Recap: Redskins vs Rams: Redskins Need a New Play-Caller

also question going for it on 4th up TWO points with two minutes to go in the game. How about kick the field goal and force the Rams to score a TD…something they’re not very good at it! At this point, the Redskins are 2nd to last in most points scored in the season…last place being St. Louis of course. Watching the game I feel as if Zorn is calling the plays to save his job.

Kevin, coaching for his job I could handle, but he was coaching out of fear, not for his job but for losing.
A game called based on a fear of losing, the team will lose more often than not, or you’ll end up 8-8-Good call by the way. It’s like playing a prevent defense all the time when choosing what offensive calls to play. Yes, Zorn runs gadget plays which is his unique style but the plays are called only when he considers it safe, and not an issue with causing the loss.
ARE option pass 2nd play of game 1, if it fails as it did what was the harm in winning or losing the game none, except that same mentality breeds within the team and everyone plays withou passion because everything is safe and medium.
I spent a good time watching a passionate team beat a better New England team on Sunday, in 2008 I watched a passionnate team beat the Eagles and score points, as long as the Redskins stay medium and play call to not lose then every game will be close and every win will not feel like a win because they play to the level of the competition.
Zorn can learn, but a change may be something which would allow him to learn. It saddens me to think of changes, changes with a new coaching staff because overall the Redskins as an organization seem to be finally “building” and spending wisely, here’s to a win and an internal change to the play calling to continue to build a dynasty.

The more I look at the numbers, the harder it is to disagree. We need some play calling skill.

Zorn has done a good job of coaching up Campbell, but I guess he isn’t capable of coordinating an offense.

Are there any good OC’s on the market?

Stripping him of his play-calling means essentially firing him. He was hired as the offensive coordinator and elevated to head coach as the play-caller. So if you strip him of calling the plays of the offense HE brought and installed, you are saying, “See ya!” (in my opinion)
After two weeks of this, I am by far not going to launch a Jim Zorn defense. But I feel like we are kind of stuck with this organizational structure for more than just two weeks. I do think he had the worst day of anyone on the Skins’ sideline yesterday.

Kevin, to be clear, I am not saying, “Give Zorn more time”…I am saying that the chaos caused by a shake-up on the sideline right now would be too detrimental. Which leaves us in the position of being forced to give Zorn more time. The good news is that we have some teams coming up that we can compete with and you’d think we would either:
a) improve what is happening; or
b) the Zorn issue will take care of itself if we can’t get out of this upcoming stretch without a greater level of succuss.

I think Zorn has done an excellent job coaching up Campbell, but I think he is in way over his head as a coach in the NFC East. Yes, people were calling for Coughlin’s head before he won the Superbowl, but with the exception of Andy Reid (and I think that is a big exception, working as a QB coach with Green Bay at that time, with Favre, I think speaks volumes more than working as the QB coach with Seattle. He just looks like he’s learning on the job, and I don’t think that cuts it in the NFC East. As a caveat I’m not fickle and going to boo the team, but Jim Zorn looks way in over his head outside of the QB coach niche. It’s sad, our defense is effective, but not in a very inspiring way, it is only 2 games in, but we can stop the run, we’re okay against the pass, we’re still not a defense that creates turnovers (i’m ducking because insecure greg blache might bite my head off for that one), and our offense is widely and rightly criticized as the most unimaginative in the league. I think Shanahan would be terrific and actually create some noise, something we need because we have too many good players, including the QB, to be this ineffectual.

I know I have probably aggravated some with my doom and gloom, but I have to agree with Kevin here, somewhat at least. The thing is, Zorn seems pretty capable at calling plays between the 20’s. But when he gets into the red zone, he locks up. I have no idea what it is, but it needs to be corrected before we go back to the big leagues. So maybe Sherm Smith taking over wouldn’t be a bad thing. It would still be Zorn’s offense, and the plays that he installs in the game plan. But maybe having someone who doesn’t have a million other responsibilities pick the plays would be the way to go here. It just seems like Zorn has no idea which plays to pick. I heard some of his postgame comments this morning, and he STILL didn’t sound sure of himself. And the fact that Danny Smith had to save him from himself is a little disconcerting as well. But, to me, the most telling sign is his interview with Sonny. I’d say Sonny knows a thing or two about playing QB. On short notice this is the best I could come up with for those comments:

Sonny started off telling Zorn if he were quarterback he’d have called a timeout rather than run that option pass to Portis, because coaches only call that play in that situation if they have no faith in their quarterback.

Funny, but the end of that statement is exactly what I was thinking while watching the game yesterday.

Seems Horton’s name is always called. Landry finished with 1 tackle.

I actually believe that for most of the game, the play calling was better than last week. I really liked the throw to Sellers at the goal line. We ran right and up the middle more, some deeper pass routes. It was just the goal line meltdowns (and turnovers) that made it so frustrating.

Some were saying the pass to Devin Thomas was thrown way too hard by JC…was that the case? I couldn’t tell from my vantage point.

The special teams did a great job. Avg. 48 yds/punt. Rams were constantly starting inside their own 20. Kickoff coverage was really good. Soooo…OK we still look like the team to give the Lions a break in their 19 game tradition.

I think at the very least Zorn should give Sherman Smith every third offensive series to call the plays. It will give the offense a different set of eyes and hopefully shake things up a bit.

concise and deadly accurate.

the fade pattern basically sums up the whole discussion of what is wrong. The fade I’m talking about is the one to ARE where he drew the interference flag that was picked up. I have a few issues with this play. First, the pass is a fade to El instead of Kelly/Thomas/MM. Zorn needs to get the right palyers on the field for a fade route. Second, Zorn needs to call pass plays where the receivers are in the endzone where they can make plays….only two play calls where JC throws into the endzone. The td pass to cooley last week was great, let’s see more of that…it will open things up more the dink-and-dunk passes and the run game. I want to see our receivers get a chance to make plays. The last issue on the fade pass is that JC needs needs to take some risk and throw the ball where only our guy can get it. All he had to do was not throw the ball into the stands and we are first and goal from the one. That was typical of JC where he does not throw the ball into seams or challenging our guys to make a play.

if we look back to last year’s draft, many folks would have liked to have seen one of those picks used to an OL slot, instead it went to Davis, who was labelled as can’t miss. The problem is, the personnel that were drafted are not making their impact on the field. I think everyone wouldn’t be pissed off if the young guys were producing, the problem is, they aren’t. Hence they get labelled as busts and the FO still has holes to fill. Did we need the TE David, no, it was penny wise and pound foolish to go draft him, but in hindsight, who do they have behind Cooley, is TE Depth any less an issue than OL depth. The problem is, we got bit where the Depth isn’t (again) and the guyys picked up to provide said depth, aka Rinehart, aren’t producing.

I see it as a pick your poison, or the NFL Murphey Law, you’ll always get dinged where you can least afford it, or the corollary is, you have depth, so get ready to lose one of your stars. The thing is, other teams don’t seem to have this issue, the problem with the ’Skins is that we lock up too many guys on long term contracts and the organization is still old school. Other organizations, like the Giants, the Steelers, the Pats, the Ravens, sorry they let guys walk and replace them with all of those supplemental draft picks and play the game that way. The ’Skins could stand to move to that philosophy, the problem is, selling it to the masses who felt that they have waited long enough to expect a winner to be delivered.

Answers, good luck, we can theorize all we wish, but we don’t own the team, all we can do is either love ’em or leave ’em.

That being said, I still have hope for this year.