Game 9: Redskins (2-6) vs. Broncos (6-2)

vs.

Out of the box: The 2009 walk of shame continues as the Redskins host the Denver Broncos, 1pm ET on CBS, they way I figure it Washington has a chance to win this game just based on the law of large numbers.

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Quick jump to

The Story So Far :: Curly R aside :: Oppo Research :: Trainer's Table Gameplan :: My Take in 60 Words or Less :: Preview Generalia

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The Story So Far: The march to irrelevance continues into its ninth game, now with more sideline fights. I saw the same play and replay as everyone else (op. cit.) and what I saw last week against the Falcons after safety LaRon Landry's late hit on quarterback Matt Ryan was two things: cornerback DeAngelo Hall not getting out of there in an expeditious fashion and a lack of Redskins teammates rushing in to bail him out. I would counsel though that the lack of teammates coming to break things up is not so much a comment on how the players feel about DeAngelo, rather it is a comment on how unmotivated the team is to do anything, they are as depressed as their fan base. DeAngelo came in and stirred things up when he did not have too (op. cit.) and then whined about it and the Falcons head coach took a chance to take some bitterness out, both kind of punk moves. Nice move by defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth at the end of the scrum, he came right in and moved the whole pile. LaRon and Albert were both fined for their effort (op. cit.).

And how does a game like last week's happen? One team, with a week off plays another that was on a short week and gets creamed in the first half, five sacks of quarterback Jason Campbell and it took an epic halftime screaming match by offensive line coach Joe Bugel and head coach Jim Zorn to get them to play like men. All this is so last week, about the last game so why bring it up this week? Because the sideline scrum and the getting pushed around are not signs the team is quitting, but rather signs the team lacks discipline and basic fundamentals.We cannot even really get to the talent issue at this point.

In non football news, head coach Jim Zorn has entered the bunker and former Super Bowl 26 MVP Mark Rypien's exhortations notwithstanding, things are not getting better between the team and the fans, so lame was Redskins owner Dan Snyder's media availability at an out of town charity event, and so softball were NBC 4's Lindsey Czarniak's questions at that availability that Redskins fans are left wondering if team management even cares. Hall of Fame freight train John Riggins continues to be an unabashed critic of the owner and despite the appearance of circumstances, I approve.

In football news, the battle for right guard is back open, Will Montgomery started the past three games, Joe Bugel lobbied for Chad Rinehart to get another shot and they competed this week, Chad eventually won out and will be back at right guard today.

While it seems like meteor sized pieces of the season keep raining down all around Washington, hints are beginning to materialize there may be new management at the end of the season (op. cit.), meaning shadow general manager Vinny Cerrato. And why the hell not, everything over the past two seasons, from Jim Zorn to drafting all receivers last year to the fresh set of eyes this season to handing the playcalling duties to a total stranger, is all traced back to Vinny. As someone once said on HBO's great The Sopranos, someone's gotta go.

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Curly R aside: As the Redskins have continued to spiral downward and inspire nothing but ennui in their fanbase I have seen anecdotally more and more pleas for someone to please take my tickets, or stories of people refusing free tickets or people simply not using their tickets and staying home to watch a real football game on TV. Well one local business is doing its best to turn Redskins tickets back into hard currency, American Service Center is running a promotion whereby if you turn in your unused Redskins tickets, and the team is not called by name in the commercials, ASC will credit you face value of the ticket off the price of a new Mercedes and donate the tickets to Boys and Girls Clubs.

Ouch.

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Oppo Research: This year's Broncos bear at least a passing resemblance to last year's Redskins, a brash and inexperienced head coach coming in to replace a legendary face of the franchise and then getting out of the gate on a hot streak. Will the parallels continue? After coming out of the gate six and oh, Denver has lost two straight, has been outscored 58-17 in those two games, and quarterback Kyle Orton throwing three interceptions against the Steelers last week. The league may be catching up with Josh McDaniels.

This game also marks the first meeting of tailback Clinton Portis and cornerback Champ Bailey, Washington's 1999 first round draft pick out of the University of Georgia, since the 2004 blockbuster trade that swapped them, the Redskins and Broncos played in 2005 but Champ was injured and did not play. Clinton has all but become the greatest Redskins ball carrier ever and Champ has gone to four Pro Bowls, I think the trade was a wash in principle, with Denver getting a slight advantage in the deal as they got a second round draft pick in the deal that they ultimately used on tailback Tatum Bell who was a workhorse for the Broncos for the better part of three seasons.

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Trainer's Table: It's bad, the injury report has pretty much taken over the daily agenda at Redskins Park.

Tailback Clinton Portis suffered a painful looking concussion, taking two Falcons helmets right on the hat and knocking him out of that game, he wants to play but needs medical clearance and may miss more than one game, in his place tailbacks Ladell Betts, and to a lesser extent Rock Cartwright, did a great job carrying the load, Ladell will be the go to guy this week as Clinton will be out, which should be fine since Ladell already takes most of the snaps in practice because Clinton so rarely practices. I wonder if Ladell has a great game behind this same shitty offensive line if we will have ourselves a backfield controversy.

The list of injuries from the Atlanta game goes on, safety Chris Horton suffered a ligament tear in his big toe and will miss the rest of the season, the team put Chris on injured reserve on Wednesday. With Chris' absence, regular free safety LaRon Landry may move up to play some strong safety closer to the line and second year reserve safety Kareem Moore may play some at free safety (op. cit.). LaRon has had a hard time so far this season but I am not about to write him off, he seems to be playing a little like Sean Taylor did in 2006 and like Sean did LaRon can snap out of it. Rookie free agent safety Lendy Holmes was signed to the roster to replace Chris after the temp punter was released (ibid., see below).

Former 400 pound man guard-tackle Mike Williams also suffered a ligament tear, in his ankle, he is in a boot after surgery and is expected to miss at least two weeks (ibid.). With Mike Williams out Stephon Heyer moves back to right tackle (ibid.) which is where he started the season before he moved to left tackle after Chris Samuels was injured in game five against the Panthers, so Stephon is now his own backup. Newly signed tackle Levi Jones moves to left tackle until Stephon gets hurt and then Levi will play both left and right tackles at the same time.

Punter Hunter the Punter Smith is good to go, the team waited until the last minute to make a decision on his groin, they released last week's temp Sam Paulescu.

There is simply no depth left in the team, and they know it (op. cit.).

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Gameplan: This game will be all about pass rush, with both the Redskins and the Broncos strong on the defensive line and susceptible to sacks along the offensive line. Down the field the Broncos have two excellent receivers in Eddie Royal and Brandon Marshall which will test Washington's defensive secondary. Somehow the Redskins are currently leading the league in passing defense, I have no idea how that stat is true. Shit tackling must improve (ibid.).

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My Take in 60 Words or Less: Everything sucks. Can't wait to see the demonstrations of fan unrest in the stands.

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Washington Post interactive gameday, keys to the game, key matchups, Redskins roster. SkinsCast weather, it is going to be a beautiful day, it might even be too hot in the sun. Broadcast coverage, a huge geographical area out west commensurate with the Broncos market, very tight local coverage on the east coast.

Other previews: Mark Newgent at Redskins Examiner has his regular exchange with the Examiner columnist for Washington's opponent.

Enjoy the game, at this point I do not even know if there is anyone out there to hear my signal, all appears to be madness, there will be more pain, then stillness.


This is a gameday open thread.



NFL helmet logos from here.

Department of Bad News: Chris Horton

Done

Second year safety Chris Horton suffered ligament damage in his toe late in game eight against the Falcons, on Wednesday 11 November Chris had surgery and went onto season ending injured reserve, his roster spot was assumed by rookie free agent safety Lendy Holmes.

After a stellar and surprising 2008 rookie season that saw Chris pull in three interceptions and be named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for week two and NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month for September, Chris was the incumbent strong safety coming into the 2009 season, he was benched from the starting spot after a few early season struggles, notably a missed tackle on Rams tailback Stephen Jackson in game two against St. Louis and a late pass interference penalty against the Lions in game three that set up the decisive score, in that latter play head coach Jim Zorn went berzerk defending Chris (ibid.), making it all the much stranger that he would then be benched.

I thought the benching was more window dressing than statement on talent (op. cit.) though it is unassailable that fourth year safety Reed Doughty is back and much improved from back surgery, and there are still those out there that believe Chris has lots of room for improvement (op. cit.).

After his benching he got caught permitting a fan to publish a blog post critical of the team and its decision to give his job to Reed Doughty, the post was quickly taken down and marked only the latest example of a Redskins player flubbing fan outreach in 2009.

Hopefully he will make a full recovery and come back to prowl the line for 2010. Chris Horton is a Curly R favorite.



Chris Horton: Washington Post photo from here.

250,000 Visits

Keeping the spark alive

At 8:29 am ET today, The Curly R welcomed its quarter millionth visitor, a Mac user in Oklahoma dialing in on Cox cable internet, there was no referring uniform resource locator, which usually means our honored guest dialed up the site directly or from a bookmark. In the world of website traffic analysis, lack of referring URL is good, it means the visitor came directly to you and not from another link. Which is pretty much what you want when you have created a site you want people to visit.

Curly R achieved this traffic milestone in 1194 days. We welcomed our one hundred thousandth visitor in 739 days, back in August 2008 just after our second anniversary. Curly R secured one point five times that traffic total in the next 455 days, or two thirds the time. Our curve is still heading upward.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by.


Previous traffic milestones: 100,000 visits



250,000 from here.

For Those Unclear on the Concept

Doesn't take a rocket scientist

Here is one way I know things are not going well for the Redskins in 2009, forget the record, the turmoil, the fresh set of eyes, the bus that keeps rolling over head coach Jim Zorn again and again and again and the 14.1 points per game offensive average.

When I read through eight weeks, there are only four teams with fewer rushing attempts than the Redskins in 2009, I know things are bad. The Redskins are a running team, it is in their DNA.

When I read through eight weeks, there are only four teams with fewer rushing yards than the Redskins in 2009, I know there is a problem. The Redskins are a running team, have been for decades.

When I read through eight weeks there is only one team with fewer rushing touchdowns than the Redskins, I know we are off track. The Redskins are a running team, line em up and knock em over.

With Clinton Portis still sidelined from last week's concussion suffered against the Falcons, perhaps we will see a little of the Ladell Betts that ran for more than eleven hundred yards on only nine starts in 2006, including five straight games of one hundred yards or better in November and December.

It is not all on Clinton, it is a terrific example of the perfect shitstorm engulfing the Redskins in 2009: poor blocking up front, deteriorating feature back and playcalling that does not value the run.



Clinton Portis: Getty Images from here.

Jason Campbell's Quarterback Slide

Is like a seventh grader asking a hot girl to dance

Danny Rouhier keeps us engaged with his week nine video in which he learns Chinese, the better to communicate with his Redskins Stadium overlords and excerpts game commentary from last week's debacle against the Falcons.

Danny is one of the best things Redskins fans have going for them right now.



YouTube from here.

Have You Actually Gone Back and Looked at that Sideline Scrum in the Falcons Game?

Easy target

So Sunday in game eight against the Falcons, Atlanta's fifth possession, second quarter, on third and three near midfield and the Redskins trailing 21-3, quarterback Matt Ryan scrambles four yards for the first down. Redskins safety LaRon Landry comes in from the defensive secondary, too late, and hits Matt out of bounds, penalty flag, fifteen yards personal foul late hit.

Cornerback DeAngelo Hall follows his teammate to the sideline, arriving at nearly the same time as LaRon. The camera follows Matt Ryan the ground, he rolls and pops back up unhurt, as the camera follows Matt back toward the field of play, a Falcons staffer, presumably Director of Athletic Conditioning Jeff Fish, appears to shove LaRon out of the way, LaRon keeps going back to the field and is out of the action until the coming scrum is already at critical mass.

After shoving LaRon out of the way this Falcons staffer grabs DeAngelo by the jersey with both hands and begins shaking him. Within two seconds Falcons players and head coach Mike Smith are on top of DeAngelo, and coach Smith appears to grab DeAngelo with his right hand, up under DeAngelo's right shoulder, yelling at him.

The camera pans out then back in quickly, as DeAngelo backs or is pushed toward the field of play, coach Smith moves around in front of DeAngelo, still appears to have hold of DeAngelo with one hand, shaking. Here is where it gets interesting.

Cornerback Justin Tryon appears from camera left, clearly trying to extract DeAngelo, LaRon also reappears, but he is incidental to the action. As DeAngelo continues to try and disengage, and with the referee literally right there in the center of the scrum, the Falcons head coach gives DeAngelo and Justin a forearm across the facemask. At this point coach Smith is pulled off by Falcons players, at that point all the principal action is over, defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth appears and moves the pile but that is not germane to the previous action. Penaties are assessed, Atlanta's drive continues, ending in a field goal to push the Falcons' lead to 24-3.

While reasonable people can disagree what actually happened in this scrum, and of course we have no idea what was said by any of the parties in those first seconds of the scrum, it would certainly appear to me that all relevant contact was initiated by the Falcons and that Mike Smith's assertion that he did not know who was in the pile, there were a bunch of people and he was just trying to break it up is bullshit. Coach Smith is clearly on top of DeAngelo and I seriously doubt he did not know that was the former player he helped usher out of town.

Go check the video yourself, it is here. Everything you need to see happens in the first 23 seconds. Twenty-three, ha.

Unfortunately for DeAngelo he does not get the benefit of the doubt in these situations, he once committed three penalties on the same drive in 2007, then blew up on the sideline at Falcons rookie head coach Bobby Petrino. He groused about his coach and team relations in Atlanta soured. Later he was fined by the league for inappropriate displays of support for Michael Vick, who had just been sentenced to prison.

After Bobby Petrino resigned suddenly to return to the college ranks, DeAngelo was traded amid rancor to the Oakland Raiders who promptly signed him to a seven year, seventy million dollar contract. DeAngelo never jelled with Oakland's scheme and after coach Lane Kiffin was fired, DeAngelo was cut only eight games into that giant contract.

Perhaps most relevant to this sideline scrum two weeks ago, is this bizarre story, that in what would turn out to be DeAngelo's last game with the Raiders, against his former team the Falcons, DeAngelo lingered in the tunnel at halftime of the game, harassing his former teammates and trying to pick a fight.

Fast forward to the week before the Redskins played the Falcons this season, DeAngelo swore up and down that he is misunderstood and that he is working to rehabilitate his image, then he still manages to find his way into an altercation with his old team.

Can't wait until the Redskins play at Oakland in game thirteen next month.



DeAngelo Hall with the Raiders in 2008, obviously before game nine: Getty Images from here.

The Dread Bye Week Post

Battle stations

While not exactly coinciding with the Sunday of the bye week when Curly R generally publishes the Dread Bye Week posts, I thought it important to put up a few notes on the state of the team at the middle point of the season.

And it is not hot. In fact it is a complete reversal of fortune from last year.

The Redskins are 2-6 and have beaten two teams, the Rams and Buccaneers, teams with two wins between them and Washington's margin of victory over the two teams was a combined five points. An offensive consultant was brought in as another set of eyes which led to head coach Jim Zorn being stripped of playcalling duties, which were handed to Sherman Lewis, the offensive consultant that had been with the team less than three weeks at the time of his first game.

Most decisions have been bungled, case in point the playcalling. When the decision was made to hand playcalling duties to Sherman Lewis, the original thought was plays would come from Sherman Lewis to Jim Zorn to the quarterback.

And while I thought that was a bad idea at first I have changed my opinion. One day later the team announced that the playcalls would come from Sherman Lewis to offensive coordinator Sherman Smith then out to the quarterback, with the head coach listening in. To make things more interesting, Sherman Smith gets to call the run plays, that's two playcallers and neither is named Jim Zorn.

Turns out I think this revised process is a mistake, coach Zorn has been the playcaller, leaving the management of the offense as a whole to Sherman Smith, who has never called plays. Now Sherman Smith is out of his element, relaying plays to the quarterback and calling his own running plays when Sherman Lewis says it's ok to run the ball. Sherman Smith may be a good running game playcaller, he has simply never done it before and was suddenly doing it seven games into the season. This is not the sign of solid NFL strategy and decision making.

Meanwhile coach Zorn is supposed to be managing the offense as a whole now, something he has never really done in a season and half with the team. Like Sherman Smith and the play relay, coach Zorn may be a good motivator and in game strategist, it is simply not something he has had to do as part of a game.

Put in a new playcaller and flip the two highest ranked offensive coaches in gameday duties and two games into the new process the team is scoring 17.0 points per game, 3.8 more than the 13.2 per game average before the switch. So I have no idea what that means, it seems to tell me though that the playcalling was not the problem in Washington.

If there is a problem with Jim Zorn it is not the playcalling, it is a lack of urgency in practice, a softness that translates to getting pushed around on Sundays, this Redskins team is a bunch of cagey veterans and young guys looking for inspiration and they cannot even tell they are soft.


Quarterback Jason Campbell is getting the shit beat out of him, eleven sacks in the last two games as the offensive line deteriorates into a shivering pile of jelly. Twice in last week's game eight against the Falcons Jason had to leave the game injured, both times he managed somehow to return.

And yet somehow Jason is having a career season, if you believe the passer rating system is an accurate measure of a quarterback's performance.

Jason's career rating, parts of four seasons, is 81.4. His rating for the 2009 season is 86.5. His passer rating has risen every season. Within this season his rating has been above 90 four times and above 100 once.

This with so little help from his receivers and his offensive line. Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly are not making a difference, Antwaan Randle El and Santana Moss look perfectly average and Jason's favorite target, tight end Chris Cooley, is out at least another three weeks, possibly more. Chris' replacement, second year tight end Fred Davis, let a catchable ball bounce off his hands and be intercepted, that pass as returned for a touchdown.

If the passer rating system matters then it is pretty obvious to me at this point that Jason Campbell is not the problem with this team.


The front office continues to weather a storm that began after game two, a weak win against the Rams. Inactive list dweller rookie linebacker Robert Henson tweeted after the game that fans could kiss his ass and most make less money than he does. It made the front page of the nation's capital newspaper and to make matters worse, other players hopped on top, saying the fans needed to get behind the team and the booing was a quote shame unquote (op. cit.).

Some of us tried to remind the team that winning cures all ills and the team seemed not to be listening as the Redskins lost five of the next six, along the way we saw Jim Zorn and Sonny Jurgenson get in a fight, a fan try and sell his allegiance on eBay, after three games and a 2-1 record the way 2009 would play out would become obvious to some of us: it was basically over, that we were going to pile on the coaches and players for another couple of weeks and then the spotlight would turn where it has not been on a national scale for a decade, on owner Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato.

Which is exactly what happened. Former players, TV pundits, football cognoscenti and commenters from across the spectrum turned their open attention to to the open secret the national media has largely ignored for a decade and that is the Redskins are a very poorly run team. Here is just one example featuring Bill Cowher, Shannon Sharpe, Ron Jaworski, Mike Ditka, Keyshawn Johnson and Tom Jackson all laying into how the team is run. When you have Keyshawn looking down on you, you know you are in the bottom of the barrel.

The team's reaction? Take it and lump it? Thank the fans for their loyalty and ask for another? Accept even the possibility of a notion that they are not doing it right?

Nope, their reaction was to tighten down. Displays of fan dissatisfaction and outrage were suppressed, the shadow general manager threw the coach under the bus with comments of handing him a playoff roster, this right after a vote of confidence in the coach that was more than a week after anonymous senior players asked for it in the media.

The owner, clinging to a horseshit policy of not commenting during the season, when the stage is supposably only for the players and shadow general managers, sent out his attack dog lawyer as a proxy to blame the media and take on every story with fantastic plausibilities about how sorry if you got kicked out for wearing a Snyder Sux t-shirt or if you got tricked into a club seat contract and then almost got sued, mistakes were made.


And we have eight straight weeks of this left.


The 2009 season so far has been nothing but a complete trainwreck.




Vinny Cerrato: Getty Images from here.