State of the Skins Fan (Week 3)

It is definitely tough to be a Skins fan after watching a game like Skins had today.  I spent the better part of the last week telling myself that the various sports analysts were going to be wrong and the Skins would rise up and beat the winless Lions.  As anyone who keeps the slightest tabs on the NFL should know, this did not happen.  I would like to give my account of how I think the Skins are doing and where they might be going.

Defense
Where were they today?  The Skins paid $100M to ensure having the #1 rushing defense in the league, however, it seemed that the Lions defense could break off runs at will.  It was a little depressing watching one of the lowest ranked teams take multiple 90+ yard drives for scores.  At least there was a glimpse of the greatness that should be this defense in the second half when the defense gave the Skins multiple chances to come back by holding the Lions to a couple of 3 and outs when it counted.

Jason Campbell
I have to say that I felt very good about the performance that Campbell put on today.  He managed the game well, put together a few good drives, and most importantly got the ball in the end-zone.  I know that Campbell has gotten a lot of criticism as of late, but he has continued to not turn the ball over and move the offense down the field.  The best drive of the game was the last scoring drive for the Skins and what was even better was that Campbell was calling the plays in the no-huddle.  Speaking of the play calling...

Jim Zorn (mainly the play-calling)
I'm going to start this part off by saying that I do like Jim Zorn and I have had a lot of hopes for him.  That said, I really don't understand the play calling the last few weeks.  One of the things that Zorn has always said is that he was going to keep the Joe Gibbs running game, but incorporate his West-Coast passing game.  Today, the Skins had, I think, 0 rushing yards at half time.  Yes that was ZERO.  Clinton Portis is one of the top running backs in the league and he didn't have any yards.  I can't even tell you how many times that the TV broadcast has put up the stats about the win/loss percentage when Portis has over 100 yards.  It really is a no-brainer. The running game was brought back into the game plan for the second half thankfully and the Skins began coming back.  I'm just not sure why this isn't the focus of this offense.   

I don't believe that changing coaches mid-season helps anyone (except maybe the ego of the owner).  If Zorn doesn't get to at least finish this season, all of us fans might as well kiss this season goodbye.  I don't know if I have ever seen a team change coaches and then have a successful, winning season.  That being said, I hope that the Skins go back to Redskins Park, take a good long look at what has happened the last 2 weeks, and use this as a launching pad to being the team that we all want them to be.

Hail to the Redskins!

A little introduction

I thought I would start off my first post giving a little background on myself and why I'm even bothering with this blog.  I have been a loyal Skins fan for as long as I can remember.  I grew with the entire side of my mom's family (youngest of 7) being Redskins fans and the entire side of my dad's family (oldest of 7) being Steelers fans.  So at a very young age I had to make a choice.  Some might question the result of my choice (especially inlight of the Steelers winning their 6th Super Bowl this year), but I can't imagine rooting every week for another team.  (Note: I do root for the Steelers, btw, every week except when they play the Skins)

One thing you should know, I am not a fair-weather fan.  I have loved the Skins through all of the crap as well as the triumphs.  I am also a realist when it comes to this exciting team.  You hear it every offseason, some Skins fan claim that this is the year for the Skins or that the pick up of insert player's name here is the difference between being last in the division and being first in the division.  While I do have my share of excitement and wonderment at any impending season, I have also been bit too many times by being overly excited only to be let down.  So I decided a long time ago that I will continue to be optimistic and hopeful, however, I won't overly expect anything from the team come the beginning of the season (except maybe beating Dallas at least once) and if they find a way to pull together a winning season I will be very very happy.

Now, why this blog?  The people that know me (most of which are NOT Skins fans) get to hear me rant/rave/comment/exclaim various tidbits and thoughts about the Skins all the time.  Some of these comments only make sense to me, sometimes they are legit.  Regardless, I thought I could put some of this down and either provoke interesting conversation from the oppositition, gather more insight from fellow fans, or at worst just talk to myself on the internet.  Either way I get to chat about the team that I love.