The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Irn-Bru wrote:I've resigned myself to thinking that Merriweather will never see sustained playing time as a Redskin. I can't imagine who else we could bring in, so like last year we'll just have to grit our teeth and bear this defense while Rambo learns the ropes. With Thomas returning and another offseason, we'll finally be able to drag our defensive backfield back toward average.

+1

Anyone have any updates on his status?

Irn-Bru wrote:I've resigned myself to thinking that Merriweather will never see sustained playing time as a Redskin. I can't imagine who else we could bring in, so like last year we'll just have to grit our teeth and bear this defense while Rambo learns the ropes. With Thomas returning and another offseason, we'll finally be able to drag our defensive backfield back toward average.

I suspect there are several things that will come into play here...
1: Merriweather should now have a wealth of internal motivation to stop spearing...

2: The need to address the secondary will probably result in the team abandoning BPA in the Second round of the 2014 draft, and going with BDBA (best DB available) instead.

3: Rambo has been improving exponentially... despite the claims of the bus jumpers...

4: Amerson has been schooled. This is one of the reasons you rarely see rooks starting in the back 4 on defense this early in the season... Unfortunately, our situation demands that he learn on the job... He will get better...

5: RAK! Stay home once in a while...

6: Haslett has done a lousy job of covering the weaknesses of his players... that may be largely due to circumstance, but, come on... doesn't that dictate being a bit less aggressive than we have been????

I say on Sunday they assign Rambo and Amerson to double CJ all game. It would fix several things.
First, neither rookie would be confused with their responsibility.
Second, it would prevent Halett from running any of those stupid zero blitz.
Third, DHall should be able to handle whoever the Lions number two WR is and maybe he and Wilson would actually play some press coverage.
Fourth, I think four rushers can get to Stafford and that still leaves a free safety to help out.

Calvin Johnson. Groan.

Merriweather back to practice today btw.

Safety Brandon Meriweather walks off the field after suffering a concussion during a helmet-to-helmet hit Sunday. (Tom Lynn/Associated Press)

Redskins strong safety Brandon Meriweather returned to the practice field on Wednesday after leaving Sunday’s game with a concussion and going through a series of tests Monday and Tuesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much of a workload Meriweather received. But he took part in the first 20 minutes of practice, which is dedicated to positional drills and open to reporters.

Meriweather did not speak to reporters during the Wednesday morning open locker room session.

Meriweather suffered his concussion 30 seconds into the second quarter while trying to tackle Green Bay running back James Starks along the sideline. Meriweather came in from the side, and his helmet struck Starks’ helmet. Meriweather went down in a heap and did not move. Trainers immediately rushed across the field to tend to him. After several minutes, Meriweather sat up and eventually walked off the field under his own power. He headed straight for the locker room flanked by a trainer and team doctor. He was diagnosed with a concussion shortly after.

Meriweather in the first quarter knocked running back Eddie Lacy out of the game with a helmet-to-helmet hit. Meriweather is expected to receive a fine from the league.

Brandon was fined $42,000 by the NFL - the thing is, we cannot afford to have players that can 'play' like Brandon, on the sidelines ...
if he continues to lead with his helmet, I hope they kick him off the team for putting his playing time at risk - he obviously is not capable of learning from his mistakes

I saw that he was fined. Has there been any news about his own concussion though? Is he allowed to play this weekend?

I hope he is back on the field this weekend. Brandon is not Afraid to hit someone. Just needs to see what he is hitting. I can't take another game with Reed D. Reed always finds away to make the team. Mostly because of others misfortunes.

jr_uscg wrote:I hope he is back on the field this weekend. Brandon is not Afraid to hit someone. Just needs to see what he is hitting. I can't take another game with Reed D. Reed always finds away to make the team. Mostly because of others misfortunes.

It's funny the hit that Merriweather went out after was as much delivered by the RB as Brandon. There wouldn't have been any helmet to helmet if Srarks hadn't dipped his head and initiated the contact.

^ The fine may have been for the hit on Lacy... The second one may have been viewed as a bang-bang play by the league...

riggofan wrote:I saw that he was fined. Has there been any news about his own concussion though? Is he allowed to play this weekend?

He was back on the practice field today, so that means he's cleared to play.

Countertrey wrote:^ The fine may have been for the hit on Lacy... The second one may have been viewed as a bang-bang play by the league...

Yes, the league viewed the second hit a bang-bang type play and he wasn't punished for it. The $42k fine was fit the first hit on Lacy.

Not that it really makes any difference.

Deadskins wrote:

riggofan wrote:I saw that he was fined. Has there been any news about his own concussion though? Is he allowed to play this weekend?

He was back on the practice field today, so that means he's cleared to play.

. Not sure I put as much faith in Merriweather as some, but I'm pretty sure we're better with him on the field than not.

I agree with the comments about Starks. I'd go one further and say it kind of looked to me like the RB was paying Merriweather back a little bit for the hit on Lacy.

IMHO NFL Football has become too much of a baby league. Tackle Football is a violent sport. The NFL should have all players that want to play that are drafted sign a health waiver form. There will be concussions, there will be injury's. GET OVER IT! Now I don't think spearing should be legal or direct shots at the head so to speak, but the about of rules and how hard hits are now frowned upon is sickening. I suppose had Sean Taylor still been playing he would be a dirty player too right? I wonder how many suspensions and fines he would have gotten. With that said I like Merriweather and hope he still clocks the opposite team's players as he can!!

skinsfan#33 wrote:

Countertrey wrote:^ The fine may have been for the hit on Lacy... The second one may have been viewed as a bang-bang play by the league...

Yes, the league viewed the second hit a bang-bang type play and he wasn't punished for it. The $42k fine was fit the first hit on Lacy.

Not that it really makes any difference.

correct in a big picture kind of way... except that you were wondering why Starks wasn't fined. My response was to that.

Players who would have a VERY difficult time adjusting to today's wussified rules...

Herb Adderly
Lem Barney
Sammy Baugh
Chuck Bednarik
Mel Blount
Nic Buoniconti
Dick Butkis
Earl Campbell
Larry Csonka
Richard Dent
Dan Dierdorf
Mike Ditka
Chris Doleman
Art Donovan
Turk Edwards
Russ Grimm
Jack Hamm
Dan Hampton
Chris Hanburger
John Hanna
Mike Haynes
Ted Hendricks
Ken Houston
Sam Huff
Deacon Jones
Paul Krause
Jack Lambert
Dick "Night Train" Lane
Ronnie Lott
Gino Marchetti
Ray Nitchke
Mel Renfro
John Riggins
Gene Upshaw
Roger Werhli
Willie Wood

DaSkinz Baby wrote:IMHO NFL Football has become too much of a baby league. Tackle Football is a violent sport. The NFL should have all players that want to play that are drafted sign a health waiver form. There will be concussions, there will be injury's. GET OVER IT! Now I don't think spearing should be legal or direct shots at the head so to speak, but the about of rules and how hard hits are now frowned upon is sickening. I suppose had Sean Taylor still been playing he would be a dirty player too right? I wonder how many suspensions and fines he would have gotten. With that said I like Merriweather and hope he still clocks the opposite team's players as he can!!

You forgot to add "there will be debilitating, crippling injuries and long term brain damage".

Seriously, I agree to a certain extent with what you're saying. You can only take out so much of the violence of the game. But trying to get players to actually tackle instead of launching themselves like missiles is probably worth it if it saves some of these guys from dementia or ALS at the age of 40.

If you haven't seen the Real Sports piece on former New Orleans Saint, Steve Gleason, its well worth watching.

http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bry ... eason.html

Countertrey wrote:

Irn-Bru wrote:I've resigned myself to thinking that Merriweather will never see sustained playing time as a Redskin. I can't imagine who else we could bring in, so like last year we'll just have to grit our teeth and bear this defense while Rambo learns the ropes. With Thomas returning and another offseason, we'll finally be able to drag our defensive backfield back toward average.

6: Haslett has done a lousy job of covering the weaknesses of his players... that may be largely due to circumstance, but, come on... doesn't that dictate being a bit less aggressive than we have been????

The unfortunete thing is that our CBs currently have more sacks on the season than our DL......

Since we can't get traditional pressure on the QB, we have to use our LBs. Our defensive ineffectiveness is compounded by the fact our DBs can't cover. We have solid LBs, but they can't make up for a bad DL AND DBs.

So --- A no-pressure DL + DBs that can't cover = horrible and easily manipulated defense

While I'm not high on Hasslett, any NFL calibur O coordinator can pick a defense apart with the holes we have. Being aggressive is the ONLY option. The only chance this D has in being halfway effective is rushing Kerrigan and Orakpo in order to get some pressure on the QB. If they get to the QB, you have a 2nd or 3rd and long situation that is a bit more managable. If a less aggressive approach is taken, their QB will have TONS of time --- and with our secondary, it's only a matter of 5-8 seconds before a WR or TE breaks free from one of our DBs........

Besides, how can you cover the weaknesses of a team with a horrible DL AND secondary???
- Rush more LBs? (we've done that and failed)
- Bring pressure from the DBs? (done that and failed)
- Put in additional DBs to increase secondary help (who?, what DB would you rather have out there than one of Orakpo, RK, LF, or Riley)
- Create more blind seondary packages (with rookie DBs, this is difficult)

I think it's easily said, but when you think about it, we don't have the personnel or depth to cover up weaknesses --- when the weaknesses are in 2 or the 3 defensive areas........

riggofan wrote:

DaSkinz Baby wrote:IMHO NFL Football has become too much of a baby league. Tackle Football is a violent sport. The NFL should have all players that want to play that are drafted sign a health waiver form. There will be concussions, there will be injury's. GET OVER IT! Now I don't think spearing should be legal or direct shots at the head so to speak, but the about of rules and how hard hits are now frowned upon is sickening. I suppose had Sean Taylor still been playing he would be a dirty player too right? I wonder how many suspensions and fines he would have gotten. With that said I like Merriweather and hope he still clocks the opposite team's players as he can!!

You forgot to add "there will be debilitating, crippling injuries and long term brain damage".

Seriously, I agree to a certain extent with what you're saying. You can only take out so much of the violence of the game. But trying to get players to actually tackle instead of launching themselves like missiles is probably worth it if it saves some of these guys from dementia or ALS at the age of 40.

If you haven't seen the Real Sports piece on former New Orleans Saint, Steve Gleason, its well worth watching.

http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bry ... eason.html

there is no guarentee there would be injury and even if there was the millions they make should be enough compensation. Heck we have 18 year olds going to war getting killed and what do they get? a flag and 10,000 dollars. Why can't the millions earned in most cases be enough to compensate. It's TACKLE FOOTBALL not Flag, not 2 hand touch, if your going to catch a pass over the middle, you have to pay that toll. If not then you might as well allow woman to play on the teams too....IMHO!

riggofan wrote:

DaSkinz Baby wrote:IMHO NFL Football has become too much of a baby league. Tackle Football is a violent sport. The NFL should have all players that want to play that are drafted sign a health waiver form. There will be concussions, there will be injury's. GET OVER IT! Now I don't think spearing should be legal or direct shots at the head so to speak, but the about of rules and how hard hits are now frowned upon is sickening. I suppose had Sean Taylor still been playing he would be a dirty player too right? I wonder how many suspensions and fines he would have gotten. With that said I like Merriweather and hope he still clocks the opposite team's players as he can!!

You forgot to add "there will be debilitating, crippling injuries and long term brain damage".

Seriously, I agree to a certain extent with what you're saying. You can only take out so much of the violence of the game. But trying to get players to actually tackle instead of launching themselves like missiles is probably worth it if it saves some of these guys from dementia or ALS at the age of 40. If you haven't seen the Real Sports piece on former New Orleans Saint, Steve Gleason, its well worth watching.

http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bry ... eason.html

There is a solution. This stuff started when the league banned bump and run coverage, where the db initiated contact early, and maintained it for as long as possible... the result was that the db was usually too close the the receiver to launch. Legalize bump and run... the kind perfected by Pat Fischer and Roger Werhli... you'll see this more violent contact go way down. You'll also see defense become an actual part of the game again... and Receivers will have to actually earn their living, like Charlie Taylor, Charlie Joiner, and others did.

Countertrey wrote:

riggofan wrote:

DaSkinz Baby wrote:IMHO NFL Football has become too much of a baby league. Tackle Football is a violent sport. The NFL should have all players that want to play that are drafted sign a health waiver form. There will be concussions, there will be injury's. GET OVER IT! Now I don't think spearing should be legal or direct shots at the head so to speak, but the about of rules and how hard hits are now frowned upon is sickening. I suppose had Sean Taylor still been playing he would be a dirty player too right? I wonder how many suspensions and fines he would have gotten. With that said I like Merriweather and hope he still clocks the opposite team's players as he can!!

You forgot to add "there will be debilitating, crippling injuries and long term brain damage".

Seriously, I agree to a certain extent with what you're saying. You can only take out so much of the violence of the game. But trying to get players to actually tackle instead of launching themselves like missiles is probably worth it if it saves some of these guys from dementia or ALS at the age of 40. If you haven't seen the Real Sports piece on former New Orleans Saint, Steve Gleason, its well worth watching.

http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bry ... eason.html

There is a solution. This stuff started when the league banned bump and run coverage, where the db initiated contact early, and maintained it for as long as possible... the result was that the db was usually too close the the receiver to launch. Legalize bump and run... the kind perfected by Pat Fischer and Roger Werhli... you'll see this more violent contact go way down. You'll also see defense become an actual part of the game again... and Receivers will have to actually earn their living, like Charlie Taylor, Charlie Joiner, and others did.

Excellent point. However people including athletes today want the easy route. It's like all these rules favoring the offense was done cause so many people want to a 49-42 game and not a 10-7 game. It stinks how much this game is changing all on the premise of safety. I wonder what the rules are going to be when they realize what these lisfranc injuries are being caused by. Maybe they will only allow one type of shoe to be worn........

Countertrey wrote:There is a solution. This stuff started when the league banned bump and run coverage, where the db initiated contact early, and maintained it for as long as possible... the result was that the db was usually too close the the receiver to launch. Legalize bump and run... the kind perfected by Pat Fischer and Roger Werhli... you'll see this more violent contact go way down. You'll also see defense become an actual part of the game again... and Receivers will have to actually earn their living, like Charlie Taylor, Charlie Joiner, and others did.

Great comment, not an idea I have heard before. Why were the rules on bump and run changed to begin with?

DaSkinz, I'm totally with you on not wanting to see the action taken out of the game. There's no doubt there is an amount of risk that comes with playing football and earning the rewards that come with it. I think the NFL is right though on trying to take away that launching/spearing with the helmet though. Make these guys learn how to tackle again, the game will be fine.

riggofan wrote: Why were the rules on bump and run changed to begin with?

My opinion?

Three reasons...
1: HOF Roger Werhli
2: SHOULD BE HOF Pat Fischer.
3: The NFL became aware that the attention spans and sophistication of fans was diminishing, and the league had just about maxed out it's fan base... New fans were needed to grow the league... Scoring was seen as a path to assure that the NFL maintained and grew the fan base... From a business perspective, they were right... Unfortunately, the integrity of the game has suffered...

Typically, before the NFL put it's finger on the balance between O and D, an innovation on D was countered with an innovation on O, and vice versa... unfortunately, however, the league felt this was not exciting enough... so they short circuited the evolution of the game (hence my integrity comment), and, basically, cheated the defenses of the league.

Today, as a result, defenses are largely little more than a foil for the offense.

Put it this way... in the old days, a cornerback could become a Probowler on guile, guts, and intelligence... in the late 60's, a Safety like Reed Doughty would be a sought after commodity. Now, unless you are FAST along with the other 3 attributes, you will struggle to make, much less stay with, a team.

Today, players like Charley Taylor, Harold Charmichael or Bob Hayes would destroy defenses.
Today, players like Roger Werhli and Pat Fisher would never get an NFL look

Back when Defense really meant something, the twice a year war between 6'8'' Harold Charmichael and 5'9'' Pat Fischer was a thing of beauty... most often a draw... but won more often by Fischer than Charmichael... Carmichael HATED playing against Fisher... because IT HURT. Today, the tall fast guy wins...

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Countertrey wrote:That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Yeah, but only because you have stick-um all over you.

Deadskins wrote:

Countertrey wrote:That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Yeah, but only because you have stick-um all over you.

stickum is quality! The bench knew that if Fischer had a wad of stickum in his mouth, stay away... he was probably pissed about something.