frenchskinsfan
10-16-2006, 10:20 AM
I suppose you all know there's a french player on the redskins roster. his name's Philippe Gardent, and he's a "special" practice squad player, chosen among NFLE players (league defensive MVP as a LB though) to get some "NFL experience". He cannot be cut, but he can't take part in an official game either, so he's a full time sparing partner for active players, week in and week out.
In order to share his experience with all french NFL followers, but mostly for football players in France, he runs a blog where he writes each week what he's living from inside an NFL team.
Here's the link for those who can read french :
http://surlaroutedusuperbowl.blogspirit.com/
There you'll find some good pics of him too.
Following each game, he gives his perception of what happens, as a member of the team, he also gives some hints of what's going on when the media's not there...
Of course, the blog's in french, but I thought you could find what he just said about sunday's game interesting, as he relates what's going on in the players' mind after a tough loss like that. He really talks from a redskin player's point of view.
So I tried to translate his last article, it goes like this (Philippe si tu me lis j'espère que tu es ok pour que je te traduise ici, mais je pense que oui) :
"It could be easy to think that after such a tight loss against the Titans, we're not a playoff contender anymore, at 2-4.
That's not what we're gonna do.
It's way too early, and we know that if we start thinking that way, we're gonna be deeper in trouble.
We'll stay close to each other, be critical on ourselves, and get out of this bagend by taking it one game at a time.
We don't have the choice anyway.
Our offense continued to be inconsistent (except on penalties) and our defense against the run, supposed to be our main strenght, has totally exploded.
One more time, it's really actually a shared responsibility btw the two squads, and we must add special teams - we allowed a blocked punt for a safety-.
There are a lot of critics on us right now, about players who shouldn't play, and others who should get their chance to play.
Again, this kind of little games are made for the media and fans, and we'll not start to be divided.
Some adjustments will certainly occur during the season, and whatever are our coaches' decisions, we'll follow them, b/c if the decision is made, it's because it had to be.
It seems evident now to focus on the reigning amabiance in the team.
From a general point of view, we have worked too much, in terms of physical preparation as well as tactics, to let it down now !
We all agree on the fact that EVERYBODY gets his share of responsibility, and we know that all NFL games are thigt ones. we can win or loose every week, all the teams have the potential to win, and we know that the best team isn't always the one winning in the end. It's the one which executes best.
We want to continue to work on the little details, which will do the decision in our favor [...] We are ready to continue to work hard, to keep in mind what we do enhance, and to search for the solution of our problem TOGETHER.
This may sound strange from a pro team, but it's true.
The challenge is huge, furtherly because our next opponent is one of the best teams in the league, the Colts, and we'll play them in their stadium.
We're all conscious that a victory over Indianapolis would allow us to get a little more relaxed going into the bye week.
In two words, as always : KEEP WORKING !"
In order to share his experience with all french NFL followers, but mostly for football players in France, he runs a blog where he writes each week what he's living from inside an NFL team.
Here's the link for those who can read french :
http://surlaroutedusuperbowl.blogspirit.com/
There you'll find some good pics of him too.
Following each game, he gives his perception of what happens, as a member of the team, he also gives some hints of what's going on when the media's not there...
Of course, the blog's in french, but I thought you could find what he just said about sunday's game interesting, as he relates what's going on in the players' mind after a tough loss like that. He really talks from a redskin player's point of view.
So I tried to translate his last article, it goes like this (Philippe si tu me lis j'espère que tu es ok pour que je te traduise ici, mais je pense que oui) :
"It could be easy to think that after such a tight loss against the Titans, we're not a playoff contender anymore, at 2-4.
That's not what we're gonna do.
It's way too early, and we know that if we start thinking that way, we're gonna be deeper in trouble.
We'll stay close to each other, be critical on ourselves, and get out of this bagend by taking it one game at a time.
We don't have the choice anyway.
Our offense continued to be inconsistent (except on penalties) and our defense against the run, supposed to be our main strenght, has totally exploded.
One more time, it's really actually a shared responsibility btw the two squads, and we must add special teams - we allowed a blocked punt for a safety-.
There are a lot of critics on us right now, about players who shouldn't play, and others who should get their chance to play.
Again, this kind of little games are made for the media and fans, and we'll not start to be divided.
Some adjustments will certainly occur during the season, and whatever are our coaches' decisions, we'll follow them, b/c if the decision is made, it's because it had to be.
It seems evident now to focus on the reigning amabiance in the team.
From a general point of view, we have worked too much, in terms of physical preparation as well as tactics, to let it down now !
We all agree on the fact that EVERYBODY gets his share of responsibility, and we know that all NFL games are thigt ones. we can win or loose every week, all the teams have the potential to win, and we know that the best team isn't always the one winning in the end. It's the one which executes best.
We want to continue to work on the little details, which will do the decision in our favor [...] We are ready to continue to work hard, to keep in mind what we do enhance, and to search for the solution of our problem TOGETHER.
This may sound strange from a pro team, but it's true.
The challenge is huge, furtherly because our next opponent is one of the best teams in the league, the Colts, and we'll play them in their stadium.
We're all conscious that a victory over Indianapolis would allow us to get a little more relaxed going into the bye week.
In two words, as always : KEEP WORKING !"