Commanders

[Chocolate Lab]

Williams doesn't play very much of the "buddy ryan" defense. He's mainly a 4-3 guy.

If he did what Buddy Ryan did, he'd have some decent DL on hand. Buddy always went with the DL first when getting players.

Chicago: Dan Hampton, William Perry, Richard Dent, Steve McMichael

Philly: Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Clyde Simmons, Mike Golic, Mike Pitts.

Washington: Carter, Griffen, Salave'a, Daniels

What's wrong with this picture?

Apparently in Skins Bizarro Land, the DL doesn't matter. You get a 35-year-old middle linebacker, and presto, suddenly you can stop the run.

I've never seen anything like Skins fans. They are unbelievable.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

I'm going to enjoy watching Witten and Fasano streaking down the middle of their D, while Landry is attacking the LOS and Taylor is lost down the field

Crayton on Smoot, oh boy, it's gonna be fun

 

[AsthmaField]

Apparently in Skins Bizarro Land, the DL doesn't matter. You get a 35-year-old middle linebacker, and presto, suddenly you can stop the run.

I've never seen anything like Skins fans. They are unbelievable.

:lol:
Being on ES is like being in Oz. I want to ask the LolliePop kids if Gregg Williams is a good witch or a bad witch.:blind:

 

[burmafrd]

Good QBs eat blitzing teams. If you get no pass rush from your DL in the 4-3, you have to blitz constantly- which takes away the surpise factor. If you have a good O line- the blitzes will be picked up for enough time for a good QB to beat it. That is what will kill the Skins D in the end- even if the other weaknesses don't.

 

[silverbear]

I might be wrong, but I believe that the original poster was merely referring to our starters performance. If that is the case, then the statistical argument holds no water unless we refer to the opposing offense's starters performances. I'll look it up later, I got much to do in the work realm...

If you look closely at the stats, the numbers the starters put up are very close to what the backups put up when they were in the game...

Besides, the original poster said nothing about starters... his comments were about the SKins' preseason performance as a whole...

 

[Bizwah]

Ok....let's remember that the Skins haven't been exactly been playing the 92' Niners.

They've played:
The Titans...without their only good offensive player
The Steelers....who aren't all that good on offense (and they're learning a new one BTW)
The Ravens...another poor offensive team. Heck, the Giants shut these guys down.

I admit....they'll be better. I think last year's results came from a mixture of injuries, personnel, and a scheme that some teams had figured out (and the players didn't quite grasp). They've improved personnel in the back seven, but their front four is still poor.

The Skins will be ok....middle of the pack...which is a great improvement. But they'll have to blitz to get any pass rush, and they'll have to run blitz a lot as well. Teams will get some big plays against them, but they'll also get their share of big plays.

 

[Mansta54]

btw I think our record will be between 7-9 and 10-6. I don't see us being worse than 7-9 and I don't see us being a lot better than a 10-6 team.

:suxskins:

 

[Ren]

I don't think you can tell much from wins and losses in preseason, but I think you CAN judge a team some by the quality of its play. I've watched all three of the Skins' preseason games, and from what I've seen, they appear to be the class of the division, defensively speaking. They look quick and aggressive, penetrating the LOS and swarming the ball. Their OL has looked pretty good, too, despite losing Dockery and Samuels being out. If they get decent QB play, they will be tough.

Don't get me wrong. NOBODY hates the Skins more than I do. NOBODY. And as always, I'll reserve real judgement until after week three or so of the season. Quarterback aside, though, Washington has impressed me a lot more than Philly.

It's a dobble edge sword, the same excuse the skins fans are using to explain their poor offence (we're only using 2% bla bla bla) migth be the same reson their D looks good the skins ain't the only team playing vanilla offence in the preseason

 

[silverbear]

Let me restate my original post, with this caveat: I hope I'm as wrong as some of you say.

I don't think you can judge a team by stats or wins/losses in the preseason,

You couldn't be more wrong about that... if you know how to use the stats, they can tell you just about everything about how a team has played, even in preseason...

Example-- I've made a point about how the Skins are still easy to throw on, citing a 65.5 per cent completion rating... if you look closer at that number, you'll find the opposing "starting" QBs have put up numbers as good as, if not better than, the backups who followed them, while playing mostly against the Skins' starting defense:

McNair was 14 of 19, for 98 yards, 1 TD and 0 ints over the weekend... Roethlisberger was 8 of 12 for 87 yards, 0 TDs and 0 ints the week before... Rattay was 13 of 21 for 123 yards, 0 TDs and 0 ints in the opener...

Add it up, and the "starters" (keeping in mind that Vince Young is the starter for the Titans, not Rattay, and he didn't play a snap in that game) combined to go 35 of 52 for 308 yards, 1 TD and 0 ints... that works out to a combined quarterback rating of 89.3, a completion percentage of 67.3 (even higher than the overall completion percentage they've allowed)...

Before getting all scared of that ferocious defense, you might also want to keep in mind that the Skins have played three offenses that ranked 20th (the Steelers), 27th (the Titans), and 17th (the Ravens) last year...

In most of the statistical arguments I've made in this thread, the numbers put up by the Skins "starters" are comparable to, or worse than, the overall stats at the end of the game...

Their starting DL and LBs have yet to record a sack, the only sack to date being recorded by CB Shawn Springs... their only int was recorded by Dallas Sartz, who is not a starter... so their starters are not getting pressure on the QB, and they're not forcing turnovers, two areas that were their biggest weakness last year...

All in all, if you look closely at the Skins' defensive performance thus far in preseason, you see an upgraded linebacker corps, an overall good defense against the run, improved team speed, and has been pretty good so far when it comes to keeping opponents out of the end zone (though it must be noted the Steelers were driving, on the Skin's 29 yard line, when the game was called this weekend)... but you also see an inadequate defensive line that can and will be exploited by opponents, a secondary that still allows receivers to come open...

Two years back, when Skins fans were woofing in preseason about how good their defense was, claiming it was top 5, I told them they'd finish outside of the top 5, but in the top 10, and that the Cowboys would also be a top 10 defense... and when the season ended, the Boys ranked 10th, the Skins ranked 9th... last year, I told Skins fans that their defense would be pretty bad, and they were...

These predictions were based on their play in preseason, as well as a critical look at their roster...

This year, I'm predicting they wind up somewhere in the 15th to 20th best defense in the league, middle of the pack...

I'm also predicting their offense will finish no better than 20th... that adds up to a team that will finish at or under .500...

Feel free to remind me of these predictions at season's end...

 

[silverbear]

btw I think our record will be between 7-9 and 10-6. I don't see us being worse than 7-9 and I don't see us being a lot better than a 10-6 team.

That might be close to right-- if they get lucky on the injury front... if they don't, their lack of depth at most positions will hurt them...

 

[silverbear]

you switched to the cover-2 because you couldn't stop the short passes, the cover 2 is a zone, it's intended to make it harder for teams to pass in the middle of the field

And opponents are still using the short pass effectively against the Skins in preseason, as opposing "starting" QBs have hit on 67.3 per cent of their passes, but for a very low 5.9 yards per attempt... that figure ought to be higher with the high completion percentage...

 

[silverbear]

I'm going to enjoy watching Witten and Fasano streaking down the middle of their D, while Landry is attacking the LOS and Taylor is lost down the field

Crayton on Smoot, oh boy, it's gonna be fun

I'm gonna enjoy watching the Cowboys' power running game, with those mastodon offensive linemen, against the Skins smaller but swifter defense...

 

[BigDFan5]

For the skins troll stroking off Gregg Williams in this thread look up his records as D coordinator he spends as much time in the bottom half of the rankings as he does the top

 

[Sarge]

Defensively speaking, they are a VERY good team. Offensively speaking, they are very offensive.

 

[Parche]

They can still be thrown on, allowing a 65.5 per cent completion rate and 194.8 yards per game passing, they're not generating anything in the way of a pass rush (1 sack in 2.5 ballgames), and they're not forcing turnovers (2 thus far in preseason)... they're doing a fine job stuffing the run, and a good job in the red zone, but they have problems...

Actually, even with the Texans game, we've been the class of the division, defensively speaking... we're giving up 259.7 yards per game, the Skins' adjusted (2.5 games) average is right at 290 yards per game... we're allowing 58.9 per cent completions, compared to the Skins' 65.5 per cent... we're giving up 184.3 yards per game passing, to the Skins' 194.8... we've recorded 4 sacks, to the Skins 1... we're giving up 75.3 yards per game rushing, to the Skins' 96.0 (again, adjusted for 2.5 games played)...



If you take their 3 game totals and divide them by 2.5 (since they really only played barely more than a half this weekend), they're gaining 236 yards a game of total offense... that would rank them 31st in the league this preseason... their adjusted scoring average (once you factor in 2.5 games played instead of 3, and 7 of their points coming on a short int return for a TD) would be 12.0, which would rank them tied for 31st in the NFL in the preseason... their yards per carry average is 2.5, dead last in the league... they've given up 8 sacks in 2.5 games, which would work out to 51 sacks for a 16 game season...

I don't know which Skins team you've been watching, but their offensive line play this preseason has been completely putrid... which is, of course, why they went out and traded for Pete Kendall...

Nice analysis, Ive watched the 2 first matches of the skins this preseason and had the feeling that they were performing fine..... until Ive read this analysis hehe....

Still we have to face em and beat em yet, tough...

 

[SultanOfSix]

"Class of the division"? ***?

 

[Da Hammer]

London Fletcher has made a huge difference for them in their run defense. When they got him I said it was a good acquisition. Then they drafted the best Defensive player in the Draft. They'll be better than I am comfortable with. I think the Giants drag the bottom of the division this year.

Oh, and Philly still owns us until further notice.

Once again it's going to be very tough.

hit the nail right on the coffin! i was pissed when the skins took landry...

 

[AmishGangsta]

It's only preseason, but you would like your team to come out and and play well, and the Skins have done just that on defense, and as far as the offense, they are missing some key components, not to mention the fact that, for the most part, Gibbs and Saunders offense's always looks shaky in the preseason.

To anyone who's watched the the last two games against the Steelers and Ravens, it was obvious that the Skins outplayed them.

I think the most telling stat is the fact that the Skins lead the league in fewest points given up in the preseason only allowing 25 points; only giving up one Touchdown, and they haven't been blitzing - a trademark of Gregg's defenses. That in itself should create more sacks and turnovers.

I said in the beginning of the offseason, that the Skins defensive line was being credited for too much of the blame of the defensive collapse in 2006, when I thought most of the problems were with the linebackers and secondary.

The Skins were criticized for taking Landry and not drafting a defensive lineman, and I think you're starting to see why they drafted him.

You really have to take what the media says with a grain of salt in the beginning of the season, they just project the current season to play out almost identically to the previous season, and we all know how often that really happens in the NFL.

That being said, I haven't watched a single Cowboys game in the preseason, so I can't say that the Skins D is the class of the division; however, I might checkout the Texans game to see what all the hype is about

Also, I agree with a previous member that said the Commanders will get off to a fast start, checkout their schedule: (while there's parity in the NFL, and some of these teams will be better than they were last year, most of these teams are beatable.)

Dolphins
@ Eagles
-bye-
Giants
Detroit
Green Bay
Arizona

 

[dallasfaniac]

....and Ravens, it was obvious that the Skins outplayed them.

So outplaying them is being behind by 1 at half, getting a pick when the QB is hit from behind and returned by a backup, and having the game called when the other team has marched it down just outside your 20. I suppose it would help your stats playing almost a full half less than everyone else. Gotcha.

 

[AmishGangsta]

having the game called when the other team has marched it down just outside your 20.

Actually, the game was called right after the Skins defense forced the turnover and scored the touchdown, after halftime. Come on man, did you watch the game or did you just look up the drive summary on NFL. com?

*EDIT* I thought you said that the Ravens starters marched down the field on the Skins to end the game, my bad. *EDIT*