I’m going to miss Smith.

This wasn’t Smith’s first go-round with the ‘Skins. We might be ranked 8th overall in punting this season, but the yards per punt average has been steadily slipping in the past six games (and it’s not because our offense is moving the ball and punting to nail the other team inside the 10, either). That botched XP wasn’t Smith’s fault any more than it was Gano’s, that goes on the snapper … however, it made it easy to look at a weak position that could be easily adjusted, and Hunter the Punter just wasn’t getting it done there at the end.

I thought cutting Hunter was pretty tacky and ruthless given the circumstances, but maybe somewhat defensible, because the misplay could have been due to a lack of concentration, and coming on top of a mediocre performance, enough to say “let’s try somebody else”, more for next year than this year. But then Mike comes out and says (paraphrased, not a quote), “well, the firing had nothing to do with the missed snap, but was because we weren’t happy with his punting, especially the hang time”. I think, aw, come on man, it’s just a coincidence? You gotta be kidding me. It seems to me that you can’t automatically believe a lot of what Shanahan says – he dissembles, is “cute” and deceptive – remember the Haynesworth, Thomas, Dockery, McNabb and other incidents. It’s not lying, more just “playing games”, but still a big difference from Joe Gibbs. You could believe everything Joe actually said. Of course, a coach cannot tell too much, but he can avoid lying in a lot of ways (e.g., Joe talked platitudes and happy talk).
By the way, I could see them giving Rex Grossman some playing time, not because they are down on Donovan, but to see if Rex is a competent backup and maybe even sometime starter next year. That’s going to be important in deciding whether to draft a quarterback next year.

There was no Post Game show Sunday – do they just stop it when the Skins are eliminated from the playoffs, or did something happen? I know Brian Mitchell was very critical of Shanahan on the Haynesworth suspension.

You know, there was one thing I was thinking when the season started and we released Ethan Albright and (at the time) Hunter Smith.

Shanahan may be grooming the specialists for the future. I honestly think he realized a long time ago this probably wasn’t a playoff team. He was thinking, I can get young guys involved and get them some experience this year so they can be better in the future (ie, what we want him to do with every position on the team). I think he thought that for Gano — let him be like David Akers, a guy who couldn’t make it on a playoff-contending team (at the time, the late-90’s Redskins) but who could perfect his game on a non-contender (at the time, the late-90’s Eagles) and be ready for the big time when the moment was right.

Of course, that notion was mitigated when we signed ancient Josh Bidwell to punt, but I do think that there is some merit to having a young kicker grow into his role and a young long snapper for years to come. Danny Smith and Shanahan seem to think they have enough talent to gamble on… I think we’re going to be stuck with both Gano and Sunberg as a result, for better or worse.

It was pure scapegoating to fire Hunter at this point. Firing him , in my opinion, is letting the offense off the hook for a lack of points, and letting Gano off the hook for failing miserably at his job. At this point in the season, I want to see the semblance of some continuity in some area of this team. I think they should have left this kicking unit in place to work together and get more comfortable with each other.

And wtf is up with not targeting Cooley until the 4th quarter…