Grossman Seals His Own Fate

I purposely haven’t logged onto the Washington Post website to read any Redskins stories yet this morning because I know I’m only going to be echoing in this blog what all the Post columnists have already written: surprise, surprise…Rex Grossman imploded. Through the 1st quarter of the season, Sexy Rexy had caused the overly-optimistic type of Redskin fan to think this was a new and improved Grossman. Long gone were the days where Rex would complete almost as many passes to the other team than to the guys with the same colored jerseys as him. He had matured, and he knew the Shanahans’ offensive system backwards and forwards…but I think most Redskin fans who were watching the 1st 4 games closely were just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sure, Grossman is capable of good days, like his opening game against the Giants. Even despite 2 interceptions in week 2 against Arizona, Rex also made enough good throws, including a money 4th down touchdown throw to Santana Moss, to put Washington in position to win (although you could argue that he was heavily aided by a stalwart defensive effort and a heavy dose of Hightower and Helu on the ground). For all intents and purposes, we saw Good Rex those 1st 2 weeks, but in weeks 3 and 4 we got more of a glimpse of the Bad Rex we have mentioned before. Rex’s numbers in the week 3 game against Dallas don’t look terrible at 1st glance, especially considering he was playing in a hostile environment against a solid D: 22 for 37, 250 yards, a pick, and a touchdown throw…if you actually watched the game, he was largely ineffective though. Washington’s D played well for the most part, limiting the Cowboys to only field goals and setting the offense up in great field position off of a turnover on at least 1 occasion, and yet Grossman wasn’t able to muster any consistent productions aside from 1 long drive in the 3rd quarter. The game-ender was on a sack-fumble of Grossman, which is the other type of play that has become his signature move over the years. Still, I think I wrote in a post following that game that I was willing to give Grossman a pass for the reasons stated above. Plus, while he wasn’t great in that game, he wasn’t terrible either, and I laid the majority of the blame on the Redskins’ playcalling rather than on Rex himself. The week 4 game against St. Louis was the 1st time this year that we truly saw Bad Rex rear his ugly head with 2 2nd half picks. He finished that game with a quarterback rating below 50, and only the ineptitude of the Rams and the Redskins’ defensive pressure on St. Louis QB Sam Bradford allowed Washington to escape with a win.

Still, as the Skins headed into their bye week at 3-1 and the deepest they gone into any season alone atop the NFC East in about 10 years it was hard to feel too terrible about Grossman’s limitations. You have to understand, long-suffering Redskin fans were not expecting to go 12-4 this year. We have been whining for years about ridiculous offseason moves that perpetuated a constant “win now” mentality, while in reality all of Washington’s high-priced acquisitions over the years did nothing but make the team old, expensive, and incohesive…not to mention that fact that the constant giving away of high draft picks for veteran players sapped the organization of any depth at all (or ignored some positions, such as the offensive line, all together). So, while we weren’t necessarily hoping that the Skins would suck bad enough to go 1-15 this year, I think most true fans understand that this organization is in the midst of a rebuilding process and would be willing to sit through another 6-10 season (like last year) as long as it appeared the team was building towards something. As a fan, I don’t want a team to be built for one year of success…I want something long-standing (see New England, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc.). Prior to the season I think I even wrote that the Redskins could be much improved this year and finish with same or even a worse record than last season, and I also would have been fine with that. But realistically, I was thinking this team could probably go 7-9 or 8-8. I understood that the Skins might have had the worst looking quarterback situation in the entire league when training camp opened up. Curiously, John Beck, a relative unknown, seemed like he won the favor of the coaching staff in the preseason, but almost equally as strange, Grossman was named the opening day starter for the regular season. (In fairness, they both acquitted themselves just about equally during their preseason opportunities.) However, I think most knowledgeable Redskin fans felt the same way about the QB situation that I did…neither guy is good, but that’s ok for now because they are probably (aside from a miraculous transformation of either one) just 1 year stopgaps anyway. I think most Redskin fans understood this and realized from the get-go that regardless of who was named the starter at the beginning of the year, most likely both Beck and Grossman would take turns passing the starting duties back and forth to each other. I personally think Grossman and Back will trade 1st string status, either because of performance or injury, 2 or 3 more times before the year’s end…and you know what, that’s fine for now too.

Fast forward back to this Sunday, when the full transformation back to Bad Rex had been completed. I must confess that I missed the 1st pick, but from what I can gather it was a throw into traffic down by Philly’s goal line as Washington was driving for the opening score of the game. The 2nd pickle was a woefully underthrown ball off of a flea-flicker to a streaking Jabar Gaffney, who had gotten a good 2 steps behind the deepest defender in the Eagles’ secondary. If thrown out in front of Gaffney, it would have been a touchdown. The 3rd pick was basically a game-killer. After an interception of Michael Vick set the Skins’ offense up in Eagle territory, Grossman forced a ball into double coverage that was easily intercepted by a Philly defensive back. A touchdown drive would have pulled the Redskins to within 7 with plenty of time still left in the 2nd half. The defense had seemed to regain some of its footing after a rocky start, and the Vick interception caused a shift of momentum in the Skins favor. That 3rd pick gave the momentum right back to the Eagles. If the 3rd pick was the game-killer, the 4th pick was the Grossman-killer, as he basically just threw a pass up for grabs down the left sideline. It was bad enough that it all but forced Mike Shanahan’s hand…cameras panned to the sideline immediately showing Beck getting loose. Rex’s numbers for the game: 9 for 22 for 143 yards, no TD’s, and 4 (count ‘em, 4) interceptions…transformation complete. While I had argued before that Grossman hadn’t played that bad through the 1st 4 games (2 of his interceptions were tipped/dropped by his own receivers), his overall numbers for the season speak for themselves: only completing 55% of his passes, a rating of 66.5, 6 TD’s, 9 INT’s, and 2 lost fumbles…so basically, he averaged about 1 touchdown and 2 turnovers per game through the 1st 5 weeks, which on a team with room for little error is not going to fly.

Umm, Rex...this isn't considered "open."

Amazingly, after a Beck-led touchdown drive the Skins were only down 20-13. If their defense could force a 3-and-out, the Redskin offense would have one last gasp at forcing the game into overtime at least. However, Washington’s D, which had been gashed by the run all day long, allowed Philly to pick up a couple 1st downs and subsequently run out the clock. How it was still even a game at that point is beyond me. Between the turnovers and their inability to run the ball, Washington barely had the ball at all in the 1st half, and the Eagles seemed to be running up and down the field at will. Despite their early season struggles, they displayed a lot of the offensive firepower that allowed them to put up 59 against the Skins in the same building last season. (For the record, while Washington’s defense is leaps and bounds better than last year, they still match up poorly with Philly’s offense…actually, Philly’s team speed makes them a tough matchup against most D’s, but the Skins simply don’t possess the speed at cornerback or inside linebacker to combat Vick, McCoy, Jackson, and Maclin.) And yet, after falling behind 20-0 their bend-but-don’t-break defense was able to keep them in the game the entire 2nd half. On Philly’s last drive, they just didn’t seem to have enough gas left in the tank to make 1 last stop though, and the beginning of the “John Beck era” was just too little, too late…

Other news and notes from yesterday in the NFL…

- Sad news coming out of Oakland, where it’s being reported Jason Campbell is out for the season with a broken collarbone. Campbell was having a breakout year in his 2nd season in Oakland, leading the Raiders to a 4-2 record. We had flipped to the Red Zone channel during a break in the Redskin game yesterday, and when the Raiders came on I even mentioned to Krissy that I wish Shanahan would have held on to him after coming aboard. Hindsight’s always 20-20, but looking back would you rather have Campbell for the last couple years or some combination of McNabb, Grossman, and Beck? Yea, I thought so. Still, the circus atmosphere surrounding the Redskins and their constant changes in coaching probably ruined him from being a good player here, and he needed a change of scenery. I was rooting for him to have a strong bounce-back year, but such is the nature of a violent sport like football I guess.

- Quite a funny dust-up between Niners coach Jim Harbaugh and Lions coach Jim Schwartz after San Fran’s win yesterday. I know Harbaugh is a fiery guy who has a history of ruffling opposing coaches’ feathers, but he is a little over the top for me. Still, I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he untucked his shirt like he was in a “girls gone wild” video, chest bumped one of his offensive lineman, and then oddly shook Schwartz’ hand at midfield. Schwartz clearly took exception, but he looked like such a wheenie chasing after Harbaugh as he headed to the locker room. From here on out, I’m going to start referring to Schwartz as “Jeff Van Gundy-Lite.” I love Van Gundy as an announcer, but the image of him hanging onto Alonzo Mourning’s leg during a Knicks-Heat brawl will forever be burned into my brain. Emotion and passion aside, I couldn’t help but think Harbaugh’s “over-exuberance” might have been somewhat staged and aimed directly at Schwartz, who in Detroit’s recent resurgence has been known to fist pump, chest bump, scream at officials, and generally behave like a maniac on the sidelines himself. It’s not hard to imagine Schwartz doing the same exact thing if the roles had been reversed. I will withhold judgment until I hear my boy Mac’s thoughts on the subject though, as he’s a diehard Lion fan.

I think I just sharted.

- On a day when the Redskins gagged and the Giants won to pull ahead of the Skins all alone in 1st place in the NFC East, I could at least take solace in the fact that the Cowboys continue to find ways to lose games. On the road against the mighty Patriots, Dallas somehow (mostly through the play of their own stingy D) carried a lead deep into the 4th quarter; however, the offense wasn’t able to score or run off enough clock to prevent Tom Brady and company from driving for a late game-winning touchdown…the Skins may stink, but another Cowboy collapse let me sleep a little bit easier last night.