The View from Here

From where I'm sitting, it looks like you have problems. Beeg juans.

When I was a younger man, we watched Sunday football like it was our job. We had Madden '92 queued up on the Super Nintendo and would play the game in question during halftime of the broadcast. There were usually at least three of us, so someone had to sit out. That third person got to sit back and play From Where I'm Sitting..., the game of running commentary. I have decided the best way I can convey my thoughts on last night's terrible game in Dallas is in this format.

From where I'm sitting...

...it looks like the defense is playing with 7 or 8 guys. I see no pass rush, but I see a soft middle that Witten and Fasano exploited for 7 catches and 80 yards, and the secondary is getting burnt. So where is everybody? Is Williams running a deep cover defense to compensate for secondary weakness, the idea being that he'll give up the underneath stuff in order to keep the secondary behind the streakers?

...Mark needs to go D-O-W-N-F-I-E-L-D. Al and John went on and on about Mark's preference for playing receivers outside the numbers, but they have numbers all the way down the field, right? It doesn't all have to be timing routes 50 yards downfield, but come on, has anyone seen an attempt longer than 20 yards? Opposing defenses will now be jamming the box, daring Mark to go downfield, because in two games, nothin. I've already invoked the spectre of Steve Walsh once with Mark. This is twice. Once more and Steve himself magically appears to pass the torch to Mark as the NFL's official Spaghetti-armed Weaktit of a Quarterback.

...this offensive line everyone keeps talking about as 'veteran,' and 'cohesive,' looks like it couldn't run-block its way out of a paper bag. Betts is stuck under 4.0 yards per carry. Clinton will make a difference, but not one so huge as to turn around the fortunes so far of the Redskins pitiful running game.

...Shawn Springs better get his ass better. Technically, it's opposite his ass that's recovering, but you get the idea. I kind of poo-pooed his absence at the beginning, thinking the scheme and backups would compensate. I was kind of pissed that Shawn waited so long to get the surgery, kind of like when Shaq waited all summer to get his big toe operated on so he could get paid to sit. He could have had the surgery at any point in the summer of 2002 and been ready for camp, but apparently felt entitled to wait until he was contractually obligated to use that toe in pursuit of his profession (the blogger I linked to thinks this was the high point of the Shaq-Kobe-Lakers saga, which ended with them washing out of the playoffs that season) before addressing it. Not that I ever would accuse Shawn of being that irresponsible, but if the guy knew he was going to need surgery at some point, WTF was he doing waiting until August to have it?

...Chris Cooley should take a break from banging cheerleaders and work on his routes. He had the surest hands last season, and so far, nothin.

...Al Saunders better find the rest of that playbook. Maybe he left it on the copier, but if what we've seen so far is represented by a 700-page playbook, it must have been written by George Eliot. Another way to make this point is, if it's 700 pages maybe it really needs to be 7000 pages.

...Rock Cartwright and Mike Sellers are awesome. Derrick Frost and John Hall I feel better about too.

...Santana and Antwaan are going to be deadly if the Redskins can get it out of the ditch. I see flashes from Brandon, but I need to see more of him.

...Mike Rumph is in and out of the doghouse more times than our neighbor's beagle. He's called for holding, giving the Cowboys a fresh set of downs, then comes right back, and gets his hand clean into TOs space to prevent him from scoring a TD.

...Kenny Wright took a beating. After not getting picked on in the Minnesota game, last night he was called for illegal contact, pass interference (for 40 yards), a facemask (15 yard variety), and gave up at least two passes with the receiver right with him.

...Sean Taylor has his own gravity. You can see how plays change when he's in your orbit. That hit on TO just made him crumple. Speaking of TO, buh-bye. See you sometime in October. I hear he's going to have a plate screwed into his finger. Maybe he can get a knife and fork screwed into his wrist.

At least the Eagles lost. And big, with Kearse done for the season.

Hogs Haven goes negative in his recap, and Blogging the Boys, our 5 Questions partner, looks at the storylines that emerged from this game.

Box Score