Mortality and Reality in Ashburn

Step one: reflect. Step two: hit someone.

Mike Wise has made a very respectable recovery from his ill-advised comments about Redskins bloggers and online commenters (which as Jamie at Mr. Irrelevant points out were from the very Redskins blog sponsored by the Post so I am certain Mike has apologized to Jason LaCanfora by now) with today's column on Joe Gibbs. It's a wide-ranging piece, touching on philosophy, the next coach of the Redskins and even Joe's two year-old grandson Taylor's ongoing battle with leukemia.

It was leukemia that finally claimed the life of Bill Walsh and the intersection of his peer's death and his family's struggle even send Joe down the path of his own mortality. And in a sense I wonder how Joe's reconciliation will affect how long he wants to continue being active in football and NASCAR at the highest levels. His legacy is set, and as the piece itself says, Joe is playing in the fourth quarter with house money.

Joe Gibbs is a father figure to me and to countless Redskins fans. Let us hope he can make it work this season. And if not that he has the courage to recognize it and set it all aside for the betterment of his health and the team's future.

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Meanwhile back on Earth Jason La Canfora gives us a thumbnail rundown of areas for improvement on the Redskins defense:

The Redskins set a modern NFL record in 2006 by producing a scant 12 turnovers -- lowest ever in a 16-game season -- which had as much to do with their 5-11 record as anything else. The defense also set a franchise low with 19 sacks, and, while there is no established statistical formula to prove it, the club probably set some sort of mark for fewest big plays from a defense.

The Redskins did not score a defensive touchdown in 2006, and [Gregg] Williams's unit slipped from its perch in the top 10 to 31st, second worst in the NFL.

And the reality is that the Redskins were in so many close games last season that if the defense had only fallen half as far the Redskins may have been 8-8 or 9-7 or better, which would have gotten them into the playoffs in a season when the Giants went at 8-8.

Loose ball drills, handwork for the defensive backs in addition to footwork, schemes at the line designed to improve the pass rush, all excellent things to be talking about. Though without much upgrade at the line, I wonder if that pass rush does not appear how long he will keep sending linebackers and corners in on the blitz and not simply go back to the cover-2 and hope for the best, which was the recipe for disaster last season. And the reality is that the Redskins defense needs to be a looooooooot better this season than it was last season.

I'll give it to Gregg Williams, he knows a thing or two about defensive football so let's hope the happy talk turns into a feared defense.



Redskins offensive linemen in drills: John McDonnell / Washington Post from here.