Another thing to point out: In the marvelous five-game winning streak the led last year's Redskins to the playoffs, they went back to Joe Gibbs's bread and butter: a smash-mouth running game. Put the game on the shoulders of the biggest men on the field, have them open a 10 inch hole, and let Clinton Portis pound the ball through it. And it worked, and it worked fantastically.
Following the season, they hired Al Saunders, hailed by all as an offensive genius, the man who ran the best offense in football in Kansas City for however many years it was (I think 3). They bring in Christian Fauria, Antwaan Randle-El and Brandon Lloyd, pay them all boat loads of money to back up Cooley and Moss, and say "We now have the most high-powered offense in the league."
But they missed a component -- Trent Green. So it went from smash mouth football getting us into the playoffs to a focus on the passing attack with a quarterback who no longer has the tools to make the throws. They spent tens of millions of dollars upgrading a passing attack that saw Mark Brunell and Santana Moss have their best years ever, and completely ignored adding any depth at all to the offensive line.
And now, with the passing game proven to be a shadow of its former self, the team with perhaps the deepest running back corps in the league (Portis, Betts, Cartwright, Sellers and the inactive Duckett, possibly the worst trade the Redskins made), they sell out to the pass and barely run the ball.
It's not just the on-field personnel. It's a failure of coaching. Sometimes you get the players to fit the system, but sometimes you have to fit the system to the players.
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timeasmymeasure
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Following the season, they hired Al Saunders, hailed by all as an offensive genius, the man who ran the best offense in football in Kansas City for however many years it was (I think 3). They bring in Christian Fauria, Antwaan Randle-El and Brandon Lloyd, pay them all boat loads of money to back up Cooley and Moss, and say "We now have the most high-powered offense in the league."
But they missed a component -- Trent Green. So it went from smash mouth football getting us into the playoffs to a focus on the passing attack with a quarterback who no longer has the tools to make the throws. They spent tens of millions of dollars upgrading a passing attack that saw Mark Brunell and Santana Moss have their best years ever, and completely ignored adding any depth at all to the offensive line.
And now, with the passing game proven to be a shadow of its former self, the team with perhaps the deepest running back corps in the league (Portis, Betts, Cartwright, Sellers and the inactive Duckett, possibly the worst trade the Redskins made), they sell out to the pass and barely run the ball.
It's not just the on-field personnel. It's a failure of coaching. Sometimes you get the players to fit the system, but sometimes you have to fit the system to the players.