better to be lucky than good.

[warpaint]

no matter who we draft, no matter who we sign between now and the first game of the year , the most important thing is for once to be lucky and not have all the injuries like in past years , cleveland got ww2 and got hurt and didnt play the entire year , jansen going down ,didnt help in us reaching the play offs. i know injuries are expected in the game of football, myself dont care who we draft, but i am hoping here that the big man upstairs,smiles on us this year and we can avoid injuries to key players.
think some of you need to start donating a little more to your church .

[smoak]

I agree. Losing a key player due to injury could spell doom.

[BtwnDaTackles]

YES!!!!!.....i couldnt agree more, i mean a player is great but he's no good to us on the sideline whoever he is....

[BurgundyNGold]

I'd settle for not getting 3 or 4 game-changing, phantom calls every year. We could have been in the playoffs without them.

[warpaint]

I'd settle for not getting 3 or 4 game-changing, phantom calls every year. We could have been in the playoffs without them.
had forgotten about all of those bad calls, yeah we were unlucky last year in a lot of ways.

[TheGreek1973]

I'd settle for not getting 3 or 4 game-changing, phantom calls every year. We could have been in the playoffs without them.
---
I am with you on that pal because injuries happen. Its part of football and you really can't avoid them. But when you see games like that first cowpuke game and the GB game and know that if those two games were called correctly by the zebras we would be in the playoffs then as a fan you start hating the game itself. Believe me these two games made me question why I like football so much since a couple of terrible calls can change your entire season.

[guinness4health]

in somes ways i agree with this but the really good/great teams still find a way to overcome it....

the pats had as many injuries as just about anyone to alot of key spots and they still came away with the superbowl.

last year we were an average team with a underpreforming offense, which couldn't overcome the jansen injury....

but our defense dealt expectionally in the face of a lot of potentially key injuries.

only time will tell what type of team we are next year....the injuries will always happen (and no i don;t think god has anything to do with it, why would god punish a football player, is he/she a fan of one team over another, no of course not)....
the question is how are we going to deal with it.

[SkinsKY]

---
I am with you on that pal because injuries happen. Its part of football and you really can't avoid them. But when you see games like that first cowpuke game and the GB game and know that if those two games were called correctly by the zebras we would be in the playoffs then as a fan you start hating the game itself. Believe me these two games made me question why I like football so much since a couple of terrible calls can change your entire season.

I understand the frustration with those calls but good teams play in a way that a phantom call like that won't hurt them every time it is made. We're not to that point.

[The Skinsinator]

I'd settle for not getting 3 or 4 game-changing, phantom calls every year. We could have been in the playoffs without them.

Love your Coles pic at the bottom man. You ought to check out the latest cartoon on extremeskins. It has LC in there. It is friggin' hilarious.

[RedskinsVision]

injuries are the major reason why depth is so important.. making FA splash and drafting in the top 10 certainly gives you starters but it's the backups you select that makes you a good personell decision maker. once some of the starters go down, is when the fiber of your team is determined. our D last year was a great case in making good personell moves and solidifying the depth.

[BurgundyNGold]

I understand the frustration with those calls but good teams play in a way that a phantom call like that won't hurt them every time it is made. We're not to that point.
Or.... are teams "bad" because they can't catch a break? I recall the Patriots going to the SB a few years back on that "tuck rule" crap.

BTW, I think blatant non-calls are more prevalent than bad calls. These come in under the radar, but they're still there. I can't tell you how many illegal blocks in the back, illegal contacts or holding penalties should have been called on our opponents in years past but were not. We always seem to get called though, even when they don't actually happen.

Case in point:

Week 3, Monday night against Dallass. I watched the Dallass WR flat out mug our CB on an overthrown deep pass by Vinny. What's the call? D pass interference, 1st and goal and eventually 7 points Dallass.

Later, in the 4th quarter, Brunell launches one to Gardner in the right corner of the end zone. The Dallass CB clearly pushes Gardner hard and (not suprisingly) Rod doesn't catch a vital score. What's the call? Zippy. We don't even get 1st and goal.

All I'm saying is that almost everybody gets injuries. Football is a game of attrition. But, not everybody gets the calls, or the more nuanced "non calls".

[bwparker]

Yeah, our offense was pretty much the worst in the league last year too. That was REALLY bad luck. :D

[BurgundyNGold]

Yeah, our offense was pretty much the worst in the league last year too. That was REALLY bad luck. :D
Obviously, the calls are not the major differentiators. Talent, coaching and injuries are all way more important. We were never going to be 12-4 last year. But we SHOULD have been at least 8-8, maybe 9-7. It wasn't talent, coaching or injuries that was a 2 or 3 game swing for us. It was either bad calls or non-calls. Period.

[bwparker]

I know...I totally agree that we got ABSOLUTELY stiffed on calls last year(1st Dallas Game). But our offense stunk so bad I could smell it on road games. We may have been able to make the playoffs with better officiating, but I don't think we were good enough to DESERVE to be there. The good news is, if our offense can step it up, even a little bit, we instantly become a playoff caliber team.

[BurgundyNGold]

I know...I totally agree that we got ABSOLUTELY stiffed on calls last year(1st Dallas Game). But our offense stunk so bad I could smell it on road games. We may have been able to make the playoffs with better officiating, but I don't think we were good enough to DESERVE to be there. The good news is, if our offense can step it up, even a little bit, we instantly become a playoff caliber team.
I agree. But, if the calls don't go our way, we STILL won't might not be in the playoffs.

[bantu]

The ref's all around the league missed calls. It was like watching a Duke basketball game every sunday.

[bwparker]

Do you think coaches are trained to watch guys that tend to foul more often than others? I know that they might have this tendency, but do you think they are actually told...this guy jumps offsides alot, so watch him. Or this guy is really fast, so if you aren't sure he's offsides then just ignore it, because he's so fast you'll probably be wrong.

Cause that would make sense, but it would also suck.

[cmdlost29]

I agree. Losing a key player due to injury could spell doom.

Been fearing all this time that Ramsey gets hurt when we get on a roll and it spells the end of our season. You just reminded me of that