Win Now, Worry About Being Good… Later

Complaining about wins in the NFL, is stupid. Yet fans often find a way. At least Redskins fans do. I won’t.

The Skins beat the Browns Sunday, in large part, because the Browns are hopeless. They lose in ways that look like a sitcom. More on that in a minute. Right now, the name of the game is to stack wins. Period. You don’t have to be good until January.

And so the Skins won. Huzzah, huzzah! That’s the ONLY thing. So you pack it up… put it away… and move on to next week.

They also won because hard headed Sean McVay is finally committing to run the damn football. Matt Jones was 22-117. He runs hard, I’ll give him that. But his lack of burst and wiggle is frustrating to me. I don’t see him as a dynamic back. It’s all power. You block him up for an 8 yard run, that’s about what he gives you. He also had a near catastrophic bobble on the handoff near the goalline. Not sure if that was Kirk’s fault. I’ll defer to Cooley on that one.

The balance was good: 26 Runs, 30 Passes

Jordan Reed I DO LOVE. In this game he became the “Fastest TE to 200 catches in NFL History.” Which I had no idea was a “record.” But hey! Good for him! He’s SWEET. Already knew that. Moving on.

A 14-0 lead was somehow turned into 20-17 deficit, and it was almost 27-17 before the fumble that might have saved the season. Joe Barry’s D has forced more fumbles than any other team since start of 2015… so give him that. But at some point, Joe Barry will have to account for his own record defensively.

Here’s an amazingly bad stat for you. Skins are dead last in NFL on opponents’ 3rd down efficiency. Yes, they rank 32 of 32 – with a shocking 57.4% conversion rate allowed.

Not only is 3rd down leader Seattle, a full 27% points ahead at 30.4%,  but the next worst team (Detroit) is more than 10% points better on 3rd down!

In every other gap between teams, there is NO difference of more than 2%!

They won, in part, because Josh Norman has been worth the price, but there are few other players worth much on that side of the football.

They won because Cleveland is down to their third string rookie QB, and down 2 playmaking WR’s.

They won because Hue Jackson inexplicably gave somebody not named Isiah Crowell the football.

Isiah Crowell was 15-112. He had four runs of 10+. He was Jim Brown, incarnate. Crowell is so good, he can post a disgusting drawing of a police officer having his neck slit, and not get cut. That’s how good he is.

So what does ol’ Hue do? He gave it to a fullback inside the 10 – fumble. He gave it to somebody else after an injury stoppage – fumble. And they threw on 2nd and 2 after an 8 yard run and got picked.

Despite all that, Cody Kessler was 10-10 passing on 3rd down.
Browns total were 8-13 on 3rd down.

Trent Murphy had one sack. Kerrigan got injured. So did Bruton and Cravens. It’s getting worse on D – if that’s possible – by the second. It’s hard to imagine it stabilizing, much less turning around over the next 12 weeks.

As for Kirk, well….

Kirk was very good early, and then terrible in a few spots. He was sacked 3 times, with some dreadful pocket awareness. He threw a rookie caliber pick. But, unlike many Redskin fans who don’t watch the rest the league… I see lots of worse QB work all over the place!

Give me a day with 3 TDs and a rating over 100? I’ll take it…

Repeat after me:
Kirk is a starting QB in the NFL.
He’s OUR starter.
And he’s going to BE our starter for more years to come…. and that’s good.

So it’s 2-2 and the season is still very viable, even though the division is far from the zombie walk of 2015. We’re on to Baltimore.