I was ready to write a long post about how the Redskins got screwed by the refs and how Mike Alstott's elbow (the one with the football) had CLEARLY not broken the plane, but I've decided to leave a mention to that bad call to just this paragraph. (I think, the media should make a bigger deal of it... I'm looking at you Mike Wilbon. Wilbon seems to just compare the Alstott call to the Betts call. Well hindsight is hindsight, but I'm pretty sure if the Betts TD is called back the Skins offense gets on the field and has a chance to score a TD. If Alstott doesn't make it, there is no second chance for the Bucs. Basically though, the Bucs got lucky and the Redskins otherwise gave them the game. You can't seriously tell me the Bucs are looking better than the Skins for the rest of the season can you? Unless the Bucs plan on being handed games for the rest of the season. So much more could be said but when it comes down to it the Redskins need to click in the next two games.
And since I hate meaningless cliches, I'll explain what I mean by click. Two things need to happen: first and foremost the defense needs to improve and second the turnover ratio need to get better. The Skins have been sunk by turnovers all season. 3 of their losses, including Sunday's, can be, at least partially, attributed to offensive (or special team) turnovers and a lack of recovered turnovers. The biggest problem, I believe, is their defensive system, which I'm assuming isn't up for tweaking. I see two problems with Gregg Williams' system: First, the system doesn't use it's players strengths... making it easy to replace a player, but also reducing great players to regular players. And second, when one player fails it is susceptible to big plays... to use a computing term: there is no redundancy.
And since Williams' system is so praised, I don't think things will changes. I just hope that, like the LaVar Arrington issue, I am wrong. (Remember, I had thought that since Williams' system could works just as well with LaVar as it would with any other linebacker, Williams wouldn't use LaVar since LaVar hadn't "learned to be a pro" yet. Whatever that meant.)
In the end though, this season will come down to the next two games. It's over with the learning period of the season. Like the 2000 Ravens, 2000 Giants, 2001 Patriots, and 2002 Raiders (all teams that had their last meaningful loss around week 9 or 10, and then made the Super Bowl) this is when the Skins need to start a winning streak that leads into the playoffs. Now is the time to win out.
Finally, I would like to comment on something that happened a couple of years ago: In order to save money, Redskins Radio, replaced Frank Herzog with Larry Michaels. Back then, I was pretty disappointed because I hated hearing the Fox announcers who without fail would include one of two former Cowboys as announcers for Redskins games: Troy Aikman or Daryl Johnston. Aikman was bearable, but Johnston was, and still is, shamefully biased against the Skins. Anyways, thats a story for another day: the point here is that I would mute the TV and listen to Sonny, Sam and Frank. But when Frank left, I was sorely disappointed by Larry Michaels' play calling. He didn't have an interesting TD call (btw, is/was there a better hometown TD call than Frank's "Touchdown, Washington Redskins!" and whoever does the Chiefs' call of "Touchdown, KAN-SAS CITY!") So I stopped listening, and tried to ignore Johnston's lame commentary.
It didn't bother me that much mainly, I could still watch the game and just shut out the commentary. But this week I couldn't watch the game and was forced to listen to most of the game on WJFK (I only watched the 4th Quarter). I was seconds away from gouging my ears out because Larry Michaels has gotten worse! He takes FOREVER to describe things. I can tell what has happened from the crowd noise before he finishes his call. It seems like he wastes time on being exact (Larry, I really don't care if you call a run "about 4 yards" and its really is only a 3 yard because I get the idea that the fella didn't just run 15 yards) Im not looking for accuracy as much as speed. I'll get over being off by one or two yards on a first or second down run. I seriously heard something along the lines of this: "Brunell rolling to his left... (1 sec pause) has a man open... (1 sec pause, Tampa Bay crowd quiets down, 2 sec pause) Robert Royal makes the 8 reception and is tackled" Um, gee, Larry thanks for the update! I'ld be faster if he wrote it down, blogged it and had someone else read it over the radio. I even heard Sonny announcing that the Skins got a first down because... well I guess Larry thinks it's more important to tell me exactly how many yards, or who tackled him than if the Skins have a first down.
Anyways, needless to say, its been a frustrating day in football.
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