There are a lot of Redskin fans talking about coaching, and about execution, and about the front office… but I thought that Dan Steinberg’s blog today – which was basically an interview with Merrill Hoge about the Redskins offense – did a great job of summing up what’s wrong on the offensive side of the ball:
“You have a philosophy, a West Coast philosophy, and nobody fits that mold,” said Hoge, who comprehensively reviewed the Tampa game on tape. “I don’t think they try to take advantage of their strengths. It’s like they’ve got a philosophy and they want to run it regardless. Shoot, I’d run the ball, run a lot of run action, stack receivers, bunch ’em coming off the line. I’d use a different philosophy to take advantage of their strengths. The West Coast is not their strength. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it some of the time, it just shouldn’t be your staple….That, to me, is the biggest way to fail as a coach. Just watch the Tampa game. They did nothing to help their guys. The quarterback has nowhere to throw the ball, so then he gets sacked and looks like an idiot.”
There’s a fair bit more to it, so check out D.C. Sports Bog to read it all, it’s well worth the click. Thanks Dan.
I couldn’t possibly agree more.
So many of the offensive issues are about not using what we have.
Heck, if they’d just use Cooley as much as they should, I think that we’d be a better team. What kind of numbers would CC put up if he were somewhere like Indianapolis? Nobody on the team puts up the YAC that Captain Chaos does – get him the ball 9-10 times a game – every game!
Portis may be hurt, but he ran so gallantly last week; most backs don’t have to work that damn hard to get 98 yards. Unfortunately, all anyone’s going to talk about from now until game time is CP’s apparent tiff with Mike Sellers… which may be escalating… but Big Mike is hardly the only guy at fault.
It’s even tougher to run the ball when you’re only running one way. Redskin legend Brian Mitchell talked about Zorn’s lack of confidence in the two guys on the left side of the line, on his call-in show today. Visit this website, and call the number to listen to the show; it’s free and there was lots of good stuff on there today… including a couple of questions from fellow THNers RedskinInCanada and Countertrey.
The Redskins only offensive identity seems to be that we still don’t have an identity.
Will bringing in Sherm Lewis bring some sort of identity, or will it just convolute the issue even further?
Not that the offensive woes of this football team are by any means ALL that is wrong with a currently disenfranchised franchise, but there’s no doubt that if they could fix some of their offensive problems, the incessant barking about anything and everything would at least be muted…
… well at least for a couple of days.
The current roster of the Washington Redskins was not assembled with a view to implement the West Coast Offense. The QB, inparticular, is not suited to fit that offensive scheme. This was a failed experiment to begin with. One that even our dysfunctional Front Office should have anticipated.
Zorn and Campbell have become the favourite scapegoats of many fans. Zorn has been regarded by many observers as a lame duck, an ex-coach walking if you like. It is not a matter if Zorn will go, the true question is when.
It will be a mistake to think that a new coach and a new QB, all by themselves, will cure the fundamental illness of this team. We need a competent General Manager and a new manegemnt structure to really be able to compete against much better run franchises.
Hail,
RiC
No argument on the FO issues, but Zorn could really do himself a favor by doing a better job.
By no means is he all that ails this franchise right now, but is he helping matters?
Not really.
Is it fair to Zorn to saddle him with that level of responsibility?
Not really, but he is responsible for some of the things that have been lax, like play calling, so he may not be the problem, but he could definitely be a bigger part of the solution than he is right now.
My 2 cents