I had to step away from the Redskin's up and down season for a little bit, because the craziness was just too much to handle. Not the Redskins themselves for once, but everyone else around the team. As if the last 10 Snyder years haven't been nutty enough, when things start to calm down a little, the media just can't let it go. They should have enjoyed the last ten years, with the Deions, Jeff Georges, "pitch and catch" Spurriers, Gibbs resurrections, Brunell religious devotion inspiring fans to pray every time he threw the ball, the Cerratos, and of course Zorn and all the swinging gate lunacy and bingo-calling insanity. It was great fodder for a media that is gravitating more towards the tabloids every day. That time and the media frenzy that accompanied it has ended, so lets move forward.
I'll be honest, when Shanahan benched McNabb I was mad. Not because I think Grossman is the worst QB we have had since Jeff George, but because McNabb probably should have been benched earlier. A baseball manager does not get grief (usually) for pulling a pitcher out of a game early, it is when he pulls him too late and the damage is done. McNabb should have been pulled before the interception when the offense was flailing. I was ready to pull McNabb in the Green Bay game at half until he finally scrounged up a FG right before the half. I was also mad about the decision because with the bye week coming up it was going to be two straight weeks of trying to ignore the medias over-scrutinizing of a simple act that happens all the time in sports that was going to drive me crazy.
I understand that this is not the same as pulling Shuler for Frerotte, George for Banks, Matthews for Wuerffel, or Brunell for an inexperienced Campbell. Those guys were all pretty bad, and I think both McNabb and Grossman are both better than the rest of that undistinguished (and really, really sad) list. McNabb is probably better than Grossman, but who knows, he might not be playing like it and no one knows that better than the Shanahans. The media however, have chosen to speculate on possible nepotism instead of the fact that McNabb just hasn't been playing that well. The media has chosen to go after Shanahan's post game comments instead of acknowledging the fact that Shanahan is just trying to do whats best for the team, and his record here thus far has shown that he is pretty good at looking out for that number one concern.
McNabb acknowledged that his hamstrings are bothering him. We have known since week one that the playbook has been scaled down for McNabb, just as it is for every other QB in the league on a week by week basis. Do you think there might be a possibility that Grossman, who was is Kyle Shanahan's number one ranked pass offense last year without a shred of nepostism (#10 without him,) might know the offense better? I'll give you that the cardiovascular excuse that was a little nutty, but not completely so. While I think Shanahan may have been reading his leftover Haynesworth notes, there may be a kernel of truth beneath the surface.
McNabb can't defeat the cover-2 yet. The Eagles still can't, as evidenced by their first game against the Skins, where Haslett left McCoy open all day and eliminated the long ball en route to a win. That is how the Pats defeated them in the Super Bowl. (Well, that and by cheating.) If Reid doesn't know how to beat the cover-2 after a decade of coaching, is it so far-fetched to think his protege might not have a full grasp on it either? Would you like to guess what defenses run when their team is winning with two minutes left? McNabb did not know that games that could end in ties until two years ago, so it is entirely possible that maybe, just maybe, Grossman was the right guy to have in there at that time.
Or the most likely reason for the benching is the one that Shanahan can not articulate in press conferences. He wanted to give McNabb a wake-up call. No one is so high and mighty that they can not lose their job now that Shanahan is in town. McNabb has nothing to lose now that he has been embarrassed. QBs tend to play a lot more loosely after being benched. Perhaps this will lead to McNabb not bouncing 3 yard passes off the turf when the wide receiver is five yards away. Its dumbfounding how the guy can throw a 60 yard bomb in the numbers and consistently miss five yard hook routes. This can easily be blamed on over thinking. Benching him for this reason may seem trite and childish, but so was the Haynesworth situation. If McNabb plays the way that Fat Albert has the last three games the Skins have a shot to go 7-1 the rest of the way. The benching needed to happen before the bye, because I can guarantee you McNabb, a fiery competitor, is more focused than ever.
The media somehow missed this point. While looking to fill columns and four hour blocks of radio time with this same "controversy" for two straight weeks they missed simple things like, say, Brandon Banks having knee surgery. I was waiting for someone to pull the race card, because unfortunately that train is never late. So while I was looking for the 8:15 Wilbon for my dose of self-aggrandizing racial tomes in one of the most color-blind parts of our society, the 8:00 Feinstein came and nailed us all out of nowhere. For the record I love John Feinstein, and "Next Man Up" is a must read for anyone that wants to see how a NFL team is run over the course of a season. However, his hate of Dan Snyder sometimes blinds his objectivity as a reporter and leads him to spout nonsense.
I dislike Snyder as much as anyone, but he is my owner. When guys like Feinstein or Emmitt Smith, who has the grammatical syntax of a 14 year-old girl's cellphone text bank, go after him just for the hell of it I have a major problem. Feinstein can't stand the entire Skins organization because of Snyder, and his lack of objectivity is a major handicap in his profession and it shows. Rick Reilly shows why he is one of the best sportswriters in the nation in refuting Feinstein's drivel, so I won't focus on it too much. Feinstein's defense of his indefensible position of "racial coding" is best summed in his discussion with Steve Czaban:
"You know what, Steve? A lot of the people who voted the way they voted last Tuesday didn't do it because they thought Barack Obama was a terrible president. They did it because he's an African American president, and because he didn't fix George Bush's mess in 13 minutes, ok? That happens in this country. There are a lot of angry white people in this country who can't deal with the idea that we have an African American president, and there are a lot of coaches in this country to this day who, if an African American athlete isn't doing what they want done, as in winning games and making them rich and famous, they will throw them under the bus in a second."
This makes my skin crawl. I try my best not to bring politics into play in the most political town in the world, but Feinstein opened it up. The greatest virtue of DC sports and especially the Washington Redskins is that they really break down all racial barriers. I have seen some redneck-looking types in burgundy and gold go after other redneck-looking types wearing a different team's colors because they were picking on a black kid in a Skins jersey. Tonight in the corridors of Fedex, the only color that anyone is concerned with is putrid green. Ageism, racism, sexism and every other -ism goes out the door in DC when the Skins play. As for Feinstein's non-sensical comments, I am pretty sure that the American people knew Obama was black when the majority of them voted for him in 2008. I am pretty sure it didn't matter what color he was when he failed the last 2 years and had his ineffectual policies voted against by the majority again who saw what he has tried. (And the economic policies of Bush didn't start to slide until Barney Frank and his cronies took over Congressional finance in 2006 but that is neither here nor there.) Secondly, I think the Shanhans knew what color McNabb was when they traded top draft picks to get him. I also think his race did not really come into play when he threw the interceptions in the hurry-up in the Lions and Colts games. I don't know if it is Feinstein's bleeding liberal heart that is causing him and Mike Wise to cross over their politically correct beliefs into the world of sports, but we can do without it.
McNabb got benched, deal with it. It lasted all of two minutes, and it will be forgotten at this time tomorrow. His agent is in town negotiating a contract extension today, so I don't think he was too hurt by it. If it focuses him even more, look out, because he is already a great second half QB. McNabb, excluding 2 meaningless final game losses in the Eagle's Super Bowl year and the the subsequent injury-plagued year, was fantastic in the second half of the year. He was 43-27 (.614) in his first 8 games from 2000-2009. In his last 8 games of each year (excluding the playoffs of course, which with the Eagles is always a disaster)he was 52-17-1 (.742) The guy just plays better when there is a bite in the air. If he is even more motivated than usual watch out, with health the Skins will go 6-2 down the stretch to make the playoffs. Realistically we start off with a win at home tonight to finish 5-3 down the stretch and hope to make it in in a topsy-turvy NFC.
(As an addendum: while spell-checking this, there is a report that McNabb is about to sign a 5 year extension. I guess he wasn't all that insulted. Its about football, its about results, and clear-thinking people recognize this.)
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