Doc Talk 10/31/07

[rskinsfan10]

KS- In all of your years of playing football, have you personally ever had to deal with a loss like the one the Skins suffered through this past Sunday?

DW- Well, the only thing that I can think of, and we were slightly more competitive, is Super Bowl XVIII. I mean, the embarrassment on a grand scale is the worst humiliation that you can think of. It's something that as a ball player you don't like it. I was disappointed in not that they lost, although I thought that there was a chance they could win, I just didn't feel as though they were competitive strategically or physically, and that surprised me. You don't see people beat this team up. You can lose, but this team's trademark had been physical play. Defensively, they were in a zone and they got picked apart with dump passes, and they never adjusted to blitzing. Maybe that was because of the loss of Carlos Rogers. We will never know, but I felt as bad as felt against the Giants, probably worse because the Giants weren't as good as the Patriots and it happened in their back yard.

KS- Gregg Williams' strategy of not blitzing much and relying on a lot of zone play had been working, but as you mentioned he never adjusted to what the Patriots were doing. Why not go after Brady?

DW- Well, at this point all I can do is speculate that once he saw Rogers out and Smoot in street clothes, he just figured that he didn't have the defensive personnel to give him what he needed. That's all I can imagine at this point.

KS- Here we are seemingly at another week of trying to figure out what is the problem with this marriage between Joe Gibbs and Al Saunders. Do you get the inclination that this "situation" has reached a boiling point and that this relationship is on the rocks?

DW- Oh, it will last throughout the season, no doubt about it. First of all, Joe is not going to panic and he isn't going to humiliate a friend in the middle of the season. I do think that, and who knows because the season is still early and not at the mid way point, we can say that we are disappointed and really mean it. 5-3 for a team coming off a 5-11 season. I think that if I asked that question to the SportsTalk crew, to The Locker Room crew, to the hailRedskins crew, I think 80% of the people would have thought that was decent. What could they really have been? I think 6-2 is where they should be, and I say 6-2 only because if they beat the Packers, then you have to take the loss to the Cardinals. The FG has to be good. So, they aren't an undefeated team, and they have a lot of work to do offensively. They are not dominate enough to shut a good team down, and that was proven. It doesn't mean they aren't good enough to win the East. Really, their foremost goal is to win the division, and they are still within range of that. It all comes down to them.

KS- I remember when Mark Brunell was still the QB of this team and the anti-Brunell crowd yelled every week that this team didn't throw the ball down field because Brunell himself physically couldn't. Now, we have a QB with what I believe to have one of the top 5 strongest arms in the league and we still don't throw down field. I mean, what the hell is the deal with that?

DW- Well, what they will say is the influx of the offensive line, Santana hamstring and groin, Randle El hamstring, Lloyd doghouse, the rest of the WRs learning the offense, when it comes down to it they haven't done anything well yet. If they were running the way they were the last five weeks of last season; my fantasy was they would pick up right where they left off last year. Well, Jansen and Thomas, and I was the one who said they went 5-11 with all of the healthy, the last 5 games I thought they were one of the most dominate teams in running the football. Thomas is a big loss because he pulls so well and dominate in space. He is Clinton's best ally. If you had Thomas and Caveman Sellers out in traffic, that's a pretty hard combination to beat. But you know what, they are done. Those guys are gone and you have to play with who you have. Everybody in the league has injuries. Carolina won a game with a man that wasn't even on their team a week ago. So, they just have to will themselves. I'm totally opposed to this alternation of RBs at this point. They were much better when it was just Betts. I'd rather see it where Clinton can't come out, and I would try to get him 25 carries. I'd be willing to bet anyone that would give you 125yds minimum. You start Betts and you give him 25 carries, I think that he would give you a c-note plus. That's what I'm talking about. Together with these guys alternating, no guy gets in a rhythm. These 3 and outs in succession has to end. They have to be able to keep those drives alive. If they are not going to throw long, then be proficient like New England with their short game. I'll take Santana Moss against Welker any day of the year. Randle El is playing as well as Stallworth. We don't have a Randy Moss, but they have a guy that they paid $10mil to whose forte is to stretch the field that they have to get in the game.

[rskinsfan10]

KS- Do you think that the play calling at this point is helpful or more of hindrance to the development of Jason Campbell up to this point?

DW- If it helps Jason, it's hard to tell because they seem so vanilla. That's not good. I think the coaches are just fighting themselves mentally. I mean, they could block Vrabel, so I'd like to say yeah I wish they had taken more shots. They tried, but they couldn't block him and he had an All-Pro game. He beat tackles, he beat double teams. It's like playing against LT. Sometimes the other team just wins. Sometimes the other guy just beats you. I know that had a lot to do with them not getting it down field.

KS- Do you get the feeling that the coaching staff is coaching scared?

DW- I don't think they are scared because they have too many wins between them. But cautious? Hell yes.

KS- I already know your thoughts on the running up the score controversy that has gripped the area and all of football for that matter this week. Share your thoughts for those that weren't able to catch your position on the radio this week.

DW- Good for him. You work too hard with all these dag-gone OTAs, mini-camp, training camp, preseason games, you do it all so that you can shine on Sunday. And boy, they shined. They are a passing team. It's nothing for them to throw inside the red zone. It's what they do. They put there jumbo package in and they throw to it. It's what they do. They could have very easily stopped them, but they didn't. The fake spike, I mean we've seen it before. We all saw it with Dan Marino. It wasn't anything new. They just didn't execute. I mean, is that Belichek's fault? Not at all. This man was proven to be a cheater. He's not happy with that. He was also trying to get a competitive edge, and I don't blame him for that. What I blame him for is once the league discovered it and told him to stop, he continued. They did very little to him, but they also questioned whether their wins were legitimate, and that to me I think is the impetus for them pounding people. They want to prove a point that they are truly champions, and what better way then to thrash every opponent while the clock is running.

KS- Mike Wise had a interesting column in the Post seemingly suggesting that maybe some players on the defensive side of the ball should have taken some shots at Brady to punish them for going for the first downs and such with the game out of hand. Do you agree with this type of rhetoric?

DW- I always endorse playing hard. Any time you can get to the QB, your intention should be to get him out of the game legally by knocking him out. I mean, that's what you play for as a defensive guy. A TD for an offensive guy is the equivalent of a tackle with a forced fumble for a defensive guy. That's just the way it is. They've hindered the game more then enough with setting up rules where that can't play. They've taken away a lot of hits. I mean, they can't touch anybody. For goodness sakes, that's just real. That's what they live for. Ask any of them.

KS- Why does this offense consistently attack outside the numbers? We have one of the better pass catching TEs in all of football in Cooley, yet we seemingly shy away from attacking the middle with him, our WRs and even our backs out of the backfield.

DW- It's the damndest thing I've ever seen. They don't work the middle, while other teams do. We saw Welker going over the middle. It's easy to be critical, but we don't know what was called. Maybe it was called for them to go across the middle and the defense took it away. Maybe they got sacked. Maybe Jason missed them. We don't know that. What we do know is when we watch other teams play, it seems like everyone else that's good uses the entire field.

KS- I think that is the frustrating part. Like you said, we see other teams do it. I agree with you where you say we don't know what was called, but it just seems as though we won't or can't.

DW- Yeah it frustrating, but when you have a team that scores only 14pts, there is a lot of things that you aren't doing well.

KS- I'll ask you again this week, do you get the feeling that this team is losing confidence in this coaching staff?

DW- No. I think they know what they are dealing with. I think that had they been playing really well, catching everything, we wouldn't be having this conversation. They would have beaten Green Bay. They may not have beaten the Giants, or maybe they would have. I mean, they were on the 1, so it's not like they haven't been in a position to beat two of the teams that everyone including myself agree is the best five teams in football. They lost to Green Bay, which is one of those teams, and they lost to the Giants which I think this week is the best team in the NFC. Once you have been there with these people, you just realize that you are within striking range. That means you are within striking range of the division. They still have to play Dallas, and they have to measure themselves up against them. With that you are playing for home field and first place. There are a lot of good things that you are playing for. Your attitude just has to be that way. We are all disappointed and angry, and rightfully so. If this was December, we would be in a world of trouble.

KS- Are we at the point where this game Sunday against the Jets is a must win?

DW- Oh my God, you can't lose to the Jets. It's impossible. The Jets can win, but you can't allow that to happen. This week is a week where they have to dominate. They have to get a win where they feel good about themselves. That's really all that matters. Just get yourself in a position so that you feel good about yourself. Do that and you have a chance to be successful.