Wednesday, December 29, 2010

You Stay Classy Brandon Lloyd


Back at you dude

Thanks to lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery for the tip: As current Broncos and former Redskins receiver Brandon Lloyd heads off to the Pro Bowl, his team's lone representative, he has a message for his three old clubs, the 49ers, Redskins and Bears:

Fuck you.

Gee who could ever have seen that coming.



Brandon Lloyd: Getty Images from here.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Game 15: Redskins (5-9) at Jaguars (8-6)

at

May Take in 60 Words or Less: The notion that Donovan McNabb's agent could go on the attack and not be representing his client is total bullshit. Donovan is simply trying to avoid confrontation so he lied to Kyle Shanahan. Simple as that.



NFL helmets from here.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Season's Greetings from The Curly R



From all of us at The Curly R, best wishes for this holiday season, and I hope Father Christmas brings you some special gifts too.

-Ben Folsom

Other Curly R season's greetings: 2006 :: 2007 :: 2008 :: 2009



Lantern Waste from here via here.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Game 14: Redskins (5-8) at Cowboys (4-9)

at

My Take in 60 Words or Less: For the first time since 2003 I am taking the opponent to win. That's right, I switched both my pool picks to Cowboys.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Talk About Rapid Response


Ouch

Go Skins dot Org, the great abstract cartoonist of the Redskins, already has artistic reaction up, Albert Haynesworth and Donovan McNabb just chilling together on the bench. Go check the rest out here.

The Benching is now a national news story, not sure what Mike Shanahan was going for here, he sure looks like an asshole right about now.



Albert Haynesworth and Donovan McNabb on the bench together: A GoSkins.org cartoon from here via here.

I Hope this Guy Is Still Around


Bringing down the wrath of Redskins fans

If you are the guy running the Fire Mike Shanahan blog and you have not posted since September and you are still there and want some traffic, I would suggest you check the headlines.

http://fireshanahan.blogspot.com/



Mike Shanahan: AP Photo from here.

Let Me Be Clear


I'll speak slowly for the trolls and nitwits and the head coach

There are three reasons putting Rex Grossman in the game, even for a play, is a bad idea:

1. There is a better quarterback on the roster. His name is Donovan McNabb.

2. The better quarterback is healthy.

3. The better quarterback is under contract for 2011.

These reasons notably do not include any discussion of Rex Grossman's ability or standing, nor of the price paid in trade for Donovan McNabb, because both are moot. Mike Shanahan has officially turned a segment of Redskins fans to rooting against their team just to be sure he gets the point. Nice work genius.



Donovan McNabb: Reuters Pictures from here.

BULL FUCKING SHIT


Are you fucking kidding me

What the fuck is this fucking shit, I sit here minding my own business eating my lunch when I see a headline pop into Redskins Insider:

Rex Grossman to start over Donovan McNabb Sunday

That would be this Sunday, at Dallas, bitter NFC Beast Division rival Dallas, a team the Redskins can still sweep in the season series.

And Mike Shanahan is going to bench Donovan in favor of Rex Grossman.

This is really over the line, I have watched how coach Shanahan has handled himself this season and I am very disappointed, cutting Ladell Betts then Willie Parker and Larry Johnson left the team with no experienced tailback backing up the injury prone Clinton Portis and Ryan Torain, the Albert Haynesworth standoff in training camp went too long into the season and hurt the defense. Benching Donovan in the Lions game then spinning bullshit about it. Cutting the holder after the kicker missed two in a winnable game then making up a bullshit excuse.

Maybe that year out of football did nothing to shrink his ego, maybe he is mad with the power Dan Snyder has given him, maybe he is showing off for his son, maybe he just wants to piss Redskins fans off, maybe he really needs to see the place burnt down before he can rebuild it in his own image.

Whatever the deal, this is wrong.

And it is not just wrong because I support Donovan and want to see him play and get some return on that investment. It is wrong because the team will net nothing by playing Rex Grossman.

Washington may win Sunday with Rex, sure, even Danny Wuerffel won games as a starter, that is not the point. The point is that we already know everything we need to know about Rex. He has had his shot, he was in Chicago for six years and could not hold the starting job the year after he took his team to the Super Bowl. His success came largely from the scheme the Bears employed at the time and he is a turnover machine. Years of future success in Washington will not be achieved with Rex Grossman under center.

You only sit a healthy established starter at the end of a season when you have no postseason to play for, and when that starter may not be there next season. But Dono is under contract so it is the team's option, not the player's to have him back.

If Mike Shanahan was serious about seeing what is in the kitty for 2011 he would be starting John Beck, the darling of Kyle Shanahan, my guess is that head coach Shanahan would not start John Beck on a dare meaning this is not about Rex or the future, it is about putting Donovan in his place.

And all the bullshit about lowest rated passer and worst season of his career, that is all bullshit. This is just wrong and win or lose Sunday Redskins fans just lost some more faith in their team.

=====

Some quick reaction I have received in person, by phone, email and text since 11:30 am when the story broke:

Lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery, via email: Talk about a place in total chaos at this point. I thought Shanny would prevent this sort of shit from happening. Didn't DMac have an over 100 passer rating last week?

The wife, Mrs. Curly R, via phone: They have no idea what they are doing, didn't they cut the holder after the kicker messed up?

Former co-worker Rob, via phone: Dude our team is sooooooooo dysfunctional.

Eagles fan and former roommate James, via text message: Sexy Rexy to start? McNabb out of gas or out of favor?


Post your quick reaction in comments.



Donovan McNabb: Getty Images from here.

Looking Back On When Donovan McNabb / Was A Nappy Headed Little Boy


Serioiusly who has my activator

Working on a midday post about butthurt Eagles fans pissed that Donovan McNabb is not in the running for the Pro Bowl following the 2010 season because for him to have done so would have meant Philadelphia's 2011 draft pick from the trade that brought Dono here would have accelerated from a fourth rounder to a third.

In the meantime, check out that 'do. No gauge on the year, Dono has hosted five NFC Championship Game press availabilities. Any Eagles fans out there, help me out with the date.



Uncredited image from here. With apologies to Stevie Wonder for the title.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Come On Washington Post, Get It Together


Like the Redskins: Great idea, poor execution

Back in September, just a couple of games into the 2010 season, the Washington Post launched an iPhone app called Football Insider, a brilliant play designed to bolster the flow of eyeballs to what is already consistently the most popular topic of coverage for the paper, the Washington Redskins.

A great appliance app in concept and basic design, Football Insider pipes Redskins related content in three categories: stories, game coverage and photos. Stories are subdivided into blogs, featuring Redskins Insider, DC Sports Bog and Hard Hits with LaVar Arrington, articles from the print edition and columns; game coverage includes play by play, box score and general info like weather and for home games traffic and stadium transit; the photos are the same galleries as the paper publishes with game recaps.

Considering how much of my time is spent F5ing Redskins Insider I downloaded it immediately then with the use of a handy black app called Rename, relabeled it simply Redskins.

The 1.0 version was terrible, it kept crashing from the game menu and I stopped using it. Version 1.0.1 came out a few weeks later and not only featured the spiffy image of Donovan McNabb as you see above, the 1.0 version simply had a generic burgundy helmet with no Redskins logo, the app also... started working. No problems, no crashes, could access all menus and all content would refresh as expected.

About three weeks ago version 1.0.3 appeared and I upgraded, immediately problems came back, new annoying problems.

It crashes, most notably when I move from the stories section to the games section, though not as often as the 1.0 version. The most annoying thing is the app's inability to refresh itself. Under versions 1.0 and 1.0.1, when you switch away from the app and come back, it respawns, you see the splash image of Donovan as the menus are refreshing content.

Now, once you open it and then switch away and come back, the app takes you straight back to the content menus, not the splash page, which would be fine if the content updated automatically, BUT IT DOES NOT. In order to get the menus to refresh, I either have to go through the annoying process to shut down a rogue app, or restart the whole phone. Occasionally after a crash it will respawn and not be able to reestablish its data connection, hence the image above, in these cases I hit the Home button then go back to the app and oh yep everything is just fine again.

Cannot get much in the way of support either, the Support link on the iTunes online page for Football Insider links back to generic Washington Post help page, if there is a thread or a topic on the Football Insider app then I am not able to find it easily.

Maybe I should not bother expecting a decent app until I get a decent team.



Screencap of aborted app load by me.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A Picture of Dorian McNabb


Less than a year and look how much it has aged

Right now I am a depressed and confused Redskins fan, depressed because we are hurtling toward yet another postseason in which I watch lots of football yet none of it includes my beloved team and confused because I am getting lots of mixed signals about quarterback Donovan McNabb:

Donovan McNabb having his worst season since his rookie year in 1999? Donovan was a rookie out of Syracuse that year, coming from the college ranks where he made his living on his legs at least as much as his arm. In his rookie season he split time in Philadelphia with Doug Pederson, appearing in twelve games and starting only six. He finished the year with 948 yards passing and a 60.1 passer rating. The next season he assumed the starter role and had it every year barring injury for the next ten seasons.

Looking at Donovan's numbers over the years though, I do not see a guy that is dropping off the cliff, in fact if Donovan can pull his passer rating up seven tenths of one point, the whole story goes away and god forbid he could get it two and a half points up, with another game or two like the Tampa Bay game and a 100.7 rating, then not only is 2010 not his worst as a starter, it is not even next to worst. Plus I think the strict measure of a guy by his passer rating is lazy.

Let us walk some of the other stats. Games: Averaging 13.4 per season over career, if we remove the first season when he was part time then it is virtually unchanged at 13.5 games per season. Donovan has already played thirteen games this season, one more and he busts over his career average.

Completion percentage: A career average of 58.9 percent, 2010 number is 58.3 percent, still well within reach to bust over with three games left and if not is teetering right the average at sixth tenths of a point less. I count four seasons with a lower completion rate and one a virtual tie.

Attempts per game are nearly four per game over career average, not a surprise considering the Redskins have had an unsettled tailback position all season. He can still sling it and the coaches are not compensating for some perceived dropoff, they are telling him to GET THE HELL OUT THERE AND THROW IT.

Passing yards / passing yards per game: In terms of his per game average, Donovan is nearly 35 yards per game over his average and if the season ended now 2010 would be the third highest per game passing yards in his career. Looking at total passing yards, Donovan already has more total passing yards in 2010 than in four of the seven years he has played thirteen games or more.

It is not all rosy though, Donovan's touchdown passes are dangerously near a career low, he will need to throw two more to tie his non rookie career low, oddly enough those career lows came in one season where Donovan played only nine games and in another where he played all sixteen.

Interceptions are already at a career high by two, one of the great statistics on Donovan coming into Washington was that he was one of the least intercepted passers in league history, even though Donovan is having his worst INT year ever, check the big board for quarterbacks: seven guys, including two named Manning, have as many or more than Donovan.

Sacks are also dangerously near career highs, 2010 is already Donovan's second worst year for sacks, two more and he ties it. Of all the stats that we can apply other players' performance to, this is the one that I place the most on others, the crappy offensive line the Redskins have in 2010.

The last stat to look at is long passes, Donovan has thrilled Redskins fans with the ability to connect on long passes, Jason Campbell had the arm but not the time, chemistry or accuracy to make them like Donovan has this year, then you look at his stats and 2010 is just middling in his late year performance, since 2004 Donovan has tossed eleven or more passes of forty yards or more five time in seven years. The guy can still sling it.

So let us dial back the Donovan is having teh worst yaer of his lief bit, I am not buying it.


Donovan McNabb is on pace to set Redskins franchise and personal records for passing yards? Wait I thought he was having his worst year evar as a starter? Then how can that headline be true? Well let us look at the numbers: At his current pace, Donovan should throw for 4156 yards in 2010 if he plays all sixteen games. That would be more than he has ever tossed in his career, he has never been a 4000 yard passer ever.

This number would also place Donovan ahead of 1986 Jay Schroeder and 1999 Brad Johnson for the most passingest Redskin of all time, for a franchise that has been in continuous operation since 1932.

Worst year ever = best year ever.


Wait, Donovan McNabb might get benched down the stretch? The latest ginned up story, principally credited to FOX's Jay Glazer, is that backup quarterback slash fumbler Rex Grossman is being prepped possibly to start or replace Donovan. For his part, Donovan was dismissive (op. cit.), and head coach Mike Shanahan was as you might expect evasive in talking about it.

This is of course bloody ridiculous. You only sit a veteran like Donovan at the end of the season if he is hurt or if he may be gone the next season and you really need to see what you have on the bench. And we all know, Super Bowl and NFL credentials or otherwise, that Rex Grossman is not an unknown quantity. Hell he may be starting caliber for all I know any more, alls I am saying is that we know everything we need to know about Rex and John Beck is certainly no option when you have a healthy Donovan McNabb. There is your fast path to cascading boos right there.


Stay with him and play with him, whatever ails the Redskins in 2010 it is not Donovan McNabb.




Photo by me of my still new Donovan McNabb number five jersey, I have only had it since 27 September 2010 and the numbering is already coming off the nylon, compare to my Santana Moss number 89 jersey I have had since the 2005 postseason, I wore that jersey for every game until this season and washed it at least twice a year and the numbering on it still looks great. Is that some sort of metaphor? With apologies to Oscar Wilde for the title.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Shattered


2011 offseason starts now

A complete humilation today against the Giants, I am embarrassed right now to be a Redskins fan.

We knew there would be growing pains, we knew Mike Shanahan and his system would not turn the Redskins into a Super Bowl team in one season. We knew all this and expected to see the team struggle at times.

What we did not expect was an organization unable to field a basic NFL team. The struggles we imagined were oh man that was a close loss and damn that one play, not hey shit guys that was six turnovers today and why can't Chris Cooley catch the ball.

8-8 looks really optimistic at this point.



Metaphor as photo by me of the three year old Redskins Christmas tree ornament my eight year old son accidentally dropped today.

Game 12: Redskins (5-6) at Giants (7-4)

vs.

My Take in 60 Words or Less: Are you there god? It's me Ben, if you have to give us a demoralizing blowout where the Redskins are the child being fed live to the giant python, at least please don't let have Donovan McNabb get hurt.


In other news, Santana Moss, Albert Haynesworth, LaRon Landry and Carlos Rogers are all inactive. Great. (Ed. note, looks like Santana was a go after all, mot making much of a difference through one quarter. -Ben)

Thursday, December 02, 2010

What Should I Do?


Jamie Lee Curtis?

Comedian slash Redskins fan slash radio host Danny Rouhier is out with his week twelve video that I first thought was supposed to represent Danny's internal dialogue then I see in the video description that it is a parody of a LeBron James commercial, not only do I not know this commercial, I am not even sure I could pick LeBron James out of a lineup because you see I AM A FOOTBALL FAN.



YouTube from here.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

The Folsom Point 11/30/2010: Beginning of the End


It's a blog. NOT FUCKING TWITTER!

Wherein we discuss the end of meaningful Redskins football in 2010.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.