[Texas Hog]

Any injuries?

[redskincity]

Yeah Spurrier hurt his kicking foot and some players lost hearing on the bus trip back

[BossHog]

... great post skinsfanno9. I hope if you go to practice Monday that we can look forward to another great report too.

I won't comment on any of the 'preseason having any meaning' posts... 'cause i just don't feel the same way. I think the previous post saved me a lot of typing and prtetty much expressed my views on the relative value of our performance. If preseasons had one iota of value... we'd have won the super bowl last year.


To dismiss having a HOF DE, another starting DE and a pro bowl MLB as just 'missing a couple of guys' is silly. It's not missing a couple of guys... it's missing half your front seven. How you stop the run WILL be affected and if it doesn't... then you probably have the depth to take you to the promised land. Let's give our starters a shot before we chastise them as losers and realize that we may lack the depth to do much this season defensively if the injury bug bites us.

[Texas Hog]

Guess that means no significant injuries.

I concur with the Boss and agree, great post skinsfanno9, thanks.

I know I was injured after I banged my head against the wall last night seeing the ticker showing a shutout and Davis's stats.

[newshog]

My feeling is that the first preseason game is the absolute worst precursor for the season (and that, in the end, it's good to lose the first one).

My main reason is this: the starters are all in for a quarter, and what's more--they know they're only in for a quarter. They *know* they won't be getting into a rhythm, so they don't--their play is all disjointed and skewed.

Same with special teams--the personnel is totally in flux, so they don't get into any kind of rhythm. Doesn't surprise or bother me at all.

At the same time, I'm glad we lost--because it gives specific errors for the coaches to focus on for improvement. As others have said, I don't want to see us go into the season the way we did last year, thinking we were going to own the league. I want us to be scratching and clawing every step of the way.

The big thing I'll be watching now is Spurrier's response--and how he goes about ensuring that discipline becomes the order of the day. That'll show that there's been a serious change.

The first preseason game, people--it's just a gauge of where individual players stand, not where the team stands.

[skinsfanno9]

I would expect a major emphasis on tackling drills this week. That was a consistent thread throughout the game. That has nothing to do with game planning or anything else.

Again, I like this as a "GET SERIOUS!" wake up call for our team.

One thing Gibbs was great at was getting everyone to believe that individually, they were not great, and that the only way the skins could win is if everyone was totally focussed and giving 110% concentration at all times (unfortunately, the hall of fame committee seems to have taken Gibbs' motivational strategy to heart and have made some pretty poor decisions as a result).

This game should help Spurrier instill some "realism" in them if he so desires.

[redskincity]

I dont want to keep going back and forth with these indirect posts. I tell guys and gals from a coaches stand point when I had to endure the duties of coaching Pop Warner league 2 years ago. We had 2 scrimmage games we lost won and dominate the next one. I guys I dont know if you guys have played football or coached or whatever. But from practice to scrimmage to exhibition to Regular Season. Losing sux, losing out to another player, sux. The thing that I hated when coaching is losing. It takes a toll on coaches and players alike. Yeah you win some and you lose some but thats not our focal point. It is the first preseason game of the year but I dont think coaches are sitting back saying oh yeah fella cheer up it only the first preseason, no they are saying what Spurrier is saying in news conferences we look bad we dropped alot of balls so on and so forth. Thats all I am getting at. From watching yesterdays game we just looked poor and previous training post or capsules dont reflect what I witnessed yesterday Except for one play!

PS I keep hearing how Stephen Davis ran on us but how about how they easily drove down the field with passing plays! Also Spurrier said it best when he said "Training camps are for evaluations and exhibitions are for evaluating and winning and we did not look like we wanted to win"

[RedskinsFreak]

I agree with Boss in regards to the impact of the result -- with players out and schemes more vanilla than Breyers.

But there are a few things that become quite obvious any time you strap 'em up and play. You can either tackle or you can't. You can either block or you can't. You either have good reactions to the ball or you don't.

There were more than a handful of players wearing maroon (I won't call it burgundy -- LAST YEAR was burgundy) jerseys who fell into the categories with "n't" at the end.

It looked like Wingman and I were playing defensive tackle. Dan Daly might just be right -- "The opponent's shortest path to the end zone is up the middle."

Frustrating? Oh hell yeah. The final word?

Not by a long shot!

[newshog]

Jake, I did some checking because I was curious about the way they were pronouncing Sultan, and it turns out (according to the Wichita Eagle): Sultan "pronounces his first name "SOOL-tawn." Interesting!

[BossHog]

... great thread.

I think y'all make valid points about the importance of winning in general, and the effect of losing. Personally, i hate losing as much as anyone... you'll have to trust me on that. But years of watching preseason has conditioned me to know that some teams/coaches don't give it the first thought in their preparations. They're going to do what they want to do to get ready, and W/L success is no barometer for the effectiveness of their preseason.

I also think RedskinsFreak makes good points on the FUNDAMENTALS still being tangible... so by no means is there anything to be excited about.

I still believe that this offense will be considerably better than 2002's version, and I still believe that we can have a top 10 defense (even with this line). NO MATTER WHAT HAPPPENS in the preseason, I'm still going to approach this season like we're a 9-7 team that's clawing at a playoff berth and we're only a 'hot streak' away from accomplishing even more.

... the passion and insight coming out of this thread is the reason I wanted my own message board here at theHogs.net... good, solid Redskin conversation. Thanks.

[redskincity]

We can write as many threads/posts about the situation that we all had to endure last night but I think some of you would agree that preseason is a guage for the upcoming season and how we would utilize what we have on offense and Defense alike. With that said...I know that we will do better next week because we are not going againts a Beast like Davis. I think our secondary willbe tested to the max. Did anyone see Matt Bowen last night. I sure did not.

[woohit56]

Great thread is right.....what an excellent read this was.

It is silly imo to put too much emphasis on this game. I
hate when Washington loses but but with the players that were home this was really just a chance to go through the motions. The Dline question won't be something to really gauge until all the front 7 starters so just that = START.

It's early and eveyone wants NFL football now, but getting pissed at this point that Davis ran for whatever is overblowing it...like Sportcenter....'look what Davis did to the team who cut him blah blah'.

I went into this first game promising myself to only judge Ramsey and Coles. I'm glad, the big play paid off like I figured it would and all else is really acedemic for now. Until maybe preseason game 3 when we see maybe 3 quarters of starting Redskins.

There is only very vanilla game planning for these games so taking too much out of them (ahem.... last year) is prob the wrong thing to do.

Hail to the Redskins!

[tx_skins_fan]

It was ugly last night, but there were a couple of positives. Peppi Zellner was always around the ball while he was in. He looked better than I remember seeing him in Dallas. Also, I thought Jermaine Haley looked better than Big Daddy ever did. Just the fact that I noticed him on the field was encouraging. I never noticed Wilkinson. I thought Ramsey did a good job getting the ball where it needed to go, even with the pressure coming at him. Flemister and Johnson should be benched for their drive ending drops. The first cut that needs to be made is Ricot Joseph. He was terrible. Peete burned him twice, and he missed a key tackle on special teams on the big punt return. He did nothing right. I think the Skins will look a lot better next week.

[Justice Hog]

For those that insist that pre-season means a lot....am I wrong or didn't the Redskins win a Super Bowl after going 0-4 in that year's pre-season?

Hmmmmm.

[Chris Luva Luva]

I don't believe pre-season means a lot, but I'm just commenting on what I see. I don't think I was alive during that Super Bowel, maybe I was one or something ^^^. LOL, anyway, I know its exhibition. But for those 1st few plays those guys are playing their best. They're tryin to make the team. So I kind of feel that their performance is close to accurate. I say close because camp is not ova, they're not using a lot of plays, and nothing is set. So I see both sides of this debate. I love my RedSkins, and I remeber the one supuerbowl with the Bills when I was 7 or sumthin. Since, I've been dissapointed a lot, never seen the glory years you all have had. So I get a little peeved sometimes.