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

riggofan wrote:

SkinsJock wrote:I'll be very surprised if these guys can have this franchise competing for a playoff spot this season - that's what "playing meaningful games in December means

The Browns were playing meaningful games in December last year. They weren't eliminated from playoff contention until Dec 21st. I don't think anyone believed they were really a playoff team last year, but they were playing meaningful games late into December. Their record was 7-9 btw.

Do you think the team can win two or three more games than they did last year? Finish 7-9 and you probably won't have been mathematically eliminated at Thanksgiving like every other year.

And every team in the NFC South had a losing record too. Sadly our division isn't so sorry, and we have to do a little better to be competing in December.

but, Spring is here and many Redskins fans can point to all the good things and know that we'll be better this year ...

after all - all we need to do is stop losing games we should win and ... plus the O line is going to be a lot better and we have 3 QBs on the roster, at least 2 of them are a lot better than ... well somebody - wait and see, we'll be playing for the NFC East title this season

give me a break

Best I can hope for is progress not a winning year. After watching football teams for over 50 years I can recognize when a team is improving and that is all I hope to see and all I think fans should hope for in 2015. If we see improvement it will mean Scot is helping and Gruden is coaching the squad up and maybe, just maybe Snyder is letting guys do their jobs. In my view no real progress can be achieved if Snyder meddles or is not satisfied to let employees run the football operation, but if he finally will stay out the way the process of long term improvement can start. None of the choices thus far seem like Snyder decisions and because of that I have faint hopes again.

SkinsJock wrote:I could care less what any other franchise does

this franchise needs major help in so many areas from what we saw last season - that is not happening in one year

I'm not drinking that cool-aid anymore

lol. This is such a complete non answer to a very specific question. My question was do you think the team can finish 7-9 this year?

Deadskins wrote:

riggofan wrote:

SkinsJock wrote:I'll be very surprised if these guys can have this franchise competing for a playoff spot this season - that's what "playing meaningful games in December means

The Browns were playing meaningful games in December last year. They weren't eliminated from playoff contention until Dec 21st. I don't think anyone believed they were really a playoff team last year, but they were playing meaningful games late into December. Their record was 7-9 btw.

Do you think the team can win two or three more games than they did last year? Finish 7-9 and you probably won't have been mathematically eliminated at Thanksgiving like every other year.

And every team in the NFC South had a losing record too. Sadly our division isn't so sorry, and we have to do a little better to be competing in December.

The Browns compete in the AFC North - not the NFC South. You think the NFC East was much better than the AFC North last year? Wrong. The AFC North combined for 37 wins last year. The NFC east sucked with 32.

Anyway, I'm not arguing that we would be "competing" at 7-9. I'm saying we could finish 7-9 and be playing meaningful games in December. You guys can believe whatever you want, but its not like the Browns season didn't happen last year.

Let me just add in bold text for SJ's benefit that I'm not saying we WILL finish 7-9. My most optimistic hope for this year is that we finish 6-10 and don't have any 44-7 losses to divisional opponents.

SkinsJock wrote:but, Spring is here and many Redskins fans can point to all the good things and know that we'll be better this year ...

after all - all we need to do is stop losing games we should win and ... plus the O line is going to be a lot better and we have 3 QBs on the roster, at least 2 of them are a lot better than ... well somebody - wait and see, we'll be playing for the NFC East title this season

give me a break

Take that, straw man!

I do think the Redskins can finish at 7-9 - they just need to win the games they should and get lucky with a couple of others

I'm really more concerned with the FO doing a better job of adding some players and having a plan for this franchise for the long term

my next concern is that we find out where we are with RG3 - hopefully these guys can help him over the next 2 season to become a good NFL QB - If not, I hope Cousins can carry the load until we get a good one - I do not have faith in Cousins becoming a good NFL QB, I do think he's a good back-up QB and certainly adequate to fill in until we find a really good one - I'm not a QB guru, just my opinion

lastly - I'm really concerned about Jay Gruden - he needs to do a much better job

if the FO and Scot can add the players that will give us a good offensive line in 2017 and a decent defense we should be OK

this season's win/loss record is not near as important to me as building this franchise back into a good team again

it will take time - but it would be nice to see them starting to add young players that can help this franchise for many years to come

riggo - I think you're realistic about this franchise, there are many others here that are being unrealistic in their expectations

I hope we win a bunch of games, I just don't see the roster turnover that we need plus there is a pervasive attitude that will take time to get rid of

love to see it happen soon but I think it takes a bit longer

SkinsJock wrote:I do think the Redskins can finish at 7-9 - they just need to win the games they should and get lucky with a couple of others

That's sort of how I feel about it. We *could* win 7 games, but I'm not optimistic that we *should* win 7 games. lol.

I agree with your looking at the larger picture btw. If everything breaks our way, we get off to a 4-0 start and make a playoff run, I will be happy as hell. But if we just show some improvement, have a good draft this year and just look significantly better than last year, I'll be pleased as well. I seriously can't take another year like the last two.

[code][/code]I hope Snyder allows Scot to selects the players and Jay gets to play who he wants this fall. Of special concern is QB, I want Jay to be free to pick his guy. I don't believe that is the case judging by his flip flop saying he was going to compete the position and then shortly afterwards saying Griffin was number 1, in my view Snyder's fingerprints are all over that reversal. Hopefully Gruden will start McCoy or Cousins if they look better in camp than Griffin. Scot thoughtfully selecting the players instead of Snyder and Gruden clearly in charge of his team and modestly improving it. I'd be over the moon happy if Scot and Jay are in charge in 2015.

riggofan wrote:

SkinsJock wrote:I do think the Redskins can finish at 7-9 - they just need to win the games they should and get lucky with a couple of others

That's sort of how I feel about it. We *could* win 7 games, but I'm not optimistic that we *should* win 7 games. lol.
I agree with your looking at the larger picture btw. If everything breaks our way, we get off to a 4-0 start and make a playoff run, I will be happy as hell. But if we just show some improvement, have a good draft this year and just look significantly better than last year, I'll be pleased as well. I seriously can't take another year like the last two.

TOTALLY agree - I hope that we're on a good path to having an offense & defense that can help win some games instead of losing them

riggofan wrote:

Deadskins wrote:

riggofan wrote:The Browns were playing meaningful games in December last year. They weren't eliminated from playoff contention until Dec 21st. I don't think anyone believed they were really a playoff team last year, but they were playing meaningful games late into December. Their record was 7-9 btw.

Do you think the team can win two or three more games than they did last year? Finish 7-9 and you probably won't have been mathematically eliminated at Thanksgiving like every other year.

And every team in the NFC South had a losing record too. Sadly our division isn't so sorry, and we have to do a little better to be competing in December.

The Browns compete in the AFC North - not the NFC South. You think the NFC East was much better than the AFC North last year? Wrong. The AFC North combined for 37 wins last year. The NFC east sucked with 32.

Where did I say that? I was actually trying to reinforce your point by pointing out that 7-9 for one team doesn't equate to 7-9 for a totally different team (in another conference, much less division). But, since you brought it up, you can't compare the AFC North's 37 wins to the NFC East's 32 (5 more wins really isn't much, btw) because we were matched up against the NFC West and AFC South, while they got the NFC South and AFC South. I'm not willing to go to that much trouble, because it has nothing to do with the point I was making, but a valid comparison would be how both divisions fared against the AFC South teams.

Deadskins wrote:Where did I say that? I was actually trying to reinforce your point by pointing out that 7-9 for one team doesn't equate to 7-9 for a totally different team (in another conference, much less division). But, since you brought it up, you can't compare the AFC North's 37 wins to the NFC East's 32 (5 more wins really isn't much, btw) because we were matched up against the NFC West and AFC South, while they got the NFC South and AFC South. I'm not willing to go to that much trouble, because it has nothing to do with the point I was making, but a valid comparison would be how both divisions fared against the AFC South teams.

Gotcha, my bad.