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

As a 24-year Washington Redskins fan starting in the first Gibbs era, I have always taken pride in Gibbs' abilility to outcoach opponents, to win with intelligence, to make adjustments on the fly, and to play better second half football than first half football. I love going into halftime thinking that no matter how well or poorly things are going for the Redskins, things will be better for the Redskins in the second half.

So even with a 5-11 team last year, I expected that pattern would remain true. I expected that Coach Gibbs would at least have our guys playing better in the 3Q based on coaching alone. But what did I find? In 16 games last year:

The Redskins were shut out 8 times in the third quarter, including 5 games in a row.
The Redskins outscored their opponents only 4 times in the third quarter.
The Redskins were outscored 8 times.
The Redskins played the opponent even 4 times.
The Redskins scored 55 3Q points and gave up 95 -- a huge differential.

All of that tells me that Gibbs was outmaneuvered in making halftime adjustments. Why? Has his style changed? Is he less aggressive than he used to be?

Here are the numbers:

Minn 3-7 (3rd) 3-10 (2nd half)
Dal 0-0 (3rd) 0-10 (2nd half)
Hou 7-0 (3rd) 10-8 (2nd half)
Jack 7-0 (3rd) 17-13 (2nd half)
NYG 0-7 (3rd) 0-10 (2nd half)
Tenn 0-9 (3rd) 8-12 (2nd half)
Ind 0-20 (3rd) 8-23 (2nd half)
Dal 0-7 (3rd) 10-7 (2nd half)
Phi 0-10 (3rd) 0-10) (2nd half)
TB 7-7 (3rd) 14-17 (2nd half)
Caro 7-0 (3rd) 14-7 (2nd half)
Atl 0-7 (3rd) 0-14 (2nd half)
Phi 10-0 (3rd) 10-3 (2nd half)
NO 0-0 (3rd) 3-3 (2nd half)
STL 7-14 (3rd) 10-23 (2nd half)
NYG 7-7 (3rd) 21-14 (2nd half)

Well, you are completely failing to take into account the following:

1. Gibbs' DC USED to be petitbon, and the two had a great working relationshiop. Now, its GW, and GW makes ZERO halftime adjustments. He basically runs the same damn scheme all the time, and its sickening to watch other teams adjust and the SKins simply do the same thing.

2. Al Saunders is now the OC. Gibbs isnt calling the plays.

Not sure how Gibbs the OC can now be compared to Gibbs the head coach. I dont think much of Al Saunders in terms of making adjustments.

if you look at the JC games we OUTSCORED our oppents in the 3rd 38-35
with a 3rd year JC i truly believe we will not see that problem again...i believe it was an anomoly..
Brunell had alot to due with the 3rd qtr debacles plus our d was putrid earlier in the year...
towards the end they played slightly better and we had JC hence the better numbers
id be shocked if we had the same problem again

I watched a replay (on NFL Network) of the Jax game and it was clear that the Jax coaches saw a few weeknesses and continued to exlpoit them as the game went on. Most noticable to me was the fact that they went at Carlos Rogers repeatedly because he was playing 10-12 yards off the man he was covering whenever he did not have a safety covering over the top for him. They threw to the backs out of the backfield and down the middle of the field quite often because they knew our linebackers could not cover them without help from the safeties. We had to decide what to do with the safeties (help the corners or linebackers in coverage) and they threw the ball wherever the safeties were not playing.

Injuries limited our options to counter these moves. Arch could not cover anyone and our backup corners could not cover without help. We've made some moves to improve our defense which shoul help and give coaches more options. Fletcher is an improvement at MLB, Smoot will help with man coverage, Springs and Prioleau will be healthy. Hopefully, we will have a better pass rusher (draft) to put more pressure on the QB.

Offensively, I think Saunders did not run the ball enough when it was working. Early in the season we tried to many gimmick plays, as if Saunders was trying to make a name for himself and prove his worth, rather than simply pound the ball right at them. As the season progressed, Gibbs decided we needed to run more and we did. It seemed to me that we did not make adjustments according to what other teams were doing, we simply forced what we wanted to do whether is was there or not. So to some extent I'd say I have to agree with the original post.

ArizonaHOG wrote:Most noticable to me was the fact that they went at Carlos Rogers repeatedly because he was playing 10-12 yards off the man he was covering whenever he did not have a safety covering over the top for him.

That is the biggest problem the Defense last year. Thats why we got Smoot.

HailSkins2007 wrote:

ArizonaHOG wrote:Most noticable to me was the fact that they went at Carlos Rogers repeatedly because he was playing 10-12 yards off the man he was covering whenever he did not have a safety covering over the top for him.

That is the biggest problem the Defense last year. Thats why we got Smoot.

Thank goodness for Williams finally learning how to "adjust" in the off season. We should be fine now!

Good work guys!