Close Calls and Hard Knocks

Trent Williams going down was the worst moment of last week's loss to the Texans. Giving up a 17 point lead was pretty bad, but losing Williams for any extended period of time would be a disaster. So far he has been the MVP of the offense, and the drop off between he and Heyer is more severe than the drop off between McNabb and Grossman. Neither of the latter two would have an opportunity to stay upright and throw the ball without Williams, as evidenced by Heyer's holding call as soon as he came in the game.

The unfortunate loss of the 17 point lead could be attributed to the the lack of athleticism in the Skins secondary. While Sean Taylor will always be missed, it hurt a little more on Sunday when Johnson came down with the ball in the endzone on 4th and ten. That would never have happened with 21 back there, and you have to credit to Shanahan and Haslett for keeping the Texans offense in check as long as they did. Shanahan plain out-coached Kubiak for most of the game, and Kubiak only won once he let his team's superior athleticism shine. For the fans that are mad about Kubiak calling the timeout, its part of the game. We would have loved it if that move had worked in our favor. There will never be a rule put in place to stop it; if there was coaches would just trot out 10 guys on defense as an excuse and still call timeout if they think that it would still work. Shanahan did not do the same on Rackers because I think he was trying reverse psychology. Rackers was expecting a timeout nad could have half-kicked it; he made his kick anyways. Sometimes kickers will have to make the same kick twice, its how the game is played.

Some fans are negative on Shanahan cutting Johnson. Some wondered if there was a little bit of chaos within the organization as Johnson was cut for not "fitting in the scheme." I think it is a great move. Its a pretty simple scheme and he didn't throw a wrench in it just once. The scheme is Shanahan prefers veteran players who make smart, veteran plays. When Johnson stepped out of bounds against Dallas when we were running out the clock, he should have considered himself on the bubble. When he ran 10 yards backwards in a similar situation against the Texans, his fate was sealed. That ten yard loss all the way back to the ten yard line was as good as a forty yard interception or getting an unnecessary roughness. Its a mistake that would have gotten a so-so QB benched, a borderline defensive player cut, and as it turned out, a borderline RB cut no matter how many yards he rushed for four years ago cut as well. Keiland Williams can make dumb mistakes like that and get some experience for the future in relief of Portis.


Finally, Skins fans should not panic over the lack of a running game. The Cowboys, even with all of their faults and the probability that they are going to go 0-3 this week, have a great defensive front seven. The Texans were stacking 8 or 9 in the box all game long and wanted to see what McNabb and the Skins line would do. I don't think many teams will try that out the rest of the year if the line stays healthy. The team will run this week to try to pipe down a domed crowd. And play another close game. The Skins are a good team, but not an elite team. While we played neck and neck with an elite team last week, we overachieved. All of the Skins games save two will be within 14 points. Shanahan has this team in position to compete with anyone, but dominate no one. Maybe we will steamroll one team along the way, like we will get our butt kicked in at least one game, but we are still a year removed from a Cerrato-lead team. Bradford is the real deal if his exploitable line can keep him upright, and I would trade Portis for Jackson at the drop of a hat. The Skins will establish a running game, but don't expect another 400 yard passing game. And don't panic at a 20-13 win Skins fans. Its always better than a 30-27 loss, no matter who you may be playing.


(And Caps fans: don't buy into this co-team Hard Knocks for the NHL. Its another league promotional vehicle for the league's favorite special guy Crosby. They'll portray Crosby as the "go-to-work Canadian player" with his Russian (Robin/Malkin) sidekick, while OV will be the fast car-driving, reckless Russian with his misfit joker cronies. Just bet your fellow Caps fans on what tries to portray the best player in the NHL worse; the "tell all" book on OV coming out by the Canadian author who hates the Caps, or the chop job that will take place on film if the league office that hates the Caps gets its hands on the footage. The poster for the show is in black and gold. Enough said.)

Lone Star Laments

Its good to see the Dallas fans are still as dumb as ever. Those who hadn't walked away dejected after the Skins were driving down the field late in the fourth even turned around to taunt Skins fans after their illegitimate touchdown. Others still had to have explained to them on Thursday why a game can end on an offensive penalty and not a defensive penalty. What makes Dallas fans so infuriating is that they love to taunt real football fans when the Cowboys win a 7-6 squeaker over a Zorn-coached team, but just don't care when they lose a game in which they get dominated. When the Eagles and Giants fans lose, they are dejected and honestly hurt by their teams defeat and that fills me with glee. Dallas fans just don't have anything invested in their team; they just like the big star and shiny colors with the overrated QB and cheesy owner. LeBron is the quintessential front-running Dallas fan. You already see a lot less Dallas gear around town this week. If they drop to 0-2 against the Bears, those Romo jerseys will be packed away for a while.

It wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be. The Skins dominated both sides of the line and the best team won in typical NFC East fashion. We don't even have to go into Orakpo's dominance over the Dallas line. Trent Williams pounded DeMarcus Ware so hard he was afraid to go out in the fourth quarter, when Dallas needed their best player most to try to send the game into overtime. Dallas fans who think the game was just an MMA-style hold away from a win for them are mistaken; Carlos Rodgers dropped the game-sealing interception on a typical Romo throw when the game is on the line.

The Redkskin who had the worst game was Casey Rabach. The Cowboys blitzed McNabb constantly down the middle and it seemed like Rabach could not stop any of it. The Skins MVP was Portis, who stuffed the Cowboys blitz down the middle keeping McNabb's new gold pants clean. The Cowboys MVP was their kicker. Yes he missed a kick that would have given them a chance to get another to go to overtime, but he was the leading special teams tackler for the Cowboys too. Make no mistake about it; the Skins dominated that game in several facets. The Cowboys racked up the yards just like they did last year, but could not score enough points. They are well on their way to repeating last year's performance of being 2cnd in the NFL in yards, and 14th in points. A great fantasy team for their fantasy fans.

This week the Skins go into a better barometer game playing the best team in Texas. The Texans defense isn't as stout, but their offense can't be expected to bumble like the Cowboys. I'm interested to see how the Mario vs. Trent matchup will go, just to ensure that we made the right pick, and to approximate how many games McNabb should be playing this year. A win and this town will start its typical over-reaction. A loss is not the end of the world; I would have taken 1-1 to start the year. Our offense obviously needs to keep up with Houston's, we can't expect to only hold them to just a touchdown off of a 34 yard drive. With all the talk about locker room access this week, it seems the people with the access neglected to ask the most important question; how much of the offense does McNabb know and run? Was it 50% against Dallas, and that is why we ran mostly follow routes and McNabb looked uncomfortable on some of his throws?


Why wasn't Fred Davis used at all, and either he, Cooley, or both split out to maximize a weak receiving corps? Will Devin Thomas be used at all on offense? I trust the Shanahans, but if Thomas was in instead of Armstrong on those end zone fades it would have been a 20-7 game. Will Trent win the Williams battle and put himself in the conversation as one of the best OTs in the game in his first year? Is Landry that good when Cerrato does not have him playing a position he was not drafted for? Is Orakpo on a level with Mario Williams? Can this team do what it needs to win what could be a down game coming off a beat-down of a division rival? (Houston is in the same boat, Indy is their version of the Cowboys, except Manning deserves the hype.) I don't think Arian Foster is Riggo just yet, just watch him struggle to approach 100 yards this week. What Skins fans want is to get to the bye at 4-4 or 5-3 with a healthy team. At that point they will know the offense and know the personnel that they have to best execute it, and then try to make a run. In the end, hard-nosed NFC East football will always beat hype, and then you never know what can happen.

D-Day in DC

Dallas Week is dead, but the game itself will be as charged as it always is. "Honk if you hate Dallas" is not something Skins fans do because ownership thinks it would be a fun way to sell more t-shirts that say "Beat Dallas" for $30. (Especially when ownership is doing pizza ads with that Grateful Dead album cover prop Jerry Jones the same week.) Skins fans honk their horn and give the finger to the guy with a Cowboys bumpersticker on his car in March without prompting. The game itself is for the fans, and it should be a good one Sunday.

It will be close, but they always are. Even with Zorn, the offensive genius who blew Snyder away in the interview process, the Cowboys were losing to the Redskins until the last few minutes in Dallas last year. Zorn's highest winning percentage against any team he had time to coach against at least twice before he was fired was against the Cowboys. I don't think they have improved too much in the past year. Dez Bryant is another headcase who doesn't do enough blow to be as effective as Michael Irvin was. With all the talk of the Redskins age, the media is too busy fawning over Romo beating the Eagles in the playoffs to notice the Cowboys have the oldest O-line in the league. And they are already falling apart at a rate faster than the Skins line was last year.


McNabb is obviously a great pickup, but Shanahan is the biggest. A healthy McNabb should give us two more wins than last year; Shanahan alone should account for three. He is one of three coaches to ever win two Super Bowls in his first four years. Only Shula and Bellichick have done so as well. He only needs to win one in his first four years here to solidify his bust in Canton, and make him a legend in DC. Time will tell, but the Skins are closer now than they ever have been since Snyder took over. But being in the company of Bellichick (who cheated) and Shula is not his biggest accomplishment. His biggest accomplishment is that in over 15 years of being a head coach, he has only finished in last place in his division once. Once.

Give or take a two game swing based on intangibles, the Skins go 9-7 this year. Given the difficulty of the schedule they could lose two more than they should. Or they could get hot, believe in themselves, and win two more than they should. But they won't finish last. The team that will finish last in the NFC East will be similar to the team that finished last in the NFC East last year. They will have a good defense, with a decrepit offensive line, underachieving WRs, a QB that is only as good as the team in front of him, and an overrated backfield. Only this year the Cowboys will be the cellar dwellers. And that makes this a must-win for the Skins. A close game that would have gone the other way last year, but with a competent winning coach, should start the Skins on their way to a decent season.

15 Games?

DC does not get too many suspensions, but when they do, they are ridiculous. The last one was Ovechkin for checking a guy next to the goal mouth. The Blackhawk's owner wanted him suspended for the rest of the year. I wonder if that might have had something to do with the Caps being favored to play in the finals against his team before the ice crew at Bell Center sabotaged the Caps' skates? Now Nyjer Morgan is set to serve a 15 game suspension for several "incidents" which have taken place over the last week or so. The MLB never fails to completely drop the ball when it comes to DC baseball.


First off the MLB cannot look at all of the incidents as a whole. Something is awry with Morgan, but that is a Rizzo/Riggleman issue, not a MLB problem. Morgan has been acting erratically all year, not hitting anywhere near lead-off hitter standards, constantly getting picked off, and of course there was the glove-tossing incident when he thought Adam Jone's ball hopped the fence. If he is swearing at the fans, that is inexcusable and certainly fineable, but not suspension-worthy for a first time deal. The bottom line is you can not have players swearing at fans, no matter how obnoxious they may be at times.


Running into Cards catcher Bryan Anderson was stupid, and missing the plate added insult to injury. However, it did not violate the rules of the game. It was a blatant breach of baseball etiquette if he meant to hit him, but not illegal by any means. Furthermore, Pujols pump-faked home. Morgan claims he thought the ball was coming, and from a guy who thought that the Jones ball was a homer when it was sitting right in front of him, you might believe him. Either way, next year when he plays the Cards, he will get thrown at and the incident will be closed. It can be handled by the players and moved past because the Nats and the Cards are professionals. The Marlins professionalism is what comes into question for me.


When Morgan bowled over Fins catcher Brett Hayes he may have been safe if he slid. Or he may have been out, we don't know. Either way I trust Morgan's judgement on that play. He is one of the best baserunners in the league. (Discount the pickoffs this year, and for exhibit A I would present the Braves game where Strasburg was scratched. Morgan promptly got on first to lead off, and made it home before the second batter Guzman was called safe or out. Say what you will about the guy but his judgement on the bases is usually spot on.) There was nothing illegal about running towards the plate that Hayes was blocking. The Marlins got mad at Morgan and threw at him his second time up. If they were so upset about the illegal play, why didn't they throw at him the first time when they thought it was still a game?

Instead, they throw at him when they feel the game is over in the 4th, Morgan takes his base without arguing, and the incident is over, play ball. Morgan steals and the Marlins feel they are entitled to not hold him, playing deep in the infield to gobble up singles in a game that saw 26 runs. 26! Who said the game was over and Nyjer was not allowed to steal while his team was down? If the game was so out of hand why did the Marlins use their closer and not a mop-up bull pen guy? Nyjer had a head full of steam and manufactured a run as a result, I would have sent him. And that is exactly the type of never give-up attitude that I want on my baseball team and that has been lacking for the Nats since their inaugural season. "Put me on base and I'll make you pay."

So the Marlins beaned two more Nationals, then tried to bean Morgan once more before all hell broke loose. How many times were the Nationals supposed to get beaned before someone did something? Were they going to stop at four, or would five or six have sufficed? It is an automatic suspension for charging the mound, and Morgan should be suspended the two or three games for that. But just as throwing at Morgan the first time was within the code, the next three beanballs were clearly outside of it, and a brawl ensued. That is the umpires fault for letting the game spin out of control with a young, immature Marlins organization. Not Nyjer's for defending himself and his team. Sanchez was the guy who should have gotten the heavy suspension for his cheap-shot clothesline. I really hope he gets a ball buried in his ribcage when the Marlins show up to Nats Park on the 10th.


Finally, Morgan yelling as he left the pile-up was not unreasonable. He took the best of what the cheap-shot Marlins could throw when he was outnumbered 9 to 1 and probably got the best of it. Volstad was bruised after the game, Nyjjer wasn't even swollen. He is an ex-hockey player, I expect him to be excited coming out of a fight he got the best of. Unfortunately, he got suspended like a Cap. Most of the commentators who have chimed in on this issue know very little about these facts, they only stop in if the Nats brawl or misspell their uniforms. Take the instances one by one, and Morgan was only in the wrong if he swore at the fans. He gets an automatic suspension for charging the mound; that is it. I only hope these uninformed detractors do not take this into account on appeal for the eight game suspension for throwing the ball to the fan; the fan himself said there was no harm intended, it was a good-natured player giving a fan a souvenir.


If there is one positive to take out of the incident that was unnecessarily escalated from a hurt player to an all-out brawl, it is Adam Dunn. How is he not re-signed yet? He was one of the first Nattos tossing Marlins off Morgan, despite the fact that he is in a contract year and a rolled ankle could cost him millions. Guys like Dunn who that stick up for the other guys wearing Washington across their chest with no regard for personal interest to themselves are the guys we need here. Morgan is questionable for next year; not because he fought back for himself and his teammates from multiple unprovoked attacks, but because we need a lead-off hitter who is better than hovering around .250. His average, not his temper is the problem. In other words, its a Nationals problem, not a MLB problem and it should have stayed that way.