Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Who's in Charge?

At this point last season the faithful among us Washington Redskins fans were seeing visions of not only the team making the playoffs but of potentially going all the way and winning the Super Bowl for the first time since 1993. Heck, by that point I would have been happy to just see the team playing in the Super Bowl. A win could come later but just to have gone would have been great. Like many who have lost out at the Academy Awards in the past, "it was an honor just to have been nominated." Then the wheels came off the bus and while the forward momentum carried the team to two more victories and an eventual 8-8 season, it wasn't enough to get the team into the playoffs let alone the big game. So what was the problem? What happened so early on that led to so many victories last year and then led to a total disintigration that appears to be continuing with the Redskins this year?


I think firstly the decision by Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato to elevate Jim Zorn from offensive coordinator to head coach was a prime example of wishful thinking once again on the part of Snyder and Cerrato. Since Snyder came to the organization he has continued to do what he has done best and that is to try and buy his way into the Super Bowl every year with high priced players and coaching personnel who are either so egotistical or over-the-hill that no one is willing to touch them. We have had starting lineups that have sounded more like McFarlane football statue lineups rather than a cohesive team. Unlike the rare player in basketball like Michael Jordon, football games can't be won by a single great player alone; it requires a team.


But when you have a team that has players that don't play well together then what can you expect in terms of performance against non-practice squads? The game of football is definitely hard and it's easy for us sitting in the stands or sitting at home yelling at the TV to make suggestions but one thing is certainly abundantly clear to the entire NFL fan base and even eskimos in Alaska who may watch football when not looking at Russia from their igloos and that's that Dan Snyder should not be meddling in something he just doesn't understand. It's blatantly clear that he makes decisions with his heart rather than his head. He reads stats and is convinced by Cerrato that the decisions he has made and continues to make are for the best and will be the last piece of the puzzle to create a winning team.


By spending millions on players who once filled a key role but are showing signs of diminishing performance, how are they going to ever win anything? Take a look at the latest decision that has all of football-dom talking. Sherman Lewis, once a great assistant coach who has been coaching senior bingo players in Michigan the last two years was originally called in earlier this month to be an 'observer' for the offense. Po-tay-to or Po-tah-to, it's still essentially the same thing; a sign that Snyder and Cerrato were looking to replace Jim Zorn. Talk had been circulating for weeks that Snyder would likely kick Zorn out of the job if they lost another game which would have spelled certain doom. His decision then to keep Zorn but give Lewis play-calling responsibility essentially means that the team faces uncertain doom.


I remain somewhat (though that's a very long stretch of the term) optimistic that eventually some decision will be made to help elevate the team back to greatness but this certainly doesn't seem like this is it. The players on the team right now (for good or for bad) are loyal to Zorn to the extent that several have spoken out to the media about their uncertainty as to whether Lewis will make the situation better or worse. I'm beginning to see visions of potential wins riding on the back of the fact that by introducing a new coach to the mix, the Redskins will be like a 'new' team again. The reason Zorn did so well early on was that no one had game footage of a Jim Zorn coached team before. By the time the first six games were done, everyone had an idea about how the Redskins liked to play and thus they picked their opponents picked their games apart. Similarly, Lewis may have the effect of adding new uncertainty to what they may do in the face of their next opponents but it will only be a temporary fix.


While I respect Sherman Lewis for his past performance, I'm hopeful that he fails to make the impact that Cerrato and Snyder thinks he'll have. Though it will hurt to see the team lose even more than they already have, I would hate even more to see Snyder and Cerrato even enjoy for a brief time the assumption that they have made another 'wise' decision. Perhaps if those two fluke wins this year remain the only victories then maybe Cerrato and Snyder will realize not only are some of the players and coaches over their heads but so are the owner and executive of football operations. Perhaps then they'll stop meddling and let the coaching staff make player decisions rather than going for just the name and the cost. Money can't buy you anything and if the last decade is any indication, it's time that Snyder finally realize that.

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