Skins.Fan
01-04-2005, 02:29 PM
I may have messed up trying to post this a second ago, if so, I'm sorry about that. Here is what I meant to post.
I Think We All Saw That One Coming
By: Trevor Walters
January 4, 2005
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We’re mathematically eliminated, simply playing out the string. A good team comes to town, or any team for that matter, and we walk away with a victory. It happened the year before last with the Texans, and before that, there was a huge blowout of the Saints once our playoff hopes had been extinguished.
There are really two ways to look at this victory, so I’ll lay them both out for you, and you can choose which best suits your mindset. First, there is the ever pessimistic thought that all we did Sunday with our win over the Vikings was lower our draft pick for this April’s draft (down from a projected fifth to ninth). While this is certainly true, it cannot be denied that we showed a high degree of character by winning a game that was virtually meaningless. Remember that we did so without running back Clinton Portis, the over-rated Lavar Arrington, and Fred Smoot, a great American, and it begins to look even more impressive. With this in mind, we can at least say that the sour taste that will dwell in our collective mouth for the next several months is somewhat more tolerable.
It’s true that the Vikings are a playoff team, and easily the best team that we defeated this season, but they are also the same Vikings that fade each December with alarming regularity. No matter which side of the fence you find yourself on, there is an enticing argument to draw you over to the other way of thinking.
Just when I was about to hop onto the stump and lecture random passersby that Sean Taylor should be the clear winner of the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, he mails in the season’s finale, and leaves the door open for someone else to jump in and grab the honor. Taylor is an enigmatic person, but he hopefully has landed on a team with a solid veteran core that will help to guide his development as a pro. That said, he must shun the Arringtonian philosophy of going for the big hit, as opposed to making the tackle, and he must find some way to shun his growing reputation of a dirty hitter. We’ve had to endure the “Carrier Rules” once before, and I hope that we don’t have to see those days again.
And what of Ladell Betts? Had he performed last season as he did Sunday, perhaps the Clinton Portis trade never comes to pass. Betts is a better fit for Gibbs’ system, but is clearly an inferior talent as compared to Portis. It is good to have a back that can step in when his number is called, but would you be comfortable if this had been week nine, and Betts was penciled in as the starter for the weeks to come? In the last game of the season, with little on the line, we truly had nothing to lose if Betts had laid an egg. If Betts is to truly be an asset to the team, then we’re going to need a more consistent effort from him. The hope is, of course, that that effort won’t need to come in a starting role – because that would mean that Portis was injured – but his primary concern should be to provide this team with a change of pace back that compliments Portis, as well as the offense.
This season’s final game ball goes rather unceremoniously to Ladell Betts. In my little world, Betts has truly come full circle. After the Ravens game, I wouldn’t have given Betts air if I had him in a jar. However, as the season progressed, Betts quietly upped his effort and production, thereby solidifying his role on the team. His production in the season’s final game illustrated that he has sufficient talent to excel when his team needs him, leaving only consistency as his final frontier.
cont.
I Think We All Saw That One Coming
By: Trevor Walters
January 4, 2005
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. We’re mathematically eliminated, simply playing out the string. A good team comes to town, or any team for that matter, and we walk away with a victory. It happened the year before last with the Texans, and before that, there was a huge blowout of the Saints once our playoff hopes had been extinguished.
There are really two ways to look at this victory, so I’ll lay them both out for you, and you can choose which best suits your mindset. First, there is the ever pessimistic thought that all we did Sunday with our win over the Vikings was lower our draft pick for this April’s draft (down from a projected fifth to ninth). While this is certainly true, it cannot be denied that we showed a high degree of character by winning a game that was virtually meaningless. Remember that we did so without running back Clinton Portis, the over-rated Lavar Arrington, and Fred Smoot, a great American, and it begins to look even more impressive. With this in mind, we can at least say that the sour taste that will dwell in our collective mouth for the next several months is somewhat more tolerable.
It’s true that the Vikings are a playoff team, and easily the best team that we defeated this season, but they are also the same Vikings that fade each December with alarming regularity. No matter which side of the fence you find yourself on, there is an enticing argument to draw you over to the other way of thinking.
Just when I was about to hop onto the stump and lecture random passersby that Sean Taylor should be the clear winner of the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, he mails in the season’s finale, and leaves the door open for someone else to jump in and grab the honor. Taylor is an enigmatic person, but he hopefully has landed on a team with a solid veteran core that will help to guide his development as a pro. That said, he must shun the Arringtonian philosophy of going for the big hit, as opposed to making the tackle, and he must find some way to shun his growing reputation of a dirty hitter. We’ve had to endure the “Carrier Rules” once before, and I hope that we don’t have to see those days again.
And what of Ladell Betts? Had he performed last season as he did Sunday, perhaps the Clinton Portis trade never comes to pass. Betts is a better fit for Gibbs’ system, but is clearly an inferior talent as compared to Portis. It is good to have a back that can step in when his number is called, but would you be comfortable if this had been week nine, and Betts was penciled in as the starter for the weeks to come? In the last game of the season, with little on the line, we truly had nothing to lose if Betts had laid an egg. If Betts is to truly be an asset to the team, then we’re going to need a more consistent effort from him. The hope is, of course, that that effort won’t need to come in a starting role – because that would mean that Portis was injured – but his primary concern should be to provide this team with a change of pace back that compliments Portis, as well as the offense.
This season’s final game ball goes rather unceremoniously to Ladell Betts. In my little world, Betts has truly come full circle. After the Ravens game, I wouldn’t have given Betts air if I had him in a jar. However, as the season progressed, Betts quietly upped his effort and production, thereby solidifying his role on the team. His production in the season’s final game illustrated that he has sufficient talent to excel when his team needs him, leaving only consistency as his final frontier.
cont.