The Washington Redskins have plenty to work on over the next two weeks. Exit strategies. The blame game. Resumes.
The season isn’t half over. It’s just over.
You so want to send Al Saunders down to human resources and say his 90-day conditional period is over and sorry, he failed. The problem is it would take a Brink’s truck to haul his severance money.
The transitional period to Saunders’ offense resembles the Clinton-Bush turnover when all the “W” keys were taken from keyboards. Seems someone has taken all the Redskins’ W’s, too.
Joe Gibbs says if he has to be in a mess, he’s glad it’s with these guys. Joe, they have a term for this. It’s called disaster.
I understand Gibbs’ feeling of wanting a talented roster of good guys. Hey, nothing wrong with keeping your team out of the police reports. Then again, Riggo and Dexter caused plenty of mischief and the team still won. Wait, did I just give permission for bad behavior?
Anyway, the Redskins have lots of offensive talent, but it’s not producing. Why? Because the Redskins tinkered with the offensive scheme and it’s just not working with this personnel of slow tackles and aging passer.
The offensive line is underachieving. Jon Jansen may be playing his last season locally because he’s not worth the money anymore. Defenders are getting past him. The whole line is just playing like a bunch of guys. Clinton Portis has nowhere to run. Mark Brunell is getting beat up like a Uber-geek at a Hell’s Angels rally.
Naturally, the talk is all about benching Brunell for Jason Campbell. Indeed, I advocated it a few weeks ago.
But, let’s give Brunell at least one more game. If the Redskins can beat Dallas on Nov. 5, maybe they’ll scramble to nine wins that could win the NFC East. However, a loss has them definitely out of the running and there would still be half a season to season Campbell.
Realistically, the Redskins are headed for 5-11. So there’s no reason why Campbell shouldn’t be the starter next year given the team’s investment.
Giving Campbell a couple games at the end of this season doesn’t make any difference for 2007, though. Certainly, Campbell will have lots of rough spots and given the team around him, he won’t be alone. However, giving Campbell a half season does provide a chance to show whether he has potential to make it.
The downside to playing Campbell is alerting veterans that Gibbs is giving up on the season. That tends to get ugly. Remember the two games after Norv Turner was fired in 2000? One veteran told another he missed an open field tackle for fear of getting injured and having to rehab.
Defensively, there was a time when guru Gregg Williams overcame injuries by saying it didn’t matter who he was plugging in because his system worked. Well, the system doesn’t work anymore. The Redskins have been pummeled regularly.
Granted, the defense is bedeviled by injuries. Playing two rookie tackles on the line is never good and both ends are nicked. Great defense starts up front and they have nothing to offer. Naturally, a very suspect secondary is exposed by the line not pass rushing effectively. And while everyone knew Kenny Wright and Co. was not the greatest, they’re being abused. Shawn Springs still needs a few games to play well.
At least Redskins fans can take a breather this weekend. Go to the Maryland-Florida State game on Saturday. Get ready for Halloween. Start working on those leaves, but leave the TV alone. The Redskins games are scarier than anything Freddie Kruger offers.
Rick Snider has covered local sports for 28 years. Contact him at [email protected].
