Vision Quest: Free Lavar!! Free Lavar!!

I find myself in an odd position as a Redskin fan. I love Joe Gibbs, love him. Not only has he brought honor and tradition back to our proud franchise, we are finally winning the respect we deserve. I also love Greg Williams and I really pray that he has a secret deal in place to take over for Gibbs if and when he retires at the end of his contract. For the first time in my life as a Redskin fan I am excited to watch our defense play ball. In previous years I viewed defense as a necessary evil between offensive stints. Now I love seeing swarms of Burgundy and Gold smother a running back at the line of scrimmage or Sean Taylor knocking the snot out of receiver after receiver.

So it pains me to say that Joe Gibbs and Greg Williams just plain have it wrong when it comes to Lavar.

Now far be it for me, some dopey fan who writes for a fan web site on the side, to call out a Hall of Fame coach and one of the best Defensive Coordinators in our franchise history. And just to be clear, I am not doing that. If Joe Gibbs and Greg Williams decide never to play Lavar again I will never question the fact that Joe Gibbs is my coach and Idol and that I want Gregg Williams to be the next Head Coach of our beloved franchise.

With that said, not playing Lavar Arrington, our 3-time pro-bowl linebacker, is a big time mistake.

Currently the Redskins have the 5th best Defense in terms of yardage and the 8th Best Defense in total scoring. I know what the official line of the Redskins is. Not bad right? Why fix a wheel if it isn’t broken? Isn’t this the same defense that went #3 in the entire NFL last year? Didn’t we do that without Lavar?

Well the Redskins are doing well. But this is deceptive. The Redskins have no pass rush what-so-ever. Opposing QBS have four, five, six seconds to make their reads and throw the ball. This results in longer drives by the opponents and more opportunities for them to overcome our offensive production. And God forbid we create any mistakes on offense because our defense will not get it back for us.

Don’t believe me? Here are some stats. The Redskins rank 22nd in 3rd Down % allowing opponents to convert 39.7% of the time. This allows opponents to their drives way too often. How many times has the defense shut down the opposition on first and second down to allow a long 3rd and whatever conversion? Why is our defense so horrible on 3rd down while we do well on 1st and 2nd? Here is one answer: The Redskins are dead LAST place in number of sacks on the season. Houston is better then Washington in rushing the passer. Oh and by the way Houston is better on third downs then Washington as well.

And do we really need to talk turnovers? The Redskins rank 31st in turnover differential at -8 beating out only New Orleans and they had a flood to deal with and a 16 game on the road schedule. But don’t look to the Offense to blame them. Sure in 5 games the offense had 10 turnovers. Not great but not horrible, currently tied for 18th with Dallas. But we only have taken the ball away 2 times. 2!!!!!!!! Only Houston has a worse performance, having 1 turnover on the season. And remember as the famous football philosopher’s Three Dog Night once said “One is the loneliest number that you'll ever doTwo can be as bad as one. It's the loneliest number since the number one.”

So what does this have to do with Lavar Arrington? Well if there is one thing Lavar Arrington is good at is rushing the passer and creating havoc that leads to turnovers. Gibbs and Williams will say he is out of position at times and does not play the defense the way they would like it played. They say he takes too many chances and is susceptible to big plays. And they say when he is ready he will be allowed to play.

They are right and wrong at the same time. Yes he takes chances but if the last two losses show anything is that average dependable players like Holdman and Daniels are susceptible to big plays as well. Tatum Bell ran his first TD score right over Daniels and Holdman in the Denver game and Priest Holmes scored the winning TD on a 61 yard screen pass in which Daniels was fooled and Holdman was planted into the turf.

The right side though is not just giving up the big plays; the little ones are starting to pile up. In the closing minutes of the KC game they ran not once, not twice, but three straight times to the left (the right side of our D) with moderate success and a first down. When they ran to the right (to the left side of our D) they were stuffed. When they ran up the middle they were stuffed. Is this anecdotal? Maybe. But it could be the start of a bad trend where offenses have found our Achilles Heel and will now exploit it at will.

Playing Lavar would not guarantee that the big plays or even the small plays against KC and Denver would not have happened. But I doubt Tatum Bell’s first TD would have been so easy. And Lavar has chased down runs like Tatum’s second TD from the backside before. While I am not sure Lavar would have blown up Priest’s screen pass, I know he is the only player on the squad who could have run him down. Unfortunately he was on the bench for all those plays.

Joe Gibbs needs to show why he is the best Head Coach in the NFL. I know he has relinquished all defensive coaching duties to Williams and there is no doubt this is solely Williams decision. (And before you start, no this is not Snyder’s payback for the contract negotiations. Since Gibbs was signed Snyder has not made a football decision, period. I am not saying he doesn’t like revenge, I am just saying he is not manipulating this. This is a coach’s decision, plain and simple.) So Joe Gibbs needs to go to Williams and say “Time to let Lavar out of the dog house Gregg”.

Why should Joe do this? Because he knows that disruptive forces of nature like Lavar Arrington are worth the occasional mistake and many times make up for it on the next play. Joe knows this because he coached Dexter Manley in the eighties. He knows that sitting someone until they never make a mistake would mean he would have to recruit Jesus as a free agent next off season. Which on second thought maybe he should. I am sure the son of God has a quick first step and a few decent pass rushing moves.

I am not talking about Benching Holdman right away, but perhaps that is not a bad move either. Lavar does not have to start, but he does have to play. Right now GW is playing Chris Clemons ahead of Lavar Arrington. That’s just not rational. That points to a personality clash that can and will threaten to disrupt team chemistry. The players know Lavar’s contract size; they know that this player has performed incredibly well despite having 5 different defensive coordinators in 5 years.

It’s time to play Lavar and if you don’t believe me I got one more stat for you. In the 2 games that Lavar has not seen the field the Defense has given up over 20 points and the Redskins are 0-2.

Free Lavar!! Free Lavar!!!

Coles vs. Moss Watch

Moss 33 catches 631 yards 19.1 avg. 4TDs 9 20+ yd rec. (4 40+) (5 gm)

Coles 26 catches 289 yards 11.1 avg. 1TD 3 20+ yd. rec. (0 40+) (4gm)

I have spent most of the article berating the coaches for what I think is a bad mistake so now I will praise them. Joe Gibbs, and to a lesser extent Dan Snyder, deserves a ton of credit on this one. With less then a third of the season over with it is almost assured who won in this trade. That’s right, your Washington Redskins. So why do I continue to bring this up week in and week out? Because I have never seen such carping and guff from all of the professional sports “analysts” in all my years as a football fan over this trade. Hell even some of the posters on this board questioned their sanity of taking a 9 million dollar cap hit for the “superstar” Coles to be traded for a “sub-par” Santana Moss. How do you feel now?

Moss has doubled Coles in yards, almost doubled him in YPC, and tripled him up in receptions over 20 plus yards. In addition Moss has 4 receptions over 40+ yards and 4 TD receptions compared to Cole’s big old goose Egg in 40+ receptions and measly 1 TD. All this with Coles having an extra game played on Moss.

It may be too early to tell but this is probably going to go down as the best trade of the Snyder era Redskins, and maybe the best player for player trade in Redskin history.

Kansas City Heroes and Goats

OFFENSE

Hero: Santana Moss 10 receptions 173 yards 2 TDs

Goat: Rock Cartwright 4 rushes 14 yards, big fumble ret for KC TD

What can you say about Santana Moss but “Man that guy is fast”. His heroics kept the Redskins in the game. He had a chance to actually tie the game and add another 30+ yards and TD in the closing seconds but the ball was batted away at the last moment. The 78 screen pass was all Santana and got us back in the game when we were all but down and out. I can’t say enough about him and all I know is I am glad Snyder signed him to a lucrative extension already.

I am a big Rock Cartwright fan but that fumble killed me. We were driving to take the lead and on the 20 you fumble the ball and allow KC to run 80 yards for a TD. Just disgusting. I rooted for him to make the team but now I am wondering if I was wrong. Perhaps Earnest Byner (RB coach) sees a little of himself in Rock. Fumbling in the red zone used to be his specialty, and now he is giving it to Rock.

DEFENSE

Hero: Sean Taylor 5 tackles a forced fumble

Goat: Warrick Holdman 2 tackles and dirt for lunch.

Sean Taylor showed why he is becoming one of the most feared safeties in the NFL. His jarring hits and forced fumble of Priest Holmes were about the only good thing the defense did Sunday. Why is it that the ball always seems to fly into the hands of our opponents on our forced fumbles? Taylor is a pure stud though and is still learning. Next year he will be an all-pro (I just hope it is not of the Florida Penal league), this year he simply is one of the most feared men in the NFL.

Warrick Holdman had his second ho-hum game in the road. His incredible mediocrity is starting to hurt the defense and it showed on Priest Holmes winning 60 yard screen pass. He was in position; the only problem was that a KC blocker planted him into it. Holdman is the only LB in the NFL that is judged the same as Heidi Fleiss, both are in position if they are on their back with their legs up.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Hero: Derrick Frost 4 punts 46.8 avg. 41.3 net

Goat: NOONE!!!!

Derrick Frost finally showed why he was signed and Andy Groom was let go. His punts were high and long. The only gaffe was his first punt that went sailing into the end zone from our 40. Otherwise his punts contained Dante Hall one of the most dangerous kick returners in the game. He even pancaked a blocker and talked smack during one return. I didn’t give the goat to anyone because everyone seemed to do their job. Novak’s kicks were short but probably to keep hall from breaking one long. Everyone stayed in their lanes and suffocated the KC return specialist. Finally Danny Smith earned a paycheck.

Looking Ahead

San Francisco is an important game for the Redskins. Coming home to a mediocre team would normally spell disaster to the redskins, but after two tough close losses I am sure that they will be looking to take out their frustrations against somebody. Plus a rookie QB making his 2nd start is historically a very very bad thing, let alone against this defense.

A win is important to set up the next part of the schedule. Of the next 8 games only Philadelphia in my mind is a real danger. San Francisco is rebuilding, the Giants defense is porous and about to collapse, Tampa Bay is a fraud relying on a young running back which plays right into our hands, Oakland is coached by Norv Turner (enough said), San Diego is not playing up to expectations, St. Louis was beat by San Francisco, and Arizona is, well, Arizona. A strong win against Frisco will set up a nice stretch run and put is in good position for the closing three games (Dallas, NY Giants, and Philadelphia).

We all believe that the Redskins are a playoff team. Playoff teams beat the teams they are supposed to beat and find a way to win a couple of others. Good playoff teams also win at home. Non playoff teams lose to powder puffs on their home turf. Believe it or not San Francisco may be the true test of what this team is. So those going to the game make Fed Ex rock!!! Welcome your boys home and help them to victory.

We need every win we can get.