As a Redskin fan, I am no stranger to quarterback switches and controversies. The Skins have had something ridiculous like 22 QB’s in 19 seasons. With that being said, “Rex vs. Becks” is nothing out of the ordinary for us, but still it’s enough to get my heart rate up a little bit going into this week’s game against Carolina, as Beck is a career journeyman who we know very little about. So, to have a quarterback controversy in my own house is a little much for me right now.
How did this happen? Well, we brought on this guy, Segu, to quarterback our coed touch football team this fall. Segu is my friend Mac’s boy from way back…the problem is that through 2 games Segu, to put it nicely, hasn’t played well. And actually, we basically pulled him in favor of my wife, Krissy, about midway through the 2nd half of that 2nd game. Now, you have to understand that putting Krissy in at quarterback is not some novelty act. I don’t think we have played against another team in 3 or 4 years that has had a full-time girl QB, but Krissy is (and I know I’m biased, but I don’t think I’m exaggerating) a great athlete. She is a former D-1 catcher (so she has a hose…I’m a good athlete, and she’s throws a football at least as far as me, and definitely prettier than me). She lettered in 3 sports in high school, including tennis (which she picked up just because she was bored during the spring basically). She was a point guard on the basketball team, and if you watch her play basketball (or any sport for that matter) she doesn’t play like a girl…she plays like a guy. I’m not denigrating female athletes, but a lot of girls who are even good basketball players don’t look like fluid athletes. They seem more rigid as the run, cut, and jump. A lot of them shoot a set shot from their waist. They do that weird move on layups and post moves where they take like a weird extra step because they can’t really jump (anyone who has watched girls’ basketball knows what I’m talking about). That’s not Krissy…she runs, jumps, and generally moves like a guy (a short guy, but a guy). So, she’s not being subbed-in as some kind of circus sideshow…she’s in the game because she can play…and she played really well.
In that 1st game, Krissy brought us back from 2 touchdowns down in the 2nd half. Our offense, which had looked stale and stagnant up until that point, looked crisp. She was decisive with where to go with the ball, spread the ball around, mixed in short, deep, and mid-range throws, and the offense moved. Really, the ball barely touched the ground. Unfortunately, we had a chance to tie or go ahead (depending on if we went for 1 or 2) on basically the last play of the game, and we failed to convert. The next week, Krissy played QB from the outset, and played really well again. This time though, we played against a much better team. Our offense probably played well enough for us to win, but our defense just couldn’t come up with enough stops. Last week, Krissy and I weren’t able to make the game, and Segu stepped back in at QB. From what I gathered, the other team wasn’t on par with the teams we played earlier in the year, but a win is still a win, and Segu played well also. So naturally, Mac posed the question to me about this week’s game: who are we starting at quarterback?
Since he asked the question, I already knew his vote was in for Segu. You have to admire his loyalty, and Segu seemed to have improved his play in last week’s win from earlier in the year. I also admit I feel bad for the kid. 1st, it’s awkward because we specifically brought him aboard to play quarterback for us…only he hasn’t played well (aside from 1 game against an inferior opponent). It’s doubly awkward because no dude who is a good athlete (which he is) and has even a little bit of pride wants to lose his role on a team to a girl…no matter how good that girl is. Mac also made the point that Segu is just getting used to playing with us, and he does have the advantage of being more mobile and having a stronger arm than Krissy. Having a girl play quarterback also eliminates “gender plays” (gender plays are plays where a girl must either throw or catch a forward pass…almost all of the teams choose to complete these plays by having a guy QB, which means only the girls on the field can go out for or defend a pass if they are on D…if you use a girl QB in those situations, everyone can go out for a pass like a normal play though), which normally can be big play opportunities because the field becomes much more opened up and less congested. So, it’s a weird situation, but the problem is that if the decision was based simply on merit, who to pick would be no contest: Krissy is the clear choice. So, I posed a question back to Mac: who has performed better to this point at point in the season?
I could tell this was a question/point that he wanted to sidestep, which is understandable because Segu’s his boy and he’s naturally going to look out for him, but he answered (probably somewhat begrudgingly) that Krissy had in fact played better to this point. The problem is that there is a counter to most of the arguments in favor of playing Segu at QB. Segu is still new and getting used to how the rest of us play, but with 3 losses already we can’t afford a huge learning curve at this point. 1 more loss and we probably will already be eliminated from the playoffs. He is more mobile than Krissy, but Krissy has mitigated that for the most part because she has become really good at not holding onto the ball. She finds who’s open and gets rid of the ball quickly and accurately. Her arm isn’t as strong, but it’s strong enough, and she seems to throw deep with more regularity and success than Segu or Phil (Phil had played quarterback for us prior to this year). That might partially be because other teams may sleep on her arm, but she also is more willing to throw up a jump ball if she sees 1 of our better guy receivers in 1-on-1 coverage, and unlike in years past where our girls were the strength of our team our athletic guys are probably our strength this year. She has done a great job of allowing us to go up and make plays on the ball while at the same time not forcing throws into coverage. The gender play issue is something that I didn’t like at 1st either, but I actually think this works out better for us this year because of the issue I just said. Overall, our girls are not our team’s strength this year. They are solid, but not spectacular. Having a full-time girl quarterback allows us to just go to whoever is open on every play. We don’t have to be bogged-down with worrying about completing passes to guys or girls. And gender plays are normally big play opportunities, but because our girls are not strong overall this year and Segu wasn’t very accurate, our gender plays mostly resulted in incomplete passes anyway…they were basically a waste. Plus, having a girl QB means we can have 5 guys go out on pass routes on every play. With a guy QB, only 4 can get out in routes because only 5 guys can be on the field at a time. This just places more stress on the defense…it’s basically the equivalent of getting 2 wide receivers, a fullback, and a tight end out in pass routes vs. having 4 speedy wide receivers go out on pass routes. This has basically replaced the old gender plays as our new source of big plays.
Because of that, our style of play is somewhat revolutionary I think. If your guys are really strong, but your girls are weak (except for 1 girl who can throw), why not play her at QB? That way you eliminate gender plays and get more guys out in pass routes every single play. I feel like it is a good strategy, but to employ it you have to have that 1 girl who can not only throw but read defenses and make good decisions with the ball. Krissy is pretty much the only girl I know of capable of that at this level. Even then, I wonder if we will ever see any other teams use this idea. Most guys are too macho to relinquish that kind of position to a girl, no matter how deserving. That’s 1 thing that is pretty cool about the group of people we have on our team though: we seem to be able to put egos aside and just do what puts us in the best position to win, and while Mac probably wishes he could stay loyal to Segu, I think both understand that this is the right choice right now.
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