The players will not give up on Joe Gibbs

by Skin Patrol on Nov 13, 2007 5:14 PM EST in Redskins Analysis

Not all of them, at least. Mike Wise's column today was read after I'd visited the Fire Joe Gibbs Now website (which is apparently brought to you by Don and Mike) and there couldn't be a bigger contrast to how (some) fans are treating Coach and how (some) of his players are rallying behind him. It's a great piece in aggregate though I'm only quoting players throwing their support behind a Coach they still very much want to help win. Jon Jansen, for instance

"This is Washington. This is the Washington Redskins," offensive tackle Jon Jansen said. "This is a lot of history. This is Joe Gibbs."...

"Nobody wants to be the team that doesn't get Joe back to the Super Bowl or back to the playoffs," Jansen said. "I don't know what Joe wants to do personally, but I like playing for him. He's been good for me and my family. And I would feel terrible knowing that I couldn't help him out if this was his last year."

Chris Samuels:

"Coach Gibbs is the best coach I've ever had," [Chris] said yesterday. "I respect him. I admire him in a lot of ways. He definitely still has the passion. A lot of people want to question that, but I think he's a great coach. I think we need to pick our game up. The plays that they designed, we need to execute 'em. And we didn't do it."

Fred Smoot:

"That's the Gibber," Antwaan Randle El said, with affection. "What he's done in the past, we want to try and get back to that. You ask yourself, 'Why isn't it working?' "

Fred Smoot:

"You don't want to lose, period, but going through it with Coach Gibbs is a whole other plateau," Fred Smoot said...

"We got one of the best coaches ever," Smoot said. "Why would you turn on him? That's stupid."

If you had to be a team with question marks all about, an injury of indefinite length to your best player, with strong reason to suspect that the season could slip away at any moment, I'd rather have my players behind their coach than not.

Perhaps this is me donning some burgundy shaded glasses, but I can't help but love me some Joe Gibbs in spite of all the frustrating endgames, the below .500 record, etc. Thus I'll repeat my agreement with Chris Mottram; I think Joe Gibbs has earned his time in Washington and the way (some of) his players have rallied -- though we are still 5-4 -- behind him reinforces my belief that he's a great coach, even if I'm questioning some of the on-field calls, wondering publicly about his compatibility with the rest of the coaching staff, even while considering that the game has passed him by.

He is a Redskins institution. I just cannot ignore that.

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By the way

I apologize to reader(s) for the sappy bullshit, but I just love Coach Gibbs. I can't help it. I completely understand the position of fans who are simply tired of losing and will not suffer losing, even nostalgically. I think 5-4 is a bit early to start calling for Coach to retire again, but from what I've seen so far this season, it is certainly within the realm of possibilities that we do reach a point where it is appropriate time to question the team's future, and many of the decisions thus far made have been suspect enough to warrant legitimate criticism of Coach Joe.

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by Skin Patrol on Nov 13, 2007 5:27 PM EST reply actions

Notice how well JC does when running no huddle

and here is another point that i havent heard any where else......who were his 3 td passes to.........Thrash and Mcdarell. Does JC look like a different QB when throwing to these guys.

WHY?.... Bigger bodied possesion type receivers that Santana Moss will never be, but yet for some reason we want to make moss sound god like. How many passes were just out of reach of Moss and ARE this year. Ever think its because they are both 5'10" and Campbells 6'4" with a rocket arm. This is the NFL not college and were not even close to a run a shoot or west coast type offense where smaller would maybe work.

Imagine Moss making one of those td catches from this past weekends game. You wont see it. It has to be over the top everytime.

Did a light bulb just go off. Well it should cause when Moss comes back dont expect anything different from him.

by Sincethebeginning @ Hogs Haven on Nov 13, 2007 6:44 PM EST reply actions

I genuinely feel bad for Joe

but i also feel that he and Saunders butt heads sometimes or that combo just isnt working.So the team might be suffering cause of it.

Here is a neat stat that i looked up:

Of the 22 starters on opening day we put on the field, 9 were drafted in round 1 and 7 were drafted in round 2. The total average draft position of those 9 is 10.5. So essentially 50% of our team is a 10.5 overall draft pick if you want to look at it that way.

2nd round average overall draft pick for starters was 49.2. That is out of the remaining 11 players almost two-thirds or 63% to be exact was drafted almost exactly in the middle of the 2nd round, again this averages.

2 others, Fletcher and Sellers were undrafted and we all know they are worth their weight in gold, well at least silver to us.

So why bring this up? My point is what else do our coaches need to make us a contending team. How many more 1st rounders do we need? I'm almost willing to bet that most other teams dont show these types of draft picks.

I must admit i havent looked into it but if anyone is interested i will do a comparison with another team.

by Sincethebeginning @ Hogs Haven on Nov 13, 2007 7:38 PM EST reply actions

Interesting point

but I wouldn't blame the coaches for too much of that. First off, the starters on opening day are not the starters today. Second, it indicates, as much as anything else, that a player's worth isn't necessarily tied to his spot in the draft.

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by Skin Patrol on Nov 13, 2007 8:38 PM EST up reply actions

you do you love you some Joe Gibbs

Well, 5-4, a 2nd year QB, OL injuries, and the support of your players all make me believe this team is doing fine. Even if the Skins finished 8-8 this year, I'd say give him another 2-year deal if he was ineterested.

Also, it's not the end of the world you 'blew' some games with playcalling at the very end so long as Gibbs and Saunders learn from them and move forward. It's happened twice now so no more!

by Blitzburgh @ Hogs Haven on Nov 14, 2007 1:06 AM EST reply actions

That title should say 'You Do Love You Some Joe.'

by Blitzburgh @ Hogs Haven on Nov 14, 2007 1:06 AM EST reply actions

not so quick,..

I don't think we should all turn in to bounty hunters and go straight to the top. Sure there have been some bad play calls but what team has had perfect play calling? We have played difficult teams and we can't expect to win all of them. We just aren't that lucky. But I think we've accomplished a lot in the past two games.

First, our run game is back. CP is looking much better than he did in the first 7 games. Not only that, our air game was not so shabby last game. Campbell is still learning but he's made some great strides so far this season. So what blew it then? Our defense and some play calling. Our defense is absolutely dying because of injuries, which you can't really blame upon Gibbs. How many other teams have had so many (hamstring) injuries? Maybe we should fire the medical staff before we try and fire Gibbs.

Another thing you have to weigh in is if we lose Gibbs, who replaces him? The effect of a mid-season coach change is usually disastrous. Plus it's very evident that most of the fans are very attached to Gibbs, and more importantly, so are the players. Taking Gibbs away from the mix, whether mid-season or in the offseason, might prove more fatal than leaving him in a while until other factors (injuries, play calling, time management) get remedied.

So are play calling is bad... but how many other teams have had such close games (except UVA)? If you lose the close games, people will say you had bad play calling. The games we won barely... no one was saying we had good play calling. So maybe if our offense was strong in the beginning of the season, we wouldn't have had to have important play calling in the last 3 minutes of most of our games. (But yes I realize, when the going gets tough, you have to be prepared.)

Only thing I'm still annoyed by... timeouts! Why do we never have any left with 4 minutes to go!? That needs to be addressed for real.

by Redskinette on Nov 14, 2007 12:52 PM EST reply actions