2006 Point & Laugh at the taterskins thread

[QB Eagles]

John Hall's done for the year. Nick Novak is kicking for them now.

[PhillyPhreak54]

ES thread about Joe Gibbs saying that its Al Saunders' offense until they get to the opponents 35yd line

The natives aren't too happy about The Coaching Angel saying/doing this...

[Susquehanna Birder]

From the "Insider" article on ESPN.com:

• taterskins observer said it's now fair to call the team's preseason acquisition of RB T.J. Duckett, who hasn't played since the Week 2 loss to Dallas, a "complete panic move" and estimates that Duckett could spend the rest of the season as a bystander.

[MDS]

Best owner in the NFL.

[TexasEagle]

Best owner in the NFL.

Hands down.

[TexasEagle]

ES thread about Joe Gibbs saying that its Al Saunders' offense until they get to the opponents 35yd line

The natives aren't too happy about The Coaching Angel saying/doing this...

The Zealots are starting to revolt.

[Cerevant]

The Zealots are starting to revolting.

...and they smell bad, too.

[MDS]

Skins game is the lowest on CBS' docket. I'm sure they're complaining over there about the lack of media exposure and how everyone is out to get them.

[MadMarchHare]

Or it could be that they're playing one of the worst teams in football.  Not even the ESers could miss that point.  Right?

[Sgt PSN]

Figured this was as good'a place as any to post this.  New Bang cartoon.....makes fun of taterskins, TO and Bledsoe.  Better than some of their recent work. 

Super Awesome Football Show

[PhillyPhreak54]

ExtremeSkins Fan View: Waiting Game
By Mark Steven
ExtremeSkins.com
October 12, 2006


"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."

-- Abraham Lincoln


Honest Abe too heavy for a football column? Fair enough.

Consider if you will a certain scene in The Matrix. In this scene, the Oracle--a wise old sage with a permanently bemused expression--first meets our hero, Neo. Seems she has reason to suspect he could be The One.

And so she watches him, chats him up, takes his measure. Finally, she renders her verdict.

"Sorry, kid," she tells him, solemnly. "You got the gift, but it looks like you're waiting for something."

I submit for your consideration the 2006 Washington taterskins. Through four lackluster preseason and five wildly uneven regular season games, one thing alone seems constant about this team--they seem to be waiting for something.

In the preseason, that something was the regular season. They told us as much, and clearly believed it.

In their nationally televised Monday Night home opener against Minnesota, it looked as if they were waiting for the return of a healthy Clinton Portis and Shawn Springs. Or, perhaps, waiting for the proverbial "someone else" to make the big play. They didn't play badly, just not with the level of intensity and focus expected of a team with the promise and potential of this one.

Against Dallas, the sense that they were waiting for something grew stronger. From the start, the entire team looked a step slow. As if the whistle blew before they were ready. On offense, two quick three-and-outs. On defense, two consecutive scoring drives against and a quick 10-0 deficit. You hate to ever say this about your favorite team, but the Cowboys simply looked like they came out wanting it more.

After falling behind 17-3 in the second quarter, the taterskins looked done. Then suddenly, there was Rock Cartwright, busting through the wedge and returning a kickoff 100 yards for a score, and the team came to life. Half of it, anyway. While the Portis-less offense continued to struggle, a re-energized defense forced five consecutive Dallas punts, and, with the team hanging in and down by only seven late in the 3rd quarter, forced a possible game-changing turnover at the Dallas 39-yard-line.

The offense, as we remember all too painfully, could not take advantage, however, and returned the favor a few plays later with an interception at the goal line. At which point the air went out of the defense, a 99-yard touchdown drive went the other way, and the game was over.

Still, the dramatic, tangible transformation in the body-language of the entire team after Cartwright's big play was unmistakable. For the first time in 2006, the taterskins showed flashes of the confident, motivated team they were to end 2005. A huge play by an individual, deep into the game, had finally sparked what up until that moment had seemed a singularly uninspired team.

Week three saw the team 0-2, and, one figured, chewing through their chinstraps to get at the Houston Texans. Instead, against one of the worst teams in football, they started flat again. On offense, a tepid 3-and-out. Texas took over and immediately drove 66 yards for a touchdown and 7-0 lead. As a taterskins fan, if you weren't deeply worried at that point, you were under general anesthetic somewhere.

As it turns out, the taterskins were simply waiting on something. That day, the something was a little shovel pass from Mark Brunell to Portis, who rambled 74 yards, setting up a Ladell Betts touchdown on the next play. The Portis play visibly ignited the entire team, and they rode the momentum to a dominating road win.

Ah, we figured. They've arrived.

Except that it didn't carry over. The waiting wasn't quite as obvious the following week against Jacksonville, nor did it last long, but it was there. The defense started well enough, forcing a 3-and-out on the Jaguars first possession, but the offense turned over the ball immediately on another awful interception, which led to 3 points against and yet another early deficit. Again, one team hit the field swinging; the other, seemingly, waiting for something good to happen.

Thankfully, Santana Moss provided something early on, taking a short Brunell pass on the very next drive, making a SportsCenter highlight run to paydirt, and igniting not only the taterskins but the 90,000 maniacs at FedExField. Once awakened, the taterskins competed, and won, like the team we, and they, expected them to be. Ah, we figured. Now they've arrived.

Surely the tremendous emotional high after the electric overtime victory over the Jaguars would carry into the next game--maybe to the entire season. You'd have thought.

In fairness, the Meadowlands have never been a particularly welcoming place for the taterskins. They've gone 0-3 there since Joe Gibbs' 2004 return. What you may not immediately recall is that even during their greatest run of glory, in Gibbs' first incarnation in Washington, they fared no better that 6-7 (with one of those losses coming in the '86 NFC Championship). Not unusual for a division road record, but considering that those taterskins teams were their finest ever, it speaks to their difficult history playing in The Land Fill.

Well, last year's 36-0 pummeling up there was bad enough. Fueled by the emotions surrounding the passing of Wellington Mara, and to a lesser degree the Antonio Pierce and Tim Hasselbeck "intel" angles, the Giants played inspired football and simply overwhelmed the taterskins. It hurt to lose in that way, but it was, at least, somehow understandable.

This year was worse. This year there were no compelling mitigating circumstances--at least not any that those of us not in the Ashburn meeting rooms have heard about. The Giants played solidly, but hardly inspired. Frankly, it just looked like the guys in blue hit the field hungrier than the guys in white.

In the days following the taterskins draining, 19-3 loss, fans and pundits alike have fallen all over themselves telling us why it happened. Telling us which particular elements of the team were responsible for the loss and their early season inconsistencies. Telling us it was everything from the team's front office strategies to the all-white uniforms.

I'm not going to presume to tell you what it was. I will suggest what I think it wasn't.

It wasn't overconfidence. It wasn't lack of talent. It wasn't the game plan. It wasn't the offensive line, quarterback, lack of pass rush or inability to stop the run. It wasn't a secondary always seemingly a step slow and second late. And it wasn't attempting a field goal on 4th and 1 late in the game. It was ALL of those things, and more. It was a team that came out waiting for something. And in this game, that something never came.

So that's the bad news.

The good news (neatly closing the circle on the whole movie thing) is that, in the end, Neo does indeed turn out to be The One. After all manner of trials and tribulations, he finds it in himself to overcome his limited, limiting view of himself, and takes charge of his destiny. The real world surely ain't Hollywood, true, but the 2006 Washington taterskins have the same opportunity.

For those who take comfort in numbers, here are some compelling ones. Joe Gibbs lifetime record, by month:

September: 32-22
October: 33-21
November: 36-23
December: 39-14
January: 19-5

I trust that the significance of those numbers are self-evident to anyone serious about NFL football. More importantly, I hope their significance is not lost on the guys bunkering down in Ashburn this week.

It's all still there in front of them. They still have the talent, they still have the coaching, they still have the potential. This taterskins team, even at 2-3 and desperately seeking its identity, is a modest two or three-game win streak from being right back in the middle of things. From being as dangerous as they appeared to be before the first whistle back in August, and as dangerous as they looked just eleven short days ago against Jacksonville.

But something has to change. Somehow, some way, the coaches and locker room leaders on this team have to find a way to ramp this team up before they ever take the field. Not just once, but every week. The disturbing trend of waiting on someone or something to show them the way each week has to end. Great teams don't need to be "sparked" every week by an individual big play. Sometimes, that play comes too late, and sometimes it doesn't come at all.

Until the taterskins find that certain missing element, they'll continue to struggle, and the football world will continue to revel in taking their best shots at them. When you start slow and lose ugly in the white-hot glare of today's professional football, particularly on a team carrying such high expectations, you're fair game to all the second-guessers. And as we've seen this week, some of them have pretty good aim.

From the first preseason game back in August, these taterskins have appeared to be waiting on something. If they have designs on silencing the rising tide of critics, and in turning 2006 into something memorable, they haven't much longer to figure what that is, and perhaps even less time to do something about it.

Neo: "What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?"

Morpheus: "No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to."

Hail.

Die.

[MDS]

I'm not reading all of the crap. But it started with Abe Lincoln, and ended with the Matrix. I think thats enough.

[PhillyPhreak54]

in Gibbs' first incarnation in Washington, they fared no better that 6-7 (with one of those losses coming in the '86 NFC Championship). Not unusual for a division road record, but considering that those taterskins teams were their finest ever, it speaks to their difficult history playing in The Land Fill.

Well, last year's 36-0 pummeling up there was bad enough. Fueled by the emotions surrounding the passing of Wellington Mara, and to a lesser degree the Antonio Pierce and Tim Hasselbeck "intel" angles,

[SD_Eagle5]

Springs is making his debut for the Skins today. I hope Young has a break out game and the Titans win. Combined with an Eagles win, a few beers, and a blowjob, that would make for a perfect Sunday.

[Dillen]

As of now the Titans are up 22-14. Travis Henry had a TD run, on the next drive the Titans blocked a punt for a safety.