It’s been some time since the last blog was written. Two weeks of football have taken place. The Miami Dolphins came to FedEx and did exactly what everybody in the entire world expected and then our bye week in terms of the draft went just about as well as it could have. Every single team that we shared the same record as somehow won their game. The Titans comeback on the Dolphins was one of the more ridiculous things I’ve seen. You just knew once they pulled up the graphic of it being 767 games of teams winning went up by 14 points with three minutes left that something was going to happen. I still haven’t seen any live bets of people who actually did place it, and even if I did I would have to think it’s photoshop because who in their right mind would have ever taken that.
The Toney offsides definitely brought some closure to Terry’s offsides from last year. When it happened to Taylor last year, you didn’t see him stomping on the field after the game, throwing an absolute fit after the refs gave away our chance of making the playoffs. Then you have Mahomes, this prima donna superstar just running his mouth and doing nothing but making himself look bad. If I was Josh Allen, I would have laughed in his face but clearly Josh is a better sport than myself. It was a bad look for Patrick, it was a bad look for the NFL and it was nowhere near to as bad of a call that we went through last year. The video evidence of Terry shows him literally checking with the referee and getting a thumbs up. I saw zero videos of Tony getting a thumbs up. I did see him look over and then immediately look back assuming he was good. I was absolutely shocked to see Kadarius Toney still had a job on Monday morning. That dude is so lucky that for some reason, the Chiefs took on the you can’t make a call like that then in the game. He was offsides. They can definitely make the call. Mahomes took on quite possibly the most stupid argument possible in the situation. It is definitely comical how when this happens to the Chiefs, it’s national news for the week and then when it happens to us, everyone forgets about it by the next day.
Goes to show how we are easily one of the most disrespected teams in the NFL. The clips leaked of the Dolphins preparing for our game definitely contributed to this idea. One thing to note was the only player on our roster that Mike McDaniel showed some respect to was Sam. He called Sam a baller maybe three times then called us a feast or famine team, which is something that I had never thought of, but could not be any more true. When the bad is going in Washington, it is never just raining. It is torrential category five down pouring for this franchise. We haven’t seen much feasting lately, but as a fan, I still appreciated that somewhat of a complement from Mike. He definitely nailed it on the head that we had nothing to play for. My last thought from the video came from Wes Welker during their wide receiver meeting. I took this as a shot to our coaching staff, which is clearly considered one of the more inept staffs in the league. Wes knew that we were going to be stupid enough to line up in man coverage with the fastest man in the NFL. He told Tyreek to be ready to torch us when that moment came, and it did twice. We didn’t even have to wait at all as their first drive resulted in a 70 something yard touchdown to Tyreek. For those of you who immediately turned the game off and tuned in to red zone, I can’t blame you at all.
If there is one thing that we know for certain, it is that Sam Howell loves throwing touchdowns. I would say that he is quite talented when it comes to putting the ball in the end zone. Sometimes unfortunately, he throws touchdowns to the other team. It has been three games in a row with Sam throwing a pick 6. There isn’t really anything to say other than it’s really bad. The first was easy to write off, the second a little difficult, and now I don’t think I am really able to. Those three throws have definitely taken some wind out of my confidence that Sam is our quarterback for the future. Also, the disappearance of Terry is another thing that I blame Sam for. In all his interviews, he talks about getting Terry the ball then when the games come around he doesn’t throw him the ball. It is one thing I miss about Taylor because he understood to get the ball to our best player. Regardless, I still think it would be a poverty franchise move to draft any quarterback, other than Caleb Williams. However, there is no chance in hell we get that pick so it’s not worth going into it. Sam is good enough and composed enough to win us football games and it doesn’t help with the current state of our defense and this team having to throw the ball around 40 times a game. It is definitely safe to say that Sam has gotten pretty much no help aside from BRob this year. A positive note to end my thoughts on with Sam is how good he looks running the ball. There are a lot of plays where he is running for his life and it ends up working out somehow. He has rushed for touchdowns in the last few games and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him do it again today.
It is very safe to say at this point that we will have a draft pick in the top five and will be able to use it on somebody who has the potential to be a building block for the years to come. I saw the tweet referring to the Skins going into this off-season essentially as an expansion team, which is absolutely nuts to think about but unfortunately true. We will be going into the offseason with the new ownership , new coaches, the most money to spend in free agency, and a lot of draft picks. It would be incredible if we could have a Lions-like draft this year, but that might be too much to ask for. Something that doesn’t make much sense to me at this point comes from the fact that no announcement regarding Ron’s future has been made. I am only saying this because the Patriots have already announced they will be parting ways with the greatest coach of all time and it makes me question how Josh and Magic haven’t already made this announcement with Ron. Either way, that’s not something I’m worried about because there is no chance in hell that Ron is coaching this team next year. I haven’t seen any gambling lines on us getting a new coach but I would expect it to be around -100000. Before the draft, I see us getting rid of a lot of players that we are paying significant contracts. I don’t think it is a bad idea at all to create as much cap space for this upcoming free agency as possible. However, this organization has put itself in a situation where the only way we will get actual good players to DC will be by overpaying the hell out of them. This gives me fear that we will find a way to waste the $86 million and probably more than we will have to spend.
I was so high on Eric coming into this season however, I fear that some of the ineptitude that waivers around our franchise has rubbed off on him. If anybody can explain this stat to me, then please reach out because I am essentially at a loss for words and have no means of reconciling what is going on with this one. We are currently fifth in the league in yards per carry, and then somehow 30th in the league in rushing attempts per game. To me, this one really just doesn’t add up. The only explanation that I can put together is the fact that EB has absolutely no faith in our defense and he thinks the only way for us to win is by throwing all game. My argument is by running the ball all game, we chew clock and don’t give the ball to the other teams to score. We also erase the possibility of Sam throwing pick 6s. Regardless of whatever reasoning that can be conjured up to make this make sense, I think the simplest conclusion is just to say that Brian Robinson is a dog and has easily been our best offensive player this year. While I hope his injury doesn’t keep him off the field for long, I definitely understand the argument that this season has been lost, and I have no problems with sitting him to to save some carries and get him ready for next season. At this point, everything has just become so bad that even Eric’s job is not safe this off-season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us bringing in a head coach who cleans house and gets rid of everybody. I do not want Eric to leave but it wouldn’t surprise me after how poorly this season has gone. I am pretty certain he is going to get interviewed for some of these head coaching jobs opening up and we’ll get another 3rd rounder if he does.
Now to talk about the football game being played in a couple of hours. My immediate thought is that the Rams have put up over 30 points three games in a row. This should probably be an easy one for them to make it four. I expect Kyren Williams to put up around 25+ points in fantasy today. Either Kupp or Nacua will be going off today but I just don’t know which one. The team I am playing in the fantasy playoffs benched Sam Howell to pick up Matt Stafford. The team is run by Skins fan and I think this is pretty indicative of where the public opinion sits for this game. With Aaron Donald on the other side of the ball, I’m quite worried for Sam’s safety today. We have seen way too many starting quarterbacks go down this year and it would be a terrible yet unfortunately fitting way for this season to conclude. We are without Brian Robinson today which definitely hurts in more than one way. It hurts us on the field and in my gambling because now I don’t know who to bet on for an anytime touchdown. I think my heart is with Sam running another one in because as of two weeks ago it was the only way we could create offense in the redzone.
I think it’s safe to say that I don’t feel good about this one. I haven’t looked at any gambling lines yet; however, I think we can all agree taking our money line is a bad idea. Something that isn’t a bad idea is taking the over. The opposing teams have nearly hit this number alone in the last two games and it wouldn’t be surprising to see us make it three today. At the end of the day, it is just a football game and we only have so many more to watch this team play for the year. I am just asking that we don’t get blown out today and actually play a competitive game that is fun to watch. Is that too much to ask? Probably yes it is. But that’s okay because I’ll still be a fan tomorrow and for many more years to come. Wishing everyone a great Sunday. Skins by 90.
Photo Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports