Saturday, December 06, 2008

Redskins 2008 Schedule Review: Band Three


Verdict: on target, such as it was

Original bands
Band one review: games 1-5
Band two review: games 6-9
Band three review: games 10-12

Time once again to review performance, here we continue with my Tony Almeida inspired breakdown of the Redskins 2008 schedule into four uneven bands based on logical grouping and milestones. To review, band one ended after the third NFC Beast division road game in the first five games, band two ended at the bye and band three ended after two division home games in three weeks and before a two game road stretch into the AFC.

To recap the process, rather than examine and predict individual games, Tony Almeida and I predicted outcomes for each band in each of three performance categories:

1. Underperform, not a solid effort though this does not necessarily map to winless.

2. Solid perform, based on our predictions the expected outcome.

3. Outperform, the best case scenario, though this does not mean a clean sweep.

Tony Almeida and I handicapped the bands and determined band three was the number two handicap, or second hardest band, based on two of three games against division rivals, teams that were expected before the season to contend, and a third game on the west coast against the new coach's former team two ways, also the team that has delivered playoff frustration to the Redskins two of the last three seasons. Being that Jim Zorn is a rookie head coach and an unknown quantity, there is also an uncertainty factor in there as well.

The bands and their predictions have remained unchanged since they were established before the season opener.

Our outperform for band three was tabbed at 2-1, Tony Almeida and I figured even if this team was hitting on all cylinders with a new coach there was no way Washington would sweep these games. Look again at the makeup of this band, that was not going to happen. The solid perform was was pegged at 1-2, mainly because we thought reality might be setting in for the rookie coach, and the underperform was a wheels falling off 0-3, if the Redskins were going to fall apart it would likely happen in this band.

The Redskins performed in November exactly as we expected in September:

Band three






















Game ten




vs. Cowboys
lost 14-10
0-1
Game eleven
@ Seahawks
won 20-17
1-1
Game twelve
vs. Giants



lost 23-71-2


Rack up band three as a solid perform, band one was the top handicap and the Redskins overperformed the optimistic prediction by two games, band two was the easiest band and the Redskins kind of messed it up, band three was the second hardest and the team performed as we expected

Based on bands one, two and three actual performance and band four predictions, Washington is now looking at results between 10-6 and 8-8 with 9-7 the solid perform, the Redskins lost a game on the upside as well as the downside in this band. It is worth noting that preseason predictions were 10-6 outperform, 8-8 solid perform and 4-12 underperform, this means through the uncertainty of preseason predictions the results are ultimately breaking to the positive.


Band three MVP: there was not one.


The Redskins now move from the second hardest band to the second easiest band, Curly R will review band four in one month, when season comes to a close in San Francisco.



Image by me, original Redskins logo from here.

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