Sometimes there are great players and great coaches. sometimes there are average players and average players. Sometimes both are awful.
Its been some years since I liked both the coaches and players of the Washington Redskins (PLEASE CHANGE THE TEAM NAME, IT'S EMBARRASSING). This year, there were both good coaches and players. The coaches and TWO rookies brought the team from 3-6 to 10-6, and got us into the playoffs.
I'm not a die-hard "homie". I can easily imagine a successful team I did not respect. Cheating coaches, hockey-style "injure-the-opponents" players, etc.
But this year looked good. TWO good rookie quarterbacks, a good rookie running backs, A good balance of defense/offense, a good balance of passes and runs, a great kicker... Clean imaginative play, hard-running, honest stuff, new ideas from coaches... I watched today's playoff game against the very talented Seattle Seahawks. Washington scored touchdowns on the first 2 possessions. I thought it would be a wonderful game.
I had my doubts about the wisdom of playing the #1 quarterback with a knee injury because a big part of his style was running the ball himself. The #2 quarterback had proven himself in 2 late season games. And then the further injury I was expecting...
I am disgusted! My concern about the quarterback was justified. You could see he could hardly run at all from the start.
I'm not disgusted because my team lost. It's the playoffs and there are no bad teams playing; someone has to lose each one. And when you get to one-game eliminations, its not even the "best" team that survives to the end.
What disgusts me is that the Washington coaches risked the future of one of the possible hall-of-fame quarterbacks as a rookie for one game. And I'll offer an analogy. The Washington Nationals baseball team have a potential hall-of-famer pitcher. They could have just used him up going for the World Series this past season. Instead, they used him carefully and stopped when they thought he had pitched enough. It cost them in the playoffs this year, but they knew they will have greater years ahead. And they will.
The Washington Redskins (PLEASE CHANGE THE NAME, IT'S EMBARRASSING) coaches rolled the dice and played their star injured quarterback almost the whole game, risking his future when they had a proven backup ready to go.
If they were afraid of putting in the #2 quarterback, well I never complain about protecting an injured player...
And THAT'S why I'm disgusted by the game...
3 comments:
Yeah, sad that he got hurt again, possibly more seriously.
Our local High School is the Indians, which I think should go away as well. Many schools have been forced to give up Native American references. But they could be redskins if they showed an old white guy all sunburned and not an indian head?
Players seem to be like interchangeable parts to some coaches. There's too much pressure to win "now" and go for the chance when you have it instead of banking on next season when he's well. Our fast food society wants it all.
I heard that RG3 had knee surgery today that will likely keep him out of the game for 8-12 months. So sad (even tho I'm from the Pacific NW and VERY GLAD that the Hawks won) The first quarter stressed me out so much I couldn't watch the rest of the game ha ha... I agree with you that the coaching staff was irresponsible in letting him play - but they said on the radio tonight that is the way the Redskins coach has always been - chew em up and spit em out...
RG3 is a talented guy and I hope it will not be a career ending injury because it will be fun watching him mature.
Happy New Year! Go Hawks! T.
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