Sunday, January 15th, 2006...11:38 am by Lee Gibbons
Thank You Redskins
Losing sucks.
It sucks even more when that loss means the end of the season. But that’s what happened, so the off season has now begun. But before we start to look ahead to next year, let’s take a look back at this year.
The 2005-06 season was a success for the Redskin franchise. For the 1st time since 1999, the Skins made the playoffs. The entire coaching staff should be back next year, and the roster should remain fairly intact. Finally, things are looking up for this franchise. So here is a big thank you to the Redskins for this year. In particular thanks to:
- Dan Snyder for keeping Gregg Williams in town and continuing to keep Gibbs and the players happy
- Gregg Williams for adjusting the defensive schemes when the defense struggled early in the season. He stopped stubbornly blitzing and let the team strengths take over.
- Carlos Rogers for showing the potential to be the kind of player we all hoped Champ Bailey and Fred Smoot would become. He looks like he has Bailey cover skills with Smoot’s eye for the ball.
- Sean Taylor for continue to progress on the field. He already is one of the best safeties in the game and could be among the best ever if he keeps progressing. Now he just needs to quit being such a dumbass the rest of the time.
- Lemar Marshall for making us all forget Antonio Pierce. He made more big plays this year than Pierce ever made for us.
- Marcus Washington for being the best player no one outside of D.C. has heard of.
- The Defensive Line for becoming a strength on this team when everyone considered you a liability.
- Randy Thomas, they say you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. After Thomas went down, the offense started going in the tank.
- Santana Moss for making more big plays than any Redskins wide receiver since Gary Clark.
- Mark Brunell for having a resurrection this year. I’m not sure if he’s the QB who’s going to take us to the next level, but the 1st half of the season with him playing his best sure was fun.
- Clinton Portis for being so damn tough and for taking the entire offense on your back the last few weeks of the season and getting us into the playoffs.
- And finally to Joe Gibbs for returning creditability to this franchise.
Also thanks to the people who took time to stop here and read my ramblings this season. For just starting out this year I think things went pretty well. This last week the blog averaged 426 page views a day, which is pretty darn good, so thanks to you. For the off-season updates will be less frequent. I’m going to aim to do 2 per week, on Monday and Friday. Besides the usual the look at Redskin news, I’ve got a few interesting features planned that you’ll see over the next few months. If you have any suggestions or items you’d like covered, please leave a comment below. Bookmark the site and check back every now and then.
In the Post:
Recap; Wilbon; Wise; Kornheiser; Jenkins; Shapiro; Defense can’t hold; Brunell and Portis; Jackson leads Seattle; Fans hurt; Brown retires; More Wilbon; Looking for Offense; Script fails; Questions; Receiver Needed; Patten says he’s ok; Injuries; Whats ahead
3 Comments
January 16th, 2006 at 9:51 am
I must point out something obvious but that seems very nearly sacrilege in the current atmosphere surrounding my beloved Redskins:
Everything that the Redskins accomplished on offense was DESPITE, not because of, Mark Brunell.
I believe that possibly the worst thing that happened to the Redskins all year was our stirring defeat of the Cowboys in the beginning of the season. Two underthrown passes and suddenly Brunell is a hero.
But virtually every pass he completed was either underthrown or thrown behind the receiver. So many passes were thrown away because he didn’t have the foot speed to elude rushers. So many passes that would have gone for touchdowns were overthrown or thrown in places that required the receiver to break stride to catch it, allowing defenders to make a play. Moss saved a LOT of games with acrobatic catches, fighting with defenders for the ball, on plays where if Brunell had thrown it right it would have been easy.
Portis, yeah! Moss, yeah! The O and D lines, yeah! The TEs, yeah! The DBs, yeah! The LBs, yeah! Brunell — let him retire. All we really need is a guy with a big arm and happy feet (a Theismann clone, maybe), and one more marginally competent receiver (or TO, who is more than marginal if Gibbs could calm him down), and we’ll go to the Super Bowl year after year if we just leave the rest of the team basically intact.
Mark Brunell was our weak link, and that’s why we’re not playing anymore.
January 16th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
you are right could not have put it better myself.
Brunell, you did good, thank you. Now let’s find the QB of the future.
January 17th, 2006 at 12:07 am
You can’t blame a player who is obviously being TOLD what to do. If Brunell has a weakness - it is that he does not have lateral mobility. We should’ve kept Tim Hasselbeck who I believe could be one of the NFL best if given a chance. Like his brother - he has a strong arm, however he is twice as quick. Never should have let him go.
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