All You Ever Need to Be Is Decent

To win our hearts

Dallas could be a bloodbath this Sunday so before I go back to being down on the team I saw a couple of positive pieces I thought I would share.

Jason Campbell is our man. I am satisfied so far, this season is his season in hell, commanding a foundering ship of injuries and coaching problems. Was Jason worth three draft picks? Only time will tell but the Redskins ain't getting any of those picks back and so far Jason looks like a keeper.

On Sunday the team rolled out the no huddle auto offense, Jason calling the plays to some extent, probably from a given set with several variations he could adjust at the line, we are not talking Jim Kelly K-Gun here, calling his own offense all the way down the field.

And they did it in the middle of the game. We have seen the Redskins go into the no huddle before but it is typically reserved for the end of halves or games.

Against the Eagles the no huddle auto offense produced three meaningful drives, of 92, 68 and 47 yards. The first two ended with the Redskins scoring touchdowns and the third ended when Ladell Betts fumbled on his first carry of the game.

Curly R aside: continuing a theme of mine from last season and applying many more times the analytical discipline than I cam capable of, Biggie at Post Game Heroes crunches the numbers and yes, Ladell is a fumbler and should be kept out of fourth quarters.

=====

Jason also passed an NFL milestone Sunday, 16 starts, one season's worth of starting for the same team. David Elfin at the Washington Times puts Jason in perspective with the other four most recent quarterbacks that started their first 16 NFL games with the Redskins, they all played in my time as a fan:

Joe Theismann, there will always only be one Joe for the Redskins. He did not go out on his own.

Jay Schroeder, the guy started fast, 13-3 after taking over from Joe Theismann's gruesome injury in 1985. He got hurt in the first game of 1987, never fully recovered and lost the job to Doug Williams.

Mark Rypien, his first 16 starts came over two stretches with Doug Williams in between. The guy was the long ball incarnate until the offensive line broke down in 1993 from age and neglect.

Gus Frerotte, also coming in a couple of stretches, who can forget the 7th rounder from Tulsa that outplayed outlasted Heath Shuler, the phenom from Tennessee who finished second in the Heisman voting to Charlie Ward. Gus never showed he could carry the load game in and game out

Patrick Ramsey, I was a supporter for two full seasons, how can you not get behind that arm? Too many sacks and not enough position coaching and he stopped looking downfield, just wide eyed in terror as the pocket inevitably collapses.

The Redskins do not demand a perfect quarterback, there will never be a Steve Young or John Elway here, it just would not work. What the Redskins need year in and year out, a lesson Steve Spurrier never cared to learn, is a durable guy that can run the game, toss it long and fake a good handoff. It doesn't matter who is coaching.

Jason be careful, you are just a couple of steps from beloved and once that happens you can never leave.



Jason Campbell: uncredited photo from here.