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portis blaming coaches
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:29 pm
by oneman56
Has anyone heard about this before, yahoo has quotes of portis saying the redskins offense plays the way it practices.
Oct 23 While Portis' carries have remained about the same, his yards have gone down consistently in the last three games and he is blaming the coaches, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports.
Recommendation: After struggling to run the ball against the Cardinals (2.6 yards per carry) the Redskins' yards per carry fell to 3.5 on the season, good for 25th in the NFL. "We didn't get it done," Redskins coach Joe Gibbs said. Portis' yards per carry has gone down from 5.8 in Week 1 (17 carries, 98 yards) to 2.4 in Week 7 (18 carries, 43 yards) and his solution to the problem is to mimic the defenses' practice style. "If you watch our defense at practice, they're quick, smooth, fly around," Portis said. "For us, the offense, we drop balls in practice, we turn it over in practice. What we do in practice we do in the game." Another solution would be for the Redskins' offensive line to get healthy, as they have been missing multiple lineman throughout the season. Next week probably won't be any better for Portis as the 'Skins travel to Foxborough to take on the (seemingly) unbeatable Patriots.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:32 pm
by Fios
Link?
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:38 pm
by Chris Luva Luva
This is old news and has been discussed, I'll try to find a link. Gibbs addressed this during his Monday press conference.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:40 pm
by oneman56
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:13 pm
by funbunch
I don't see how saying they are playing the way they practice (dropping balls, etc) is blaming the coaching staff. Once again the media makes something out of nothing.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:41 pm
by CanesSkins26
I'm still not seeing where CP blamed the coaches. All he is saying is that the offense isn't practicing well, and given how they look during games that's not very hard to believe.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:43 pm
by UK Skins Fan
Well, if that's what they're practicing, it's no wonder they're so good at it.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:06 pm
by BnGhog
True, it don't look like to me he is blaming the coaches.
However, to me , it would be the coaches that need to get after them to practice well. And up to the coaching staff to light a fire under their butts.
Sounds like from Portis did say, they are not practicing at full speed and IMO they should be. How's JC going to get the timing better without them going full go in practice.
Wonder who is turning the ball over as he says? Moss, ARE, Portis??
It seems to me Gibbs is the type of coach that takes it easy on the guys these days. That IMO is not what they need. They don't say anything to them about not going all out im practice.
Of course there is always Iversons view.
"Practice, we talking about Practice."
" I mean, its Practice, we talking about practice"
"Practice... Practice... Practice..."
"We tallll....king bout Practice..."
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:11 pm
by Chris Luva Luva
It'll be interesting to see how the "Gibbs is god" crew reacts to this, especially if it gets worse/continues. You could see the offensive players were tore apart after Sundays game and then you had a giddy Joe Gibbs happy as a lark.
I love me some Gibbs but there's some BS going down with this offense.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:27 pm
by So Cal Skin Dude
I love me some Gibbs but there's some BS going down with this offense.
Yeah, I cant make sense of what the offense is doing at times. I really think it's a case of too many Chiefs, etc.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:57 pm
by HEROHAMO
I dont think Portis is complaining about the coaches at all.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:40 pm
by aswas71788
HEROHAMO wrote:I dont think Portis is complaining about the coaches at all.
I agree with you about Potis not complaining about the coaches. I didn't get that out of the article either.
What I got out of it wasn't stated in the article. It seems ot me that every year since Gibbs return, there has been descention with one or more of the players. I'm old enought to remember Gibbs first tenure with the Redskin vividly and I don't rmember that kind of internal fighting going on then.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:51 pm
by Deadskins
aswas71788 wrote:HEROHAMO wrote:I dont think Portis is complaining about the coaches at all.
I agree with you about Potis not complaining about the coaches. I didn't get that out of the article either.
What I got out of it wasn't stated in the article. It seems ot me that every year since Gibbs return, there has been descention with one or more of the players. I'm old enought to remember Gibbs first tenure with the Redskin vividly and I don't rmember that kind of internal fighting going on then.
Back then, teams had much more say over the players' careers than they do now. That was before free agency, and if a coach wanted to, he could basically bench you for life. Players weren't so uppity in those days.

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:56 pm
by dmwc
They should be practicing like they want to play. The 'Skins better walk on that field with attitude. They better get cocky and show this razzle dazzle "finese" team what FOOTBALL is all about.. I know my man CC is ready to play.. I bet ol LL wants to meet Brady personally
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:43 am
by die cowboys die
as a guitar teacher, the essence of my job is to teach people how to perform well on the instrument. and the essence of performance is the same whether it's musical or athletic. there are 2 basic compoments that go into it-
1. technique-- simply learning and mastering the fundamental physical elements involved
2. preperation/practice of the specific piece/song/play/gameplan/etc
something i pass onto all my students is a great bit of perspective i got from a teacher i studied under. he said "when they're learning a certain passage, most people will try it a bunch of times (let's say 10 times) before they finally get it completely right, and then they might play it a couple more times the right way, thinking 'ok, i've got this now'. but really when you do that you're just practicing doing it WRONG 10 times and RIGHT only 2 or 3 times! once you get it right, you've got to repeat it so you do it many more times that way than you did wrong".
another teacher of mine had a more severe approach- he would line up 10 pennies on the left side of the music stand. each time he got a passage all right, he'd slide one over to the right. he would only allow himself to move onto the next passage once he got them all slid over. the thing was, any time he messed up even once, he'd slide them ALL back over to the left and start over.
if that's really true about how redskins O practice is, gibbs should basically be keeping them there until they are consistently getting it right, or for the maximum time the NFL collective bargaining agreement rules allow.
if he's already keeping them as long as permitted, then idunno, perhaps he should try getting really pissed and yelling a whole lot more.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:31 am
by roybus14
If the offensive guys are giving little effort and making mistakes in practice, then it's up to the coaches to correct them. That's sports, business, etc. You have those in charge that are supposed to ensure that those doing the work are doing correctly, efficiently, and with little to no error.
I think that Clinton is actually pointing the finger at both the players and the coaches. At the players because they should know better and should take pride in their craft. At the coaches because they are supposed to ensure that this team is ready to play on Sunday and that means putting in the game plan, riding these guys and motivating them to execute it correctly.
I personally think that GW will be the next HC here in Washington. And if that happens, based on his history as the DC, he will ride everybody like he rides the defense. Whether he did it right as the DC in past years or not. I also think that if GW does become HC, he will either give Al total control and get guys in here that want to run Al's offense or get another OC and run something completely different.
It sounds to me that there isn't a "hammer" on the offensive coaching staff that is riding these guys hard and puttin' them away wet. Doc Walker talks about how, I think it was, Wayne Severe was that guy that rode them hard back in the day and that Joe didn't need to be the "rah-rah" guy because Wayne did that.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:02 am
by langleyparkjoe
Wether or not CP said it is irrelovent to me. I for one love Gibbs.. I love him so much that I got into Nascar just because of him. I now am a diehard Tony Stewart fan. However, as much as I love the guy, our coaching staff is just horrible. I'm not ignoring the good plays we've had, but I'm referring to the horrible clock management and the ditsy play calling.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:30 pm
by jmooney
I dont think Portis called out the coaches on this, I heard the interview and didnt get that feeling at all. It seemed more about the players perfomance in practice.
The problem with the coaching staff can be broken down as this
Joe Gibbs- head coach
Greg Williams- assistant head coach/defense
Al Saunders- assistant head coach/ offense
Joe Bugel assistant head coach / offensive line
4 people with the title of head coach, all of which have 3 distinctly different styles and philoshophies on running a game. Anytime there is a situation where a decision needs to be made, there seems to be a round table discussion amongst all the coaches about how the situation gets addressed. Do you think thats how it goes in new England? No, BB says , this is what were gonna do, you guys make it happen.
One person, and only one, runs the team, all others must implement that persons plan. It doesnt matter who that person on this team is, if any one of our coaches took complete control and all others follow suit, we would look alot better.
So , its not the staff, its not the players, Its not the game plan, Its the philosophy.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:41 pm
by 1niksder
jmooney wrote: The problem with the coaching staff can be broken down as this
Joe Gibbs- head coach
Greg Williams- assistant head coach/defense
Al Saunders- assistant head coach/ offense
Joe Bugel also carries the title assistant head coach.
And the Off. Coordinator and Def. Coordinator are not listed above.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:43 pm
by jmooney
I have edied previous post to correct that oversight, thanks
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:56 pm
by roybus14
jmooney wrote:I dont think Portis called out the coaches on this, I heard the interview and didnt get that feeling at all. It seemed more about the players perfomance in practice.
The problem with the coaching staff can be broken down as this
Joe Gibbs- head coach
Greg Williams- assistant head coach/defense
Al Saunders- assistant head coach/ offense
Joe Bugel assistant head coach / offensive line
4 people with the title of head coach, all of which have 3 distinctly different styles and philoshophies on running a game. Anytime there is a situation where a decision needs to be made, there seems to be a round table discussion amongst all the coaches about how the situation gets addressed. Do you think thats how it goes in new England? No, BB says , this is what were gonna do, you guys make it happen.
One person, and only one, runs the team, all others must implement that persons plan. It doesnt matter who that person on this team is, if any one of our coaches took complete control and all others follow suit, we would look alot better.
So , its not the staff, its not the players, Its not the game plan, Its the philosophy.
I agree but now the question is: "did Joe bring Al here to run Al's offense or Joes?" Because according to your hiearchy, Al must implement what Joe wants and that seems far from reality here.
This whole situation with the offense is so simple, even a caveman can figure it out. If Al Saunders coordinated offenses put up points and yards in bunches over the past five years, then why not let him do the same here? Joe got this team clicking at the end of the season before last, with 'his' offense then he turns around and brings in a guy whose offense is totally different. And at the same time not selling your players on why you brought him and his offensive style in. Then you give him offensive coaches that are your guys instead of letting Al bring in his guys that can coach his system/philosophy. Gibbs should have stepped back completely at the end of last season and turned the keys completely over to Al and let this man completely coach his offense and what he wants to do. You got a bunch of guys that think that Al doesn't like to run but yet, in his offenses in KC from 2000 to 2005, he had the top or one of the top rushers in the lead.....
But hey, what do I know. I just another fan standing two miles from the fence at Redskins Park.....
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:10 pm
by BnGhog
roybus14 wrote: You got a bunch of guys that think that Al doesn't like to run but yet, in his offenses in KC from 2000 to 2005, he had the top or one of the top rushers in the lead.....
But hey, what do I know. I just another fan standing two miles from the fence at Redskins Park.....
I haven't heard anyone say that he don't like to run. Just that he likes to set up the run differently.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:27 pm
by Chris Luva Luva
roybus14 wrote:Gibbs should have stepped back completely at the end of last season and turned the keys completely over to Al and let this man completely coach his offense and what he wants to do. You got a bunch of guys that think that Al doesn't like to run but yet, in his offenses in KC from 2000 to 2005, he had the top or one of the top rushers in the lead.....
You're absolutely on point. What makes it even crazier is that Joe snatched the reigns from Al before the year was even over. Joe being an offensive master mind should have known it'd take Saunders AT LEAST a year to get the offense working. Hell! I read that in a NFL season preview magazine.
Joe needs to figure out what HE wants to do cus he seems confused.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:33 pm
by jmooney
Ive never thought that Sauders didnt like to run the ball. The idea that too many people have input into HOW and WHEN we run is what is complicating matters. How many times has Gibbs said " All of us got together and we decided this was the way to go" If Saunders is going to run the offense, then HE should run the offense. If Joe is gonna run the offense, then HE should run the offense. NOT WE! Im not talking about just the offense here but, an entire team philosopy. One head coach , two co-ordinators with everyone in agreement on how things get done. I dont care who runs the offense, all of these coaches are more than capable. They just need to pick one guy and get the hell out of his way.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:57 pm
by joebagadonuts
Put me in the 'not blaming coaches' box. In fact, it would make sense that he's blaming the players. These are professionals. They should not need coaches to yell at them at practice to keep them sharp.