The Sky IS NOT falling

By Mark Solway | August 15th, 2006

Seems like a lot of fans had a bad day today, after watching a night of Redskin Football. Sorry, the wife is a Packer fan and if I start whining she’ll breakout the cheeseheads and lay them throughout the house. So I got with Tcwest10, who was offering to loan out his spare pair of B&G (Rose) colored glasses and I borrowed them (I’ve been saying for years that I didn’t wear them, this is further proof that I didn’t even have a pair). Anywho, this is my opinion of what has taken place over the last 24 hour Rumor has it that people are falling of the bandwagon. They aren’t falling; most of the doom say-ers are really die-hard fans that know CLL let too many on during the off-season and they are trying to scare some of them off. This would have been a terrible game if it had meant something; it was bad enough with the lost of the players that got hurt. Other than the injuries there really isn’t anything to complain about. Brunell made a bad throw while trying to throw the ball away that can be fixed – if he had been throwing it into coverage that would be a problem. The worst part of that play was the injury to Portis. If you look at the tape, don’t look at Portis and you’ll see that many a Redskin was chasing the DB in a meaningless game that they knew they wouldn’t be playing in for long. Those were the starters out there and they were chasing the ball like they were chasing a roster spot.That’s the kind of players that Gibbs wants on the field and that is what I saw early in the game. When the game ended, the Ben-gals had more points than we did. When the starting defense left the game Cincy had negative 19 yards. Some will say Carson Palmer didn’t play, but -19? That’s a statement in itself. Then came the back-ups… Back-up lineman that gave Collins no time whats-so-ever (I think he was trying to hit his blockers in the back of the head with the ball, butt the defenders were blowing by them so quick they kept getting their hands on the ball). Collins is 3 inches taller than Brunell so I know he can get the ball over the lineman, it the only explanation I can come up with for the pick and near pick that turned into a safety. Again there is no reason to open the hen house, so cut the Chicken Little act out. Here’s why… Gibbs has always said Brunell is the starter and that Todd and Jason would compete for the #2 spot. When Collins was signed it was stated that he would be the emergency QB and that he knew Al’s playbook. Sounds like conflicting statements but it’s just “Gibbs Talk.” It means Brunell is the starter and Campbell is the #2 when he is ready to be the #2, and until then they’ll compete for the spot. Todd has the full knowledge base but is limited in his ability to execute; Campbell is the flip-side. If Mark can lead the team for the complete season, Jason should have the knowledge base in 2007 if Mark gets hurt, then we’ll have to where he is at, until then he’ll stand on the side line and watch (and listen to Todd). Collins had limited blocking, and may have had a bad night but from what I saw from JC last night, if he did take the #2 spot outright it’ll be his by 9/11. But if Brunell went down during the season, it wouldn’t surprise me if Gibbs played Collins over Campbell to finish out that 1 game and insert Jason the next week. Gibbs got just what he wanted out of his QBs last night. All three played well, all three made mistakes as all three threw interceptions. Gibbs got it all on tape. Look at the offensive fire power we brought in this off-season. It’s no wonder we saw a flea-flicker in the 1st pre-season game of the year. You have to call those type of plays, when you are unsure or your players are unsure. They need all the headlines they can get about football players doing things on the football field in Cincy. If Gibbs had called it, I can’t think of a receiver – or TE for that matter – that would have been caught from behind (maybe Robert Johnson but he would have dragged them into the endzone). Gibbs picked up a copy of that film also. John Hall looked good for the first time in a long time and Frost was probably smart not to unpack everything when he got to camp. Betts could have played but didn’t (for those that thought he may have been held out for a possible trade with the Jets, they made a deal with Cleveland today), and we got to see Nemo at HB and it was not a bad sight to see considering he hadn’t shown anything at FB or HB. With Carter being out for the year, Nemo may hold on to a roster spot. Many felt we need more depth or should I say better depth on the O-line. Well, many were right. After the starters went out it was open season on QBs in white jerseys for a while there. Fortunately for us, Gibbs – yep you guessed it – had his own personal DVD burned so he could play it on Buges laptop. Mike Espy sent Jacobs to the 9ers almost over night. Buck Ortega caught a nice one from Campbell. This showed Campbell’s arm strength and Saunders’s ability to open up the middle of the field. Brandon Lloyd reminded us why the Skins went out and got him. In the end I had to give Tc his shades back and noticed a few other things. * Reed Doughty has a nose for the ball. * Robert McCune is a Redskin. * Without the blocking Collins is as stiff as Ramsey. * Campbell doesn’t always make the right decisions. * The running back depth ain’t what it use to be. * The defense gave up 17 points and forced no turnovers. * Kenny Wright looked lost and couldn’t catch up (which creates a hold at the #3 CB). I remembered that Brunell had thrown a interception while both teams had their starters on the field and I must have said something out loud because that Packer fan that had spent most of the game in another room (watching 4400) said \x93It’s the pre-season, week one to boot – you need to chill-out. So I’m…