Washington Redskins: New Coach, New Quarterback, Same Result

Yesterday afternoon, my anger began to boil over as I watched my team, a team that is 2-0 in the NFC East and stayed punch for punch with Super Bowl contenders like the Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers, fall once again to the Detroit Lions.

Even though these same Lions beat the Redskins last year, we all told ourselves, "Well that was the Jim Zorn coached Redskins, no way the Mike Shanahan coached Redskins will suffer the same fate."

Um, I guess we were all wrong.

But here we are going into the bye-week at 4-4, which most seasons would depress me, but given that the New York Giants are only two games up on us at 5-2, it isn't catastrophic, especially since we still have to play them twice.

Though after watching our offensive line make the Lions' front four look like the '85 Bears I can't think of any way the Redskins will win either of those games.

A lot of people keep chiming in that this is a perfect time for a bye-week, you know, to get players healthy.

This is true in that sense, but like Hall of Famer Darrel Green tweeted last night, as a player and a fan this is the worst time for a bye-week. 

Now instead of one week to dwell on a loss, a terrible loss at that, we have two weeks to dwell on it.

And if a loss to the Detroit Lions wasn't bad enough, Coach Shanahan benched quarterback Donovan McNabb in the final two minutes of the game and then told the media it was because Rex Grossman has a better grasp of the two minute offense.

Now everyone and their brother is saying that after that there is no way Donovan McNabb will resign with the team.

I don't know if he will or won't resign, but I highly doubt that yesterday will be a deciding factor in it.

With that said I don't agree with the coaches decision there at all, but honestly I don't think it would have mattered, the way Grossman was crushed on the fumble I highly doubt if McNabb was in there it would have been any different.

Football is a team game, and it took everyone on the team to lose that one.

I'll start with the offensive line, probably the biggest contributor to the loss.

First off, center Casey Rabach gift wrapped two sacks for the Lions by stepping on McNabb, twice.  Then he was constantly being beaten inside by Detroits' tackles.  He had gotten beaten so bad on one play that he grabbed the tackle from behind around his waste like he was hugging him, and still gave up the sack.

Then you have Stephen Hyer, who somehow wasn't purged off the roster in the spring when Shanahan seemed to be releasing everyone.  Seriously this guy is terrible, not only does he get beat, seemingly on every down, but he's good for at least two holding calls a game.  He's Flozell Adams but worse.  How is he even in the league?

The rest of the line was just as bad, this might have been rookie Trent Williams' worst game as a pro.  With the Lions defensive ends lining up far outside the two tackles were getting beat on a consistent basis.

This leads into the coaching decisions.  The Lions are one of the worst teams against the run and with the ends lining up so far outside why not pound the ball up the middle or off-tackle?

Nope, once again the play calling was more pass heavy and never really gave the running game a chance to developed which allowed Detroit to key in on rushing McNabb.

But of course the worst example of the play calling was with just over four minutes to go in the game and the Skins with the ball at their own twenty they pass instead of trying to grind it out like they did in Chicago.

The result was McNabb trying to throw into triple coverage and getting picked off.  This of course set up the game winning touchdown for the Lions.

Of course, that poor throw wasn't McNabb's only on the day.  A couple of times when he wasn't hurried he under threw or over threw receivers.  Heck on the two two-point conversion attempts, he had tight end Fred Davis open but threw too high and too hard for Davis to handle it.

We're eight weeks in; how can McNabb still not be comfortable with the offense, and even if he isn't, that is no excuse for poor throws.

It's one thing to be uncomfortable and throw to one spot and the receiver is in another, it's something completely different to throw to the right spot but under throw the receiver by ten feet, or chuck it way over his head.

Of course, the receivers didn't help much, both tight end Chris Cooley and wide receiver Joey Galloway had crucial drops that would have been drive saving first downs.

Seriously though, why is Galloway out there?  You can't tell me that the team wouldn't benefit from either speedster Brandon Banks in his spot or heck line up Fred Davis in the slot.  Let's see a corner back try to cover him.  Not only would he make a great possession receiver but lets just see a corner try to tackle him by himself.

As far as the running backs are concerned both Ryan Torain and Kellen Williams did what they could with the carries they got and with the blocking they received.  Now there were some stuffs in the backfield but both backs broke several good runs and could have only gotten better if they team would have stuck to it, especially at points in the game when they had the lead.

The defense did extremely well for a time being out there.  They were constantly given the task of protecting the short field and for the most part stood up to it.

However, there were some gaffs.

On a third-and-long Phillip Buchanon was called for holding when the 'Skins had stopped Detroit way short of the first down.  

And also on a fourth and one Phillip Daniels jumped off-sides. 

Both penalties were inexcusable, especially the Daniels penalty.  The attempted was maybe twenty yards, not much more than an extra point, the interior linemen have almost zero chance of blocking one so close because the kicker doesn't have to worry about distance he can get as much air under it as he needs.

Instead Daniels jumps the gun and the Lions get a fresh set of downs which results in a touchdown. 

You can't win games if your defense is giving teams second chances in the red zone.

The only person on the team that I can give a grade of "A" to is Brandon Banks, the kid did everything he could to drag the Redskins kicking and screaming to victory.  Shoot, maybe he should have been put in at quarterback in the last two minutes and ran the wildcat.  Couldn't have been worse than what Grossman did.

And while we're on the subject of Grossman, why pull McNabb (a playmaker) in the last two minutes of the game. 

I don't care if Rex Grossman knows the offense better, he's still Rex Grossman, and Donovan is still Donovan.

Now don't get me wrong, if McNabb gets hurt I have confidence that Grossman will fill in just fine, it's coming off the bench cold in the last two minutes of a game that scares the crap out of me. 

And it apparently scarred Grossman as well, because he didn't look to confident out there.

Now with what transpired next I don't think it would have mattered who was back there, Grossman seemed to have been crushed the second the ball was snapped.  Even with McNabb's escapability, the end result of that play probably would have been the same.

When it all comes down to it that game was more miss-managed than last year's debacle under Jim Zorn.  It almost seems like Mike Shanahan over-thinks in certain situations instead of just playing football.

Yes, football is often compared to Chess, but sometimes a checkers approach will do just fine.  After all that's what the Lions did.

Here was their game plan in a nutshell: blitz on defense and get the ball to playmaker Calvin Johnson on offense.

That's what the Lions did, and they won.