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

this game is HUGE !!!!!! not just so we will be 3 & 1 it is huge for this organization as a whole.this team must prove that we are NOT the same ol skins,we need this game to be a statement game ..... we play a team that is struggling we need to put this team DOWN.
this team needs to prove it is no longer a team that lays eggs against teams that we are better than.
get a running game going keep rex to a simple game plan and excute it.our defense will do its job so the offense needs to put some points on the scoreboard.3 - 1 sounds really good

I agree that this one is a must-win. As much as I detest losing to Dall-ASS, I found a lot to lot of positives, especially on defense. Even hurt, the pies have a lot of talent and it was their home opener, so they had lots of emotion. The Rams are not nearly the team Dall-ASS is, and we MUST defeat them, and fairly convincingly to preserve the positive momentum of this season so far. My aspiration is 9 wins this year, though I think we COULD do better. 9 wins will tell me that we will be playoff bound next year and years that follow. Rebounding from a hard loss against a lesser opponent seems like a good situation, we just need to capitalize.

I think the Skins have far more to lose in this game than they have to gain. A win and a 3-1 record would be nice, but a loss to the lowly Lambs would be devistating not only to the confidence of the team, but in the eyes of all football fans the Skins would look like pure scum...

every week is a big week and a must win

we are not going to beat all the teams we're better than - we just lost to the pukes
The pukes are NOT a better team than we are - right now

we just need to see the guys playing the way they are capable of and we'll be fine - we're an 8-8 or maybe 9-7 franchise - some of those wins will be against teams we are better than and some losses will be against teams we are better than

we just need to see the players and coaches not making the type of mistakes we saw last Monday

we should win this game but then again ... the Jets definetly should have beaten the Raiders last week


the offense here cannot seem to be as effective as they should - that is not changing this year

I don't see this as a must win. 2-2 coming off a bye week and you think we still wouldn't have a shot at the playoffs?

Our most successful year in the last 10 seasons probably contained 2-3 of these kind of games: opponents we should have beaten, a shaky record on the line. And we lost those games. When you lose, you recover, you pick up the pieces, and you recommit.

There's plenty of time to go in this year. A loss in Dallas was not our undoing, and neither would a loss to StL be, either.

Irn-Bru wrote:I don't see this as a must win. 2-2 coming off a bye week and you think we still wouldn't have a shot at the playoffs?

Our most successful year in the last 10 seasons probably contained 2-3 of these kind of games: opponents we should have beaten, a shaky record on the line. And we lost those games. When you lose, you recover, you pick up the pieces, and you recommit.

There's plenty of time to go in this year. A loss in Dallas was not our undoing, and neither would a loss to StL be, either.

I kindly disagree with this. I think the way you change the 10 year mentality of this football team is coming back after a loss and smacking around the next opponent. Unfortunately, bringing up that we have had 2-3 of these kinds of games in the last 10 years doesn't bode well for your argument, because we haven't had any success IN the last ten years. This is a franchise direction game. I understand it's not an out of the playoff picture game, and understand it's it not our undoing, but a strong win this weekend would go a long way of ridding ourselves of this stigma. We have to change this mentality.

Do yourself a favor (everyone), and watch the post game interviews from the Dallas game. ey is on there talking about how, during his career with the Skins, they just continue to find a way to lose those games they have won. THIS is the mentality that needs to be broken. It's called a losing mentality. That's why I loved the Arizona game. We faced adversity and fought through it. Haven't seen that in years. Your mentality has been the same mentality that these players have had for 10 years in this franchise and it HAS to change. We need players like Rak, who's on the entire plane ride home, talking to other players getting their minds right. Not some guy that keeps saying, here we go again. After I heard him say that, I said to myself, we have got to get rid of ey. This is cancerous.

I think we will beat the Rams, I truly do. I think our players will come out fired up. We will play with intensity. I just can't see us losing, because IF we do, I have a feeling this team will lose momentum. I think the bye week is in a perfect week for us because of this. Win or lose our season will not be over with, but I feel as though we really need this win as it may be one of the more important games all year.

This group of players are NOT in any way tied to or should be judged as being like anything we've seen here before

these players and these coaches believe in each other and what they are doing

this franchise is only similar in name and uniform to anything that happened here before Bruce & Mike came in

GET OVER IT - THIS IS NOT THE SAME FRANCHISE

give me a break - these guys are trying to get things together here and NOTHING that happened over the past 10 years means ANYTHING to what these guys can accomplish

WAKE UP

these guys are doing pretty well and they are giving it a good shot

GET REAL

im talking at least 10 points and be in control .....dont let the rams hang around

I just watched The Natural on AMC there is a scene where the team psychologist goes on & on....

"Losing is a disease....as contagious as polio."

"Losing is a disease...as contagious as syphilis."

Then Roy Hobbs walks right out of the clubhouse.

London & Rak please lead this team out of that mind frame.

I want this weekend to be a 34-10 win then ride that momentum to 3 or four more in a row.

WILL win.

welch wrote:WILL win.

^^ what the man said

These Redskins will win because they have the WILL to win

let me repeat - these Redskins will determine their future
NOT the Redskins of the past or any likelihood of getting in the habit of losing

These Redskins do not have ANY of those old traits

we are remaking our present and our future

welch wrote:WILL win.

redskinz4ever wrote:this team needs to prove it is no longer a team that lays eggs against teams that we are better than.

aaaaaaaaMEN. almost exactly a year ago,

i wrote:winning this game by anything less than 17 points would be completely unacceptable.

we are looking for marks of improvement under the Shanahans and McNabb. well, one of the 'skins biggest failings for years has been our tendency to "play down to the level" of inferior opponents. most people realized our season was a wash last year in week 3 when we let the worst team in recent history (the Lions) snap their 19-game losing streak. but many of us already knew we were sunk the week before when we barely edged out a pathetic Rams team 9-7, and the players were indignant that the fans could be upset with a win, no matter how pitiful. clearly, we were right to be concerned.

the team needs to demonstrate to me that we're going to break that habit and comfortably handle a vastly inferior opponent. don't get me wrong, we're surely not the most talented team in the league, but we have vastly better players at almost every position on the field than the Rams. they are atrocious, and beating them by anything less than 14-17 points would be unacceptable.

we ended up losing that game, and also ended up being terrible and finishing the year 6-10. we've gotten rid of a lot of dead weight and brought aboard some good young talent. we appear to be moving in the right direction. but this game against the Rams will actually tell us a lot more about our team than the Dallas game did, in my opinion.

SkinsJock wrote:This group of players are NOT in any way tied to or should be judged as being like anything we've seen here before

I know you mean well, and that your post was not directed at me. I also agree with most of what you say, but i do not agree with you on this. Simply put, if there are players who have been on this team through the last ten years then they have to be tied to previous teams. Their bodies may run new routes, and they obviously fit with what these current coaches need, but the one thing that is tied to those previous teams and losing ways is their mentality, their mind. Shannahan is working on each one to change that, and is being sucessful in many instances, but a mind is a tough thing to change. So when I hear ey spouting off about how this loss feels the same as it has since he's started here, that tells me that PLAYERS are tying themselves to previous mentality. So I don't need to judge, in fact make it a habit of not, but there is no judgement needed when an actual player is bringing up the past, and hopefully Shannahan can continue to preach your message to change that.

chiefhog44 wrote:

SkinsJock wrote:This group of players are NOT in any way tied to or should be judged as being like anything we've seen here before

I know you mean well, and that your post was not directed at me. I also agree with most of what you say, but i do not agree with you on this. Simply put, if there are players who have been on this team through the last ten years then they have to be tied to previous teams. Their bodies may run new routes, and they obviously fit with what these current coaches need, but the one thing that is tied to those previous teams and losing ways is their mentality, their mind. Shannahan is working on each one to change that, and is being sucessful in many instances, but a mind is a tough thing to change. So when I hear ey spouting off about how this loss feels the same as it has since he's started here, that tells me that PLAYERS are tying themselves to previous mentality. So I don't need to judge, in fact make it a habit of not, but there is no judgement needed when an actual player is bringing up the past, and hopefully Shannahan can continue to preach your message to change that.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. The mindset change portion of this rebuilding project is more important to me than who the quarterback is (I know, blasphemy, right?). I very much agree with all those who have implied or outright said that, in fact, this game against the Rams is a far more important and telling game than the one against the cowboys. It will speak far more to the job Shanahan and the team is doing to change mindset than the loss to or play against dallas. Because an appropriate response against the rams begins the process of losses to Dallas or Philly or NY not to feel the same from this point on.

I appreciate that ey felt the same about that loss as years past, but what I saw was not the same old *sh$t* from this team. Yes it was ugly and an L, but I didn't see utter haplessness all over the place all night (yes including Rex Grossman). I saw a team TEAM not playing great, but playing hard and not quitting. That is what has infuriated me the most over the past 10 years or so, the times when the team simply would not get its head out of its ass, because they didn't care enough to do so.

chiefhog44 wrote:

SkinsJock wrote:This group of players are NOT in any way tied to or should be judged as being like anything we've seen here before

I know you mean well, and that your post was not directed at me. I also agree with most of what you say, but i do not agree with you on this. Simply put, if there are players who have been on this team through the last ten years then they have to be tied to previous teams. Their bodies may run new routes, and they obviously fit with what these current coaches need, but the one thing that is tied to those previous teams and losing ways is their mentality, their mind.

Kinda agree with you Chief but lets check it out a little deeper.
Sellars- '98 (Longest Redskin on team)
ey- '04
Moss- '05
Golston/Doughty/Alexander- '06

My opinion is that the players that were here before 2010 are not the "same" as they were - they have bought into this deal, big time

Mike is driven to be successful and any player that was here has had to show in both pratice and play that they are completely different from anything that came before - the Shanaplan does not allow failure or making every effort on both the practice field and on game day to do whatever Mike wants and demands

this is not a player's coach by any stretch - this guy's an ego maniac that is very intolerant of failure or lack of effort

I respect your opinion chief but this is not a group of players that has any of the 'baggage' or 'tendencies' from any previous Redskins team

my point is that they do not have ANY of the tendencies from 2009 or before - NONE

the only thing the same here is the owner and the uniforms - NOTHING from the past is a part of this franchise this season

We should win this game because our defense will not allow their offense to be effective

the key is that the Redskins' offense has to commit to the running game & be able to score TDs when they get to the Red Zone

I do not see the Rams having the ball much - our defense will decide that

The key to this game imo is containing Bradford and making him step into pressure to make throws. He is dangerous outside of the pocket. We do this, we win. We allow him to make short throws underneath and it will be another long dogfight.

chiefhog44 wrote:I kindly disagree with this. I think the way you change the 10 year mentality of this football team is coming back after a loss and smacking around the next opponent.

If it's about changing a 10-year mentality, then why say one particular week is a "must win"? Are you saying that if we lose this week, the mentality will be around for another 10 years?

I see this week as an important — but not life-or-death — step in a process that began two years ago with the firing of Vinny and the beginning of the Shanaplan. It's not that we've had one mentality and this will be the week that determines whether or not we get rid of it.

Unfortunately, bringing up that we have had 2-3 of these kinds of games in the last 10 years doesn't bode well for your argument, because we haven't had any success IN the last ten years.

Unfortunately, you misread my argument. I said that in our most successful year, there were 2-3 of these games (i.e., in that same year).

That year, btw, saw Joe Gibbs as coach and a changed mentality with the Redskins. He was still severely handicapped by Vinny and Snyder, but even then Gibbs had an impact that can't be dismissed. Anyone who thinks this team had the same mentality in the years before, during, and after Gibbs's second tenure here didn't pay attention.

This is a franchise direction game. I understand it's not an out of the playoff picture game, and understand it's it not our undoing, but a strong win this weekend would go a long way of ridding ourselves of this stigma. We have to change this mentality.

OK, but I still don't see why this one particular game is a must-win, versus a more long-term view like mine. This is a process, not an all-in bet at the poker table.

IF we play really well and lose it is not that big a deal

We want to win all the games but more importantly we want to establish ourselves offensively and defensively as playing consistently good football

we are in the process of re-making this franchise and this process is ongoing - the offense needs some help - we have made a lot of progress on the defensive side

We should win this game because our players are playing and practicing with a whole different mindset than existed here before

If ey implied any different I am very surprised - ey indicated earlier this year that he was excited about the changes in the way things were being handled and managed here since these guys came in - I don't think anything's changed since he said that - I think that loss was extremely frustrating but it was not indicative of a "losing" group of players and coaches like we had here before 2010

^^^

SkinsJock wrote:IF we play really well and lose it is not that big a deal

We want to win all the games but more importantly we want to establish ourselves offensively and defensively as playing consistently good football

we are in the process of re-making this franchise and this process is ongoing - the offense needs some help - we have made a lot of progress on the defensive side

We should win this game because our players are playing and practicing with a whole different mindset than existed here before

If ey implied any different I am very surprised - ey indicated earlier this year that he was excited about the changes in the way things were being handled and managed here since these guys came in - I don't think anything's changed since he said that - I think that loss was extremely frustrating but it was not indicative of a "losing" group of players and coaches like we had here before 2010

It totally threw me for a loop, because I too think we have turned the page, but as you and I have both said, it's going to take 3 years to turn this franchise around, and maybe there are just a few more baggage players on the roster that need to be replaced.

Listen to the interview and tell me what you think

Irn-Bru wrote:

chiefhog44 wrote:I kindly disagree with this. I think the way you change the 10 year mentality of this football team is coming back after a loss and smacking around the next opponent.

If it's about changing a 10-year mentality, then why say one particular week is a "must win"? Are you saying that if we lose this week, the mentality will be around for another 10 years?

I see this week as an important — but not life-or-death — step in a process that began two years ago with the firing of Vinny and the beginning of the Shanaplan. It's not that we've had one mentality and this will be the week that determines whether or not we get rid of it.

Unfortunately, bringing up that we have had 2-3 of these kinds of games in the last 10 years doesn't bode well for your argument, because we haven't had any success IN the last ten years.

Unfortunately, you misread my argument. I said that in our most successful year, there were 2-3 of these games (i.e., in that same year).

That year, btw, saw Joe Gibbs as coach and a changed mentality with the Redskins. He was still severely handicapped by Vinny and Snyder, but even then Gibbs had an impact that can't be dismissed. Anyone who thinks this team had the same mentality in the years before, during, and after Gibbs's second tenure here didn't pay attention.

This is a franchise direction game. I understand it's not an out of the playoff picture game, and understand it's it not our undoing, but a strong win this weekend would go a long way of ridding ourselves of this stigma. We have to change this mentality.

OK, but I still don't see why this one particular game is a must-win, versus a more long-term view like mine. This is a process, not an all-in bet at the poker table.

When you climb to the top, you are going to slip, and when you do, you need to catch your footing quickly or you will continue to lose ground. I think this is a VERY good opportunity to drive that toe pick into the mountain and not fall too far. It's a franchise game, because it would mean that we can now start climbing from a higher point and rid ourselves of this stigma. Whether anyone wants to admit that or not, or say that this team is different from past teams, until it goes out and PROVES it, then the media, fans, and players who have been on the team for more than two years are going to continue to believe it. It's a losing mentality that has to stop. So yeah, this game is no big deal in a long term view of things, but the sooner we rid ourselves of this "here we go again" attitude, the better.

I agree with you that it's a long-term process. I never said it wasn't, and really have been preaching that it's going to take 3 years to turn this franchise around. That process started last year with this new back office and new coaching staff.

During a course of building a championship team, there are many things you have to learn. How to win coming from behind, how to deal with adversity, how to deal with distractions, how to deal with winning streaks, how to deal playing with the lead and finishing (we clearly have not learned this yet), and learn how to bounce back after a VERY tough loss and be dominant. Watch every Super Bowl hopeful this year and they all know how to do it. Ravens in week 3, Steelers in week 2, Patriots will probably do it this week. We have not been able to to do that since the new regime has taken over, so, we need to to progress. Once you learn these things, you have to do it with consistency. Then you have all the makings of a champion.