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I personally love when Mark Schlereth talks Redskins football. There's not many outsiders that know what Mike Shanahan is thinking or trying to do with game-planning, so when Schlereth adds insight, I especially listen. I had the luxury of interviewing Schlereth last year who highlighted Shanny's wretched draft history. Rich Campbell, of the Washington Times, just posted his interview with the three-time Super Bowl Champion. Stink gave great knowledge on why the Redskins' run blocking scheme is not working: poor OLine push and lack at talent at running back (still). I highly recommend reading the entire article, but here's a chunk:
Schlereth said he isn't convinced Tim Hightower, Ryan Torain or Roy Helu is the back that will propel Shanahan's running game in Washington to the highest level.
"The year that T.D. (Terrell Davis) got hurt and Olandis Gary came in (1999) and had 1,200 yards rushing, if everything was blocked the exact same, T.D. would have had 1,700 yards," he said. "And the year Mike Anderson had 1,400 yards rushing (2000), T.D. healthy, all things being equal, would've have 2,200 yards rushing. It's not that he was more physically gifted, he understood what we were doing. He's got it. It just made sense to him. That's an issue with the running back position. You've got to trust it. You've got to understand it. A lot of it is the running back, trust me."
And the thing about running the ball at a high level is that it takes pressure off of the quarterback. That will be especially important if the Redskins choose to play a rookie prospect next season.
Well, that's a bullet in my Kool-Aid pitcher. Schlereth then goes into deep specifics of why the Texans' offense, run by Gary Kubiak, a long-time coordinator under Mike Shanahan, is clicking.