Comments on a Couple of Media Pieces

Je make comments-uh

I wanted to toss out my thoughts on a couple of pieces I've seen lately regarding the Redskins.

Brian at Common Prejudice pointed this one out to me, an ESPN piece by Tom Friend titled 'Reeling Redskins Awash in Troubles.' Master4Caster at Running Redskins posted up a good take on it today as well.

First, this is generally a good piece in that it is inside baseball on some of what ails the Redskins defense. The loss of key players and some of the injuries and bad assumptions by the coaching staff is stuff we all know. The parts about the politics of coaching, Steven Jackson and Jerry Gray, is something I have not read about thus far this season. I would think we would have read about this earlier if there were real problems or anonymous team officials or players were leaking stories about coaching and locker room disarray (like the players did against Marty Schottenheimer). I just have a hard time believing accomplished coaches such as Joe Gibbs and Gregg Williams could tolerate this stuff, or permit disorganization or poor communications. I'm not saying I don't believe it, but if there were problems, the Washington Post would find out about it before ESPN.

He makes some allusions to controversies of yore, such as 'one year the punter...' or 'one year a player...' without providing backup. As a writer I personally don't feel comfortable motivating a piece with these kinds of historical references without a citation. If not a link, then how about a date? Something to provide some credibility to what you are about to say, which is 'the old man's lost it, and I'm proving it comparatively.' With the journalistic and archival resources of ESPN and his own writing from the Washington Post, Tom should be able to provide a better reference.

As the final set-up, he categorically names the Redskins as the biggest flop of the 2006 season, which I am not necessarily inclined to disagree with, but I don't like his criteria for determination. Ok, so Miami is a good story because they got a veteran in Joey Harrington to back up the big-ticket free agent in Daunte Culpepper, and when the big-ticket free agent got hurt (Daunte Culpepper's 'injury' is just benching in disguise) Joey stepped in and got it done. Good on Miami, and it raises some organizational questions for the team in the offseason.

Tampa Bay? Tom says they lost their starting quarterback and so should not be expected to do anything, but so did Pittsburgh two years ago (Tommy 'You can never have too much insurance' Maddox), and Big Ben Roethlisberger stepped in and ripped off 13 wins in a row. Sure Ben was a first round pick and Bruce Gradkowski was a 6th round pick, but does that matter once you're on the field? Kyle Orton, a 4th round pick in 2005, went 10-5 as a starter in Chicago when Rex Grossman went down (again). Once you're on the field, you're expected to play, and if 6th round pick Bruce Gradkowski is not player enough to get it done, then shame on Tampa Bay for not stocking a veteran between Chris Simms and Bruce.

Finally, Tom says Pittsburgh is going through a 'predictable post-Super Bowl malaise.' Wait, I thought it was the Super Bowl loser that had the slump. In the past 20 years, the Super Bowl winner is a combined 210-109 in the season after winning the big game. In fact, in the past 20 years, there have been only 4 teams with losing records in the year after the Super Bowl. Quick stat:

Last 20 years: 210-109 w-l, 65.8% wins (quite very nearly 2 out of 3)
Last 10 years: 103-57 w-l, 64.4% wins (also very quite nearly 2 out of 3)

So it's actually the Steelers that are the exception and the post-Super Bowl slump is not predominant in the winner, and therefore I would not call it 'predictable.' Stats pulled from Database Football. (look mom, a citation!) And it's amusing that with 2 wins no one even considers the Raider to be a disappointment.

As for the meat of the hit piece on Gregg Williams, I can't really argue with the facts. The guy got a huge payraise, and basically got to run the defense the way he wanted...which is exactly how Richie Petitbon got to do things. Losing Antonio Pierce, Fred Smoot and Walt Harris hurt, no question. If the Redskins can so easily attract free agents from other teams with big $$$, then why can't they hang onto their defensive players with big $$$? On this point, I disagree with Tom, who says Gregg Williams is arrogant and believes his scheme is the solution, not so much the players. I think the point he misses is that while Gregg Williams is no doubt arrogant and believes the system is paramount, don't discount the fact the players can be arrogant as well. If we make it into a battle of wills I guess Gregg Williams says 'sure they're good players but we can work without them' and Smoot, Pierce and Harris say 'sure he's a good coach but I can succeed in another system.' This season, the Redskins sure are hurting without those guys. LaVar Arrington, we don't miss him.

Moving on, I don't think it's a shock there is a disgruntled player on the team. I'm sure you can find them on every team. That we first heard from this player 11 weeks into the season is what amazes me. Does anyone else think it might be Adam Archuleta? A guy talking about how it's scheme over players in Gregg's mind? Someone with buyer's remorse, that mebbe should have passed on the money and gone to Chicago? I think I can get behind the notion that, like a newbie playing Madden on SNES (I just dated myself), Gregg is running some variation of the same defense over and over, hoping eventually the opposing offense will play into it, though I do not believe it's necessarily out of pure stubbornness. With the depleted corps he has had to deal with keeping the playbook small was perhaps his judgement. Note how different the defense looked, more wide open, in the Panthers game.

And finally, the regression of players, disrespecting players, ignoring pouty coaches and letting the entire secondary be un-coached into oblivion, well, there is definitely something up with the defense, though I have a hard time believing it's this soap operatic. Fans heard rumors during Norv Turner's tenure, while Marty was here and while Steve Spurrier was here, and this is the first time I've heard of this with this staff. If it's a war of wills and Gregg is putting loyalty to mediocre coaches over the team, that shit needs to change, and pronto. I'm not for getting rid of Gregg based on this season's results. After the last two seasons, you really need to give him another year to prove his scheme, a la Spurrier, needs the best players to be successful, in which case you get rid of his ass because the Redskins have made it a point to plug players in on defense, not identify and retain the bestest players in the league.

Ok the other piece will have to wait.



French frog pilfered from here, where also I learned all about French TV personality Melissa Theuriau, who is reason enough to be French.