Archive for November, 2011

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

Joe Theismann Does A TV Show From His Hospital Bed

A lot of videos that I post on this site or view on YouTube I’ve seen before, I honestly have no recognition of ever viewing this one. This show was taped just 5 days after Joe Theismann suffered a career ending injury against the Giants on MNF. Watching this video I can’t help but notice the playful back and forth banter that Theismann and George Michael give each other…it works well and they would’ve been awesome in a ‘Pardon the Interuption’ type show. The lamp beside JT’s hospital bed definitely lets you know this video was taped in 1985. I think Joe borrowed his hospital gown from Mr. Miyagi.

More highlights from the show:

At the 2:45 mark JT calls Jay Schroeder, Jay Schroder…like Ricky Schroder.

At the 4:40 mark JT remarks that he’s surprised the knee didn’t give out before the leg broke. I never really thought about that, but yes…it could’ve been worse, I suppose.

At the 6:50 mark JT describes the injury and pain in detail.

At the 9:30 mark JT refers to himself in the 3rd person 4 times then breaks down and cries.

Good times.

Cheers and Hail

The Redskins Diet

It’s not easy being a food giant and a Redskins fan. The Redskins inability to put the ball in the endzone the last few weeks has been a real bummer for fat guys all around the DMV. While Packer’s fans would be building ‘meat lovers’ and ‘supreme’ pies for free…Redskins fans have been stuck with cheese pizzas.

The way the Papa Johns Redskins TD Special works is simple, with every TD the Redskins score you get a free topping. If the Redskins win the game, you can double the amount of free toppings. So, all you really need is a 17-14 win and you’ll be fat and happy with 4 free toppings. Unfortunately, the last 3 weeks the Redskins have managed only a last minute TD against the 49er’s and have lost all 3 games. Hey, at least Papa Johns throws in a dipping sauce and some pepperoncinis…maybe you can ask for some parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper to make your cheese pizza more palatable.

The bright side for Redskins fans? A cheese pizza saves about 650 calories over a meat lovers pie, so the 3 game losing streak and offensive ineptness has saved Redskin’s fans nearly 2000 calories. You mix that caloric savings with all the angry jumping around you’ve done yelling at the TV over the past 3 weeks, and you’ve lost yourself a couple lb’s. Papa Johns has also been able to save a lot of dough, serious pun intended.

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