Change in the air?

There was a lot of talk of change in the air at Redskins Park over the last few days. At his season-wrap up presser, Jim Zorn indicated that there would be changes.

But he also said that there wasn't much of anything that he wanted to change.

He likes his quarterback, his offense, his job duties, his coaching staff, and his older players. The current player personnel structure, headed up by Vinny Cerrato, will stay intact.

Presumably there would be a major debate if someone wanted to change the carpet on the stairs at Redskins Park.

The team should stay the course in some areas. Staying with the same offense and the same quarterback for another offseason is a good idea. It would be good to see Zorn become more imaginative in his play calling but that will come as the team settles in. We've gone back and forth about Jason Campbell here but he's the man with no competition and we'll have to see what happens. I'd like to see a more solid Plan B in place than Todd Collins, who is too old, and Colt Brennan, who is too inexperienced. Perhaps letting Collins go and bringing in an experienced West Coast QB like Chris Simms would be the way to go here.

The offensive backs are likely to remain the same. Portis got $20 million in guarantees a year ago so he's not going anywhere. There will be some noise about trading Ladell Betts but that probably won't happen. Rock Cartwright is the special teams' Mr. Everything and Mike Sellers is a deserving Pro Bowl pick at fullback (just don't give him the ball at the goal line).

There may be some minor shuffling at WR—will a 34-year-old James Thrash be able to contribute enough on special teams to justify using a receiver slot? Other than that, any changes will come from increased (meaning any) production from Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly.

The offensive line may or may not get the upgrade that it needs. There is talk of Pete Kendall, an unrestricted free agent, returning. He'll be 36 by the time next season starts. I like the guy and I'll always respect him for standing in front of his locker after the Rams game and taking every question from every reporter. But it's time to move on.

Is it time for Jon Jansen to move on? He shouldn't start, that's for sure. There would be a net cap hit of about $6 million ($1 million higher than I previously estimated). In 2009 his salary is "only" $1.3 million, a number you can justify for a backup. The foolishly-paid guaranteed money is water under the bridge and it may be better to wait until 2010 to release him. That may be an uncapped year and even if it's not the hit will not sting quite as much.

At some point there has to be a youth movement on the O-line. They took Chad Reinhart in the third round last year and they need to see what they have there. Can Stephon Heyer develop the consistency and the run-blocking ability necessary to become a solid starter? If those two can start, that's a 40% injection of youth into the aging unit. If a starting center can be found in the third round of the draft, that's 60%.

On the other side of the ball, there isn't much wrong that can't be solved with a big, mean defensive tackle creating havoc in the middle of the line. That would help the ends get better pass pressure, which would, in turn, help the defensive backs play more aggressively and maybe get more than the occasional interception here and there.

Albert Haynesworth of the Titans fills the bill but he's going to demand a ton of money. It's a bit too early to say what might be available at pick #13 along those lines since the juniors haven't yet declared but I have to think that there would be a quality DT there.

Talk of trading Carlos Rogers is foolish. Shawn Springs has to go, along with his $8 million cap number (the net cap savings would be around $6 million). Give DeAngelo Hall a reasonable contract and let Rogers play in the last year of his deal. If there is no new CBA in 2010, he'll be a restricted free agent. There has been a debate on the message boards about whether to pay Hall or Rogers. As neither is going to warrant a monster contract, I'm not sure why it has to be an either/or situation.

 

 

Zorn’s strategic error costs Skins

There really isn't a whole lot to break down about today's game. The teams traded hot streaks for 55 minutes and then they exchanged scores at the end.

It's the Niners' last score, the game-winning field goal, that is the focus here. San Francisco never should have had a chance to try it, or at least it should have been a much greater challenge for them. They got the chance, however, because Jim Zorn made a rookie mistake.

Go back to the end of the Redskins' tying drive. At the 2:00 warning, the Redskins have a second and goal at the nine. Clinton Portis runs for two yards to the seven and the clock keeps ticking. On third and goal at the seven, the ball is snapped with 1:28 left and Campbell completes a pass to Chris Cooley for five yards down to the two. It's fourth and goal at the two and the clock is running. With 1:15 left, Zorn calls timeout.

That was his big mistake.

Why stop the clock then?

Sure you want to talk about the fourth-down play. After all, it's your last shot. If you score, you can put it into overtime. If you don't, you lose.

But why call timeout with well over a minute left with the clock running? It became a one-play game. Zorn needed to let the clock run down as far as he could, as though they were trying a game-winning or tying field goal, because you want to leave the other team as little time as possible to answer your score.

Cooley went down with about 1:21 left. The 40-second play clock started at about that time. Had Zorn chosen to burn off the maximum time before going for it on fourth, there would have been about 42 seconds left for the fourth-down play.

After Campbell scores, the Niners would have had about 35 seconds left to try to score. It wouldn't have been impossible, but certainly the extra 30 seconds they had thanks to the early timeout helped them dramatically.

I can think of a couple of reasons why Zorn might have wanted to preserve some time, but neither really holds water. He may have wanted to have some time with which to work had the Redskins failed to score but a penalty had given them a first down. But they still had two timeouts left. They would have been able to take four shots at the end zone in 35 or 40 seconds easily and they would have been able to run or pass.

Zorn might also have been thinking that he wanted to save time should his team not reach the end zone. But if Campbell's run fails, the 49ers get the ball with about 1:09 to go and the Redskins have two timeouts. Two kneel downs followed by the Skins' two remaining timeouts and there's about a minute left. Another knee on third down and the Skins can't stop the clock. At about 20 seconds, San Francisco has to run a fourth-down play.

The safe-aggressive call in that situation is to have your punter run around in the end zone and take an intentional safety. You then have a free kick from the 20 with 15 seconds left. It then takes a miracle.

If I'm missing something here, let me know.

Redskins vs. 49ers Live Blog

You know the drill by now.

We'll get started at about 4:00.

Redskins vs. Niners live blog on Sunday

It's the last game of the year and it means nothing as far as the playoffs go, but that doesn't mean it won't be a lot of fun. Join me right here for the Real Redskins live blog of the Skins vs. the 49ers. It's a 4:15 kickoff and other commitments will make it difficult for me to get started much before kickoff.

Here's your reminder box and I'll see you Sunday!

Redskins Eagles After Further Review

Had the Washington Redskins managed to beat the Cincinnati Bengals last week or the St. Louis Rams in mid-October, yesterday's 10-3 win over the Eagles would have been a landmark game with a legendary finish. It would have propelled them into a position to snag a spot in the playoffs by beating the 49ers next Sunday.

In the real world, however, it was a somewhat entertaining game that featured a mix of good defense and bad offense on the part of both teams.

The Washington secondary swarmed over the Eagle receivers most of the game. Donovan McNabb frequently was unable to find open receivers and that gave Jason Taylor a chance to rack up two sacks, more than doubling his total for the season. One of those sacks was accompanied by a strip of the ball, and London Fletcher's subsequent recovery and return set up the Redskins' only touchdown.

When McNabb had time to throw—and he did frequently—his receivers were getting rocked. LaRon Landry, who had his best game in a long time, smacked the Eagles' receiver DeSean Jackson on a couple of occasions, once sending the rookie into the locker room to have the medical staff take a look at his ribs.

In another, less spectacular but equally effective play in the fourth quarter, Shawn Springs executed a classic strip of the ball on a McNabb to Jackson pass over the middle.

That was the good defense part. The bad offense came when the Eagles got a severe case of the dropsies. First it was tight end L. J. Smith dropping a couple of short passes with a lot of green grass in front of him. Then Jackson couldn't get the handle on a couple of deep passes, including one in the end zone that would have tied the game in the late going. Someone in the press box counted seven drops (presumably not counting Assante Samuel's drop of an interception that cost the Eagles some 40 yards of field position).

The Eagles had ample opportunity to drop passes since Andy Reid had McNabb drop back 48 times and hand off just 16 times. Even if you take out the 15 passes that McNabb attempted in that final drive you still have a pass to run ratio of two to one. This in a game that the Redskins led by more than a touchdown for just over four minutes on a cold, windy evening and that Philly entered with two of its top receivers inactive. It appeared for a while the Reid was buying into the concept of offensive balance but it certainly eluded him in this game.

It's hard to say whether or not the Eagles played great defense since the Washington offense was its usual unproductive self. The one sustained scoring drive, a 16-play field goal march that consumed 8:31 of the second quarter was nice but it ended with three points instead of seven.

About the best you can say about the Washington offense was that it did move the chains and thus was able to give the defense some rest. They didn't have any three and out series in the first three quarters.

The D needed the time on the sideline as the Redskins went three and out on three straight drives in the fourth quarter. Two of those started in Eagle territory but the Redskins, thanks primarily to some ultra-conservative play calling by Zorn, couldn't salt it away.

The defense got the job done, forcing four straight three-play Eagle possessions. They had enough left in the tank to stop their last drive a yard short of the end zone.

Again, if this game had playoff implications the high-low stop of Reggie Brown by Fred Smoot and Landry would have been wall poster material. I asked Landry if he'd ever heard of Ken Houston and, to my disappointment but not to my surprise, he said that he had not. The stop wasn't exactly like the solo tackle of Walt Garrison that Houston made in 1973, but it was the closest thing we've seen since. There was no question that the ball never crossed the plane of the goal line but everyone had to wait another minute or so for that to be confirmed by replay.

Zorn and the locker room were appropriately "medium" after this one, certainly happy to get a win in a game that had meaning to the other team (and, technically, meaning for the Redskins as it unfolded as it was on at the same time as the Falcons game) but far from giddy over breaking their three-game losing streak.

Redskins Eagles 4th quarter

14:06—Moss deep on the punt. A nice return but a pair of flags on the field will call it back. Still, OK field position at their own 30 for the Redskins.

12:56—Once again, Campbell shows his fancy footwork, picking up 19 on a scramble on third and 12. A three and out is averted and the Skins are near midfield.

11:29—The Redskins get another break on a drop as Assante Samuel drops an easy interception. The Skins have to punt and it dies at the three. Samuel had the ball in his hands at the 40 with running room. A huge swing there as the Eagles are backed up again. This Plackemeier guy might be a keeper after all.

10:11—The Redskins aren't the only team that throws short of the sticks on third down. LJ smith makes a catch for two yards on third and four. A shanked punt has the Redskins in Philly territory with a chance to salt this one away. I sense a Randle El touchdown pass. The Eagles have been very aggressive and some misdirection and trickery could be very effective.

8:54—Not much aggression there by the Redskins with three runs and out. It goes inside the 10 again. If the Redskins win, Plackemeier is my MVP. The Eagles' average starting position has been their own 12. The only one he boomed into the end zone was right at the end of the half when no cute stuff was necessary.

7:58—Three incomplete passes—the second one on a textbook strip of the rookie Jackson by the veteran Springs—has the Eagles punting again. Washington again has a chance to go a long way towards putting this one away.

6:18—It's up to the defense again as the Skins pull another three and out. This time the punt goes into the end zone and the Eagles will try from the 20.

6:00—Another drop, this one by an open Jackson on a bomb, has yet another sigh of relief emanating from most corners of FedEx Field. McNabb scrambles for five on third and 10 and the Skins get yet another crack at running off some clock.

4:52—And a nice Randle El return of the punt will give the Skins a chance to do so from the Eagle 45. He ran straight.

4:45—We are about 10K short of capacity here at FedEx with attendance at 82K and change.

3:55—And we go three and out again. Two runs and a pass. You can't keep giving the Eagles chances, the near-miss to Jackson was ample evidence of that.

2:30—The Eagles are using a lot of time her to move from their own eight to their own 28. They have a first down at their own 35 at the 2:00 warning. This is it. If the Skins hold, they go into victory formation.

1:10—It's getting interesting as the Eagles have it at midfield. Washington is leaving the middle of the field open and McNabb is taking advantage.

:57—Thank you again, Jackson. DeSean drops a pass in the end zone after beating Hall by a step.

:34—A near catch, a near pick, and a near PI flag all on one play. It's third and 10.

:27—It's fourth and about four after a dumpoff to Westbrook. It's the ballgame for the Eagles.

:12—They get it on a short swing to Westbrook—not sure why nobody was closer to him—and the Eagles will have a shot or two from the 18.

0:00—Wow—Smoot and Landry make the stop on the one and the clock runs down. We need a review, but it's looks like a Redskins win. After last week in Baltimore, you don't know.

He wasn't in, and the Redskins win.

Final score
Redskins 10, Eagles 3

 

 

 

Redskins Eagles 3rd quarter

This just goes to show you that the Redskins can stay in virtually in game when they don't come out and give it away in the first five minutes of play. It's far, far from over but the Skins are waking up and playing better ball. The Eagles have 66 yards of offense.

14:05—The Eagles have to burn a timeout on a third and eight. Landry got a good pop on Jackson to jar the bar loose on the previous play. LaRon hasn't been playing badly this year, but the big hits seem to be fewer and further between when compared to last season.

11:27—Jason Taylor with the sack AND strip! Fletcher recovers and returns inside the Eagle 20. Is this guy trying to get invited back for 2009?

Portis 1 run (Suisham kick)
Redskins 10, Eagles 0

They turn the takeaway into seven. A middle screen to Cooley gets them down to the five and three Portis runs for zero, four, and one yard gets the Skins into the end zone. I liked the second and goal from the five call when they went small with Moss and Randle El and swept to the left.

8:40—Landry knocked Jackson out of the game, at least for now. He has a rib injury from that rib-rocking hit and there is no word on his return. With Kevin Curtis and Hank Baskett inactive, the Eagles are very thin at WR.

6:34—I'm not sure what Lorenzo Alexander is doing covering Westbrook about 20 yards downfield, but he was and not the Eagles are in business in the Red Zone after a long pass and run.

5:44—Jackson is back in the game.

5:30—A big third and three coming up. Momentum is on the line.

4:50—A nice tackle by Horton stops Westbrook a yard shy of the first down and the Eagles will try a field goal.

FG Akers 22
Redskins 10, Eagles 3

Portis has cracked the all-time top 25 in rushing TD's with 71 for his career. That's pretty impressive for a guy who supposedly is fragile and always hurt.

1:01—A nice drive is now jammed into reverse on a sack and a holding penalty. They're now facing a semi-manageable third and 13.

End of third quarter
Redskins 10, Eagles 3

Redskins Eagles 2nd quarter

A big third and five coming up here for the Redskins. A few months ago, I would say it's two-down territory as they're at the Philly 35, but now you don't know.

14:50—No decision to be made as the bubble screen to Moss gets blown up. As of now, they're sending Suisham out to try a 55-yard field goal with the wind. I smell a quick kick from Plackemeier.

14:05—No, they play it straight and Suisham is well short. The Eagles return the kick to two yards past where the ball was spotted for the attempt so no great harm on that. Still, a quick kick or straight punt seems to be the better call there with a kicker who is losing confidence almost every time he lines up.

9:54—It's not that Portis doesn't get beat up enough, but I wonder why he's not the target of a few more passes per game. He just needs a blocker or two out in front on him and he's good for six or eight yards. Just file with a number of other things I don't understand about Jim Zorn's offense.

3:28—Skins get on the board first with a decent drive. They got a gift to keep it alive when Philly lined up in the neutral zone on third and five and then earned a third-down conversion with a nice swing pass to Betts. It bogged down in the Red Zone, though, and they had to settle for three after a 16-play, 72-yard drive that ate up 8:31.

FG Suisham 33
Redskins 3, Eagles 0

Portis missed a lot of that drive with a bruised hand. They have announced that his return is probable.

2:41—LJ Smith now has dropped two passes with a lot of green grass ahead of him. When things are going the way they are for the Redskins, you take it any way you can get it.

2:16—The Eagles get a first down with the ball short of the 30 after a touchback. No way. Zorn has to use a challenge and there is no way that he should. Philly "made" the first on the measurement but if the nose of the ball isn't to the 30, it's not a first down. We'll see what happens when the ref comes out from under the hood.

2:16—Zorn wins the challenge. They moved the ball back a bit, but is simply was not a first down to begin with. The Eagles will punt.

1:48—Portis back in and rips off a 14-yard run into Philly territory. We're also seeing some urgency here in the two-minute offense.

:26—Jason Fabini executes the famed "look out!" block on Darren Howard and Campbell gets sacked to stall the drive.

This is not shaping up to be the easy Philly win that many anticipated. They Skins have benefitted from a few breaks, to be sure, but the defense is playing well and the offense is moving well enough to give the D a rest. I don't have the play by play, but I don't remember a single Washington three and out.

End of first half
Redskins 3, Eagles 0

Redskins Eagles 1st quarter

The wind is blowing in FedEx pretty hard. It's unusual to see the streamers on the goal posts moving, but they are pretty steady from right to left as you look on TV. If you're in the end zone where my brother is sitting, it's right in your face.

13:52—The Redskins come out with a quick passing game, over the middle to Cooley on first and a swing pass to Betts on third and four. It's already better than their opening drives the last couple of weeks.

12:25—This coming straight from Capt. Obvious—the Redskins have to stay out of third and long. Philly brought about seven on third and eight and Campbell never had a chance. Fortunately, Rabach recovered the fumble. Now we'll see how the Washington defense can handle the red-hot McNabb and company.

9:29—I can't see the upper deck, but the lower bowl looks pretty full. There is a healthy representation of Philly fans here, but nothing like Pittsburgh.

8:41—The wind "advantage" just hurt the Eagles as it blew a McNabb pass to an open Jason Avant way long. After getting one first down, the Eagles punt and the Skins get another crack at it on offense. McNabb has a lot of time to throw, as usual for any QB vs. the Skins, and eventually the Skins will pay for that.

6:49—Once again, no imagination from a man who seemed to be destined to be famous for it. After the drive gets off to a good start with a 15-yard pass from Campbell to Thomas and a nine-yard Portis run, it stalls when Jim Zorn calls a sweep on third and one. It went nowhere. A little play action or even a quick slant there may have been more effective.

3:03—Wow, a sack by Jason Taylor for a 10-yard loss and then Randle El goes forward on a punt return. OK, the gain was only three but for those two events to occur back to back is amazing.

2:04—Man, when Campbell is decisive and knows where he wants to go, he puts in on a rope. He just zipped on into a crack in the defense to Moss for a first down. Portis just ran for another, and the Skins are on the move.

0:41—Now a catch by Fred Davis. Will wonders never cease.

End of first quarter
Redskins 0, Eagles 0

Sunday: Redskins vs. Eagles live blog

It's the final 2008 trip to the FedEx Field press box, so the live blog will be of the quarterly update variety. If there are any instant updates necessary, you can follow them via the Twitter (great service, dumb name) box on the left sidebar.

I'll be tailgating with Redskins Examiner Mark Newgent and with Ben Folsom of The Curly R, along with a cast of their friends and my family. Should there be any worthwhile pictures snapped or if anything else worthy of an update occur, I'll post it from the BlackBerry.

You can leave your comments in the comment section or, if you have a question, you can email it to me at rich.tandler+real@gmail.com.

Have they hit rock bottom?

A little behind here, but here goes with a quick prediction.

I do think that the Redskins have a shot here. They hit rock bottom last week against the Bengals. They have no place to go but up.

The question is have they rebounded enough to beat the hot Eagles?

Probably not, unless a few things change in a span of seven days.

Jim Zorn needs to come out of his shell when it comes to calling plays and mix things up a bit more. Hopefully, he learned a few new tricks in the past couple of weeks, things like play action on third and short, bootlegs, a no-huddle QB sneak on fourth and one. NFL teams do these things and they work more often than not.

Jason Campbell needs to loosen up a bit and risk throwing an interception or even two. If he's going to take the next step, he needs to take some chances.

Clinton Portis needs to run with reckless abandon. OK, well, that's a given since he does that every time he touches the ball. But another 140-yard performance, or even 90-100 yards, would go a long way towards slowing down that Eagles pass rush.

In short, the Redskins need to play with abandon, as though they have nothing to lose. Because, well, in the past six weeks they've already lost it all.

They will give the Eagles a battle, but in the end the team with something to play for will pull away.

Eagles 24, Redskins 14

11.14.43—Baugh throws four, picks four

I don't have time this morning to write a proper tribute to Slingin' Sammy Baugh. To help you gain an appreciation of Baugh, here is my account of perhaps his greatest single game. It was a 1943 game against the Lions and Baugh was a monster on both sides of the ball, throwing four touchdown passes and intercepting four passes. From the pages of The Redskins From A to Z:

Redskins 43, Lions 20

November 14, 1943

Griffith Stadium

Sammy Baugh put on quite a show, throwing four touchdown passes, intercepting four Detroit passes, getting off an 81-yard punt and recovering a fumble just for good measure, as the Redskins beat the Lions.

Washington built a 21-0 halftime lead. Two of the touchdowns came on Baugh passes. The first was a 10-yard dart to Bob Masterson; the other traveled 28 yards to Bob Seymour. In between, Lou Rymkus tipped a screen pass, gathered it in, and stepped 12 yards unchallenged into the end zone to account for the half's other TD.

The Redskins moved quickly to take what appeared to be complete command in the second half as they drove 73 yards in six plays at the outset of the third quarter. From the Lion 10, Baugh scrambled around long enough to find Masterson in the end zone for a 28-0 lead.

Detroit made a bid to get back into the contest when Frankie Sinkwich returned a punt 77 yards to the Redskin 22. On the next play, however, George Smith smashed into ball carrier Harry Hopp, forcing a fumble that Baugh recovered.

Sinkwich then rallied his team almost single-handedly. He threw touchdown passes of 22 yards to Jack Matheson and of 40 yards to Bill Callihan. That wasn't quite enough to make the Redskins sweat, though, so the added a 39-yard interception return for another touchdown and, suddenly, it was 28-20.

The performance by Sinkwich sufficiently aroused the Redskins, and they tallied two more touchdowns in the remainder of the fourth quarter to put it away. The first came on a short run by Andy Farkas, the second on Baugh's final touchdown pass, his one to Joe Aguirre from four yards.

Instability has a number--30

In yesterday's post about Jim Zorn, I asked the reader to consider how many changes the Redskins have had at four key areas of the team, the brains of the operation—head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and quarterback. I decided to quantify that thought and list the men who have held those positions since the start of the 1998 season.

The list has five head coaches, six offensive coordinators (I listed the de facto OC's, so four of them were head coaches as well), seven defensive coordinators, and 12 starting quarterbacks.

In two games short of eleven seasons, the Redskins have had 30 different men in charge of planning and executing on-field strategy. That's an average of almost three changes per season.

In light of this, I'll say that it's nearly miraculous and a tribute to the players that the team has made three playoff appearances and has avoided a disastrous, 13-loss season in that time frame.

Consider that in a time frame one year shorter the Eagles have had the same men in the same jobs. Since 1999, it's been Andy Reid as head coach and offensive coordinator, Jim Johnson as defensive coordinator, and Donovan McNabb playing quarterback.

Reid and company went 5-11 in '99, and then made the playoffs at 11-5 the next year they've been in the playoffs six of the last eight years and they advanced to four straight NFC title games. A tiny bit of patience has paid big dividends. I wouldn't necessarily want the Redskins to do everything like the Eagles do, but there are some lessons to be learned here.

Head coaches

1. Norv Turner
   
2. Marty Schottenheimer
   
3. Steve Spurrier
   
4. Joe Gibbs
   
5. Jim Zorn
   (Please note that it is an official policy of mine not to count interim coaches as head coaches, thus the omission of Terry Robiskie.)
   

Offensive coordinators

1. Turner
   
2. Jimmy Raye
   
3. Spurrier
   
4. Gibbs
   
5. Al Saunders
   
6. Zorn
   

Defensive coordinators

1. Mike Nolan
   
2. Ray Rhodes
   
3. Kurt Schottenheimer
   
4. Marvin Lewis
   
5. George Edwards
   
6. Gregg Williams
   
7. Greg Blache
   

Quarterbacks

1. Gus Frerotte
   
2. Trent Green
   
3. Brad Johnson
   
4. Jeff George
   
5. Tony Banks
   
6. Shane Matthews
   
7. Danny Wuerffel
   
8. Patrick Ramsey
   
9. Tim Hasselbeck
   
10. Mark Brunell
    
11. Jason Campbell
    
12. Todd Collins

Zorn must stay

Here I go again.

After standing up for the status quo a couple of weeks ago in saying that Jason Campbell should stay behind center for the Washington Redskins, here I am calling for some more stability.

Jim Zorn needs to be given at least one more year, preferably more, to make the Redskins into a team that is capable of going deep into the playoffs.

I'm not saying this because I think that Zorn is without flaws that need to be corrected. He has made mistakes and I'm not going to call them rookie mistakes. Rookies come into the league and enter an environment that is totally different from the one that they were used to in college. Zorn has spent virtually all of his adult life in the NFL.

Through observation he should know that you have to have your finger on the pulse of the team and know that a player like Clinton Portis isn't going to knock on his office door when he's ticked off about a coaching decision. You can't let Carlos Rogers stand there in the tunnel waiting to get introduced as a starter when everyone in Washington who had Internet access could find out that he had been demoted to second string.

From watching Mike Holmgren over the past seven years he should know that your sideline demeanor can set the tone for the rest of the team and that if you act frustrated that feeling can spread.

He appeared to be unprepared for other teams catching up with his offensive schemes. In this league, as soon as something starts working, you had better make plans to tweak it.

However, I will go on the assumption that he recognizes these mistakes, that he's not stuck on stupid, and that he wants to improve. In other words, I figure he meant what he said in his Monday presser when he said he felt like "the worst coach in America" and basically took responsibility for everything that's gone wrong short of the problems that General Motors is having.

If you're reading this, I don't have to chronicle all of the upheaval that the team has undergone in the past 10 years. The number of changes at the key positions—head coach, offensive and defensive coordinators and quarterback—has been staggering. You have to give Zorn some time to grow and learn and get the players to ingrain his system and philosophy into their brains and bodies.

I don't think that Dan Snyder will pull the trigger on firing Zorn this soon. If nothing else, to do so would be to admit that the long, drawn out coaching search of last January came to a disastrously wrong conclusion.

Had the Redskins reached their 7-7 record by winning one, dropping a couple, going on a mini-streak followed by a mild slump, there would be no talk of Jim Zorn being fired. They would be meeting the mildly optimistic preseason expectations of a .500 season. But the way they have gone from 6-2 to 7-7 has many people fired up.

But you are what your record says you are not matter how you get to that record. The Redskins are about where they've been for the past decade, not horrible but also not ready to contend for any kind of playoff run. Their best shot at changing that in the near future is to resist change and stay the course with Jim Zorn.

Skins play a stinker in Cincy

Let's dispose of this stinker in a hurry.

When Cedric Benson throws 161 combined yards against you, you have no business winning.

When you let Ryan Fitzpatrick stand up at the line and bark out audibles like Peyton Manning, you have no business winning.

When the Bengals defense is giving your offensive line the jitters by walking up to the line and backing off, you have no business winning.

When you twice get flagged for an illegal formation, you have no business winning.

When your 280-lb. fullback can't nudge for a quarter of a yard to get into the end zone, you have no business winning.

When your defense allows Benson, Fitzpatrick and the rest of the Bengals to shove the ball down your throat for 16 plays in 7:13 to ice the game with a field goal, you have no business winning.

The Washington Redskins had no business winning against the Bengals.

They played like they were the 1-11-1 underdogs with nothing to play for. They were timid and tentative. The fumble on the third play of the game seemed to break their will right off the bat. If that didn't, Sellers' fumble at the goal line did. Even though 20 minutes remained to be played, they seemed to be done.

I hate Sellers in short yardage. Get him the ball out in the open and let him hurdle and bowl defensive backs over to his heart's content. On short yardage, though, you need someone who knows how to run, find a crack in the wall and slither through it. All Sellers wants to do is power his way over guys who are bigger than he is. And you never, ever push the ball away from your body to get it to break the plane unless you are 100% certain that you can get over.

While normally like to amuse myself and others—mostly myself—with longshot playoff scenarios, I'm not even going to go there. Although the Redskins aren't officially eliminated, they'd have to win out and some other teams would have to lose out for them to get in.

Instead, it's time to look to next year. I think that Jim Zorn stays, but I'll be much less certain of that should the Redskins lose out from here. Changes on the coaching staff are inevitable no matter who is the head coach. I've got to think that receivers coach Stan Hixon has to bear a load of the responsibility for the slow development of the team's rookie pass catchers. Joe Bugel, thanks for the memories and I know it's been a tough year for you personally, but it's time to pack it in. I don't give Danny Smith a free pass for the performance of the special teams—the Giants' first extra point a couple of weeks ago tells me all I need to know—but I think he'll get one.

Player personnel changes will be the subject of a lot of space here over the coming few months (free agency is just two and a half months away!). I'll look at a few things over the next few days.

Live Blog Redskins vs Bengals

We'll get things going here at about 12:30 PM. See you then!

UPDATE: Have to run a quick errand, will get started at more like 12:45.

Hall is starting in place of Rogers, kind of surprising there.

Live Blog Redskins vs. Bengals

It's a road game so the interactive CoverItLive software will be up and running. We had a good crew here last Sunday night and we managed to have a good time despite the fact that the game was competitive for, oh, about five minutes.

We'll get things started here at about 12:30. See you then.

Redskins vs. Bengals Prediction

I'm not sure that the Washington Redskins can win the three games in a row necessary to give them a shot at securing a spot in the NFC postseason party.

I am very confident that they can win on game in a row in Cincinnati this Sunday.

The Redskins have been very good at taking care of business against the dregs of the league. The lone banana peel they've hit was in October against the Rams. Other than that, they have thumped the NFL's Little Sisters of the Poor.

And, make no mistake, the Bengals are bottom feeders. They are last in total offense and 24^th in total defense. The Bengals' 1-11-1 record isn't all aces.

Their best player, quarterback Carson Palmer, has an elbow injury and has been on the sideline most of the season. In a move that only the Bengals organization would make, they have not put Palmer on injured reserve. Sunday's game will be the ninth straight that Palmer has missed and team was eliminated from the playoff picture before Columbus Day. Rather than pull the plug and put a player on the team that could, you know, help them, the Bengals let him languish. I truly that the thought of paying a player the millions that Palmer makes and not have him available for so much as the coin toss is abhorrent to the Bengals' basic way of doing business.

The coach of any other team that has steadily descended from a playoff appearance in 2005 to the mess that they are today would be on a seat so hot it could bring a giant pot of Cincinnati chili to a boil in a hurry. But Marvin Lewis' job is secure only because Mike Brown and company are too cheap to pay the balance of Lewis' contract, which has two years left on it.

OK, enough of beating up on the Bengals. Their own fans do enough of that. And the Redskins have their own problems, to be sure.

On top of that, Cincinnati has played the NFC East tough this year. They took the Giants to overtime before losing in the Meadowlands, were competitive in Dallas all the way and, yes Donovan, they tied the Eagles.

That and the fact that the Redskins have managed to keep all of their wins competitive into the very late going leads to the conclusion that they will do just enough to post the "W". With 40% their offensive line consisting of players who have either been totally inactive (RT Jason Fabini) or mostly in a reserve role (LT Stephon Heyer) this year the Redskins will grind it out with Clinton Portis on offense. Look for the Mouth That Roared to rumble for a buck-forty.

The Skins' one chance to turn this into a rout is to pick off a few of Ryan Fitzpatrick's passes. In the shocking stat of the day department, the Redskins are tied for 12^th in the NFL with 12 interceptions. If they can get a few of those deep in Cincy territory. . .

But that's unlikely. More than likely it will be a lot of three and outs for the Bengals, they'll punt and the Redskins will have to embark on long, sustained scoring drives to put points on the board. Some will make the end zone, most won't. At this point in the season, you are what you are.

Redskins 20, Bengals 10

Batiste signed

New OL, more later barring another star popping off at the coach.
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From: "Redskins Public Relations"
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:45:39 -0500
Subject: REDSKINS SIGN D'ANTHONY BATISTE

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

For Immediate Release                                                                                  

December 10, 2008

 

REDSKINS SIGN D’ANTHONY BATISTE

 

 

ASHBURN, VA - The Washington Redskins announced today that they have signed offensive lineman D’Anthony Batiste. He will wear jersey No. 78.

 

The 6-foot-4 Batiste, who is in his third NFL season, played and started four games at guard for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007.  He was originally signed by Dallas as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He spent the first six weeks of that season on the Cowboys practice squad before being signed by Carolina. He did not see any action for the Panthers.

 

A native of Marksville, La., Batiste was a four-year letterman at University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He was born March 29, 1982.

 

 

-REDSKINS-

 

Contacts:              Zack Bolno                           bolnoz@redskins.com                         703-726-7065

William Norman                   normanw@redskins.com                    703-726-7036

Michael Pehanich               pehanichm@redskins.com                 703-726-7077   

 

Portis vs Zorn a lose-lose situation

Clinton Portis needs to shut up.

Jim Zorn needed to speak up.

In choosing to blast Zorn on the John Thompson show (boy, Snyder owning that station really has stifled criticism of the team, hasn't it?), Portis created a distraction at exactly the time that the team did not need it. After sitting out most of the second half of last Sunday's game against the Ravens, Portis had two full days to figure out what he was going to say about it on his weekly radio appearance on ESPN980 with the former Georgetown basketball coach.

He chose to be still angry about the fact that he sat out the last 30 minutes of the team's 24-10 loss and to express that anger in a mix of sarcastic comments and resignation.

In other words, he chose to show his spoiled, selfish, high-maintenance diva side.

Appearing on the same radio station later in the day, Zorn reiterated what he said on Sunday and Monday, that Portis sat out the half because he hadn't been able to practice all week. The Ravens were bringing a lot of different looks and blitzes ("exotic" blitzes as John Madden said about 1,000 times). Zorn felt it was important to have a back who actually had executed the protection schemes on the practice field in the game. That was Ladell Betts.

The problem is that Zorn had a few opportunities to talk to Portis about his line of reasoning, to explain his logic and to soothe the player's rather substantial ego. He thought that it was important enough to talk to the press about on Sunday night and Monday afternoon, but he didn't find the time to sit down with Portis and set things straight.

In other words, he chose to display his inexperience as a head coach.

Portis protested that he knew the schemes, that he had been at the meetings and had paid attention at practice. This seems to be the heart of his complaint.

"If I can run through the week, I'd practice. If I can't, then I ain't. And I'm not gonna force myself to go onto a field and do something crazy and then all of the sudden I'm out. What I need to be around for is Sundays, and that's what I try to be around for. So I mean, if you've got a problem with me not practicing and can't do it that way, maybe you feel like you need to sever ties, split ties with me? Split ties with me. But don't sit here and throw me out like I don't pay attention, like I don't know what's going on, like I'm making mistakes, I'm the problem.

If Zorn had explained to Portis that he understood why he couldn't practice during the week and that he simply had to do what he thought was best for the team, this whole issue could have been avoided. Portis could have spoken his mind behind closed doors and, while it's unlikely that he would have been happy about it, he would have had the chance to get it off his chest. Since he wasn't given the chance to do so, he decided to go nuclear and speak his mind to the world.

That doesn't mean that Portis had to do it. The part where he talks about severing ties is particularly galling. He just got a bunch of guaranteed money in the offseason and in doing so he made it virtually impossible for the Redskins to sever ties. Portis has had plenty of opportunity to shine under Zorn this year but when the road gets a little bumpy he starts to talk about bailing out.

It remains to be seen how much effect Portis' comments will have on the locker room. He's not exactly a leader on the team. His comments earlier in the year about his offensive line and about how the team didn't seem to be focused going into the game against the Rams have created a "Clinton is Clinton" mentality among his teammates. Some may grate privately at what he says but to a man they admire his attitude and production between the lines.

In other words, the ripple effects are likely to be minimal.

This time.

If Zorn continues to speak to his players though the press rather than taking his issues up with them in private, things could begin to get sticky.

Roster moves

This from the press release, more later:

ASHBURN, VA - The Washington Redskins announced today that they have signed tackle Devin Clark and guard Will Montgomery and have placed offensive lineman Justin Geisinger and tackle Chris Samuels on injured reserve.  In addition, the team released defensive end Erasmus James from the active roster and signed wide receiver Marques Hagans and guard Rueben Riley to the practice squad.  Wide receiver Devin Aromashodu was signed off the Redskins' practice squad to the Chicago Bears active roster.  
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10 still is the number

Ten wins still will get the Washington Redskins into the NFL playoffs.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because nothing substantial has changed from last week. I'm also not going to address whether or not the Redskins can get to 10 wins given the way they have been playing over the past couple of months. That's certainly is debatable and it will be covered in this blog but not in this article. But here's the picture.

ATL 8-5: TB @MIN STL
DAL 8-5: NYG BAL @PHI
PHI 7-5-1 CLE @WAS DAL
WAS 7-6: @CIN PHI @SF

I've taken out the Bucs and Panthers as it appears certain that one of them will win the NFC South and the other will be the top Wild Card. I've added the Eagles to the mix after their improbable win over the Giants has put them ahead of the Redskins.

However, the Eagles don't really matter in the picture when it comes to the Redskins because they play the Redskins. Washington has to win that game in order to get to 10 wins. If the Redskins do win, the Eagles can't win more than nine games.

No question, the Cowboys and Falcons could win out, get to 11-5 and lock out the Redskins. Looking at their schedules that appears unlikely, but the Redskins don't control their own destiny.

Let's say that Dallas and Atlanta both finish 2-1. One more loss would give Atlanta five NFC losses; the Redskins have four. That means that the Redskins have that tiebreaker.

The situation with Dallas is a little less clear cut. If they Cowboys lose to either the Giants or the Eagles they would finish 3-3 in the division, the same as a 10-6 Redskins team would be. It then would come down to record in common games. I haven't triple checked this, but if the Cowboys beat the Ravens that tiebreaker will be even. It then comes down to conference record and Dallas would have five conference losses and Washington would have four.

But if they beat both of those teams and lose to the Ravens they would be 4-2 in the NFC East and would go into the playoffs instead of the Redskins.

Look at it this way. If the Redskins beat the Bengals on Sunday—and I don't believe that this team is so bad that it can't accomplish that—and the Bucs beat the Falcons and Dallas loses to the Giants, the Redskins are then in a three-way tie for the Wild Card holding the tiebreaker advantage. The Eagles could move ahead of them by a half game with a win over the Browns on Monday night but that sets up Philadelphia at Washington the next Sunday for the Wild Card lead.

Again, the Redskins have plenty of issues and winning three in a row seems unlikely. The biggest obstacle appears to be the Eagles, who are the type of physical team that has been giving the Redskins fits. But if they can turn things around, something that is not unusual in the NFL in general or for this team in particular, they have the chance to keep playing in January.

One more thing: Yahoo! has a playoff scenario generator that's pretty cool to play around with. You can change the result of any game and see what it does to the postseason picture. If you go to their default setting, which is their rankings, go to Week 16 and change the result of the Washington-Philly game to a Redskins win, you'll see the Skins appear as the sixth seed. You also can play with any other scenario you'd like or have the results predicted in different ways.

Youth movement starts on OL

By necessity, a youth movement is underway on the Redskins' offensive line.

With Chris Samuels going onto injured reserve, the Redskins signed Devin Clark from the practice squad. The former New Mexico Lobo, who signed as an undrafted free agent last spring, is 22 years old, 6-4, 302. He will practice at both tackle spots as Jon Jansen's status is uncertain. Jansen will undergo an MRI to examine his sprained knee.

In addition, it appears that Chad Reinhart will be active on game day for the first time this Sunday. The team's third-round draft pick is a more natural guard, but he did play tackle some during the preseason.

This all comes as the team's offensive line is undergoing a firestorm of criticism. The unit was whipped soundly from tackle to tackle and all three spots in between on a regular basis on Sunday night in Baltimore. The poor performance was the continuation of a pattern of bad play against strong defensive units over the past several weeks.

It has become clear that the team will have to rebuild the unit starting soon. The five starters are all well over 31 years of age and they are transforming from being wily veterans to being old guys right before our eyes.

The performances of Clark and Reinhardt over the next few weeks will go a long way towards determining the path the Redskins must take this offseason. If they can perform well, whether it's as starters or in reserve roles, the team may not have to invest draft picks and/or free agent dollars in offensive linemen, or at least not a lot of either. If they show that they are projects a few years away from contributing, if they ever do at all, the first-round pick will almost have to go for an O-lineman and some cap room will have to be cleared out for a free agent starter or two.

The mystery man here is Stephon Heyer. It appears that he will start on the left side. He did well at right tackle last year, moving into Jansen's slot later in the season. This year he won the starting job on the right side, got injured and hasn't been able to move back ahead of Jansen, who hasn't played well in two months. It appears that he will start at left tackle but he no longer appears to be the bright prospect he once was.

Whatever Zorn and Bugel do, they should not put Jason Fabini in as a stopgap. Yes, I know that the playoffs are on the line (and three in a row will get them in) but sometimes you have to look to the future. Giving Fabini meaningful action in these last three games would take such action away from players who need to develop and who need to be evaluated. (EDIT: Starting Fabini appears to be the course that Zorn is going to take and it's a mistake.)

And speaking of old guys among a group of old guys, Pete Kendall has to go after this season. He hasn't played horribly but he'll be 36 by the time training camp rolls around next year. Never will he be the dominant force with a mean streak that the team needs at the position.

Here is what I'd like to see the Redskins' starting OL to be on opening day 2009:

• LT Samuels—At 32 he still has a few good years left in him.
  
• LG Reinhart—After a year of learning, he should be ready to go.
  
• C Rabach—This position could be upgraded if the team had a second-round pick; they still could trade back for one. Geisinger could take the spot here as well.
  
• RG Thomas—I'm not 100% sure that Thomas still has it in him, so I wouldn't be shocked if a first-round guard wound up here.
  
• RT Clark—Or Heyer if he can get his act together.
  

That would be at least a 40% turnover from old to young and probably 60% as I don't think we'll see both Rabach and Thomas back as starters.

Samuels out for the season

Chris Samuels will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn triceps.

More to come.

Live Blog Redskins vs Ravens

We'll get things going here at about 7:30 and kickoff is about 8:15. To leave a comment just type it into the box and send it. Most comments will end up on the blog but all will not.

RealRedskins.com Early Games Live Blog

Here we go with the live blog of the 1:00 games which are of interest to the Redskins, the Giants-Eagles and the Saints-Falcons. It's c'mon Philly and geaux Saints!

Had to stop this early, check back at about 7:30 for Redskins-Ravens.

Nothing to be afraid of

If you listen to some Washington Redskins fans this week, you'd think that the team shouldn't bother making the trip up I-95 to M&T Bank Stadium this week. They have no chance, according to some, to even stay in the game against the Baltimore Ravens.

At first glance, the negative feelings have a great deal of validity. Baltimore has won six of its last seven games. They have put up 30 points or more in all but two of those wins and in those games they scored 27 and 29.

The Redskins' problems with scoring points are well documented. They have yet to post 30 points in a game this year and the Ravens are not a team you want to play when you need to get your offense cranking. They are second in the NFL in total defense and their D is one of those nasty units that smacks you around and takes your lunch money.

A closer look, however, reveals that the Ravens may not be such a formidable force. They are 8-4, just one game better than the Redskins. Their six-of-seven hot streak has been built mostly against the dregs of the NFL. Miami and Philadelphia are the strongest of their victims. The others are Oakland, Cleveland, Houston, and Cincinnati.

That doesn't mean that the Ravens aren't any good, it just makes their record difficult to evaluate. For the most part, the Ravens are a team that has won the games it should win and they have lost the games they should lose (their four losses are to a pair of 11-1 teams, the Titans and Giants, the 9-3 Steelers and the 8-4 Colts).

This one against the Skins goes into the category of a game the Ravens "should" win. The Skins have lost three out of four and, although the losses were to quality teams they haven't been particularly competitive in those losses. The Ravens are at home and they are a five-point favorite.

The Redskins' best shot is to bunch up against the Ravens' rushing attack and dare rookie Joe Flacco to beat them. That's been tried this year but Flacco has been up to the challenge for the most part. The Ravens, however, have not faced a defensive backfield the caliber of that of the Redskins, who should be at full strength with Shawn Springs likely to play.

Still, you have to wonder where the Washington points will come from. Maybe this is the week that they take all of the heat and pressure and turn the lump of coal that their offense has been into a diamond.

Maybe, but probably not.

Ravens 16, Redskins 10

Live Blogs—Skins-Ravens and early games

It's the Redskins vs. the Ravens, flexed to Sunday night football on NBC. The live blog will be here starting at about 7:30 PM. It will be the usual fun with running commentary on the action and your input on what's happening as well.

I'm also planning on putting up a different live blog window for the early games in which the Skins have a rooting interest. I might not be able to get it going until sometime in the second half of the first game, but it will be up at some point in the middle of the afternoon.

Subscribing to RealRedskins.com by email or by RSS is the best way to be notified as to when the early blog will be up. Just go to the sidebar on the right and make it happen. I never see your email, so I couldn't use it for any nefarious purposes even if I wanted to.

The reminder below is for the Skins-Ravens live blog.

Will 10 wins get in?

In 2005 and again in 2007 the Washington Redskins faced strings of must-win games in December. They lost to San Diego in the last game of November of '05 to fall to 5-6. They then reeled off five straight wins to grab a Wild Card spot. Last year they were 5-7 after a December 2 loss to the Bills and it took four wins in a row to pull out another postseason berth.

This year, the Redskins sit at 7-5 going into the final month of the season. While they are third in their division and fourth among the four teams with realistic Wild Card aspirations, their situation for making the playoffs is difficult, but not as desperate as it was three years ago or last year.

A repeat of last year's four-game run would almost certainly lead to a trip to the playoffs. Here are the four teams currently in contention plus Tampa Bay, with the same record as Carolina and leading the NFC South on tiebreakers:

TB 9-3: @CAR @ATL SD OAK
CAR 9-3: TB DEN @NYG @NO
ATL 8-4: @NO TB @MIN STL
DAL 8-4: @PIT NYG BAL @PHI
WAS 7-5: @BAL @CIN PHI @SF

At first glance, this looks rather bleak as the Redskins will have to pass two teams in order to make it in. That's difficult, but not as daunting as it may seem.

To set this up, let's say that the Redskins are able to get to 10 wins with wins over Philly and San Francisco as part of the mix. That would give them a division record of 3-3 and a conference record of 8-4.

Look at Dallas' remaining schedule. It's the hardest of any NFL team. The Cowboys will do well to go 2-2 against that gauntlet. Should one of those losses come against the Eagles or Giants they would be at 10-6 but with five conference losses. The Redskins would win the tiebreaker based on conference record.

The Bucs, Panthers, and Falcons have something of a round robin going on in the next couple of weeks as Tampa Bay plays at Carolina this Sunday and Atlanta hosts the Bucs the next week. There are way too many possible outcomes of those three games to go into all of them but the best thing for the Skins is for the Bucs to sweep the two games and take command of the NFC South. Then Carolina would have four conference losses and would have to win two of their last three to get to 11 wins and stay out of a tiebreaker with a 10-win Redskins team. The Redskins would win that tiebreaker since Carolina would have five NFC losses if it finished 1-2 at that point.

The Falcons are 5-3 and all of their remaining games are against NFC teams. That means that if they finish 10-6 they will automatically have five conference losses and would finish behind the Skins in a tiebreaker.

The Redskins want to stay out of a tiebreaker with the Bucs, who have only two conference losses with two NFC games left.

But all the Redskins need to have a good shot at making it a 10-6 is to have no more than one non-division winner to finish at 11-5.

What it boils down to here is that while this Sunday night's game against the Ravens is important in a lot of ways, it's not vital to the team's playoff chances. If they lose, it's a non-conference game and they would be facing three games (I hate to label those last three as "very winnable" as everything has been a struggle lately but they are games the Skins should be able to win without playing at their absolute peak) that they would have to sweep to get to 10.

The picture will become clearer after this week's games and we'll have solid must-win and must-lose games after Week 15. But for now, 10 seems to be the number that will have the Redskins playing into January.

Benching Campbell would be a big mistake

Let's cut straight to the subject that's been buzzing around the message board and talk radio world:

Should Jason Campbell be benched?

Clearly, his performance has fallen off in the past seven games. After the first five games of the year Campbell's QB rating stood at a very respectable 100 and he hadn't thrown an interception. Now, he's at a mediocre 87.5 rating and he's thrown four picks. After five games, ESPN's Ron Jaworski said that he was a candidate for MVP. Now people are saying he's the main reason the offense has been MIA.

So that has board posters and talk show callers calling for Campbell to be replaced. Put in Todd Collins, look what happened when he went in at this time last year. Put in Colt Brennan, look what he did in preseason. Do either one of those but get another guy for next year. Campbell can't make decisions, he holds the ball too long, he can't make the throws, he can't read defenses, he's not a leader.

It's important to note here that this outcry for Campbell's ouster is coming strictly from outside of Redskins Park. Usually when there is dissatisfaction among the players with the play of the quarterback, some off-the-record comments will be made to some of the media types. I have checked with a couple of reporters who are out in Ashburn frequently and they both told me that there has been no grumbling about benching Campbell.

Let me repeat, none. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada. Not a whisper, not a grunt.

Now, I'm not going to go and try to put lipstick on the pig that has been the Redskins offense over the past month and a half or try to minimize Campbell's role in it. A grand total of two touchdowns in three big November home games speaks for itself. The quarterback takes the snaps, he runs the show, and he gets Miss DC. A lot of it is on him.

But it's not all on him, and that's one of the two points I want to make here. This offense is not a well-oiled machine just needed a stud quarterback to take the wheel. Dropped passes, ill-timed penalties and missed blocks are problems that I can see with my own two eyes.

Yesterday, Jim Zorn went into detail about how Antwaan Randle El ran an 11-yard pattern when he should have run an eight-yard pattern. That made Campbell's throw appear to be low when it was exactly where it should have been. Instead of being to turn around and easily take a couple of steps for a first down, Randle El was touched down short of the first.

The second point to make here is directed at those of you who point to Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco and say, see, it shouldn't matter that Campbell is learning a new offense, these guys can step right out of college and get it done.

Yes, Flacco and Ryan are having good years. That's no guarantee that either of them will be good quarterbacks in the NFL for a long time. Did you ever hear of Daunte Culpepper? The learning curve is different for all quarterbacks. Let's look down the list of the top QB's in terms of rating and see how their careers have unfolded:

1. Tony Romo—Did not throw a pass for almost three and a half years before bursting onto the scene.
   
2. Phillip Rivers—Drafted high, did not play much for two years, has been good but not great in three years as a starter.
   
3. Kurt Warner—Couldn't make it out of college, played Arena League, bagged groceries, made the Rams as a backup, got his chance due to injury, won two MVP's, declined, nobody wanted him, now back as an unquestioned starter.
   
4. Drew Brees—Played in one game as a rookie, posted QB ratings of 76.9 and 67.5 in his first two years starting, had two great years with the Chargers, was allowed to leave as a free agent in favor of Rivers, has had two and a half stellar years in New Orleans.
   
5. Chad Pennington—Played little in his first two years with the Jets, then broke out in his third year, has been steady if unspectacular since then.
   
6. Jeff Garcia—Canadian League, made the Pro Bowl in San Francisco, bounced to the Lions and Browns, both of whom had major QB issues, to the Eagles where he took over for an injured McNabb and led them to the playoffs, to Tampa Bay.
   

I defy you to find a pattern there and tell me where Campbell "should" be at this stage of his career. No, he hasn't shown a steady progression from game one as a starter through yesterday, his 32^nd game behind center. But neither did most of the guys listed above, or many other solid starters around the league.

Take the quarterbacks of the last two teams the Redskins have faced. Matt Hasselbeck, under the coaching of Jim Zorn in Seattle, had many fits and starts with the Seahawks. Then, in 2005, he got it. A year later the Seahawks were in the Super Bowl and may well have won it if not for some strange officiating calls.

And Eli Manning seemed to be completely lost as late December of last year. Nobody in NFL history has thrown more incompletions in a game than he did against the Redskins in the Meadowlands in Week 15 of 2007. A few weeks before that, he'd thrown four interceptions in an ugly loss to the Vikings. His demeanor was way too laid back. He's now wearing a Super Bowl ring.

Not that all of this means that it's a slam dunk that Campbell will be leading a parade down Constitution Avenue holding a Lombardi Trophy this year or any time soon.

It does mean that there is a potential payoff in being patient, letting Campbell stay in there until he and the other 10 guys on offense are executing the offense the way it's supposed to be executed.

Sometimes to best way to change things is to make no changes at all. This is one of those times.