Posts Tagged ‘Shanahan’

Time For Shanny To Stop Banking On Banks

Mike Shanahan discussing Brandon Banks earlier in the season:

He’s a guy that’s a playmaker, and he’s proved that since he’s been here. We’re going to find ways to get him the football.”

Well, you’ve tried Shanny and it’s failed…however, it’s not for a lack of trying. The Shanny’s have force fed the ball to Banks with terrible results. This experiment has failed worse than a TE reverse and almost as bad as Shanny hitching his reputation to Rex Grossman and John Beck.

Here’s how bad Banks has been:

In the Redskins last 5 games Banks has 4 rushes for 7 yards and 5 receptions for negative 4 yards. That’s 9 offensive touches and a total of 3 yards. Jamie Mottram could do better.

Banks has 7 receptions for 7 yards this season. Grant Paulsen is more elusive as a Wide Receiver.

Banks has zero kick returns in 40% of the Redskins games this season…so the 1 thing he does well is pretty much non-existent do to the new rules.

Banks punt return stats in 40% of this season’s games: negative 3 yards, negative 1 yard, negative 4 yards and 1 yard. Again, the one thing he does well has been neutralized. Kevin Ewoldt can do better.

Banks has 1 TD in 231 career touches, I’m pretty sure I can score a TD with 231 touches.

Banks hasn’t scored a regular season TD since October of 2010.

Banks has 20 career offensive touches totaling 70 yards and ZERO TD’s. 3.5 yards per touch.

Banks seems to fumble out of bounds at the end of every play.

It’s time to move on from the “Speedy” Banks era. Give Niles Paul a chance to return kick-offs and put Santana Moss back on punt returns. Let Ewoldt, Mottram or Paulsen take the offensive reps, we can’t do any worse.

I’ m begging you Wooden Teeth, please take all of the Banks plays out of the playbook. While you’re at it take the TE reverse and option plays out of there…use them all as kindling. Maybe throw the ball downfield again, great things seem to happen when you do.

Cheers and Hail

The Redskins: What A Difference A Year Makes

A year ago today the Redskins lost to the Eagles 20-13 in a game that featured 4 Rex Grossman interceptions. Grossman’s performance prompted fans and the media to spark a quarterback controversy…was it time to bench Rex for John Beck? Yes folks, a year ago today we were debating which of these horrible quarterbacks should be our starting quarterback. Either way we were going to lose, pick your poison.

I think I nailed the debate in this post that I wrote last October entitled “Becked If We Do, Becked If We Don‘t.” I even foreshadowed a 5 win season and asked for Andrew Luck. I’ve never had much luck, which fortunately for Redskins fans resulted in Robert Griffin III. And while the Redskins have the same 3-3 record as this time last year, a lot has changed since the John Beck era.

The Redskins actually led the Vikings by 19 points last Sunday. A 19 point lead…I didn’t know how to act! Of course they’re still the Redskins so they nearly lost the lead and I had to bite my nails until the end. The Redskins had never had a lead that large under Mike Shanahan. In fact, the Skins had failed to score more than 19 points in 17 out of 32 games under Shanny.

RGIII ran for 138 yards and 2 TD’s against the Vikings. Last year, our “wonder twins” (activate, form of a sucky QB) combined to rush for 54 yards…for the season. Yes, instead of arguing over which QB sucks less, Redskins fans can now argue about our QB being the best player in the league. Amazing.

And while I’m not ready to think that this team is ready to contend for a playoff spot, I’m incredibly excited about the Skins future. I’m happy to know that I’m not even a year into a decade of having a franchise QB. That being said, the Skins could be a playoff team this season if the defense gets straightened out. After saying for 3 seasons that the Redskins could be a playoff team if they could just score 20 points a game…now we score 30 and have trouble winning. Thanks Haslett.

What a difference a year makes RGII makes.

Cheers and Hail

Are The Redskins Re-Building? I’m 82% Sure They Are…Thanks To Vinny

This sh*t sandwich Vinny gave me has left a bad taste in my mouth!

Mike Shanahan was introduced as the Head Coach of the Washington Redskins on January 6th 2010, just 3 days after the Redskins finished a 4-12 season under Jim Zorn and 20 days after the hiring of Bruce Allen. The 2009 Redskins had 62 players appear in games during that season, a roster that was compiled by former Executive Vice President of Football Operations Vinny Cerrato. A little over 2 short years later, just 11 Redskins remain from the Zorn/Cerrato era. The won-loss record hasn’t changed much but the names on the backs of the jerseys sure have. An amazing 82% of those players are gone.

I guess a good way to describe the roster inherited by Allen and Shanny would be to say “there wasn’t a lot of meat left on the bone.” Of the 46 players that were cut, traded or not re-signed, 26 have yet to play another down in the NFL. Another 12 have barely played or played ineffectively and 2 guys have played at a Pro Bowl level. Here’s a look at all 62 players from 2009.

Still on active roster (11, 18%):

Andre Carter
Carlos Rogers

So, by my math it’s safe to say that Shanahan was handed a roster that consisted of over 50% of players that weren’t NFL caliber players. Obviously, the Redskins were in need of rebuilding, whether Shanny wanted to call it that or not. With only 18% of the players left from the Cerrato era, I have to say that the re-build is almost complete. All that’s missing now is Robert Griffin III and some W’s!

Cheers and Hail

And People Think Tebow Blows?

To all the people nationwide who say that Tim Tebow’s not a NFL quarterback and is hard to watch…I say this, have you watched a Washington Redskins game lately? Sure, I know it’s sometimes painful to watch Tebow throw the football, it’s obvious that he’s not a NFL caliber passer. However, it’s hard to argue with the results and on paper he looks a helluva lot better than our Florida Gator, Rex Grossman and our career clipboard holder John Beck. In fact, I’m convinced that Beck is the one who doesn’t belong in the NFL and Grossman doesn’t belong being a NFL starting QB.

Time Tebow now has 5 starts this season. Here’s a look at his stats in comparison to our dynamic duo during the last 5 games:

Tebow: 4W-1L, 6 TD’s passing, 1 Int, 341 yards rushing, 1 TD

Beck, Grossman: 0W-5L, 2 TD’s passing, 10 Int’s, 43 yards rushing, 2 TD’s

Despite his problems throwing the football, Tebow has the 6 TD’s passing in 67 fewer attempts. It should be noted that the Denver Broncos have totally adapted their offense to Tebow’s strengths, something the Redskins have refused to do on defense or offense under Mike Shanahan. Rather than cater to a players strengths or weaknesses the Shanny has continually tried to fit a square peg into a round hole…and the proof is plain to see.

Cheers and Hail

Fred Davis’ Guaranteed $$ Is Going Up In Smoke

Or 6 victories a season?

A report surfaced last Sunday that 11 NFL Players had tested positive under the NFL’s drug policy shortly after the lockout ended. To date, only 2 of the players have been publicly identified and they’re both Redskins. ESPN’s Adam Schefter was the first to report that Trent Williams and Fred Davis had tested positive for “recreational drugs”. Recreational drugs do not fall under the same category as performance enhancing drugs…so I’m going to make an educated guess that the drug in question is marijuana. Fred Davis was using his offseason to practice running his puff, puff…pass routes.

Now, here’s what’s disturbing to me, and it’s not that Fred Davis (may have) smoked some weed during the lockout. What’s peculiar is that the story was broke by Mike Shanahan‘s go to guy in the media, Adam Schefter. Shanahan and Shefter have a long relationship that dates back to the 90′s when Schefter covered the Broncos for the Denver Post. Schefter even authored Shanny’s book ‘Think Like A Champion’ and word is when Schefter breaks Redskins news it’s directly from Shanahan. Schefter and Shanny are so tight that they are rumored to vacation together. So, did Shanny sell out his own players? It’s reasonable to believe given the history between Schefter and Shanny and the fact that none of the other 9 players who tested positive have been identified.

What reason would Shanny have to leak this information? Well…Fred Davis will be a free agent after this year and he’s having a breakout season. Fred Davis stands to make a lot of money. Leaking this information puts up a smoke screen (serious pun intended) that could scare off potential suitors. If Davis is enrolled the leagues substance program and is a strike away from being suspended for a period of time teams may shy away from signing him or overpaying for him. My guess is this leak will at the very least cost Davis several million dollars in guaranteed money.

It’s not as if this would be below Shanahan to do. He had no problems airing dirty laundry about Donovan McNabb and Albert Haynesworth. Just last week Shanahan publicly took a shot at Anthony Armstrong stating that if he couldn’t start separating in press coverage it was time for him to start coaching. I’m not sure it’s time for Armstrong to start coaching but I do believe it’s time for Shanahan to start concentrating more on coaching and less on playing mind games with his players and the media.

Cheers and Hail

Let’s Speed Up This Becking Process

I usually don’t write posts that breakdown the Redskins play-calling and X’s and O’s because quite frankly I don’t believe I’m qualified to do it. Sure, I’ve played organized tackle football but I don’t believe that my quarterbacking the Parkside Panthers back in 1987 entitles me to breakdown the Redskins game film on a weekly basis. My blog is more about dick jokes and run-on sentences. However, I do believe that after 30+ years of being a die-hard fan that I am entitled to my opinion. Of course opinions are like assholes, we all got one and they all stink.

I want to talk about John Beck and the Redskins offense or lack there of over the last 3 weeks. I see what everyone else sees, a guy who seems to be afraid of his own shadow right now. He’s got happy feet, he’s patting the ball like crazy and he can’t pull the trigger to throw the ball downfield. I’m sure he’s nervous about making turnovers, the reason he has the job right now is because the previous guy had too many turnovers. He’s late on some passes, early on others and maybe that can change with more playing time as Mike Shanahan says it will. What I think is happening right now is that Beck is thinking way too much and not getting comfortable early in games.

It appears that Beck is going to remain the starter for the near future, we have no one else to turn to unless we go back to Rex Grossman. I guess that may be an option but before we go down that road I want the Redskins to stop handling Beck with kid gloves. Tell the guy you want the ball thrown deep downfield a minimum of 3 times a game. Start next week off with a play action bomb and tell him to throw it no matter what. Use the no-huddle offense in the 1st quarter next week and see if that causes a spark. We need to get things rolling early because we are falling behind early and often since Beck took over.

In Beck’s 3 starts the Redskins haven’t scored a first half touchdown. They’ve managed a measly three field goals and have trailed the 3 games by a combined score of 9 to 33. Here are Beck’s stats in the 1st half of those games:

CAR 6-11, 47yds, 0 TD, 0 INT 1 sack 1 fumble
BUF 8-13 66yds, 0 TD, 0 INT, 5 sacks
SF 10-19 88yds, 0 TD, 1 INT

That’s a putrid 4.7 yards per pass attempt. 33% of his completions have been for 5 yards or less. Only 3 completions have been 15+ yards with a long of 23 yards. Trust me, I don’t care how many records he set, when Roy Helu catches 14 balls it’s not a good thing.

Now, let’s take a look at Beck’s stats from the 2nd half of the 3 losses…and yes I understand that the Redskins were playing from behind in these games and that the defenses were playing softer. But I also understand that Beck was getting into more of a rhythm and was also running more hurry up packages. His 2nd half stats:

CAR 16-24, 226yds, 1 TD, 1 INT 1 Rush TD 2 sacks
BUF 12-20, 142yds, 0 TD, 2 INT 5 sacks
SF 20-27, 168yds, 1 TD, 0 INT 1 sack

Again, I understand that the Redskins were playing from behind and the opposing defenses were playing softer. But the point of this post, which may have been lost in my incoherent rambling is that I want Beck running a hurry up offense and I want him throwing the ball downfield more. He was doing both of those things in the 2nd half of these games. His yards per pass attempt average was 7.6, which is in line with guys like Drew Brees and Tony Romo. 33% of his completions were for 14 yards or more, compared to 33% of 5 or less in the first half.

The offense needs a spark and we don’t have a player coming off the bench that’s going to provide one. The spark must come from Kyle Shanahan and his willingness to open things up a little more and try a few new wrinkles. Having Beck running a hurry-up and throwing the ball downfield may be just crazy enough to work.

I think the best words of advice that Kyle could tell Beck is the famous words of Crash Davis to Nuke LaLoosh. “Don’t think, it can only hurt the team”.

Cheers and Hail