Angst Returns

Balboa Stadium was the home of the San Diego Chargers during their early years; 1961-1965. After a disastrous 4-10 season in 1962 Head Coach Sid Gillman hired professional football’s first “Strength Coach.” As he correctly predicted all teams would eventually follow suit. But, he also put the players on a three-times-per-day regimen of Dianabol, an anabolic steroid. It was a page straight out of the Soviet Union’s Olympic Team playbook. And, it worked: The Chargers won their only Championship that year. Dianabol was legal at the time.

After 25-years of failure and ridicule the Washington football fanbase has been condition-response trained to find and embrace agony at the slightest opportunity. Last week’s game against a nice Atlanta squad sent the masses to the Cellars of Angst quick, fast, and in a hurry. It was spectacular in some respects. By mid-week not only had the team been declared an utter failure; significant shade was being thrown at the General Manager for not stocking the team 3-deep with All Pro players. After all, he has had two whole years. “C’mon! Get with it.”

The truth was far less dramatic. An Offense without its three best “Skill Players” still put up 27-points. Only 12-teams scored more points than that for the week. And, Washington was the only team scoring 27-points or more who lost. (Dallas and Green Bay tied at 40-all.) WFT’s Special Teams were really good. It was the Defense that played poorly. Bijan Robinson helped in that regard as he slithered through cracks and forced missed tackles. Atlanta had all of their Offensive weapons on-hand and used them well. Washington was missing three Defensive Back starters. It showed on any number of broken coverages. Still there was plenty of opportunity to win. With 8:08 remaining Atlanta started a drive at their 23-yard line with a 7-point lead. One Defensive stop would give the WFT time to go tie the score. Didn’t happen. 69-yards, 15-plays, and 6:51 later the Falcons would ice the game. Boiling down the day to that drive tells the tale.

At the end of the day it was an opportunity lost. While much of the fanbase has clenched their pearls into dust the team has no time for such things. New week, new game.

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Woodshed Outfalls

Washington Head Coach Dan Quinn back in his Atlanta days. Over six seasons his record was 1-game over .500 at 43-42. But one loss overshadowed everything else: Losing Super Bowl 51 to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. With a 28-3 lead at halftime Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan shunned running plays in the second half allowing the Pats to overtake Atlanta. The fan base there reviles Quinn with a rare and persistent passion. His homecoming this week should be interesting.

Aside from sheer sloppiness and injuries aplenty the early NFL season has produced an interesting trend: The blowout loss turns into a solid victory a week later. Look no farther than Washington’s turnaround from the Green Bay loss. 28-17 doesn’t sound like a blowout, but the game was never competitive. A week later, with the wunderkind Quarterback up in a suite far removed from the field the WFT played relatively well. There were a number of such bounce backs around the League. One stands out. The Chicago Bears did their best impersonation of a collection of crash test dummies against the Detroit Lions. A week later they throttled the Cowboys. The reportage out of Chicago was that the week’s practices were, shall we say, not fun. Coaches did their best impersonation of Drill Sergeants at Parris Island. For the players it was a group trip to the proverbial woodshed. And, it worked.

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Of Campaigns and QB2s

Marcus Mariota when he was with the Las Vegas Raiders. Now on his fifth roster in his eleventh year Mariota has emerged as one of the top Quarterbacks #2 (QB2) in the League. With Jayden Daniels‘ injury at hand Mariota gets the start today against one of his former teams.

One old saw is that it is one thing to enter a sailboat into a race, but it is a totally different venture to campaign a boat over a series. The latter requires pieces and parts to be on-hand at the ready to insert when something breaks. Races don’t re-schedule to await your readiness. Professional football is no different. It is the curious reality of the sport that it takes an elite Quarterback to enter the “Contender” portal, but it more often than not takes a competent backup QB to stay there. In a 32-team league there were 59 different QBs who started games last season. It’s close enough to two-per-team to assume that the QB2 on every roster had best be competent. But, many are not. The ideal is to have a QB2 with starting experience who is able to watch practice all week then come off of the bench with no warning and win a game. Last season Marcus Mariota did that very thing twice. Ideal, indeed.

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Heading North

A young Mark Murphy in 1976. Murphy would go undrafted. But, the Safety was signed by George Allen to the Redskins in 1977. Murphy would play for 8-seasons amassing 27-interceptions. In 1983 he would lead the League in picks with nine as he garnered 1st Team All Pro honors. Murphy would go on to be President and CEO of the Green Bay Packers starting in 2007. His reign was characterized as playing close to the vest. The emphasis was on keeping Draft picks and developing the resulting players. Mark retired in July. Less than 8-weeks later his successor pulled the mega-deal sending a starting Defensive Tackle and the next two number-1 picks to Dallas for Micah Parsons. The change in style could not have been more dramatic.

The “S” in September football is for “Sloppy.” Teams simply are less than ready for real football. If one goes looking back in the day they can find stories about Johnny Unitas leading a fourth-quarter comeback with all the starters against Philadelphia in pre-season game #4. If processing that for a moment the realization may hit that Jayden Daniels didn’t even throw one pass in pre-season. It showed on Sunday. Against a Giants team that looks to be on the verge of dysfunction Daniels’ passes were off a number of times. He was behind on crossing routes pretty much all day. Two deep shots resulted in two overthrows with his feet fully set. Clutch your pearls if you wish. But, this type of performance is to be expected to start the season. Almost 12% of all snaps during Week #1 resulted in penalties. Washington contributed mightily with 12-infractions. Like it or not the early NFL season is really the old pre-season…only the games count.

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One Giant Step

The late Sam Huff looking every bit the hard-nosed player he truly was. He ended his career here in Washington. For many his voice along side Sonny Jurgensen and Frank Herzog on the radio calls of the glory days are a fond memory.

After all of the waiting it does feel a bit surreal to see honest-to-goodness football again. And, the NFL isn’t wasting time with warmup games. The New York Football Giants are coming to Washington for one of eight Division games during the first weekend. Those games count more than just one-up or one-down in the standings. When it gets to tie-breaker time those Division games have special meaning. Want to win the Division? Go 4-2 or better in those head-to-head tilts. Washington didn’t win the NFC East last year. But, the 4-2 was invaluable in getting them into the playoffs. The recipe is easy to state; harder to deliver: Split the games with Philly and Dallas while sweeping the Giants. If you think that’s an easy deliverable, think again. Washington has played the Giants 184-times over the course of their history. The WFT has lost 107 of them.

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An Ensemble Roster

Hall-of-Famer Bobby Bethard in his office. The late GM was a master at building rosters through the Draft. Free Agency and hard Salary Caps have changed how rosters are assembled now as opposed to Bethard’s day. Some elements never change, however: Success still starts with the Draft.

College Football gets to rule the airwaves here on Labor Day weekend. For the professionals the weekend is one for the Front Office personnel to decompress after the tumult of cut-down day. The churn of bodies to and fro is a dizzying sight from afar. From within it must be a maelstrom of moving parts. It’s all too easy to declare that the “Final 53” have been selected. Here’s a pro tip; the 53-man roster is never “Final.” There will be changes all the way until the end. Washington’s roster is not immune. This is a game where injuries and poor performances occur on a seemingly non-stop basis. Depth Matters. It matters more in this sport than most other team games. Accumulating top talent is a given prerequisite. But, building the depth is what holds the enterprise together.

Washington has built a roster with some unusual characteristics. Jason Reid, of ESPN said last year after the playoffs that Adam Peters was on the clock to assemble a roster around Jayden Daniels while on his rookie contract. Mr. Peters got the memo.

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Pre-Season Game #3

In the strange world that is professional sports there is the specter of Jim Brown and the Cleveland Browns running roughshod over the Baltimore Colts in the 1964 Championship Game. Final Score: Cleveland 27, Baltimore 0. Both franchises would move. First Baltimore to Indianapolis. Then Cleveland to Baltimore where they would re-brand as “The Ravens.” They have won 2 Super Bowls since moving. Cleveland has yet to appear in one.

This is the last of the pre-season games for both teams. During the regular season last year it was the upstart WFT against the established Ravens. Washington put up a plucky fight. But, the Ravens were too much to handle. Another regular season matchup would be most interesting. Despite the 12-5 record and NFC Championship Game appearance of last year, this year’s squad has a number of questions surrounding it. Not so up in “Charm City.” This Ravens team is locked-and-loaded. It says here that Baltimore has the best top-to-bottom roster in the League. The position rooms all grade out in the top few. No other team in the League can say that. It is a pity that all we’ll see is likely to be backups. Spoiler Alert: Their backups are better than ours pretty much across the board.

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Pre-Season Game #2

The Bengals are one of 11-teams that have not won a Super Bowl. They have lost all three times they made it to the big game.

The second of three pre-season games is at hand. It will be the first time since January for the fanbase to see Jayden Daniels taking snaps during a game. Enjoy each and every snap. There will not be many. As has been noted here and seemingly everywhere else the pre-season has evolved into less and less meaningfulness. But, this game stands out as a bit of a real test. Or, it did about a week ago. Cincinnati is apparently desperate to overcome their nasty habit of starting slowly. So, they intend to start their first team in at least their first two pre-season games. It was thought Washington would return serve. Especially given the whipping they received from New England in the first game. What is taking the field for the WFT will be absent some 12-players, 8 of which are Starters. So, maybe it won’t be a “Real Test.” A small quiz would be more accurate.

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Pre-Season Game #1

On August 17, 1970 Sonny Jurgensen threw 4-Touchdowns in a PRE-SEASON game against the New England Patriots. It was a different age for the exhibition games then as starters would play most of the affairs. This game was also marked by a fire that broke out under the wooden bleachers which halted play for over 20-minutes.

It has come to be time for some almost-real football. You know, people actually get tackled to the ground. The key word here is “People” not Stars. The stars are going to be on the sidelines in sweats and ball caps. The purpose of pre-season games, aside from selling tickets, used to be to hone the team against real competition. Then late in the games put the players on the field that are “on the bubble” for making the roster. Confirm suspicions, if you will. That’s all gone by the wayside. The honing and real evaluation comes in the joint scrimmages. What’s left is to determine the low end of the depth charts. Tonight’s game will certainly follow that script.

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Camp Time

George Allen with Jack Pardee at RFK Stadium. Pardee would later coach the WFT. He was one of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s “Junction Boys” who survived arguably the most tortuous Training Camp in football history.

The word “Camp” has many meanings. Somewhere on the definition spectrum between a Kid’s Summer Camp full of fun days and an Army Base sits Football’s Training Camp. Our mind’s eye sees players in full pads under the searing sun engaged in endless repetitions of the Oklahoma Drill for two-sessions a day. But, that imagery is preceded by the phrase, “Once upon a time…” For those unfamiliar the Oklahoma Drill was a tackling exercise in a confined area developed by Oklahoma Head Coach Bud Wilkinson. The point was not only to teach tackling to Defenders it also taught Running Backs how to get tackled without getting hurt. The drill was ubiquitous. There was scarcely a football program from High School upwards that didn’t use it. But, time and sensitivities have moved onward. The OK Drill, once a part-and-parcel of Training Camp has been banned by the NFL. Some States have legislated it to illegality. The absence is part of a bigger picture: “Camp” today would be unrecognizable to the players of the last century.

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