No One Wins The Super Bowl In August

Welcome, everyone, to the first official crisis of the 2006 Redskins season. The city is in a panic. Outscored 87-17 in three exhibition games. The first-string offense has failed to produce a single point. The defense has been shelled by no-name running backs and mediocre tight ends. The special teams gives up big play after big play without creating any of their own. Season’s over, right?

It doesn’t seem to matter that the Redskins have a 0-0 record and their first game is still 12 days away. Let’s have everyone take a deep breath. This is preseason. These games don’t count. By the end of September, no one will remember anything from the month of August. Besides, what are we talking about here? We’re talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that? We’re talking about practice.

Allen Iverson not withstanding, I’ll be the first to admit the Redskins look awful. Getting lit up by the Jets’ non-existent running game wasn’t good. Getting stomped by a second-place caliber New England team for an entire half was worse. But the Redskins are showing absolutely nothing offensively or defensively. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

The real cause for concern is the special teams. The difference between special teams performance in the preseason and special teams performance in the regular season is minimal. That’s why the so-called “third phase” has to be the emphasis right now in practice during the week. The return game has been almost invisible. I like Mike Espy, but someone’s got to block for the kid. The kickoff unit can’t seem to make tackles and there have been several big returns against them. John Hall and Derrick Frost are just plain awful. I have no faith in Hall right now to kick any field goal over 35 yards. And on kickoffs, which he probably won’t be doing, he can’t kick the ball past the opponent’s 10-yard line. The Cardinals just released former Redskin Nick Novak. Let’s resign him. He filled in nicely for the Skins and the Cards last year when Hall and Neil Rackers went down with injuries.

Frost is an even bigger worry. He’s flat out dreadful. His poor punting cost Washington a couple of games last season because of the beneficial field position he gave up (namely, the games against Oakland and San Diego, and the playoff game against Seattle). He should be cut immediately. There are hundreds of punters out there and any one of them should be given a look over Frost. The Steelers currently have a fierce competition between veteran Chris Gardocki and rookie Mike Barr. Barr has done exceptionally well in preseason so far. If he’s cut, pick him up. If the Steelers cut Gardocki, by all means, pick him up. It’s a win-win for the Redskins. It can’t possibly get any worse. If Hall and Frost are kept, they will cost the Redskins at least two games this season, if not more. Just remember how many games the Cowboys have blown the last few seasons because they haven’t had capable kickers or punters.

The offense and defense have struggled, but there’s really nothing to worry about. Offensively, the Redskins are missing Clinton Portis. The offense revolves around him. T.J. Duckett and Ladell Betts are nice replacements, but they aren’t the same. Portis should be ready for opening day and that addition will instantly improve the offense. As expected, Al Saunders isn’t showing 90% of his playbook during the preseason. The Redskins haven’t sent a single man in motion the entire preseason. There have been no pulling linemen, no counter treys, no wide receiver screens (a Santana Moss staple), very few draw plays and reverses and little use of play-action. The playbook being used is very predictable and it’s as vanilla as Orange County.

Also, the Redskins are running a blocking scheme that they would never run during the regular season. I picked up on it during the Cincinnati game, and broadcaster/Super Bowl hero John Riggins mentioned it briefly a couple of weeks later. On the majority of plays the Redskins are leaving all five of their linemen in isolation. That basically means that the Redskins are forcing all their linemen to go one-on-one with the defensive player lined up over them. They are receiving no help from each other, tight ends or running backs in their blocks. Why would they do that? Because these games don’t matter and Al Saunders, Joe Bugel and the rest of the staff are basically putting their linemen in tough situations because preseason is glorified practice. The problem is, when you have five guys going one-on-one, the chances are good that at least one of the five offensive linemen, on any given play, will fail in their block. Even if four guys succeed, it only takes one loss on the line to ruin a play. And that’s what’s happening during the games. There is no way that this blocking scheme will be used in the regular season, as you can be assured that there will be plenty of help blocking from the tight ends and backs.

There’s a little more cause for concern on the defensive side. Again, injuries are hampering the first unit. Shawn Springs, who may miss the first game of the regular season but nothing more, has been out for the past two weeks. Four of the six defensive linemen in Greg Williams’ rotation are hurt. Phillip Daniels and Cornelius Griffin aren’t playing and Reynaldo Wynn is playing at only about 75% capacity due to injury. All three should be healthy by September 11th, and the lack of Daniels and Griffin are the primary reasons the opponents run game is doing so well. Their absence also affects the pass rush. As does the lack of blitzing. Williams, like Saunders, is playing close to the vest. The Redskins blitzed Tom Brady and New England exactly three times in over a half of football. Chances are, during the regular season, the Redskins would blitz three times on the opening drive. If you rush four guys at Brady and give him all day, he’s going to pick the middle of the field apart. Which he did with Ben Watson (odds are, that’s the best Watson is going to look all year). Still, even with the lack of a blitz and a pass rush, the safties must do a better job over the middle. Sean Taylor is an animal, and is arguably the best hitter in the game, but he needs to work on pass coverage in man-to-man situations. Same goes for Adam Archuleta.

Historically, the worse the Redskins look in the preseason, the better they are in the regular season. The Skins won Super Bowl XVII after going winless in the preseason. Joe Gibbs’ team looked terrible in August 1991, going 1-3 and looking real bad doing it, but won Super Bowl XXVI (just one of the many similarities I see between that team and this year’s squad…but more on that at a later date). In 2002, the Redskins went 4-1 under Steve Spurrier including several blowout wins, only to go 7-9 during the regular season with several blowout losses. So preseason means virtually nothing. Washington still has one game left with the Ravens, who have also looked bad this preseason. Maybe the Skins will put on a decent showing in that one. And if they don't, it's still no big deal anyway. If the Skins get their special teams issues sorted out, and get everyone back from their nagging injuries, then they should be ready to go against the Vikings in week one.