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

Ive been dissapointed so many times the past decade in our play. We always seem to find a way to lose. Whether its a late interception, penalty, fumble or lack of D in the past few seasons. We just find a way to lose all the close games. Denny Green this offseason said he has to change the mentality of the cardinals. Take away the losing mentality and create one of winners. I hate to compare ourselves to the cardinals but we are losers just like them. Dont get me wrong we are 1 billion times better then the cardinals. However, the mentality of a loser has plagued us. I thought and still do think that Gibbs will reverse this mentality. However, im beyond frustrated that it keeps on happening. We have to keep our team together this offseason. And start getting team players. Im sick of guys celbrating for nothing. They make a hard hit and celebrate even though the guy got a first down. Or like last night Samuels and Dockery celebrated after we had to punt. We need to get that junk out of here and make them realize what is an acomplishment and whats not.

But on the plus side I loved intimidating the eagles. They played scared. Pinkston on the first play of the game stop on a pass cause he didnt want to get hit. Even TO was trying to get out of bounds instead of facing our tought D. We have to continue to attimidate teams and except that we are now a defense first team.

Welcome to the board SkinnyHog - we aren't losers but losing and a losing mentality is hard to overcome.

Gibbs has us on the right track tho and I feel the wins will come - can you say "Playoffs" in 2005.

I wouldn't be too very upset about losing to the best team in the NFC by just a little bit, despite penalties and a few mental errors.

Last night's game was a very good sign, if you ask me.

Gibbs and his band of "old foggies" have definitely gotten through to "today's players" whom the pundits claimed they would not relate to.

I personally am excited by the progress the Offense has made. Even if it's in a "three steps forward, one step back" fashion, it's still progress.

Gibbs and Co. have 12 years of mediocre to poor play to wash out of the organization, and like you said, there is no doubt they will succeed. It's just a quesiton of when.

Well said cvillehog. I really believe Joe Gibbs and the staff have instilled the attributes of "core Skins" in alot of our guys. Loseing to the Eagles is no shame, especially for a 10 point underdog...we gave them a run for their money and we laid it on the line. I'm happy with the Skins' performance and can't wait to see the results next year! I am really going to hate the bangwagon fans though.

While it's hard not to call a 4-9 team a bunch of "losers", I think this year's Redskins are anything but that.

I can't tell you how impressed I am with this team, with the heart they play with week in a week out...despite basically having little/no shot at the playoffs.

This is a re-building year. Gibbs & Co. are seeing which players are his "core" players and we will build around them.

Next year we'll be a little better...but...in year #3, this team of "losers" will once again be NFL Champions.

Don't get me wrong i am extremely proud of our guys they have played with heart. When i say they are losers i dont mean it in a way that they are incompitant. I feel we lack the right mental abilities that are needed to win. That is how i mean we are losers, our mentality is that of one and it shows every season when you look at our record. I think we have all the potential in the world. Its not that we are being out played we are just losing. Im not just talking about the eagles game. We are to good to be making so many mental mistakes week in and week out.

I thought Sundays game was a big let down. 1st and 10 on the 20yd line. WOW. If Ramsey threw that ball away and played 2 more downs we either would have made it or atleast tied it. It's all about maturity. Ramsey was thrown into a system where you threw the ball at all cost previously. Now he's in a system where he has to read the defense and chose wisely. We dominated that game. Time of possetion was awsome. Think about it. Look what the Eagles did to Dallas, and most of the other teams. Especially Green Bay. We held them to a low score and kept the game within 3 points. Only Pittsburg did that to them.
This was a solid Gibbs type of game. Minus the penalties. Now if we can get the team to understand more plays for next year we will dominate. I know, I know, no one wants to hear about next year. Everyone wants the prize now. Be patient. If we played all the other teams like we did the Eagles we would have won them. Also if we can keep the coaches together in their contracts for the next 5 years we'll be doing fine. Then if Gibbs wants to retire and hand the team off to Coach Williams we'll be set the whole time Williams can learn under Gibbs and later keep and tutor the younger Gibbs.

All I have to say is that we have lost every game by one score except for the first Philly game and the game against Pittsburg where we lost by 9 (the GB game doesn't count, after the letdown the D gave in in the last minute and Green just ran in for a TD). We gave Philly their toughest test other than Pittsburg and Cleveland. This team is so close.

Two years ago, I believe that the Panthers won their first two games and then lost their next four after leading or being tied with less than five minutes left in the game. They then went through a really bad stretch. Eveyone, the fans, the press, the media... thought they sucked and even when they won their last four games to finish 7-9 they still did. They lost games by fumbling punts with two minutes to go in the game and doing stupid stuff like that. I went to a few games because I live in NC and I was amazed at how everyone thought the team was so bad, they played every team close but couldn't get over the hump. The next year they won all the close games. They blocked extra points with seconds left in the game to force overtime and just found ways to win and they made it to the Super Bowl. You can really see this year how they now have such a winning mentality that even being 1-6 or something like that they'll probably make the playoffs. That organisation went from being losers to winners overnight!

I see this team heading in the same direction. No doubt we're getting better and all we need is one more play a game to turn this team around. If Gibbs would have pulled Brunell a few weeks earlier or the refs don't give Dallas the Monday Night game we'd probably be going to the playoffs this year. This team is very underrated, certainly better than the Panthers team of two years ago, and one or two acquisitions in the offseason and another year in the Gibbs system and this team is certainly going to be challenging Philly for the NFC East crown next year. The Panthers took over in their division from the reigning Super Bowl Champion Bucs after all.

For me, the best thing about this team is that it plays as a team. Many other teams would have fallen apart by now due to the lack of offence, being carried by the D etc. But not this group. They have bought into Gibbs philosophy and the foundation is there.

I don't remember a defensive player criticising the offence or an offensive player. They've been backing each other all the way. We could have folded like the giants did, but we kept fighting for each other. I think we can win our last three games and take some momentum into the offseason.

The hopes of a late season playoff run were pretty far fetched. Personally, I think you should be pretty heartened by the way this team has played the past three and three quarters games. I really am starting to believe now that under Gibbs' steadying influence we can really build going into next season rather than the typical Snyder offseason frenzy.

I feel your pain though, brothers. We had a real shot at winning that game last night, and it would have been soooooooooooooooo sweet!

I'm hoping for Favre to show up in Philly in January and put a serious beating on them.

SkinnyHog wrote:Ive been dissapointed so many times the past decade in our play...

Did the team look to you as a bunch of losers last night? We did not watch the same game. If you can not appreciate the effort and the character of this team, you may have watched a different game.

Loosers do not play the way the Skins played last night.

I am not looking at yesterdays game soley. Im looking at us long term. In the past decade we have found more ways to lose games then we have found ways to win them. I feel it is due to mental mistakes. I am extremely proud of our guys and thought they played amazing last night. However, at games end we still found a way to lose the game and were back to more excuses to why we lost. Next year Im looking forward to no more excuse and just plain getting the job done and walking out with a win

SkinnyHog wrote:Im looking forward to no more excuse and just plain getting the job done and walking out with a win

We have a different outlook on things. I focus on the -PROCESS- to get you to be a winner. You seem to focus on the -win-. They are different.

I do not count the time -prior- to Joe coming back. We were a mess. If you can not tell the difference between the end orf last season and the end of this season, you have missed a great opportunity to learn how to turn things around.

The LAST thing that comes is the one that confirms that you were right all along. That is what people remember. Nobody wants to go through the re-construction process. It is too painful.

Older fans have enormous sympathy for your emotions. It is tough not to be able to go back to identify the process to put things together, systematically, patiently, selflessly, humbly and taking full responsibility for the results and consequences all along.

Sooner or later, you will have a time in your life when things do not go well. We all have. The key is what is the process that is going to take you back where you know you belong. The Skins showed you yesterday what they think. Learn from this process, you might find it useful later in your life.

Joe Gibbs will likely finish the season either 7-9 or 6-10, depending on the Vikings. After the last 12 years (with the exception of the 1999 season), there were always questions about the coaching staff and who the "big name" players were that Snyder was looking at going after in the off season. This year, I think that what the 'Skins will focus on is getting rid of some of the players that haven't bought into the system, and replacing them with young, hungry players that will fit in with the entire Gibbs system, coaching and philosophy. Gibbs will make the improvements that are needed. He's already accomplished a lot, especially in the team's attitude. Now you see players upset on the sidelines after a loss, instead of last season when they would be seen laughing and joking. But the team doesn't give up this season, something that you saw last season, and that is the biggest single accomplishment that I was looking for this year.

In the past decade we have found more ways to lose games then we have found ways to win them. I feel it is due to mental mistakes.

I blink, and the last decade evaporates -- a post-Gibbs mistake. That's just the luck of age, of having been born such that I was a young man when George Allen took the Skins to the playoffs for the first time since 1945, and, thereby, seeing the entire Allen-Pardee-Gibbs era.

After SB 17, no, after Riggins ran through the Dolphins and we all knew that the Redskins would take the ball back and grind them up until the end of the game, after that decisive Riggins run, anyone could see that Gibbs had started in 1981 with many of the pieces of his complete championship team. Theisman (lazy-spell), Riggins, Butz, Monk, Bostic, Warren, Jacoby/Grimm/Bostic/May/Starke, Coleman, Olkewicz, Peters...

However, who knew that in 1981?

Looking at the 2004 Redskins, we can see that Gibbs has been sorting out his players, and teaching them how to win. They stuck together and grew together through this season. The pieces are not all in place, but we can see the foundation and part of the building's structure. Some things are missing:

- the OL needs a couple of players, and they need Jansen to recover.

- still missing a big WR, another Art Monk, unless gardener is better than he seems

- need some depth in the defense...I don't know how they do it

- need to stop committing those awful penalties

Otherwise, look at what the Redskins have:

- a promising young QB, who isn't finished learning the trade, but who shows more and more good things each week

- Coles...a fast, tough receiver who looks like a new Gary Clark

- ey...might become the best H-back ever

- Portis and Betts...lightning bolt and a sledge-hammer

- parts of an OL, including players who should not be starting, but who could be fine depth players.

- a defense that is among the best in the league, even without Arrington and several other regulars

So, I can't wait for Sunday. It feels like this has been a good year.

You guys arent loser. The EAGLES will just always be better than you....proved that point what, the last 3-4 years?

I agree welch! The team is progressing. We are much improved over the past month and the outlook should be good for the playoffs next year.

Those iggles fans who were expecting a blowout (you know who you are!) must be very disapointed to see last years 5-11 team playing so well and with no depth on offense or defense. We are closing the gap and given the improvements this offseason we should be very close next year.

I am looking forward to it!

riggofan wrote:I'm hoping for Favre to show up in Philly in January and put a serious beating on them.

SURE ....jUST LIKE HOW HE SHOWED UP IN THE 47-17 L TO PHILLY...

yeah, but what the Eagles did a week ago has nothing to do with what they always do in January...

PHILADELPHIAEAGLES wrote:You guys arent loser. The EAGLES will just always be better than you....proved that point what, the last 3-4 years?

Wow, you proved that the Eagles will always be better than the Redskins because they have been better for the last three or four years. What about the 80's and 90's. I don't recall the Eagles being markedly better than anyone in a lot of those years.

But you keep thinking that 3-4 years equal forever if you would like to. Hopefully, the Eagles will think that as well.

Come on Eagles. Win a superbowl already. We're waiting.

Why do any of you care what PHILADELPHIAEAGLES thinks?

... witness his waning aggression and you'll be able to eke out the truth.

PHILADELPHIAEAGLES wrote:You guys arent loser. The EAGLES will just always be better than you....proved that point what, the last 3-4 years?

Redskins fans do not eat their own like you guys do when times are tough.

After the beating you took last Sunday, you will be lucky to win a single game in the playoffs. Several key players are gone and others will still have to play a few tough games before the end of the season.

The worst enemy of a P. fan is just...

another P. fan when times get tough.

The way the Eagles moral fell after a few big 3 and outs...or turnovers shows a BIG weakness on their mental side of the game. Football is half physical and half mental, that has been proven numberous times over the years. I think their vulnerability to losing in the playoffs is due to this. They get down too easy...just like their fans.

PHILADELPHIAEAGLES wrote:You guys arent loser. The EAGLES will just always be better than you....proved that point what, the last 3-4 years?

The overall record is 72-62-5... Redskins. So apparently the EAGLES will just always be worse than the 'Skins... proved that point, what over the last 70 years?