Washington Redskins Thread (2012)

[Vega]

Outside of Rice, aren't all of the Seahawks recievers tiny?

Yeah. They'll need to make some upgrades there this offseason, especially with Rice's tendency towards injury.

[imref]

In the car tonight I listened to jfk and fan, as well as ESPN, flipping between their post-game shows.  Of course all the discussion was on whether or not Shanahan should have pulled RGIII earlier.  I don't think it would have mattered.  Seattle was the much better team, 1st quarter not withstanding.  They dominated both sides of the line and should have had 8-15 more points if not for two goal-line stalls and the fumble at the 2.

[Coladar]

So yeah, here's an example of why I loathe Shammy:

In an eye-opening revelation that surfaced before the game, Dr. James Andrews, a renowned surgeon, told USA Today that he had never cleared Griffin to return to the Dec. 9 game against Baltimore, when the quarterback was first injured. In the immediate aftermath of that injury, Shanahan told reporters that Andrews, who was on the sideline, had given his blessing to Griffin's reentering.

"At that time, I looked over at Dr. Andrews and he said, 'Yeah, he's OK to go back in,'" Shanahan said. "Of course, I'm sitting there trying to evaluate [backup quarterback] Kirk Cousins and our plays, so if somebody says, 'He's OK.' Well, what Dr. Andrews was talking about, and I talked to him today, he said, 'Hey, Robert came around, he started showing us that he could run. He was sprinting around, and then he just took off. I figured he was OK. I hadn't gone through a thorough examination until after the game.'"

Sucks for the team and RG3. I hope every single bandwagon maroon who said "WTF are they doing shutting down Strasburg?!? For the playoffs!! Idiots!" connects the dots. Admittedly a different situation, where Stras was recovering and RG3 was/is downright injured, but after reading a game recap to see what happened, my first thought went to Strasburg's shutdown and viewing it in a new light. Playoffs/playoffs, star with health issues, shutdown/played through. I know which of the two outcomes I prefer.

And Jesus Christ, Andrews was on the sidelines for this game? That guy is like the God of sports medicine, every sport, every team. Unless he's got some crazy deal with the Skins on a regular basis, year long, the fact a guy like that was on the field tells me they were scared crapless over RG3's knee. James Andrews on the sidelines in waiting... Damn, that's just insane. You just read 'Soandso flew in to be evaluated by Dr. James Andrews' and you know soandso is majorly screwed. Andrews on the sidelines equals the apocalypse/have the casket on standby - again, unless this is normal and he's got a special deal with the team.

[HalfSmokes]

In the car tonight I listened to jfk and fan, as well as ESPN, flipping between their post-game shows.  Of course all the discussion was on whether or not Shanahan should have pulled RGIII earlier.  I don't think it would have mattered.  Seattle was the much better team, 1st quarter not withstanding.  They dominated both sides of the line and should have had 8-15 more points if not for two goal-line stalls and the fumble at the 2.

They played three quarters against a team without a qb and won by ten points.

[MarquisDeSade]

Calm down Francis, Andrews is the team doctor.

[imref]

They played three quarters against a team without a qb and won by ten points.

that team without a QB got absolutely owned by the Seahawk O-line for 3 quarters as well.

[cmdterps44]

the season is over. This sucks.

At least The Rock comes back to WWE for the next few months!

[PC]

In the car tonight I listened to jfk and fan, as well as ESPN, flipping between their post-game shows.  Of course all the discussion was on whether or not Shanahan should have pulled RGIII earlier.  I don't think it would have mattered.  Seattle was the much better team, 1st quarter not withstanding.  They dominated both sides of the line and should have had 8-15 more points if not for two goal-line stalls and the fumble at the 2.

Wrong.   A healthy Griffin is head and shoulders better than Wilson.  It's not even close.  Hell, Cousins is a better passer than Wilson.

And they dominated neither side of the ball.  Everything changed when Griffin went down near the endzone on the second touchdown drive.  The first quarter was true indication of the relative strengths of the teams.

[NatsDad14]

So yeah, here's an example of why I loathe Shammy:

Sucks for the team and RG3. I hope every single bandwagon maroon who said "WTF are they doing shutting down Strasburg?!? For the playoffs!! Idiots!" connects the dots. Admittedly a different situation, where Stras was recovering and RG3 was/is downright injured, but after reading a game recap to see what happened, my first thought went to Strasburg's shutdown and viewing it in a new light. Playoffs/playoffs, star with health issues, shutdown/played through. I know which of the two outcomes I prefer.

And Jesus Christ, Andrews was on the sidelines for this game? That guy is like the God of sports medicine, every sport, every team. Unless he's got some crazy deal with the Skins on a regular basis, year long, the fact a guy like that was on the field tells me they were scared crapless over RG3's knee. James Andrews on the sidelines in waiting... Damn, that's just insane. You just read 'Soandso flew in to be evaluated by Dr. James Andrews' and you know soandso is majorly screwed. Andrews on the sidelines equals the apocalypse/have the casket on standby - again, unless this is normal and he's got a special deal with the team.

James Andrews has always been the Redskins team doctor

[Coladar]

James Andrews has always been the Redskins team doctor

Interesting, as well as why I mentioned the special deal point twice in case that was the situation. Anyone have further info on this? I'd never heard it before, but he practices in Alabama, right? Seems a bit odd, how does that work? Does Andrews put his practice on hold four months out of the year, or do players have to fly down to Alabama typically for evaluations?

Likewise, a coach lying to the press saying the team physician cleared a player to avoid public criticism for playing RG3 in December, when considering the fame and acclaim of Andrews... I'm sure money overcomes all ills in the end, but I can't imagine Andrews was/is too thrilled. The fact he didn't come out and refute Shanahan's comments until a month later is bizarre.

[welch]

Coaches give nothing away in pressers.

[mmzznnxx]

The game today reminded me so much of why I was in favor of shutting down Strasburg, and was a similar pain to the Nats losing game 5. God forbid the Caps actually have a season and have an early exit this year again, I don't think I could take it.

At least Bradley Beal has started to come around a bit. =\

[Lintyfresh85]

The difference being Strasburg wasn't hurt when he was shut down. RGIII was hurt when he was left in.

[mmzznnxx]

The difference being Strasburg wasn't hurt when he was shut down. RGIII was hurt when he was left in.

This is true, but after the Ravens game where he injured his knee, Griffin didn't have the same accuracy on his throws or rushing ability that made him so dangerous before. Strasburg after the All-Star Break was one of the weaker starters after and looked spent. He might not have been injured, but it looked like he was going down the wrong path. He might have stayed healthy and owned, but who knows. I still agree with the shutdown, would have agreed with a shutdown for Griffin not long after the first half.

[Smithian]

I'm not going to sit here and rage about the Cousins/RGIII call even though I think we should have brought Cousins in after halftime. Coaches and medical staff knew the facts and stuck with RGIII. Had we benched RGIII earlier there is no guarantee we win and right now opposing fans would be saying RGIII was a wussy and had we lost everyone would be claiming Shanahan should have played RGIII instead of babying him. It wasn't an easy decision either way.

That game sucked but it is behind us. crap happens. Have to look forward. The future is bright. Let's take a look forward at this offseason with an understanding we are light in the draft (I still think we should call the Rams and give them another 1st rounder for good measure) and have a limited draft budget.

RGIII's situation is frustrating but it doesn't define the future. Like I said about Strasburg, he is one player. One of 22 starters, one of 53 players. Tremendously talented, tremendously important, but just one player. Assuming he doesn't have surgery, I expect nothing but improvement from him. He played a bit smarter after his concussion and his second injury was flukey. He looked good as a passer, great as a runner. I expect with another offseason a little more emphasis will be put on him as a straight dropback passer instead of the limited packages we used this year. He has a huge arm and a great IQ. Could not ask for more. If he has to have surgery? Yikes. Hopefully he is back soon but if not that is why we drafted Cousins. Tell RGIII to get healthy at his own pace.

The rest of the offense looks solid. The receivers are young. Morgan and Garcon are good starters and the backups are talented. I think we're fine here. Paulsen is a keeper at TE and hopefully we can get Fred Davis back. The backfield is deep if we get Helu back. The O-Line is serviceable, but I'd be happy for a pickup at LG or RT. We have the guys on roster right now at every position to go into next year set on offense but an extra lineman would be nice. A receiving TE is a must if Fred Davis is done here.

Defensively our personnel at the end couldn't be worse on paper. Upfront the defense was much better than expected. Jarvis Jenkins is a big time prospect and will be a year further from knee surgery. Carriker and Nield returning gives us options depth wise. Linebacker will be a position of strength with Orakpo back. Great defenses can bring subs like Rob Jackson off the bench. Praying Fletcher gives us one more go around. The secondary was awful. Any available resources need to go there first. Hall and Wilson are serviceable starters, but behind them yikes. Have to get better. I can't imagine it will be hard at all to fine affordable guys who will be upgrades.

I say big offseason priorities are add a starting safety (or two), maybe a RT, and finding some depth defensively. Not impossible tasks.

It all starts with the quarterbacks, but for the other 52 guys on the roster we should have a really salty team next season.

[MarquisDeSade]

Nobody is reading all of that but Mensa Mike Klanahan cost you guys a shot at moving on the Divisional round and, well probably find out later this week, the QB you traded away the future for for the first six to ten games of next season. 

[imref]

Boswell has a pretty good summary of the RGIII saga yesterday:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/robert-griffin-iii-shows-us-the-best-and-worst-of-the-nfl/2013/01/06/aff425c6-5860-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_story.html

If Griffin is basically okay, all of this probably will blow over, everyone will congratulate RGIII on his play-with-pain courage and Shanahan, in the future, might say he needs to factor RGIII’s extreme “stubbornness and competitiveness” into his decisions on whether to let him stay in games.

If Griffin has a major injury, even if he is entirely able to recover from, then the sight of Griffin staggering through this game like a defenseless one-legged man, and the playoff-blood-pact between coach and quarterback may go down as one of the sport’s most remarkably stupid macho decisions.

So, the stakes aren’t too high. Sports is a strange world where everybody agrees to rewrite history after the MRI comes back.

[Slateman]

When RGIII rolled out to his right and got sacked because he couldn't run, Shanahan should have pulled him. If he can't get out of his own way, then he should have been pulled.

Hindsight is 20/20 though.

[HalfSmokes]

Hindsight is 20/20 though.

Mostly people were screaming for it when it since that fist collapse near the sideline during the scoring drive

[Tyler Durden]

It was pretty obvious that he was hurting.  Irrespective of the difference between 'hurting' and 'injured,' he was not playing very well and everyone could see it.

[Lintyfresh85]

I know I was.

[Tyler Durden]

I will add - I've had my ACL torn and repaired twice over the span of about 10 years.  I would guess that he tore something in his knee early in the game.  You can walk deliberately in straight line with a torn ACL but when you try to make quick movements, that is when your knee buckles. 

[mitlen]

If ya get a chance, check the picture of RGIII in the Post ...  ugly.   Believe me, that hurts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports

[MarquisDeSade]

It's my new avatar.

[Kevrock]

Cmon bro.