As I have said previously, I have the right to change my opinion.
It's no secret the Pears are playing good football and the coaches deserve a lot of credit for putting their players in the right positions to be successful and finding their identity. However, there is still a lot of football left to be played and we'll see how things shake out.
The Skins season was REALLY derailed when we put Beck in. He is not good and our offense took a BIG step back and it really disrupts the team and the strong start we had.
Whatever. What is done is done. Again, my only hope is that we stay competitive and then focus on offense in the offseason.
As I said earlier in the year, there is a very high, statistically significant correlation between making the playoffs in the prior year and making it again the next year.
Conversely, if you did not make the playoffs the prior year your chances are lower of making it this year.
We pretty much agreed that the Deadskins were about 7-9 (looks like that will be a stretch at this point).
Where we disagreed was with the Bears. The team made the NFC title game and needed to improve its offensive line. It did that and now they seem to be rolling. Nothing surprising to me about either team.
We'll see if the Pears can continue their play. They did not look good early in the year and are looking better as of late. Teams get hot and cold. We'll see if they can continue.
They have a pretty good remaining schedule though. San Diego is reeling. Oakland is okay. KC sucks and Cassel is out. Denver has Tebow so don't expect much there. Seattle isn't good away. Green Bay will be tough and Minnesota should be an easy win. They should win 4 of these 6.
The Skins are where they are due to injuries and the Beck factor. I don't mind the Beck experiment though. At least we know now that Beck is expendable. We MUST get a top QB in the draft. If we find ourselves in a spot where that's not possible, we MUST address the O-line and secondary. Until that happens, being ranked in the low 20's will be the norm.
The Pears success coincides with improved O-line play and a commitment to the running game. It doesn't hurt that the D is getting it done either. Despite the low yards per carry, Martz called 31 run plays against a solid Detroit front 7. Good for him and the Pears. Great win and it looks like Robs' team will be able to contend as long as Jay George avoids playing like Jeff George.
The Bears have been a fairly consistent team the last year and a half. The single biggest thing they had to address was their O-line and as I have contended for months, they did that.
While staying committed to the run, they are going to have to improve their passing attack. They have to be efficient to keep drives alive, and to use their speed in Hester and Knox to take a few shots and make a couple of big plays. But I think they are working on it and I expect to see good things in coming weeks.
Frankly, I think the Bears are the only team that can stop the Packers. They are not scared of the Packers and have the defense to slow down Rodgers - they've shown that the last 4 times they have played.. They can get big plays out of special teams. And, they can run the ball. If they can just make a few plays in their passing game they can really challenge the Packers.
Let me be clear, the Packers would win 7 out of 10 times right now against the Bears, but their D is vulnerable and with just 1-2 big plays from the Bears' D and special teams anything can happen.
I agree with Deeps re: the Skins. When the Skins were 3-1, injuries were not an issue, but became a big problem quickly. JKSD can't blame the last five losses on the move to Beck. A team that is clearly rebuilding has no chance when their talent is only one level deep. Too bad, in the era prior to free agency, the Skins were stacked because they had good player personnel guys and good coaching which afforded less of a drop off when key players go down. Let alone two of their best players using illegal drugs. After giving the game away to a 1-7 team last week, I actually want the Skins to finish 3-13 so that we will get a top 5 talent in the draft.
Injuries on the offense (Moss, Hightower, Cooley, Lichtensteiger, Williams, Brown, Hankerson, Armstrong, Paul) have hurt us without question. The thing is the depth has actually been okay. The big issue has been the QB. Again, we took a BIG step backwards by putting Beck in. Not only does Beck suck but installing a new QB disrupts the offense from the timing of plays to the cadence of the call to the presence in the huddle and locker room. It's not like fantasy football where it is just a name on a piece of paper. There are deeper ramifications and when we put Beck in, the offense took a big step back and now reinstalling Grossman we are playing catch up.
I think Shanny has done a good job getting rid of older divas and bringing in younger guys with solid character. I also give him credit for creating better organization and structure with the operations. However, he has really loused up the QB position - first with McNabb and then with Beck.
I agree. I always liked JC and was disappointed with that move. Again, I have been pretty happy with what Shanny has done EXCEPT for the QB position where I think he has loused things up. He will have one last chance to fix that this offseason.
11 comments:
Not bad for a mediocre team, eh?
Actually, the Bears and Deadskins are about where I expected them to be at the start of the season.
The Deadskins have 2-3 more wins in them with Rex at the helm. They will finish 5-11. The Bears will win five more. So 11-5 looks about right.
As I have said previously, I have the right to change my opinion.
It's no secret the Pears are playing good football and the coaches deserve a lot of credit for putting their players in the right positions to be successful and finding their identity. However, there is still a lot of football left to be played and we'll see how things shake out.
The Skins season was REALLY derailed when we put Beck in. He is not good and our offense took a BIG step back and it really disrupts the team and the strong start we had.
Whatever. What is done is done. Again, my only hope is that we stay competitive and then focus on offense in the offseason.
As I said earlier in the year, there is a very high, statistically significant correlation between making the playoffs in the prior year and making it again the next year.
Conversely, if you did not make the playoffs the prior year your chances are lower of making it this year.
We pretty much agreed that the Deadskins were about 7-9 (looks like that will be a stretch at this point).
Where we disagreed was with the Bears. The team made the NFC title game and needed to improve its offensive line. It did that and now they seem to be rolling. Nothing surprising to me about either team.
We'll see if the Pears can continue their play. They did not look good early in the year and are looking better as of late. Teams get hot and cold. We'll see if they can continue.
They have a pretty good remaining schedule though. San Diego is reeling. Oakland is okay. KC sucks and Cassel is out. Denver has Tebow so don't expect much there. Seattle isn't good away. Green Bay will be tough and Minnesota should be an easy win. They should win 4 of these 6.
The Skins are where they are due to injuries and the Beck factor. I don't mind the Beck experiment though. At least we know now that Beck is expendable. We MUST get a top QB in the draft. If we find ourselves in a spot where that's not possible, we MUST address the O-line and secondary. Until that happens, being ranked in the low 20's will be the norm.
The Pears success coincides with improved O-line play and a commitment to the running game. It doesn't hurt that the D is getting it done either. Despite the low yards per carry, Martz called 31 run plays against a solid Detroit front 7. Good for him and the Pears. Great win and it looks like Robs' team will be able to contend as long as Jay George avoids playing like Jeff George.
The Bears have been a fairly consistent team the last year and a half. The single biggest thing they had to address was their O-line and as I have contended for months, they did that.
While staying committed to the run, they are going to have to improve their passing attack. They have to be efficient to keep drives alive, and to use their speed in Hester and Knox to take a few shots and make a couple of big plays. But I think they are working on it and I expect to see good things in coming weeks.
Frankly, I think the Bears are the only team that can stop the Packers. They are not scared of the Packers and have the defense to slow down Rodgers - they've shown that the last 4 times they have played.. They can get big plays out of special teams. And, they can run the ball. If they can just make a few plays in their passing game they can really challenge the Packers.
Let me be clear, the Packers would win 7 out of 10 times right now against the Bears, but their D is vulnerable and with just 1-2 big plays from the Bears' D and special teams anything can happen.
I agree with Deeps re: the Skins. When the Skins were 3-1, injuries were not an issue, but became a big problem quickly. JKSD can't blame the last five losses on the move to Beck. A team that is clearly rebuilding has no chance when their talent is only one level deep. Too bad, in the era prior to free agency, the Skins were stacked because they had good player personnel guys and good coaching which afforded less of a drop off when key players go down. Let alone two of their best players using illegal drugs. After giving the game away to a 1-7 team last week, I actually want the Skins to finish 3-13 so that we will get a top 5 talent in the draft.
I do blame Beck. The guy is not an NFL QB. If the Deadskins had started the season with Beck they would have gone 0-4 to start.
Injuries on the offense (Moss, Hightower, Cooley, Lichtensteiger, Williams, Brown, Hankerson, Armstrong, Paul) have hurt us without question. The thing is the depth has actually been okay. The big issue has been the QB. Again, we took a BIG step backwards by putting Beck in. Not only does Beck suck but installing a new QB disrupts the offense from the timing of plays to the cadence of the call to the presence in the huddle and locker room. It's not like fantasy football where it is just a name on a piece of paper. There are deeper ramifications and when we put Beck in, the offense took a big step back and now reinstalling Grossman we are playing catch up.
I think Shanny has done a good job getting rid of older divas and bringing in younger guys with solid character. I also give him credit for creating better organization and structure with the operations. However, he has really loused up the QB position - first with McNabb and then with Beck.
First with getting rid of JC.
Think how good things could be if the Deadskins had JC at QB and used the two picks they traded for McNabb to take offensive linemen
I agree. I always liked JC and was disappointed with that move. Again, I have been pretty happy with what Shanny has done EXCEPT for the QB position where I think he has loused things up. He will have one last chance to fix that this offseason.
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