NFL Week 11: Misogynist Hawaiian Shirt Edition, this time with some stank on it

[CountDeMoney]

Five year contract?  That's long enough to keep being paid once The Danny fires him, hires his replacement and fires that guy, and then hires the next poor bastard after that.

Jay Gruden's Redskins are finally coming to grips with reality: They are a bad team
By Thomas Boswell, Columnist
Washington Post


I'll miss Jay Gruden.

If his team eventually plays him out of town — and dead-head, lame-effort defeats like Washington's 27-7 loss to the previously 1-8 Tampa Bay Bucs are the foundation stones of all eventual dismissals — a lot of people in D.C. will miss a refreshing rookie coach who tells the close-to-unvarnished truth.

"It didn't look like we coached much today. . . . We lined up wrong. We put [Leonard] Hankerson in at the goal line, and he lined up on the wrong side of the formation. We had a couple false starts, had some holding calls, three turnovers, took some sacks we shouldn't have," said Gruden, not listing all the blown assignments, long bombs and dumb penalties by his defense against one of the NFL's worst offenses. Journeyman Josh McCown completed 209 yards of passes to just one receiver, Mike Evans.

"It looked like, really, it looked like the first preseason game is what it looked like," said Gruden whose team apparently spent its bye week studying shuffleboard, certainly not football. "We [coaches] have to first initially take the blame and then hold some accountability to the players to find out where the confusion is and why we're having this much trouble saying, 'Set, hike' and snapping the ball."

"We'll find out."

Good thing Gruden has a five-year contract. Maybe his honesty will outlast and ultimately survive the Washington tenure of some of his players who can't line up correctly, recall the snap count, remember their assignments or do any of the pre-snap functions of elementary football on a consistent basis.

If ever a home defeat, before a sparse and booing crowd, required context, this was it. As of Sunday morning, Pro-Football-Reference.com rated the Bucs as the worst NFL team since the 2009 Rams (1-15). Against a bad team, Robert Griffin III was intercepted on the first play from scrimmage, and Gruden conceded that on the final two plays from the Tampa Bay 35-yard line, with only five healthy members of the offensive line standing, he didn't even try to score. "Smart to run out the clock, get outta here and lick our wounds."

Most of those wounds were self-inflicted. Studying this tape will be mortifying indeed because coaches may realize that once Washington fell behind, it seemed many players really were just "playing for the tape" — putting in enough effort not to be singled out for fury but not nearly enough to win.

Nobody's going to escape this stinker. You would be tempted to rank it high in this franchise's all-time worst performances except that there have been so many in the past 15 years. Gruden even lowered the boom on Griffin, whose poor 73.3 quarterback rating was padded by dink-and-dunk throws.

Asked whether Griffin had earned the starting job, Gruden said, "After today's performance? Nobody has proved that they deserve to start anywhere after today's performance." Not even in Arena league?

Just days ago, Gruden made the blunder of saying this team was only "a few plays from being 7-2." Well, they sure showed him. Maybe he was just defending his team, perhaps trying some boosterism or maybe falling into the franchise-wide habit of saying what he knows the owner wants to hear.

But this is a bad team strictly on its proven demerits. Washington may have "A" players at several skill positions. But DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon, Alfred Morris and Jordan Reed constitute only a slice of one unit — the offense. Even if they, as a group, are a "B+" or even an "A," what about the offensive line, which allowed six sacks and now may lose left tackle Trent Williams? Is their grade a "D"?

What about Griffin, who has little sense of the pocket — how to move up in it, how to move laterally so he can deliver dart throws on time? Quick to flush, he still gets sacked constantly and became the first player in NFL history to be sacked at least three times in eight straight starts. Post-knee surgery, is he even a "C" yet? "It was a travesty out there today," Griffin said.

Flashy skill players are nice, but their impact is overwhelmed by "C-D-F" play everywhere else. Special teams contributed two missed field goals. And the defense? Somebody send coordinator Jim Haslett a photograph of Evans, the 6-foot-5 rookie wide receiver. He's hard to miss. But Haslett's defenses never checked his passport.

This is Haslett's 13th consecutive season, as a defensive coordinator or head coach, of producing mediocre to awful defenses. This year, they're 23rd so far in points allowed after being 30th last year. Before that: 22, 21, 21, 31, 31, 28, 28, 27, 14, 26 and 27. So Haz's average rank in points allowed over all those years is 26th out of 32. Even if his players are bad, how good can he be?

Right now, this team continues to believe, as it has for many years, that its true form is whatever it produces on its very best night — this year, that means a win in Dallas. It's the responsibility — from owner through GM to coach — to give players a true sense of where they stand, not false stature. But, in Washington, that's seldom possible because it would mean admitting the true state of the total talent pool to the customers.

At least safety Ryan Clark, a 13-year vet, took responsibility for a blown assignment on a 36-yard McCown-to-Evans scoring pass for a 20-7 lead. "If I don't give up that ball over the top, maybe it's a different game," Clark said. "I want that one back. You can't do that when you're not a good football team."

Finally, the magic words, the ones that carry some honesty — "not a good football team."

"We were 3-13 [last year] for a reason," Clark said. "This transition [with Gruden] is not about winning the Super Bowl. It's about changing the culture. It's about changing the way men work."

The way these men work, now 6-20 the past two years, was on display again Sunday. They aren't a few plays from 7-2. They aren't as good as their best game but excused for all their abysmal days.

They have trouble with "Set, hike." That's how you lose 27-7 at home to the Bucs.

[KRonn]

Indy's run defense continues to be horrendously bad, wow!

Patriots ran all over them. Just one runner, Gray got 199 yards and 4 TDs; I don't know what the team totals were. Brady did well but not a stellar game. They did pretty much trounce the Colts during the second half especially.

[CountDeMoney]

Nice to see that Belicheat still enjoys running up the score on the Colts, even without Manning there anymore.  Always consistent.

[derspiess]

Five year contract?  That's long enough to keep being paid once The Danny fires him, hires his replacement and fires that guy, and then hires the next poor bastard after that.

Gruden's stock was going down a bit last year.  He was starting to get a bit stale here in Cincy, and I feared he was heading for a Bratkowski-like spiral.  Nice guy & great family, though.

[CountDeMoney]

It's early, but the Flaming Thumbtacks look like they came to play tonight.

[derspiess]

Yeah, it was early.

[jimmy olsen]

Apparently an NFL franchise in London would have enough fans to work, but Toronto and Mexico City would be much better options.

Silver argues for four new expansions teams in L.A., Toronto, Mexico City and London
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nfl-should-expand-to-london-but-first-canada-mexico-and-la/

[Valmy]

London would be hard to beat at home with the jetlag advantage.

[citizen k]

Apparently an NFL franchise in London would have enough fans to work, but Toronto and Mexico City would be much better options.

Silver argues for four new expansions teams in L.A., Toronto, Mexico City and London
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nfl-should-expand-to-london-but-first-canada-mexico-and-la/

Mexico gets two teams.

[CountDeMoney]

Mexico gets two teams.

LOL

MC would consistently outdraw LA, and the LA franchise would have to move to Guadalajara.

[dps]

Five year contract?  That's long enough to keep being paid once The Danny fires him, hires his replacement and fires that guy, and then hires the next poor bastard after that.

I still wonder if Snyder thinks he hired Jon Gruden.

[Valmy]

No if he had hired Jon Gruden then he wouldn't have had a stooge coach who will do his bidding.

[derspiess]

By my count Football Baby is 13-3 in his picks so far through Week 11

https://screen.yahoo.com/nfl-now/football-baby-week-11-picks-013429381.html

[sbr]

No if he had hired Jon Gruden then he wouldn't have had a stooge coach who will do his bidding.

This doesn't sound like a stooge doing Snyder's bidding

Jay Gruden will either rescue or end Robert Griffin III's career in Washington; stay tuned

Jay Gruden acted like a strong NFL head coach Monday, when he became the first man in the Washington football operation with the guts to be bluntly analytical, critical and honest about Robert Griffin III's abilities as a quarterback and the ton of work he must do to master his craft.

Now, we'll find out if it works.

If this is a candid cathartic moment that bonds Gruden and Griffin, convinces them that their futures are linked and they must help each other, few better things could happen to a franchise that's been in the wilderness for most of 23 years. If Gruden's remarks, pungent at face value and a punch in the mouth if taken the wrong way, are a wedge that divides the rookie coach from his quarterback, then send a Hazmat caravan to Ashburn pronto — toxic waste spill in progress.

Normally, I don't quote at length in columns. But I'm new around here and, in my brief time, I haven't heard anything quite like Gruden on Monday. As soon as I got up off the floor, I loved it.

"Robert had some fundamental flaws," Gruden said of Griffin's two-interception, six-sack work in a 27-7 loss at home to the previously 1-8 Bucs. "His footwork was below average. He took three-step drops when he should have taken five. He took a one-step drop when he should have taken three, on a couple occasions, and that can't happen. He stepped up when he didn't have to step up and stepped into pressure. He read the wrong side of the field a couple times.

"So," concluded Gruden, who included all his players in his critique, "his basic performance was not even close to being good enough [for] what we expect from the quarterback position."

Gruden also addressed an online sports site headline — "RGIII Throws Teammates Under Bus" — that, while almost comically misrepresenting the tone of Griffin's self-critical postgame remarks Sunday, pointed out Griffin's habit of elaborating at running-for-high-office length to almost any question, perhaps mistaking intelligence for judgment.

"First of all, Robert needs to understand he needs to worry about himself, number one, and not everybody else. It's his job to worry about his position, his footwork, his fundamentals, his reads, his progressions, his job at the quarterback position," Gruden said. "It's my job to worry about everybody else. And, yes, everybody else needs to improve. . . . But it's not his place. His place is to talk about himself and he knows that. He just elaborated a little too much."

Gruden balanced every qualm with a compliment. But this barrage of blunt is going to give us some basic answers about key people — in a hurry.

Does Griffin truly want to be coached, not coddled? Given the career-military background of both parents and his ingrained respect for authority and chain of command, you would hope he does. After three serious injuries in the past five years, which have eroded his speed, does he want to join Gruden in the long hard task of remaking, but not dismantling, his lifelong style of play?

Or, after years of national adulation and attention, from his Heisman Trophy at Baylor to his meteoric NFL rookie year to the breathless attention paid to his various injury recoveries, has he fallen into the unconscious trap of seeing himself as a brand to be defended rather than what he now actually is: a 24-year-old whose NFL career may go in either direction — dramatically?

Will owner Dan Snyder, who is utterly invested in all things Griffin, tolerate a coach who says what he actually means, slaps the wrists of his two most visible stars (Griffin and to a much lesser degree DeSean Jackson) on the same day and, apparently, has decided to coach the darn team his own way and the heck with playing the cozy angles.

If things don't go well, and the team's tough schedule may have more to do with Washington's success than Griffin's short-term learning curve, will team president Bruce Allen, and others close to Snyder's ear, back a coach with few conventional credentials? Or will they, because they're all chest-deep in responsibility for paying a Marvel hero's ransom for Griffin, go the more Machiavellian route of sycophancy and betrayal that's become a team hallmark?

This is more than riveting theater on a bad team. It's irresistible arm-chair psychology. Gruden's long playing career as a quarterback, all in the football minors, was marked by lost opportunities when passers with bigger names or contracts, or a quarterback-politics inside track, got shots at NFL jobs he craved. Profiles of him give the list. How can he look at Colt McCoy, who has played in two games and won both, and not see something akin to his own frustrations?

Because Gruden has spent a career learning the difference between big talent, brains and a high ceiling (like Griffin) and moxie, polish and a lower ceiling (like McCoy or Kirk Cousins), Gruden likely will coach up Griffin like a favorite nephew — give him every last ever-lovin' chance — right up until the day the football man in him, the designer of precise offenses, just can't stand to watch one more mistake and gives the modern-day Jay Gruden . . . sorry, McCoy . . . his chance.

"He's absolutely open about it," Gruden said of Griffin. "He's very frustrated with the way he played obviously. . . . He has to be receptive. It's just a part of the position. You've got to be able to get coached and understand when you make a mistake and not do it again . . .

"Sometimes you don't need 'great.' You don't need to lead at that position on every snap. He is obviously very competitive, but we just need him to do what he is supposed to do. Take your drops the right way and throw the five-yard stick route when you're supposed to and do the best you can.

"He is a great competitor, and we've just got to try to get him better. His frame of mind is in the right place: It just doesn't come out the right way sometimes. But I think he wants to get better. He knows he has a long way to go . . . and if he stays on the right track as far as work ethic and listening and preparing, then he will get there."

Most people would rather get smacked in the face by someone with good intentions who just wants to get their full attention than be stabbed in the back by an anonymous enemy. If Griffin thinks of himself as Robert — the dedicated young man who wants to rework his style, become a student of the pro game, and eventually be a good NFL quarterback — he probably has a coach who can help him.

After all the bad breaks to his body and the career detours of the past two years, if Griffin still thinks he's RGIII in Superman socks — on the cusp of greatness — then cover your eyes. It'll be the same old movie for this franchise, with new plot twists, but the same ending: Ugly.