because the Rams scored 10 points off of Redskins miscues. That is the bottom line.

Skinsfan55 · Post by **Skinsfan55** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:45 pm

Fios wrote:
Skinsfan55 wrote:What did Straham say that was incorrect?

Maybe the Redskins can't handle being frontrunners. They were obviously pretty cocky and confident going into this game, and forgot about all the things that got them here, like taking care of that ball.

Just an ugly, ugly loss. Really pitiful.

Yes, cockiness cost them this game, that's some brilliant analysis

You seem to be targeting me today, with lots of responses to my posts... but let me break this down:

The Redskins were pretty obviously overconfident and cocky leading into this game. (Is that really debatable in light of the hunting Rams video and their level of play this afternoon?) They were also unprepared for any type of resistance from the Rams. (Again, how could this possibly be up for debate? We all saw the game.)

When a team is cocky and overconfident they don't practice as hard.

The Redskins had to bust their humps to be able to beat the Cowboys and the Eagles, but they rolled over for the Rams because they thought the game was over before the coin flip.

Now all that national respect is GONE.

Losing to the worst team in the league is an embarrassment.

Countertrey · Post by **Countertrey** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:52 pm

Skinsfan55 wrote:
Fios wrote:
Skinsfan55 wrote:What did Straham say that was incorrect?

Maybe the Redskins can't handle being frontrunners. They were obviously pretty cocky and confident going into this game, and forgot about all the things that got them here, like taking care of that ball.

Just an ugly, ugly loss. Really pitiful.

Yes, cockiness cost them this game, that's some brilliant analysis

You seem to be targeting me today, with lots of responses to my posts... but let me break this down:

The Redskins were pretty obviously overconfident and cocky leading into this game. (Is that really debatable in light of the hunting Rams video and their level of play this afternoon?) They were also unprepared for any type of resistance from the Rams. (Again, how could this possibly be up for debate? We all saw the game.)

When a team is cocky and overconfident they don't practice as hard.

The Redskins had to bust their humps to be able to beat the Cowboys and the Eagles, but they rolled over for the Rams because they thought the game was over before the coin flip.

Now all that national respect is GONE.

Losing to the worst team in the league is an embarrassment.

If what you say is true (and I am inclined to agree with a substantial amount of your statements) then this "embarassment" is the best thing that could have happened... as it will be a lesson in pain that won't soon be forgotten.

Regarding the loss of "national respect": who cares, really? If teams, once again, choose to take the Redskins lightly, to who's advantage does that play?

gibbs4president · Post by **gibbs4president** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:57 pm

I don't think the Redskins lost because they were overconfident; I just think they lost because they just didn't play that well. It's possible, of course... you never really know. But they seemed to be taking it seriously by coming in to watch film on Monday but whatever.

I'm not going to make the excuse of saying they weren't taking the Rams seriously -- only they really know that. They didn't play well and that's all that matters. But they can always do better next week.

crazyhorse1 · Post by **crazyhorse1** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:49 pm

RayNAustin wrote:ENOUGH ABOUT DEFENSIVE PLAYERS.

This game was lost by turnovers....inability to make plays in the passing game, and the worst special teams play I've ever seen.

The defense played great considering that the Rams took all of their snaps from the 40 or better today.

An excellent summary, but I would also add bad luck.

BigRedskinDaddy · Post by **BigRedskinDaddy** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 12:24 am

Still shaking my head over this one. It hurts. Crunching some numbers on the box score, and one thing stands out: fumbles.

We put the ball on the turf 4 times, and lost 3 of those. The TO's came back to bite us in the butt big-time today. When it rains, as they say, it pours.

Some positives: JC again played a very solid game. Still no INT's, 18-26 for 208, QB rating of 93.10. Not great, but certainly good enough to win. CP is a MONSTER this season. He wants to put the team on his shoulders and it shows. 21 for 129. 6.14 yds/carry.

Our rookie safety Chris Horton led the defense with 9 tackles. The kid is probably ROY if he continues; the good news on that front is he will most likely get better IMO as he gets more comfortable in this defense and at this level.

Fletch had his usual solid game. Shawn was a non-factor for the most part, but he did register one of our 2 sacks. The D played the way they should have. They shut down an anemic Rams offense. Both trips to the red zone ended in nothing. They held them to 4 of 14 on 3rd downs, a paltry 28%. The problem is we weren't much better in that respect -- only 4 of 12.

Take away the fumbles, one of which was returned on about as flukey a play as you'll ever see in this league...and we win going away. Of course we didn't, however. As others have said, this might be just what we needed to firm up our sense of purpose. Who knows but the team was maybe starting to believe the hype, and took one on the chin.

I expect a MUCH more solid game against the Browns. We still have an excellent chance to finish the first half of the season 6-2, and in good shape to not only make the postseason but perhaps win the division as well. Lest anyone say I'm counting my chickens before they've hatched, I would like to point out that today's loss is still far too fresh in my mind for that to happen.

Snout · Post by **Snout** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:06 am

I think today was a fluke. If you had told me before the game that:

The Redskins were playing at home
The Rams were winless coming in and lost by more than 20 pts/game
CP would run for more than 100 yards rushing
JC would not have any INTs
The Cardinals would have only three healthy CBs
We would have almost 3x as many first downs
We would control the time of possession
We would have fewer penalties
Randal El would have his best punt return of the season

Then I would have told you that the Redskins would win by at least 4 touchdowns.

This is the NFL, and these things happen. Hopefully we will be on the winning end of these fluke games more often than we are on the losing end.

HEROHAMO · Post by **HEROHAMO** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:29 am

Portis said it himself. They underestimated the Rams and it bit them in the butt. I was hoping this wouldnt happen but it did. Part of the growing process I guess. So hopefully the team learns it lesson and never underestimate any opponent.

They should just focus one game at a time. The Browns are next and that is it. Focus on beating the browns.

VetSkinsFan · Post by **VetSkinsFan** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:31 am

grampi wrote:
VetSkinsFan wrote:
grampi wrote:
Fios wrote:
grampi wrote:
Skinsfan55 wrote:Sorry guys, a championship team just doesn't lose to the Rams. This team's pretty much done for the season.

Losing to the Rams at home has to be the worst case scenario. A contender would have beaten St. Louis by 30, and we just couldn't get it done.

After earning some respect by beating the Cowboys and Eagles we lost to the worst team in the league. We went from potentially being the best team in the NFC to being a laughingstock.

Congrats on getting the guys ready to play Zorn, also, you are an expert at halftime adjustments.

OMG, you are going to get severely flamed by the blindly optumistic. Haven't you learned you can't criticize the Skins in this forum, even when they play horribly?

Totally, people like this are going to be up-in-arms:

grampi wrote:I wonder how many more games the Skins will have to win before they're finally recognized by the so called experts as ligitimate contenders? It cracks me up when these idiots keep picking against the Skins and the Skins keep proving them wrong ;0)

You are one of the blindly optumistic. The skins were favored because they playing the winless Lambs.

Wow, some people change their minds more than an Oprah Winfrey recording...

It's called watching the game. You thought they looked good today? You didn't think they looked good in previous weeks?

Read the sig, grumpi. I don't quit on my team after 1 hard loss.

VetSkinsFan · Post by **VetSkinsFan** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:35 am

Skinsfan55 wrote:What people don't understand is, this was not a tough fought loss that is the fault of a few players who didn't step up.

This was an absolute debacle.

The Redskins were outclassed by THE WORST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE!

St. Louis is awful, and we should have destroyed them. We couldn't get anything going, and we looked like a team that just didn't know how to win.

Pathetic and embarrassing are the words of the day for the Washington Redskins those guys should just hang their heads and pray for redemption when they play the Browns.

I hear the Cowboys take all bandwagoners...

VetSkinsFan · Post by **VetSkinsFan** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:43 am

grampi wrote:
Amberion wrote:I did not get to see the game and I think it was a tough loss but that was all it was - ONE LOSS-

I am still a proud Redskins fan, PROUDLY SEATED ON THE VERY FRONT SEAT OF THE BUS.

Still think the 'skins will finish 12-4

It's only one loss, but a loss to a team we should've easily beaten. That's what makes it's so disappointing.

Honestly, I'd rather lose to the Rams and beat Dallas. Beating Dallas puts us in a better light in our DIVISION. The conference is secondary to the DIVISION. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that we're still fortunate to be 4-2 after these 1st 6 weeks, and I agree. We're sitting pretty in the DIVISION compared to where a lot of us thought we'd be!

Thundersloth · Post by **Thundersloth** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:57 am

Apparently on the long completion to set up the game winning FG, Blache sent two blitzers and one of them, for some inexplicable reason didn't go, maybe we could've gotten home if the guy went. There were so many mental errors yesterday that I don't think the Redskins deserved to win. I didn't say they SHOULDN"T have won the game, but that they didn't deserve to win the game.

I keep hearing trap game, I didn't see this as a trap game because a trap game is when you overlook this weeks opponent that you should beat to next weeks opponent that is a bigger challenge. Cleveland is not a team you look past St. Louis for. At least that's how I define a trap game. What happend yesterday was a team that thought they just had to tie up their cleats to win, now I hope for the rest of the season we take nothing for granted. I've coached football long enough to know you still have to play the actual game to get the win.

For the record St. Louis is ONE of the worst teams in the league. Detroit is the worst team. But even they will get a win this year at some point.

Time to buckle down, reflect on this loss of a winnable game, and come back with a vengence against Cleveland, who I think might beat the Giants tonight.

Special thanks goes out to the Cards for beating the Cowpunks after almost a disasterous series of events which allowed Dallas to take the game into overtime.

Deadskins · Post by **Deadskins** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:02 am

Amberion wrote:I am still a proud Redskins fan, PROUDLY SEATED ON THE VERY FRONT SEAT OF THE BUS.

Still think the 'skins will finish 12-4

See, the problem is, you got on so late. We here in the back row, have been on this bus for a very long time. :lol:

I also think we will finish 12-4, win the division, and have a bye week.

VetSkinsFan · Post by **VetSkinsFan** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:05 am

JSPB22 wrote:
Amberion wrote:I am still a proud Redskins fan, PROUDLY SEATED ON THE VERY FRONT SEAT OF THE BUS.

Still think the 'skins will finish 12-4

See, the problem is, you got on so late. We here in the back row, have been on this bus for a very long time.

I also think we will finish 12-4, win the division, and have a bye week.

An 8 game streak would be nice, but I'm not holding on to that one. I'll settle for 10-6/11-5. Anything less and I'll be sorely disappointed. I've been on the bus for awhile, and I'm not giving up my seat.

Cappster · Post by **Cappster** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:21 am

WAKE UP CALL TO THE TEAM!!!! They made plenty of mistakes that can be corrected. We need to do a better job on pass protection. I didn't like the play calling either, but that was probably influenced by all of the penalties and negative yards we had to overcome. Special teams was terrible all the way around. Suisham kicked off out of bounds again. Brooks can't kick further than 40 yards or with any hang time.

The few bright spots were Portis running the ball, Horton all over the field, and Rogers becoming a shutdown corner.

Chris Luva Luva · Post by **Chris Luva Luva** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:57 am

The Redskins are playing to the level of their opponent. This team has not arrived yet even though they seem to believe they have.

Contenders beat the teams they should beat and sneak in some wins they're not supposed to. They better heed this wake up call and come out with guns blazing.

Zorn also needs to figure out how to get these WR's catching passes. ARE is dropping passes left and right. Moss hopefully isn't getting the case of the dropsies. Thrash has the hands but not the speed, lol.

Thomas and Kelly need to get their heads in the books and bodies healed because we need some good hands.

SkinsJock · Post by **SkinsJock** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:26 am

Chris Luva Luva wrote:The Redskins are playing to the level of their opponent. This team has not arrived yet even though they seem to believe they have.

agreed - sometimes confidence is a good thing but handling their own mistakes badly and thinking that we could still win should have taught these guys a big lesson

Contenders beat the teams they should beat and sneak in some wins they're not supposed to. They better heed this wake up call and come out with guns blazing.

we really did sneak in a few wins already - a case could be made that we should not have won 3 of the 4 :wink:

I totally agree though that everyone (coaches and players need to make a far bigger effort TOGETHER from now on. We have some games ahead that we have to make sure we walk off the field knowing we did everything possible to win the game.

Zorn also needs to figure out how to get these WR's catching passes. ARE is dropping passes left and right. Moss hopefully isn't getting the case of the dropsies. Thrash has the hands but not the speed,
Thomas and Kelly need to get their heads in the books and bodies healed because we need some good hands.

agreed - a lot of players seemed to just show up in this game.

In order to be successful the players and coaches have to do everything possible in both practice and during the game to ensure the win - we did not seem to play with the urgency we have shown.

I hope Zorn and Blache use this week's film sessions to really kick some butt :wink:

RedskinsFreak · Post by **RedskinsFreak** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:50 am

Chris Luva Luva wrote:The Redskins are playing to the level of their opponent. This team has not arrived yet even though they seem to believe they have.

That's been a problem with this team for a while now.

It's probably human nature. But if you want to be seen as one of the elite teams in the league, you need to go out there and beat the will to compete out of that lesser team in the first quarter.

But you have to give props to Haslett, who has shown he can lead a team to the playoffs. He had the Rams playing better than they have in two years.

That doesn't absolve the Redskins of anything, though.

BigRedskinDaddy · Post by **BigRedskinDaddy** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:05 am

Here's the thing: while I agree that the Rams certainly played with more purpose and fire than at any other point this season, they were still soundly outplayed across the board by the Skins.

The only stat line that's even close was ToP, with us holding the ball 2 mins more. We nearly outgained them 2 to 1, stoned them both times they got in the red zone, held them to almost 1 in 4 conversions on 3rd down...we just kept leaving the rock on the ground.

I'm not saying they didn't take this team lightly; I believe they did somewhat. It's encouraging to me that even so they still played that much better aside from the TO's. Like I said in an earlier post, if we don't bunch all our giveaways into one game instead of spreading them across the six games (lol), we probably win this one pretty handily.

Then again, if IFS and BUTS were candies and nuts...every day would be Christmas.

SKINFAN · Post by **SKINFAN** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 10:09 am

good stuff big red.

We lost sure, but take this as a learning loss and take it now while we still have a lot of games to play and get better.

welch · Post by **welch** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 12:34 pm

One loss is no big deal. We didn't think that this was the '83 or the '91 team, right? This team is learning, and one thing is to avoid turnovers.

Incidentally, the Rams are not a pile of dish-rags, no matter what the TV sports entertainers might say.

So, on to next week. A BIG game.

tribeofjudah · Post by **tribeofjudah** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:57 pm

Who's your Sacrificial LAMB...no pun intended....?

Mine is some punk named Torrence..... put him on the bench for a couple of games.

Cappster · Post by **Cappster** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:04 pm

tribeofjudah wrote:Who's your Sacrificial LAMB...no pun intended....?

Mine is some punk named Torrence..... put him on the bench for a couple of games.

Torrence actually had good coverage, but the ball was under thrown. Very difficult to make that play not to mention Bulger had all day to throw.

Deadskins · Post by **Deadskins** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:08 pm

Cappster wrote:
tribeofjudah wrote:Who's your Sacrificial LAMB...no pun intended....?

Mine is some punk named Torrence..... put him on the bench for a couple of games.

Torrence actually had good coverage, but the ball was under thrown. Very difficult to make that play not to mention Bulger had all day to throw.

He's no punk. He was right with the receiver. His problem is he needs to turn his head and pick up the ball. He could have had an INT. He's still young, give him a break.