WASHINGTON — You know those “You Had One Job…” memes? The ones where
something so simple is done so wrong it totally boggles the mind?
Well, the Redskins are giving us a host of reasons to give Pic Stitch a
workout.
The ‘Skins just came off a bye week, thus giving them two weeks to prepare for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were at home against a previously one-win team
with the league’s worst defense statistically.
And they lost. Badly.
Apparently, that was only the beginning. Robert Griffin III — fresh off his
decidedly mediocre performance — took the podium after that embarrassment and
owned his 73.3 QB rating…but not without bringing his teammates down with him.
Then, receiver DeSean Jackson (who to his credit, has gone more than half a
season before his first quasi-meltdown as a Redskin) took to Twitter with some
more
passive-aggressive drivel.
Was he co-signing RGIII’s comments? Was it a dig at Griffin? Either way,
you’re not helping, dude.
Oh, and my favorite. Coach Jay Gruden lowered the boom on his quarterback
during Monday’s press conference.
“Robert needs to worry about himself,” Gruden said. “I’ll worry about
everybody else…He elaborated too much.”
But wait. There’s more.
“Robert had some fundamental flaws,” Gruden added. “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 from his
basic performance, just critiquing Robert, it was not even close to being good
enough to what we expect from the quarterback position.”
Gruden isn’t without blame for the current predicament (his Monday reaction
made this into a way bigger deal), but he’s totally right when it comes to
Griffin. Regardless of whether or not there’s any truth to the notion that
he’s lost the locker room, RGIII isn’t a team captain. He’s in no position to
go up there and speak for the team, even if he plays the position associated
with leadership.
As the quarterback, he gets all the credit when things go right so he’s got to
learn to fall on his sword when things go wrong. The blame/credit quotient is
way out of whack when it comes to NFL QBs, so “fair” isn’t even the issue
here.
The problem is Griffin clearly doesn’t “get it.” When asked the difference
between his brilliant rookie season and now, he put it on the team around him.
“If you want to look at the good teams in this league and the great
quarterbacks, the Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Mannings, those guys don’t play well
if their guys don’t play well. I need every guy in that locker room and I know
they are looking at me saying the same thing.”
You know what else the Mannings do, RGIII? They take responsibility, no matter
what. Peyton and Eli combined to throw 7 interceptions in ugly losses Sunday,
and neither one made it about their teammates. They owned it.
Until Griffin is willing to stop using twitter
to dodge bullets and start taking them at the podium, things are only
going to get worse (especially with two tough road games the next two weeks).
So if Santana Moss had a
problem with dry snitching before, he’d better keep his head on a swivel
this week.
On that note…we turn to the Week 11 recap:
Bills 9
Dolphins 22
Too bad Chappelle’s Show isn’t around to do a fresh “When Keeping It Real Goes
Wrong” for Leodis
McKelvin…
Bucs 27
Redskins 7
Mike Evans has totaled 458 yards and 5 touchdowns in the last three weeks with
“Tears of McCown” and Mike
Glennon throwing him the ball. This kid is legit.
Texans 23
Browns 7
Houston may have played their quarterback situation right. While Johnny
Football rots on the Cleveland bench, Ryan Mallett went from carrying pads and
clipboards to carrying the Texans to victory in a battle of ex-Patriot
backups.
Falcons 19
Panthers 17
Matt Ryan said this week his now 4-6 Falcons have everything they want right in front of them.
Apparently, that doesn’t include the rest of the division…Atlanta is
suddenly a first-place team. (Which, in the case of the NFC South, is like
being the tallest dwarf.)
Vikings 13
Bears 21
Chicago won at Soldier Field for the first time since December of last
year…but all I can think about is how amazing it’s going to be when Mike
Shanahan takes over and gets reunited with Jay Cutler.
Seahawks 20
Chiefs 24
Either Brandon Mebane is the key to the Seattle rush defense or Jamaal Charles
is back in a major way. Regardless, the Seahawks look like a distracted team
in trouble with the red-hot Cardinals coming to town.
Bengals 27
Saints 10
New Orleans has lost consecutive home games under Sean Payton for the first
time since Weeks 15 and 16 of the 2009 season. If I recall correctly, they won
the Super Bowl that year. For the sake of my preseason Super Bowl prediction,
I hope this isn’t coincidence because…
Broncos 7
Rams 22
…the other half of my Super Bowl dance card was held under 20 points for the
first time in 31 regular season games and lost Julius Thomas (NFL leader in TD
catches), Emmanuel Sanders, and Montee Ball to injuries in the process.
Meanwhile, St. Louis has handily beaten both Super Bowl teams from last year.
I give up on this season.
Niners 16
Giants 10
Odell Beckham is crying. Eli Manning is throwing picks by the bushel. The
defense is dead last against the run. Not a good year for football in New
York.
Raiders 6
Chargers 13
Oakland can’t really go 0-16…can they?
Eagles 20
Packers 53
If you’re a Green Bay fan: you have Aaron Rodgers as your QB. You’ve outscored
the opposition 128-9 in the first half of your last four home games. You’ve
hung 50+ points on the board in back-to-back games, including a beating of
Philly Sunday that involved all three phases of the game scoring touchdowns.
So are you really concerned you can’t hit extra points? #FirstWorldProblems
Lions 6
Cardinals 14
Arizona fans (both of you): if you don’t have faith in Drew Stanton carrying
the Cards to a Super Bowl, it’s safe to place your trust in that defense. A
secondary good enough to shut down Megatron and tally the second-most
interceptions in the league is going to keep you in a lot of games.
Patriots 42
Colts 20
The Pats have now beaten the other AFC division leaders by a combined score of
128-58, Gronk is throwing people out of the club, and
some guy named Jonas Gray became the first NFL player since 1921 to record 4
rush TD in a game he entered with 0 career rush TD. I’m starting to think we
may see this team in Arizona come February…
Steelers 27
Titans 24
Pittsburgh has finally found their bell cow: Le’Veon Bell’s 204-yard night was
the fourth-best single-game total in Steeler history — and they’ll need him
to have more games like this if the Steelers are going to get back to the
playoffs.
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