First Division Game

PHEW!  Just breathe!  That's good... there you go, in and out.  Everything's going to be ok...

Wait, no its not!  A win is a win right?  Not when it reflects problems that serious teams won't let you live through.  I'll start with the good this time.

Goals from 5 different players.  I was going to write a post earlier about the differences between this and last year's starts for the Pens as compared to the Caps to point out the absolute importance of TEAM hockey.  This year, Crosby and Geno are barely in the standings in terms of goals or assists.  Sure, they are doing quite well, but the Pens are getting contributions from all over their lines, and a significant amount of it.  They are 7-1-0.  With goals from all over our lines, we had this game tucked away early and solidly.  Good thing too...

0-7 on the power play.  Enough said about that.

4 penalties in the last 3 minutes.  Enough said about that.

I'm still not sure as to what this team needs to get itself organized.  I'd like to throw out a new venture here and go with "leadership".  Part of having a team identity is having a leader.  Ovechkin is amazing, but his english skills (or lack thereof) and his carefree/silly manner make him a terrible "leader".  Unfortunately, our captain, the guy whose supposed to lead, is pretty poor at both leading and hockey.  Once again, I feel like we're a collection or immense talent with nothing funneling it.  In this case, the whole << sum of the parts.

Where to begin with the Skins...

Right now, the Skins may just be one of the worst run franchises in the NFL. And since the problems all start with the top, it may be quite a while before we really see anything positive out of this team.

As long as Cerrato is around as the team head of operations, this team will NEVER even make it to the conference championship game. Snyder needs to wake up to the fact that his buddy is atrocious at his job and has over the last few years essentially ignored the main issues that needed to be addressed. Why the hell has nothing been done about our offensive line? Every guy on it is old, most of them had injuries last season, and we have no depth whatsoever at any of its positions. Yet, nothing is done. What does he expect, for the hand of god to come down and open up holes and protect the QB? Let's not even mention Dinny's (From now on, I will refer to Dan Synder and Vinny Cerrato as one entity) decision to essentially destroy the Redskins cap future by throwing ungodly amounts of money at Haynesworth when it was our offense that really needed help (and our defense has only gotten worse this year..hmmmm)

Oh, and in a draft in which every single scout out there knew that it was an extremely poor draft for WRs, what do the Redskins do but use their two highest draft picks for wide receivers (both of whom are complete NFL flops).

Lets look at what else Dinny has done to this team; both of our RBs are old, no young talent brought in so no depth, Some of the worst coaching hires ever seen (Spurrier!?, Zorn!?), Letting go an excellent defensive coordinator in Greg Williams, the list goes on.

Because of so many boneheaded moves, the team is screwed for years to come and you know what, the fans absolutely deserve better than this. Even through all this crap, the Redskins still have one of the most devoted fan bases in the league who would die for this team. Dinny cannot be allowed to succeed in destroying one of the best things this city has. It is our duty to do all that we can to stop them. I heard rumors that their may be a march on the DC mall by Redskins fans who will be wearing bags over their heads to protest the management. I feel like joining them...

Thank god I can watch Ovie being amazing every week

Weekend Wrap-Up: Skins

Glad to see the Caps are playing again, well, glad to see Ovie is scoring again, hopefully the rest of the team will wake the hell up.

Skins:
This is the first loss after-which I feel the general media is beginning to acknowledge the issues the Skins have had for over a decade now.  I feel like the past few years they've been trying to figure out why things weren't working, blaming it on record-setting QB hirings, record-setting coach hirings, bad luck, missed opportunities, this, that and the other thing.  But these embarrassing personnel and team issues are not causes themselves but rather symptoms of the real problem.

I flipped over to espn.com tonight to read some recaps of all the other great teams in the league (Farve/Brees undefeated, Brady setting more ridiculous records) when I clicked the page and saw this: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=lebrun_pierre&id=4575553.  I began crying... tears of joy, until I realized I had clicked on the NHL tab and not the NFL tab.  While I am only kidding (not really), I saw a glimmer of hope in those few seconds I had thought the owner of the Skins was no longer in command.  Like I had been set free, let out of prison, finally come up for air after being drowned for over 10 years.  Dan Snyder has run this team worse than the execs at Enron and its long past due for a change.

The problem with today's game is that its no different than our last game, or the game before that, or the season before that.  This team requires an overhaul.  A complete changing of the guard.  New coaches, new QBs, new everything and unfortunately we've squandered the youth out of the few quality pieces we have (Moss, Cooley) or traded away players over the years that really contributed to this team (what the hell happened to Champ Bailey? Denver?! wtf!).  But its not the losing or the overhaul thats painful.  Its that its never going to happen, ever, and we're going to be sucked dry year after year by Snyder.

When will it stop?  When will we be free?

Also, Jeff called "safety" like three plays before the game ended by us getting safetied.  Well done, sir!

Weekend Wrap Up: Who are we?

Three losses for DC fans this weekend.  Hey, at least the US beat Honduras!  (Yea, doesn't really make me feel any better either).  Today will be a duel post for both the Skins and the Caps because I think they've both hit a similar problem:  Identity Crisis!

Caps:

I start with the Caps because this is a team who's identity crisis is probably the most troubling.  They came charging out of the gate, with a 5+ goals a game average over the first three, rocking teams' worlds and filling up the top 5 stats categories like the Caps were the only team in the league.  But now they are in real trouble, 4 losses in a row and they can't seem to find themselves.  Lets explore:

1. Shift Lengths.  OMG, how many times do I have to say this!  Japersrink.com did a great analysis of this issue last year, showing that shift length corresponded with an exponential decrease in goals scored.

2. Discipline!  Whether its taking too many penalties or not scoring power plays, this team has lost its fundamentals and they've lost them badly.  This accounts for more than special teams too.  Discipline also refers to forwards (Ovie/Semin I'm lookin at you) getting back and playing some defense.  It also refers to puck control, which is suffering badly.  But most importantly I'm referring to playing a team game.  The caps are playing like a bunch of individuals who happen to be on the ice at the same time.

3. Consistency.  If you don't know what kind of team you are, you won't be doing anything consistently.  The Caps right now are plagued with the inability to play consistently across games, but more importantly across periods.  They play hot and cold, with a chance of suck.

So, sports fans, who are the Caps?!

Redskins:

This team's identity crisis has been evident for the past 10-15 years.  The skins have gone through so many coaches and QBs in the past decade they make Sybil Dorsett look healthy.  The skins finally decided to "stick with" a QB and a coach for more than one season in hopes that continuity will solve all their issues.  But continuity does not translate into an identity if all the pieces are not working together.  Lets explore:

1. QB.  I'm not sorry, but Jason Campbell sucks.  QBs are supposed to be leaders, like Peyton, Ben or Brady.  These QBs are shot callers, and their teams listen to them.  Campbell is a passive aggressive idiot, who commands little to no respect.  No team fears him, and more importantly, neither does his..

2. Run game.  Why do we run power running plays with a Clinton Portis?!  CP is not a power runner, evidenced by his inability to cross the goal line on 1st and goal at the 1 yard line.  Four tries later and we're hoping for a safety.

3. Consistency/Discipline.  Honestly, any given Sunday this team does almost anything.  Its a circus.  Botched field goals, botched punts/returns, safeties, blocked extra points, botched fair catches, fumbles, interceptions.  Skins games are training videos on what NOT to do in the NFL.  Its disgraceful and its embarrassing, and no $100mil free agents can fix a team without fundamentals, and usually only add another, expensive, personality to the identity crisis.

So, sports fans, who are the Skins?!

Confusing.

The way that the game ended, essentially with the botched fair catch which allowed the panthers to get the winning TD, was obviously extremely frustrating because we let yet ANOTHER one get away from us. But at the same time, I'm left thinking "how can you just launch a defender into the punt returner and still recover the ball?" I know I've never seen anything like that. Take away that strangeness on the punt return and the skins are 3-2, right?

Listen to the post-game with the players and coaches, and you can tell they also feel like they got robbed, not beat. From Zorn to Moss, no one seems to know what really happened - it sounds like the feeling is that "we just got a bad break, but next week, next week...we'll show you. We'll get that win over a winless team..."

The truth is though, this was a close, ugly game. The skins got their two TDs because the D literally put them on the 1 foot line twice. Take those away and the skins only had one legit drive for 3 pts. As for Carolina, we all know that last TD resulting from the punt was nonsense. But they had a semi-legit drive for 3 pts on a shorter field (when we failed to get a 4th down), a TD drive, and the safety was also legit because it resulted from a previously failed 4th and goal at our 1. So basically 3 legit scores to 1...if you look at the stats, it's pretty close too, but for the most part Carolina came up on top. So in terms of who deserved to win, I don't think I can give it to the skins. They were not the better team today.

I'm having a hard time predicting how our record will turn out this year. You listen in the locker room and it sounds like they're a tweak or two from being a real contender. But you see who they're playing, and how they're playing, and it's not looking good. Unless Sherman "fresh eyes" Lewis can play right guard...

p.s. Unfotunately, no BEAST award this week. Surprisingly, no one bribed me for this highest of honors this time. LEAST award to the o-line, and Vinny Cerato for neglecting o-line for the past several years. Did you see Heyer get blown up on the Portis safety? I've never seen 330 lbs get moved that fast in any direction.

Good morning Skins fans

I felt it was necessary for my first post to be introductory. My love of the Washington Redskins began virtually at birth. I think my parents may have rocked me to sleep with "Hail to the Redskins" and upon learning that the doctor that delivered me was a Dallas fan, I promptly soiled my newly formed self while in his hands. Okay, that last part was made up, but you get the picture. Born in DC, raised in the suburbs, I have been surrounded by Redskins fans. As many of you know, the week-to-week existence of a Redskins fan is both a gift and a curse. The last time I can remember it was a gift, however, was the 1991 season when the Redskins won Super Bowl XXVI. I remember being 6 years old, watching guys like Mark Rypien, Gary Clark, Art Monk, and Darrell Green. These guys were my heroes, they were sports gods to me. (P.S...if anyone has ever seen or heard from Mark Rypien recently, please let me know, I'd love to know what he's up to.) I remember the final seconds ticking down in that Super Bowl and saying to my Dad, "we did it!". Joe Gibbs hoisting the Lombardi Trophy gave the nation's capital inspiration, and brought a city together. At the time, the city was wrought with gun violence and strained race relations but for a short while, the citizens of this great city put that aside, and put on their burgundy and gold with pride. Since then, it's been an emotional roller coaster of "maybe this is the year". See, being a Redskins fan is not like being a Bengals fan or a Lions fan. Those fan bases have been cursed with mostly horrible teams for a majority of their existence and therefore, their fans don't expect much. Redskins fans, however, expect excellence every year. And why not? With 3 Super Bowl wins, the Washington franchise is one of the most successful in the NFL. We're supposed to be good!

What this has created is a certain level of palpable excitement before every season, then when the Redskins under-perform, as they have in the past few seasons, there is that annual sinking feeling of disappointment that permeates the District, only to be extinguished at the start of the next season. Most psychiatrists would classify this as clinical insanity: the act of repeated dillusion. "I think the Redskins are gonna be good this year!" "I wouldn't be surprised if we make the playoffs!""The Redskins are back!" But, alas, the Redskins as the early 90's fan-base knows them, have not been back in a long time. We've gone through head coaches like Riggins went through D-lines. Our new owner has made a trip to FedEx virtually unafforable for the average family of 4. The Redskins as we know them now are an overpaid, glossy, fancy, behemoth of a franchise with nothing real to show for it in the past 18 years. Why then, would someone remain a fan? Remember the insanity I spoke of earlier? It's because when I watch the Redskins, I sometimes go back to when I was that 6 year old boy. I crave that joy and inspiration again. And I want to shout to everyone on the streets of DC someday that "we did it". I can only hope...

Capitals - Rangers Post Game Analysis

4-6-4.

No, thats not our record, but it is the goals we've let in the past 3 games.  14 goals in 3 games!?  No wonder we've lost 2 of the 3.  Its got to STOP!  And this year its not just Theo, its the whole team.

Special teams?  No, seriously, special teams you can come out now.  Hide and seek is over.  Two 5-3s and we scored nothing?!

Not an inspired night.  Discipline is the issue this year and BBs got his work cut out for him.