The Passion of the Gibbs: Open Season, Open Letter
Dear Al Saunders:
Please run the ball this year.
Seriously, Al. In this, the Fourth Season of the Second Coming of Gibbs, you’ve got to run the ball! I realize that you got handed a crazy paycheck last year to be the steward of the offense, and on some level, I imagine that you had to go out there and prove you deserved it. After all, you didn’t want to be thought of the same way we Washingtonians think of Paul Wolfowitz’s girlfriend! So you flipped to the back of your Tolstoyian playbook, and set out to prove you had the innovations of a genius. The schemes, the gimmicks, the weird pass packages. Handing the ball off forty times a game? That for six-figure earners, right?
Well, sometimes it pays to nurse the fundamentals of the game than to break new ground. And if you want a tidy lesson on this, let me direct your attention to the three games you played between December 4 and December 18 of last year:
>>12/4: With the playoffs still possible, Washington comes out and jumps all over the Atlanta Falcons. A fourteen-point lead is built on the backs of the running game. Ladell Betts is cruising, picking up 6.2 yards per carry. Even T.J. Duckett is playing well. You get the ball at your own 48 yard line in the second quarter. Time to chew that clock and pound pound pound to a three-TD lead, right? Wrong. Instead you get fancy, Betts only gets four touches in the second quarter and we never score again. Result: Falcons 24, Redskins 14.
>>12/11: Against the Eagles, Washington works its way out of a 21-3 hole and trails 21-16 with six minutes to play. You have the ball, first-and-goal at the Eagle three. Betts is stomping up and down the field, to the tune of 5.2 yards per carry. What happens next should be academic, right? Wrong! Handoff to Duckett (2 carries for one yard), pass incomplete, penalty for having too many men in the huddle, sack, Suisham field goal. Betts never touches the ball. Final: Eagles 21 Redskins 19.
>>12/18: Two weeks too late, you return, at last, to balanced play-calling. And you win! You beat the playoff bound Saints, even!
Al, I hate to single you out here. A lot went wrong last season that you had nothing to do with. You weren’t the guy who opted to give Adam Archuleta money that would have been better off being torched. It’s not your fault Clinton Portis got jacked up in the preseason. And I think that where the quarterback is concerned, we can all agree in hindsight that Gibbs waited too long to yank the Golden Calf in favor of the Savior.
This is where you find yourself--you got weapons that can be unleashed, a defense that has good chance to return to form, and a schedule that's not as scary as it could be. But you've also got an offensive line that's not suited to dropping back in pass coverage 35 times a game. You've got a defensive front four that won't be able to perform well if they're on the field all the time because of routine, pass-whack, three-and-outs. You've got a young quarterback who aced his collegiate exams with a pair of quality rushers in his backfield.
It really adds up, Al. You can win this division. But you've got to run the ball.
And, please: no more quick wide receiver slants!
Hail,
DCist
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Washington will open its season at home this Sunday at 1 p.m. They will play the Miami Dolphins because somebody, apparently, has to.