Posts Tagged ‘Shanahan’

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

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Posted by fatpickle    Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Categories: Redskins

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Mike Shanahan Is Too Sexy For His Shirt

The hair dyed perfectly with this week’s color of choice.

The skin tanned to a bronze tone that would make George Hamilton jealous.

Veneers like you can only find in the movies.

A football coach wearing a watch on the sidelines of game that probably cost in excess of $20,000.

Shanny now has a theme song!

Cheers and Hail

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Posted by fatpickle    Date: Friday, September 2, 2011

Categories: Redskins

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Shanahan Should Share Blame in Haynesworth Debacle

Photo via Redskins Blog

Let me first start by saying this, I don’t condone Albert Haynesworth‘s actions over the course of the season. In fact, Haynesworth is a lazy and selfish player. He’s about himself #1, which makes him a poor teammate as well. That being said, there are people that are paid very handsomely to get the most out of their players and to get them to buy into the team’s concepts, those people are called head coaches. Mike Shanahan F’d the Haynesworth situation up six ways from Sunday from the beginning.

Everyone’s heard the story of the time when Joe Gibbs was first hired as the head coach of the Redskins and he went to visit John Riggins at his farm in Kentucky. Riggins greeted the coach in the early morning, beer in hand. Riggins had sat out the previous year in a contract dispute. Gibbs was there to get Riggins to buy into his coaching philosophy and to open the lines of communication with his star player. Hangovers, showing up late to meetings and excess drinking…oh yeah, Riggo had those issues. John Riggins once attended a Gibbs meeting, not hungover…but drunk, literally piss drunk. HE PISSED ON THE FLOOR OF THE MEETING ROOM WHILE THE MEETING WAS HAPPENING! But, Gibbs got the most out of Riggins on the field and they’re both in the Hall of Fame.

I don’t know what attempts were made by Shanahan to open his lines of communication with Haynesworth early on, but I have serious doubts that he tried to at all. Not letting him practice with the team and making an example of him during training camp with the conditioning test was over the top and degrading. I’m all for making examples but he took it too far. Making a Pro Bowl player play every play of a pre-season game? That’s a coach with an ego driven agenda. Again, Haynesworth is as much to blame with his laziness, not attending off-season workouts and missing nearly of a week of training camp with a hangover headache.

But why did Haynesworth regress? Why didn’t Shanahan and his coaching staff get him to buy into the new defensive philosophy? Why could he not get on the field when he played at such a high level when he was actually on it? Why won’t he talk to the head coach anymore? Why did Shanahan not communicate with Devin Thomas, nor give Thomas a chance to play on offense?

I’ll tell you why…Shanahan isn’t doing his job. Or maybe he’s doing the job he’s always done, because without John Elway and Terrell Davis he’s basically a .500 coach who hasn’t won anything in 13 years.

Cheers and Hail

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Posted by fatpickle    Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Categories: Redskins

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Redskins: Mid-Season Report Cards

We are at the half-way point of the Redskins 2010 season which happens to coincide with the bye week, so it’s an excellent time to hand out first half report cards. This will be a multi-part series, today we focus on the front office and coaching.

Front Office - D

Positives: Drafting Trent Williams and the free agent signings of Ryan Torain, Brandon Banks and Keiland Williams.

Negatives: Besides Williams the rest of the draft sucked. Free agent signings Josh Bidwell and Joey Galloway equally sucked. The Jammal Brown trade looks like a bad deal. Oh, let’s not forget about Larry Johnson and Willie Parker.

Comments: I still can’t believe the 3 guys listed under positives were players the front office cut in the last month. On a positive note, Bruce Allen has done an excellent job repairing the organization’s relationship with previous players…unfortunately that has no impact on winning games. For the moment I’m going to leave the Donovan McNabb trade alone, although that deal may turn out to be bad as well.

Coaching - D

Positives: The team has matched it’s win total from last year. The Redskins also have 4 conference wins and are 2-0 against the NFC East.

Negatives: The defense changed it’s scheme and went from a top 10 defense to nearly last in the NFL. The offense is mediocre and not much better than last years version. The head coach appears to hold serious grudges against players (McNabb, D. Thomas, Haynesworth and Dockery) which may affect the Redskins having the best players on the field.

Comments: Mike Shanahan’s handling of Albert Haynesworth was terrible. His decision to bench McNabb was unbelievably terrible. Why isn’t Dockery playing? Why was Devin Thomas not given a chance? Why is Joey Galloway on the team? Why am I yelling at my computer?

Cheers and Hail

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Posted by fatpickle    Date: Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Categories: Redskins

Tags: , ,

WTF is Shanahan Thinking?

Mike Shanahan has 1 playoff victory as a head coach in the NFL over the past 13 years…ONE! That’s one more than I have! He won a couple of Super Bowls with John Elway and Terrell Davis 2 decades ago and he’s been living off that resume ever since. So far his decision making as head coach of the Redskins has been nothing short of terrible. His personnel decisions have been equally shitteous. Shanahan has total control, do not think for a second that Bruce Allen has any input on personnel decisions. Bruce’s job is to make Danny look good…that’s his job description.

This is a list of Shanahan’s F-ups so far, this is not a complete list…only a screen shot of the big picture of his debacles.


Pulling Donovan McNabb was one of the worst the worst coaching decisions I have ever witnessed in 30 years of watching football. The guy has won 65% of his career games and has dozens of 4th quarter comebacks. It’s not like you’re down 3 scores with a quarter to go and you’re looking for a “spark”. You’re down 6 with 2 minutes to go and you want Rex Grossman? Really?

The Redskins #1 and #2 running backs have been released by the Redskins in past few weeks. Ryan Torain and Keiland Williams were RELEASED! Not deactivated…released! Exposed to the rest of the league, where would we be without them?

The Redskins most dynamic and exciting player, possibly the best player on their team the last few weeks…was also recently cut. We RELEASED Brandon Banks on September 25th!

6 out of the last 7 TD’s scored by the Redskins on offense or special teams were scored by players that have been released by the Redskins in the past few weeks.

The handling of Albert Haynesworth has been screwed 6 ways from Sunday. The guy is a force on the field and you’ve paid him $40 million in the past 18 months…swallow you’re pride and play the guy!

I can’t even start on play-calling and game-planning…I’m too angry to write anymore. Old Wooden Teeth needs to get his shit together.

Cheers and Hail

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Posted by fatpickle    Date: Sunday, October 31, 2010

Categories: Redskins

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Redskins Set To Introduce Shanahan

It’s January, the most exciting time of the year to be a Redskins fan…too bad none of the excitement takes place on the football field. The Redskins are set to introduce Mike Shanahan (forever to be known here at Fatpickled as “Old Wooden Teeth,” at a 2pm press conference as the new head coach and Executive VP (Vinny’s old title.) The reports say that Shanahan will have full control of all football decisions. I believe that to be true in the case of Bruce Allen, who was accentually hired by Shanahan…but in Snyder’s case I’m not so sure. We also have a war of words between Jason Campbell and Clinton Portis over leadership and work ethic. Never a dull moment in January…wait till free agency opens! More to come later, here’s a few links:

Adam Shefter’s (Shanahan’s BFAM) report on the hiring. (ESPN)

A nice picture of Snyder and Shanahan sealing the deal. (Redskins Blog)

A report on the JC/Portis war of words…btw everything is cool now? (Wapo)

Cooley touched on Portis’s work ethic and $1,000,000 gambling debts on Elliot Monday morning (click on the Chris Cooley weekly call red button.) (EITM)

Cooley likes Shanhan hiring and the GM/HC relationship. (Redlasso)

I know Bill Romanowski takes a lot of pills…currently he’s taking the Redskins are going to the Super Bowl pill. (D.C. Sports Bog)

Cheers and Hail

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Posted by fatpickle    Date: Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Categories: Redskins

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