Headscratchers

Last week was on Shanahan. We knew people were going to freak out around here if the game was even a close win for the Skins, and the people who have already lost confidence in Shanahan are crazy. These are the same people who thought the Skins were going to be 12-4. Shanahan will work out here (if Snyder gives him time) but he clearly dropped the ball against the Rams. We have learned thus far this season that when the Skins are at their best they can beat "Super Bowl favorites" like the Cowboys. Even when they just play three solid quarters, they are almost good enough to beat playoff teams like the Texans. But the Skins are bad enough that when they only show up for half a game, they can't even beat the Rams. Its not the end of the world, its good to know, and games like that should never happen again.


The fact of the matter is that it is pro ball and it is not the head coach's job to get his players up for a game that they are getting paid for. However, these are not Shanahan's players. He picked a few and is molding them, but the bulk of the team are left-overs from the Cerrato/Snyder era who are either going to be Shanahan players or gone by next year. He has to find more guys like Fletcher who never take a game off. But in the meantime I thought he would be all over them, because they are not good enough to spot anyone other than the Buffalo Bills 14 points right off the bat, and even that would be a gamble. More frustrating is coming back for the lead, and then giving up all over again.


The Rams are going to be good one day, but they are rebuilding. Part of the frustration is if Snyder had taken 2 years out of his 11 year reign of terror to rebuild instead of "winning now" to drive up revenue to fund his flailing movie aspirations and crippled ego, we could have a future at one time as well. Since the Snyder era began, the Rams have stunk, rebuilt their team into a Super Bowl Champion with multiple appearances, slid downhill, and are now reloading again. Their coach wasn't fired for a 1-15 rebuilding season. We will never have that patience. Their biggest player of the last decade used to bag groceries, he would never sold enough jerseys when we signed him, so we never would. The greatest coach in their history was a retread who came back this millennium and won a Super Bowl, ours didn't. I couldn't tell you who owns the Rams without Google (Kroenke.)But he has a Super Bowl ring unlike our ubiquitous Papa Johns-hawking friend.


Could you imagine what Shanahan could do with a team stocked with young talented guys like Chris Long, Stephen Jackson, and Chris Long instead of Haynesworth, Colt Brennan, and Portis? And then adding guys like McNabb and another key free agent to the team to put them over the top and truly "win now?" For non-Skins fans, that is why Skins fans seem bipolar at times. For 11 years "this has been the year," we always believe that Snyder is telling the truth instead of whispering more sweet nothings into our wallets, and we always lose to a team that is rebuilding right.


For the time being this team can beat anyone and lose to anyone. The one constant was supposed to be Shanahan, who would always have them at their best. He let us down for the first time as a Skins coach; its ok, Skins fans are used to it. He won't let that happen two weeks in a row, and the veterans he kept around won't let it happen. The ESPN saturated coverage of the game all week may have turned your stomach even more than it already was but watch anyways, the Skins are going to win. There is just too much veteran pride on this team to let their coach down again, let their locker room leader McNabb down on his revenge game, and maybe one or two of them will care about not letting down their tortured fans once more. If not it will be a long month or two while Shanahan tries to begin righting a decade of wrongs. At least there is a team overflowing with superstars built from within in town. And their road to the Cup begins on Friday in Atlanta.