- Jim Zorn's playcalling: he never throws it on first down, he never calls deep passing plays that work, he never runs it to the right, he never bootlegs, its completely predictable. But is that because of...
- Jason Campbell being lousy: he goes back to pass sets his feet and sees nothing because he doesn't know to throw it before a receiver makes his break, he doesn't recognize defenses, he locks into receivers so defenders can read his eyes, and he can't make all the throws, probably because he was selected to play in a Gibbs style offense and not West Coast offense. But is he being held back because....
- The offensive line stinks, its stunk for a while, and nothing's been done about it: Right tackle Stephen Heyer has had flashes of competence but he really stinks and is barely a backup, Randy Thomas is out and his replacement Rinehart couldn't even make today's lineup over right tackle Mike Williams who weighed 890 pounds a year ago. Chris Samuels is a terrific players but no one stopped to wonder what happens if he gets hurt, like he did vs. Baltimore last year, and some guy named Batiste came in to play, and got spun around like a rag doll. Our best player Chris Cooley couldn't even catch a damn pass because he was forced to pitch in and help Batiste block. But its not their fault if they stink because they aren't in charge of picking or not picking players. That job belongs to...
- Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato who look at the Titanic going down into the frigid Atlantic and say, "if ain't broke, don't fix it." Why on Earth would I hire a "football man" to run this team when I have Vinny Cerrato, Snyder says. Vinny looks at who was awesome last year, gives him way too much money, and gives away draft picks for people who might be awesome next year. Despite the fact that we have no depth, we are always just one player away, one player away, one player away. They open their wallets to bring in the big time talent, regardless of how stale, and its up to the coach to coach 'em up and call the right players to put them in a position to succeed. Its the playcalling!
Scene.
The Redskins took advantage of turnovers today to score touchdowns which was really refreshing and exciting. Portis got both of them. 
After going up 17-2 (I really don't feel like talking about the fact that Clinton Portis ran laterally along his goal line on 2nd and 8 from the 3 and got tackled in the end zone to make the score 7-2), the Colts returned the kickoff to the the Skins 40, and any thoughts that we'd be able to bask in the glory of an easy win went right out the window. A few plays later, Delhomme threw a td pass to a tight end covered by Brian Orakpo (I really don't feel like talking about the fact that asking Orakpo to cover tight ends in pass coverage is a friggin' waste of time and energy--teach him to play defensive end right now!)
It was 17-12 when we got royally/galactically screwed. Randle El ran up to field a short punt. Byron Westbrook was trying to block, and the Panthers guy shoved him right into Randle El and the ball landed on Westbrook's leg causing a fumble. On planet Earth, we call that interference, but apparently the rulebook says no. What they are saying is that the entire Panthers team could have hoisted Westbrook on their shoulders and fired him like a missile right at Randle El's head while he tried to make a fair catch and it would not be considered a violation of the rules of playing football. Yeah, sure. That seems pretty reasonable.
The Panthers scored on a touchdown run. Asking the offense to move the ball or score at that point was too much to ask for. Campbell almost hit Idiot Thomas on a long pass down the sideline. The ball hit him right in the hands. But like I said, too much to ask for.
I feel like a lot of Redskins fans are struggling with a pardox whereby we expect them to succeed and excel but we spend money to get the talent to win and the team behaves in a way to suggest that we will always be in contention and at worst will always be one big signing away. When they beat the Rams by two points, its just not good enough for this reason. 
On the other hand, the proof is in the pudding. The offensive line is super duper shitty. Santana Moss being awesome (he's really not that awesome anymore) and Chris Cooley being awesome can't change that. Clinton Portis is still a very good player, but the truth is that he needs some lighting to go with his thunder (meaning a rookie RB who is good to share the load next year).
The team spent money on defense in the offseason. This meant, smart or dumb, that the team was built to get short fields and score points off turnovers. That almost worked today, but almost gets you 20-17, Panthers.Next week, the 0-5 Chiefs come to town. The season can stay a float with a win. I was about to say that we should get this one, but we're not that good so its more like I really hope we can pick up this one.
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