The P.U.S.H.Y List

Welcome to my ‘PUSHY’ list – which stands for Players Undoubtedly Sucking Hard Yesterday. I think the list meaning is pretty self-explanatory, so here we go…

Kyle Shanahan – He’s not a player you say? Wasn’t a coach yesterday either. For a coach that has an abbreviated cast and crew to work with in an offense, it was the worst job of play-calling, that I have EVER seen. 12 runs? Keeping Beck in the pocket? These are moves that smack of arrogance, and a ‘I’m doing it my way regardless of what pieces of the puzzle I have,’ attitude. News flash young man – it isn’t working, you look STUPID, and you’re putting your dad in a pretty tough predicament. Granted he’s the coach and shouldn’t let nepotism get in the way of running this team accordingly; but Kyle, you don’t have Aaron Rodgers throwing the ball to Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Johnson. Why are you calling plays like you do? You don’t have The Hogs defending your shell-shocked, shellacked, no experience quarterback – you have a patchwork line with limited cohesiveness and playing time together, defending him. If this is the best that Kyle has to offer, then maybe the time has come to let his old man do some play-calling and see how that goes. If it fixes the problem AT ALL, then Kyle should find himself out of a job. Other than a weatherman, I can’t think of a profession where you get to keep your job when you’re ‘right’ about 25% of the time.

LaRon Landry – Did you say, “Oh I thought he was still injured?” You might have, because other than showing flashes in his first game back, he’s done nothing. In fact, I personally think he’s become an issue. We’re trying to use him as a linebacker most of the time. I don’t care how swole he gets, he’s supposed to be a safety. If he wants to try out at linebacker, give him a go; otherwise, you can’t defend the modern pass game with only one safety ever being in the secondary – ESPECIALLY when the guy you cheat up into the box isn’t making any plays there anyway.

Offensive Line – I’m not going to pick one guy, because they all stunk yesterday. They allowed nine sacks – the same number of sacks that The Hogs allowed in the ENTIRE SEASON the last time the Redskins won the Super Bowl (’91) – that’s regular season AND playoffs included! Please think about that stat – it is an incredible statistic. Of course, I would be remiss to not at least mention that when your left tackle is getting beat like a towel on the clothesline, maybe you should try and get him the odd bit of tight end blocking help.

Ryan Torain – Had a big 14 yards on 8 carries. Both numbers are equally pathetic and anaemic. I think some of that has to go on the OC because not many running backs do much with 8 carries, but then again, when the back is gaining less than two yards per carry, maybe he earned the slight. Torain doesn’t seem to be able to re-find the hunger that saw him come storming off of the injured pile, and back into the line-up a few weeks ago. The Redskins running game has been non-existent the last few weeks, and while obviously OL injuries have played a role in that, so has Torain not running with much fire. Get the lead out son, your team needs you right now.

Kevin Barnes – Maybe I expected too much, but for a guy that looked like he might have a breakout season this year, he just hasn’t materialized as even a viable back-up in the secondary. He’s been bad enough that Redskins Nation are just hoping that Phillip Buchanon can come in and make some noise, because Barnes has proved he isn’t going to. Yesterday, it seemed like every time a receiver was running free after a catch, #22 was chasing them down from behind.

Barry Cofield – Got blown up repeatedly yesterday. Sure the Bills o-line is an underrated bunch with a great track record in 2011, but Cofield just was not doing anything at the point of attack on Sunday. As a matter of fact, I thought Stephen Bowen and Adam Carriker struggled too. The only defensive lineman that had a decent game against the Bills in my opinion, was back-up Kedric Golston. The rest of them looked almost disinterested by the second quarter. Then again, so did the rest of the guys on the field and sidelines.

Mike Shanahan – Last but not least, we’ll throw Coach under the bus. It doesn’t really matter who didn’t show up to play, who didn’t call what offensive plays – the coach is the boss – he is 100% responsible and accountable for everything that goes on, on that football field. Sure he can’t tackle guys himself, sure he can’t catch passes, but at the end of the day, he’s the one left holding the bag for this mess right now, and should be held accountable. The Redskins aren’t just banged up – they’re banged up, they’re playing terrible and they continue to look ill-prepared to take advantage of other teams’ weaknesses.

Truthfully, maybe this whole list is unfair. After all, I think you could make a case that other than Fred Davis, London Fletcher, Ryan Kerrigan, and Sav Rocca – every single Washington Redskin player on the roster qualified as ‘PUSHY’ yesterday.