How I Think We Could Have Done Better

[Smithian]

The Redskins this year were 10-6, as we all know, and personally feel by playing Ramsey and stripping Jack Burns of his play calling and changing some of the offensive philosophy would have ended with the Redskins finishing with 12-13 wins and most likely a berth in the NFC Championship game currently.

Mark Brunell had an admirable job, I admit, but had many problems that we didn't notice in our happiness just to be winning more games than we were losing. The decision to start Brunell in the second game was complete stupidity in my mind, but ended up paying off luckily, though the argument can be made he would of done terribly had Moss not played great. Something everyone bragged about Brunell was his lack of stupid mistakes, which he made! He made a good number of mistakes, just like Ramsey would of. The interception verse Seattle almost killed this season early, though luckily Josh Brown hit the upright. Wild card interception verse Tampa... Enough said. Overall though, Brunell's mistakes were consistent messed up throws and the fact he'd rather throw it away then throw it to a WR sometimes when a guy was within 10 yards of the WR.

Also, Brunell supporters will make a big argument that "he only had one WR"... Well, guess what? Had Brunell willingly even tried to throw to our #2 WR, they would have had quite a few more catches than they had and teams would not have so quickly doubled and triple teamed Santana Moss. I know our secondary WRs were not great. but the lack of throws to them was unexcusable.

As a last remark... Mark Brunell, thankyou for trying hard and giving an admirable performance and giving us a memorable last three minutes on Monday Night Football. Also, work on your post game interviews... They're boring.

Now... To Jack Burns. He is a good coach though his play calling proves either our offensive philosophy has deeply rooted problems. Our fourth quarter plain calling plainly stunk and could be referred to as worse than that. Our "our school style" was something we wanted so we could run out the clock, but pure running is a recipe for disaster in the fourth when you're only up by four.

Then there is our offensive sets. What does a defense do when an offense is kicking butt? You put pressure on them. What do you do on offense when the defense is killing your pass and run games? You put pressure on defenses with multiple WR sets. The Redskins have a tendacy this year to go to three TE sets this year when we couldn't get anything going. Basically, defense would overload the box and dare us to pass... Which we wouldn't. By spreading the field 3-4 WRs, we could of create matchup problems and allow Portis to run in space, which his specialty. If they still overloaded to stop Portis, there would be open WRs downfield.

Had we spread the field and put pressure on the defense late in games, I will near promise you all we beat ATLEAST the Raiders and Chargers.

Now, in closing, I would like to apologize for ramblings and if you read it all, thankyou. I wrote this quickly, so sorry if I have some glaring mistake or my train of thought fell apart at some point.

[andyjens89]

Yeah we probably should've thrown downfield more in the playoff games.

[Gibbs4Life]

Our QB sucks.

[Smithian]

Our QB sucks.

To be blunt... Yes.

[THE RAM]

We tried it once yesterday but Brunell's pass was so short it ended on the WR holding the CB.

[DEHog]

Did you watch the games?? Get two yards in TB and we win, don't fumble in KC and we win, stop the run in Denver we win 13-3 at home for the playoffs. We won 6 straight because the team started exucuting not because the playcalling was any better. Can you imagine Ramsey in that game on Saturday?? Brunell was on the run all day..face it we got outplayed.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Did you watch the games?? Get two yards in TB and we win, don't fumble in KC and we win, stop the run in Denver we win 13-3 at home for the playoffs. We won 6 straight because the team started exucuting not because the playcalling was any better. Can you imagine Ramsey in that game on Saturday?? Brunell was on the run all day..face it we got outplayed.

I'd have to agree...

Will post more indepth thoughts as I will myself to get over the loss.

*runs to get breakfast during "lunch" break.

[redskingush]

Here's a couple things I noticed in this thread.

Brunell did do ok, however he struggled at times and I think was bad more than good. The problem was Patrick Ramsey was givin a quarter and a half and then yanked, I know he would have struggled at times as well but what he brings I think would have helped, No defence was scared of Marks arm, I cant believe the team rushed for 1700+ yards, that is a credit to the O Line which did have some pass protection problems. When you don't have a deep ball armed quarterback teams play differently against you.

Joe and the staff said they had to learn the new NFL, well that goes for play calling as well. The reason we didn't go down field more is because Mark counlnt throw it down field with the rainbow ball.

In the off season we have questions already.

1. We need some WR support and Depth.
2. OL Depth and Maybe another OT for Samuels, I think its time to try and move him inside to OG if that's possible, Some of the Leagues Ends are just to fast for him i think.
3. LB- If Lavar goes, He will need to be replaced because Money and coaching aside, we played well when they let him play.
4. The kicking game, Punter and Kicker need replacing.
5. A decision at Qb, We have 3 options or do we go get a 4th in FA.

[admin]

A guy went deep on many, many plays... namely Moss... Brunell can't throw a long ball to him? Well how come Santana Moss had MORE 30+ yard receptions than anyone in the league then?

Personally, i don't think this had anything to do with play calls... you just can't throw Moss the ball when he's double covered... there were quite a few plays that could have gone down field... but there was nobody open.

... having another receiver option and a better TE option will do more for the offense than trying to re-invent the system itself will.

[SkinsJock]

If a lot of us think that there are going to be major changes then there are going to be a lot of disapointed fans. IMO we are going to need to make some changes but this team will be successful with some fine tuning and not anything radical. This is Gibbs team and he likes "boring" (effective) ball control offense coupled with stingy defense.

The players will be made up of those who will make a huge committment to the Gibbs philosphies.

We do not need a QB who can do interviews! We did not lose this game (or any) because of our QB and I think he will be back to help our team. There has to be some players added to complement the Gibbs concepts and provide depth. There is not going to be a big change to the way we played the game this year. We did get the ball downfield with this QB which no one thought possible we just need to have more options.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Mark Brunell had an admirable job, I admit, but had many problems that we didn't notice in our happiness just to be winning more games than we were losing.

He won games. Thats all that matters. He won games without a #2 WR he could rely on. He won games with an inconsistent line.

though the argument can be made he would of done terribly had Moss not played great.

So would have Ramsey. We only had 1 WR who put forth any kind of effort this season aside from Thrash.

Something everyone bragged about Brunell was his lack of stupid mistakes, which he made! He made a good number of mistakes, just like Ramsey would of.

How many mistakes would Ramsey have made? Nobody can be 100% sure but I'd guarantee it would have been more than Brunell.

The interception verse Seattle almost killed this season early, though luckily Josh Brown hit the upright. Wild card interception verse Tampa... Enough said. Overall though, Brunell's mistakes were consistent messed up throws and the fact he'd rather throw it away then throw it to a WR sometimes when a guy was within 10 yards of the WR.

The SEA int was 100% Brunells fault.
Maybe he didn't think he could get it there. Maybe this or that. Better to throw it away than to try to thread the needle all the time.

Also, Brunell supporters will make a big argument that "he only had one WR"... Well, guess what? Had Brunell willingly even tried to throw to our #2 WR, they would have had quite a few more catches than they had and teams would not have so quickly doubled and triple teamed Santana Moss. I know our secondary WRs were not great. but the lack of throws to them was unexcusable.

I can agree with that also but we dont know what its like to be a QB. Gary Clark was speaking about Brunell and pointed out the lack of attention to the other WR's. He said he doesn't even look at them but when he HAS looked at them what have they done when given a fair chance? Taylor Jacobs is just as unathletic as James Thrash. I was a big TJ supporter until he showed why he hasn't been put in.

I think some of the philosophy could use some tweaking but what good is the philosophy if the guys dont execute? We'll use Norvy as an example. His offense is immaculate but did it click this year? No. Its not his philosophy, it was for whatever reason the lack of execution on the field. If we execute what we did this season we'd still be in contention.

[HEROHAMO]

The way I see it is Mark Brunell did the best he could so I say thanx for this season. But thanx and goodbye I am ready to start the future already I want to see campbell in action or even Ramsey. A good dose of discipline is all we need to keep Ramsey in check. And Campbells upside is tremendous he has an arm and his mobility is a huge plus. Oh I cant wait till next season.

[aswas71788]

There are going to be lots of arguments over the Redskins and the need for changes and where they need to be. First of all, everyone needs to recognize that Joe Gibbs is not going to change the quartertback. Brunell will be back next year. Brunell has had his games this year, both good and bad. For my book, he is not going to be able to move the Redskins past what we saw this year and given another year in age, maybe not even that again. There were many times that Brunell threw away the ball seemingly without even looking down field, almost as if the play were designed that way. Yes, he made long throws earlier this year but what happened in the last 3 games that made him regress to last year? Injury, fatique, old age? I remember at least twice where he threw it away on 4th down and many more times that he was so far off of the reciever that it had to be sent back by UPS. But then there were the right on the money throws that were truely good.

We, the fans always have all of the right answers, but Gibbs is running the team to the best of his ability. Will he get another receiver? Maybe. He is high on Patton although I didn't see that much to be high on. Taylor Jacobs is a total bust on the field but he seems to do enought to impress the coachs in the off season and pre season. My favorite saying about Jacobs is that he couldn't get open even if no one was covering him.

Of course the team needs to make improvements but for now, I am going to appreciate the above expectations achieved this year and hope for better next year.

[mattbro]

My name is Matthew Brown and this is my first time leaving a message. I cannot believe none of the redskins fans in the world are talking about how after we knocked out shaun alexander we would not blitz Hasselbeck at all the entire game until the third down Mack Strong run. Greg Williams is not that stupid and I believe that he was paid to not play the style of defense that he has built his reputation on. I do not want to hear that he was trying to fool anybody either. This situation is very serious along with how the refs and commentators worked together to stall momentom on offese by making back breaking calls with no review or reply by commentators that day. SAD SAD SAD Holler back

[The Hogster]

It's unfortunate that we are blaming the season on Brunell, but not crediting him with a great season.

We are 'blaming' him for what?? Not winning the Superbowl? If that were the sole criteria to judge a quarterback, then only one guy would keep his job every year.

Only 1 team goes home happy, and the others can't simply bench their QB just because they didn't make the Superbowl.

With that said though, Brunel's age does concern me. He is a brave guy. The hit he took against the Giants was just like the hit Rohtlesberger took. Rothlesberger tried to play, but he was ineffective and Cowher ended up benching him for two games to heal.

Problem is, when Brunell got injured he was playing well and the team had put up 35 points the week before and was well on their way to do it again so we could't afford to rest him.

In hindsight, maybe a healthy backup may have been more productive than an injured Brunell, but that remains to be seen. Brunell played well in the 4th quarter, problem is our offense was so darned conservative in quarters 1-3. We moved the ball through the air when we were passing, we just didn't punch it in when we got into the Red Zone and that killed us.

Had we scored in our 3 Red Zone opportunities, then we would have prevailed. That is not completely Brunell's fault, but if we are gonna succeed with him 1 year from now, we have to put more playmakers on the field and find out more ways to get the ball to Santana like Steve Smith.

[skinsRin]

It boils down to this, Brunell did a good job this year holding down the fort, no question! but he is not the future. He was just a bandaid for the problem at this momment. Cambell, I hope is the future but I hate to go through the growing pains that usually come with young QB's.

[Smithian]

A guy went deep on many, many plays... namely Moss... Brunell can't throw a long ball to him? Well how come Santana Moss had MORE 30+ yard receptions than anyone in the league then?

Personally, i don't think this had anything to do with play calls... you just can't throw Moss the ball when he's double covered... there were quite a few plays that could have gone down field... but there was nobody open.

... having another receiver option and a better TE option will do more for the offense than trying to re-invent the system itself will.

One, how many of those long catches were either unbelievable catches or some terible coverage on him?

Second, I believe play calls made a big difference. We put three TEs out there... Are you going to leave that guy down there to cover Kozlowksi or are you going to double Moss? You put pressure on the defenses by opening the field and making double coverage harder.

Mark Brunell had an admirable job, I admit, but had many problems that we didn't notice in our happiness just to be winning more games than we were losing.

He won games. Thats all that matters.

He didn't win enough games. Wins verse the Raiders and Chargers, then we're sitting on homefields in the playoffs and are in the NFC Championship game currently.

I am very happy about 10-6, but this team proved many times Brunell held us back a few times from being truly elite.

[The Hogster]

If you were to judge everyone by your standard then Smithian, then only the SuperBowl champion quarterback would keep his job every year.

Brunell was good for us, was he Tom Brady? No, but that doesn't mean that this is his fault. It's funny that you bring this up at the end of the season.

While he was making plays with his legs all year and throwing passes to a guy who was second in the league in catches, and broke a Redskins receiving record, none of this came.

It's easy to point the finger at the quarterback. I am sure some people in Indianapolis are criticizing Peyton Manning right now too.

I will say that there is only so long he can hold up though...he is getting old.

[Smithian]

If you were to judge everyone by your standard then Smithian, then only the SuperBowl champion quarterback would keep his job every year.

First off... I don't have way too high standards. Heck, I wanted Trung Canidate to stay here.

I am happy with a ton of QBs. I don't expect at all for us to win Super Bowl... I expect Brunell to live up to the expectations some have of him and have performances that make him obviously better Ramsey is Gibbs's mind.

Now, in closing, I love Joe Gibbs and that last sentence was not at all an insult to Joe Gibbs.

[Chris Luva Luva]

He won games. Thats all that matters. He didn't win enough games. Wins verse the Raiders and Chargers, then we're sitting on homefields in the playoffs and are in the NFC Championship game currently.

I am very happy about 10-6, but this team proved many times Brunell held us back a few times from being truly elite.

Blaming Brunell soley for any loss is...for lack of a better word, retarded. Brunell held us back from being elite? Who is the elite QB on our current roster that would have performed better than Brunell? Ramsey?

[redskingush]

He won games. Thats all that matters. He didn't win enough games. Wins verse the Raiders and Chargers, then we're sitting on homefields in the playoffs and are in the NFC Championship game currently.

I am very happy about 10-6, but this team proved many times Brunell held us back a few times from being truly elite.

Blaming Brunell soley for any loss is...for lack of a better word, retarded. Brunell held us back from being elite? Who is the elite QB on our current roster that would have performed better than Brunell? Ramsey?

Absolultly, Brunell won us games, Im sorry thought in hindsight I see differences between ramsey and brunell, you lose expieriance with Ramsey but gain arm strength, arm strength defenders fear, He was a first Round pick for a reason, Everybody said Spurrier didnt understand the NFL, well I like to thing Gibbs does and after the right guidance and teaching over the last 2 seasons I can only imagine where he could have been right now. The way it stands we get to bring antother QB along in Campbell(more rough spots doing that) Now we are probably going to trade the former first rounder for likely a 3rd or 4th pick in the draft. Thats a great value. Patrick Ramsey will succeed as a QB when he's given a full chance, and I hope we aren't kicking ourselfs.

[DEHog]

My name is Matthew Brown and this is my first time leaving a message. I cannot believe none of the redskins fans in the world are talking about how after we knocked out shaun alexander we would not blitz Hasselbeck at all the entire game until the third down Mack Strong run. Greg Williams is not that stupid and I believe that he was paid to not play the style of defense that he has built his reputation on. I do not want to hear that he was trying to fool anybody either. This situation is very serious along with how the refs and commentators worked together to stall momentom on offese by making back breaking calls with no review or reply by commentators that day. SAD SAD SAD Holler back

Welcome Matty, I think you answered your own question..GW is not that stupid. I agree with JF Seattle run the west coast offense about as good as anybody in the league. The WC offense is all about the short pass. I remember Lavar came on one play and they threw a quick out to Morris right there so I think GW was content to stay back and play the D he did...If I could have one play back I'd take the play were Rogers should have picked Hasslebeck it was have been a TD and put us up 10-0 and changed the game! I didn't think defense was our problrem in this game, I think had you told the coaching staff score 21 today and you'll beat Seattle they'd take it everyday of the week!

[Smithian]

Blaming Brunell soley for any loss is...for lack of a better word, retarded. Brunell held us back from being elite? Who is the elite QB on our current roster that would have performed better than Brunell? Ramsey?

I don't blame Brunell alone. I also blame our total lack of spreading the field after Patten went down.

I think by playing Patrick Ramsey last year could have helped us a good deal. Only reason I am glad he didn't start verse Dallas on MNF is Brunell had his two great throws on the year and gave us a great comeback... On that note, everyone give a prayer of thanksgiving to God for not giving Aaron Glenn and Roy Williams ability to cover.

What annoyed me is Brunell would look only at Moss then to ey and either take a sack, force it into coverage, or throw it away. I believe if he would be willing to look at secondary WRs, he would get some more completions and teams wouldn't be able to so easily make Moss their defensive focus.

[Chris Luva Luva]

He won games. Thats all that matters. He didn't win enough games. Wins verse the Raiders and Chargers, then we're sitting on homefields in the playoffs and are in the NFC Championship game currently.

I am very happy about 10-6, but this team proved many times Brunell held us back a few times from being truly elite.

Blaming Brunell soley for any loss is...for lack of a better word, retarded. Brunell held us back from being elite? Who is the elite QB on our current roster that would have performed better than Brunell? Ramsey?

Absolultly, Brunell won us games, Im sorry thought in hindsight I see differences between ramsey and brunell, you lose expieriance with Ramsey but gain arm strength, arm strength defenders fear, He was a first Round pick for a reason, Everybody said Spurrier didnt understand the NFL, well I like to thing Gibbs does and after the right guidance and teaching over the last 2 seasons I can only imagine where he could have been right now. The way it stands we get to bring antother QB along in Campbell(more rough spots doing that) Now we are probably going to trade the former first rounder for likely a 3rd or 4th pick in the draft. Thats a great value. Patrick Ramsey will succeed as a QB when he's given a full chance, and I hope we aren't kicking ourselfs.

How much time do we give this cat before we allow him to move on. Maybe we missed the bus on him, maybe we didn't. Maybe we would have won the SB with him, maybe we would have never won a game... What we do know is what we have seen from him and what we have seen is that he isn't ready. How long is it going to take to remove YEARS and YEARS of wrong teaching? How long is it going to take to remove the wrong mechnics that are 2nd nature to him? He may do it right in practice but in the heat of a game when he doesn't have time to think he's going to do wut is 2nd nature. We need to keep him on board as a decent #2 QB or let him go. Jason is the future.

I think Pat could have been good with the proper teaching from the getgo but its too late for him in this orgnization now. IMO.

[redskingush]

He won games. Thats all that matters. He didn't win enough games. Wins verse the Raiders and Chargers, then we're sitting on homefields in the playoffs and are in the NFC Championship game currently.

I am very happy about 10-6, but this team proved many times Brunell held us back a few times from being truly elite.

Blaming Brunell soley for any loss is...for lack of a better word, retarded. Brunell held us back from being elite? Who is the elite QB on our current roster that would have performed better than Brunell? Ramsey?

Absolultly, Brunell won us games, Im sorry thought in hindsight I see differences between ramsey and brunell, you lose expieriance with Ramsey but gain arm strength, arm strength defenders fear, He was a first Round pick for a reason, Everybody said Spurrier didnt understand the NFL, well I like to thing Gibbs does and after the right guidance and teaching over the last 2 seasons I can only imagine where he could have been right now. The way it stands we get to bring antother QB along in Campbell(more rough spots doing that) Now we are probably going to trade the former first rounder for likely a 3rd or 4th pick in the draft. Thats a great value. Patrick Ramsey will succeed as a QB when he's given a full chance, and I hope we aren't kicking ourselfs.

How much time do we give this cat before we allow him to move on. Maybe we missed the bus on him, maybe we didn't. Maybe we would have won the SB with him, maybe we would have never won a game... What we do know is what we have seen from him and what we have seen is that he isn't ready. How long is it going to take to remove YEARS and YEARS of wrong teaching? How long is it going to take to remove the wrong mechnics that are 2nd nature to him? He may do it right in practice but in the heat of a game when he doesn't have time to think he's going to do wut is 2nd nature. We need to keep him on board as a decent #2 QB or let him go. Jason is the future.

I think Pat could have been good with the proper teaching from the getgo but its too late for him in this orgnization now. IMO.

I do agree it's time to move on to Campbell, Im just saying that much has been made on Joe's Superbowls with 3 different QB's. Joe Theissman came from the CFL so he had to be changed, Doug Williams came from Tampa, they were plain awful and he hardly played there so he also was a project and for all Rypien did he only had a couple decent seasons. i think it would have been worthj working on Ramsey, but your right now well never know and when we find out it will be to late, because he will be somewhere else.