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Just as I was typing up this piece on Sherman Smith's interview with Kelli Johnson today, I noticed friend and blogger extraordinaire, Dan Steinberg, had posted some similar quotes from Portis' thoughts on Snyder and Zorn's struggles to deal with his manhood being ripped away.
Portis: "And I think the pressure [is] on Mr. Snyder, and he want to win so bad. And everybody's [saying] 'Oh, get him out of here, he need to sell the team, he's what's [wrong].' It's not him. I think he brings in everybody that he could possibly bring in that he think gonna help this team. I think if you look at the talent on our team, we've got a lot of talent. We've got great players. We've gotta go out and do it. It's no coaches playing for us, it's nobody in the front office playing for us. The scout evaluators, whoever they bring in, I mean, they evaluate talent. We've got talent. It's just the execution. So it's on us."
More on this below, but blaming the execution is a load of crap. The players have not been held accountable for any of their mistakes, and this falls on the Coach.
Sherman Smith's response to losing the play-calling to Sherman Lewis:
No question it was disappointing because I didn't think the play calling was the problem. I told my guys, 'Look at the run game plan and the pass game plan, and if you can show me any plays on there that will work without us executing, let us know what plays those are and we'll call them all the time.'
On some level I agree. There have been so many missed blocks, dropped balls, and bad mistakes. However, your job as a coach is to rip them for their mistakes. The Redskins Country Club is back in full effect and the lack of effort/passion shows with missed tackles and the general lack of focus.
Sherman Smith's response if Jason Campbell's career is in jeopardy:
I am a Jason Campbell fan. He'll respond well. There have been Hall of Fame quarterbacks that have been benched. If he's not playing here next year, he'll be playing somewhere. And he'll start. If he's given time to develop into a system, there is not a throw he can't make. When he gets into a system where people say, "you're our guy,"...he's going to flourish and be very successful.
Huh? Why can't Campbell be that guy here? Reading into this, Campbell does have the skills, but the front office won't ever give Campbell the time to develop since the Front Office is so impatient for results. Obviously, JC has never been "our" guy after all the coaching changes and Cutler/Sanchez talks. Another bright spot for Vinny.
The truth is, it is on the coaches just as much as the players. If the players are not "executing," then they need to be benched, traded, or cut. If that's not an option, then you need to ream these players to get it right in practice, or change the plays to ones they can do. If these players cannot execute, then whoever decided to bring in this talent needs to admit their mistakes and correct them. It took Gibbs three years to clean up Spurrier's mess, and here we are again....right back in the crapper.