Thursday, November 6, 2008

Uppercut from the Steelers, left-cross from Snyder

The Skins got smacked around for the entirety of the game Monday night. It looked like an NFC East game from the days of Parcells, Gibbs, Buddy, and Landry except the Steelers looked like they were Super Bowl bound. It was one of the few games you see when you knock out the opposing team's QB and it actually hurts you. There is something about the local players who come back to play against their city's team that never works out well for the Skins; Leftwich on Monday, Westbrook once a year. The Skins were lucky there weren't two starting QBs knocked out, because Campbell not only got sacked seven times, he got sacked hard. Campbell said after the game that he thought the Steelers were a little rough, but that is how the game is supposed to be played, I don't think they did anything dirty. Portis is a little guy, and I was suprised to not see more of Alexander pounding it in there with his big frame and rested body. The defense looked good until they clearly gave up, but the special teams is still bad, and the offense got hit so hard they looked baffled the entire second half.

I understand that the Skins are beat up and had played more games than any other team before a bye week if you include the preseason. That isn't really a plausible exscuse; how many starters did you see playing in the Hall of Fame game, or playing much at all in any preseason game for that matter? Its November, everyone hurts. So far this season has been a pleasant suprise, and at 6-3, you can be realistic about trying to contend, (once again I said CONTEND) as in try, for a Super Bowl run. Say we actually do it, with the Giants likely to the win the East. Thats three playoff games as a wildcard team after playing our final seven games, while inheriting the compounded injuries from the first half of the season. I don't expect the team to be feeling much better then. Being beat up is not a valid excuse for getting beat up more in a football game. Getting beat up is a part of football, it happens to everyone.

What is an excuse for the Redskins is that their owner is a stupid idiot. Two out of four home games the headsets have malfunctioned. For a guy that is supposed to be as detail-oriented as Snyder, you think would think he could send in a tech before the game to make sure that kind of thing didn't happen. The fact that the other team has to turn off their headsets when the Skins' malfunctions means nothing. If Campbell has to take a timeout because he doesn't know what the play is, that timeout is gone, with or without headsets. This happened on Monday night. If Rodgers hadn't gotten burned, and the punt block unit punt blocked, it could have been a close game where we needed timeouts. Furthermore, the coaches could not communicate between each other. For a coach that designates responsibilities to his assistants as much as Zorn does, (as he should) it might be nice to talk to his assistants. Those headsets may have come in handy.

Granted, the coaches could have ran all over the sideline trying to find each other to talk things over instead of using the headsets, but it is kind of hard to hear each other when there are 20,000 Steelers fans screaming behind you. Next time the Steelers come to town can we at least hand out some burgandy towels so it looks like burgandy and gold waving through the stands, not just gold. Maybe Skins fans could save some face on national TV. Wait no, I forgot that Snyder is not just an imbecile, he is a greedy imbecile and that will never happen. Pack in 90,000 plus seats, including the nightmare seats, obstructed view, and seats so high the players look like ants and no wonder a fan base like the Steeler's can make a home game like a neutral site. This game might as well have been played in London, only Snyder wouldn't make as much money.

Some people are blaming Redskins fans for being to fickle, I blame Snyder. Why would they come? Hours upon hours of traffic both ways, paying for the parking passes on top of the tickets, paying for the five dollar hot dogs, and dealing with the worst stadium staff in the city, if not the nation. Smoot opined that the reason for so many Steeler fans was the economy, but the steel mills are still empty in Pitt while the recession-proof government is still up and running. Perhaps it is the drunks who roam around the stadium, knocking over women and cursing at children. And that is just on Sunday, the night games are worse. I literally had to step over a puddle of blood to get out of the stadium. Maybe it is time to slow down the flow of alchohol. Except you can buy Buds in bulk for fifty cents a piece while selling them for $8. More gas money for Danny's private jet.

Having to use a silent snap count in your own stadium is ridiculous, and was a reason we lost that game. The only defense of Snyder is that he really cares about the Redskins. I am of the opinion he cares a little bit more about his wallet. There are 3,000 seats left on Stubhub for the Dallas game. Do you think you might see some blue in the crowd two Sundays from now?

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