Redskins in the Redzone vs. the Rams

Jim Zorn's play calling appears questionable

after the Redskins fail to get a touchdown

in Week 2 against the St. Louis Rams

Here was the Redskins play calling in the redzone in a 9-7 victory against the Rams. Obviously, the Redskins failed to get a TD in the redzone; many have questioned the play call down the stretch.

1.

1-10-STL19	(7:10) C.Portis left tackle to SL 8 for 11 yards (J.Laurinaitis).
1-8-STL8	(6:25) C.Portis up the middle to SL 7 for 1 yard (O.Atogwe, D.Vobora).
2-7-STL7	(5:50) (Shotgun) J.Campbell pass short middle to C.Portis to SL 3 for 4 yards (C.Ryan). Shovel pass
3-3-STL3	(5:10) (Shotgun) J.Campbell pass incomplete short middle to D.Thomas.

Zorn called 2 run plays on 1st down. The shovel pass to Portis might as well have been looked as a delayed handoff. Campbell threw a pass on the money to Devin Thomas; however, the pass had a lot of heat on which made it difficult to catch and ultimately Thomas dropped the pass.

2.

1-8-STL8	(8:55) C.Portis up the middle to SL 10 for -2 yards (L.Little).
2-10-STL10	(8:15) (Shotgun) J.Campbell pass incomplete short middle to M.Sellers (D.Vobora).
3-10-STL10	(8:10) (Shotgun) J.Campbell pass incomplete short right to A.Randle El (R.Bartell).

Campbell was hurt by a dropped pass by Mike Sellers. On 3rd down, there was pass interference on the play but because Jason Campbell threw it way over Randle El, the pass was deemed uncatchable and therefore no penalty was assessed.

3.

1-7-STL7	(8:00) C.Portis left end to SL 7 for no gain (G.Gibson).
2-7-STL7	(7:25) C.Portis right guard to SL 5 for 2 yards (W.Witherspoon, C.Long).
3-5-STL5	(6:40) Lateral from 17-Cambell C.Portis pass incomplete short right to C.Cooley. Penalty on WAS-W.Montgomery, Offensive Holding, declined.

The Redskins ran the ball two times and even when they looked to pass, Portis made the throw, not Campbell. Even worse was the fact that since it was 3rd down, the Rams had to expect some sort of passing play from the Portis toss outside.

4.

4-1-STL20	(3:47) C.Portis left tackle to SL 11 for 9 yards (J.Wade, O.Atogwe).
1-10-STL11	(3:00) L.Betts left end to SL 7 for 4 yards (J.Laurinaitis, J.Wade).
2-6-STL7	(2:20) L.Betts left end pushed ob at SL 4 for 3 yards (O.Atogwe).
3-3-STL4	(2:13) C.Portis left guard to SL 2 for 2 yards (L.Little, O.Atogwe).
4-1-STL2	(2:00) C.Portis left end to SL 4 for -2 yards (D.Vobora).

On the Redskins final drive, the Redskins chose to run it all 5 times in the red zone in an effort to kill the clock. Eventually the Rams caught on and stopped the Redskins on 4th and short.

Analysis

- Jason Campbell had 1 completions from 4 passes in the redzone. His only completion was a shovel pass to Clinton Portis which may has well been classified as a running play.

- 2 of Campbell's incompletions were the result of dropped passes. One of Campbell's throws was a throw away because of too much pressure

- The Redskins ran it 5 out of 5 times on 1st down inside the redzone.

- The Redskins averaged only 2.8 yards per carry inside the redzone.

- Redskins averaged only .57 yards per carry inside the 10 yard line on.

- The Redskins averaged .8 yards per passing play inside the redzone including Portis's pass to Cooley.

Overall, the Redskins were ineffectively a combination of the play on the field but also the play calling by head coach Jim Zorn.

OT: Obama calls Kanye West a Jackass

Nearly four years after saying that George W. Bush doesn't care about black people, President Obama calls Kanye West a "jackass" for West's conduct at the VMAs. Obama's comments were supposed to be kept off record until Terry Moran of ABC News tweeted about; the tweet from Moran's twitter account has now been removed.



It would be funny if the Republicans began to reach out to Kanye West. But I don't think West's outburst was that bad and it wouldn't surprised me if it was staged by MTV.

The Washington Wizards' Players Predictions Before the Season

Arenas, Butler, and Jamison have different approaches

as the 2009-10 season begins

Here is what Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antawn Jamison have to say about the upcoming 2009-10 Washington Wizards season before it opens and each have different levels of optimism before the season starts.

Gilbert Arenas has been known to make bold predictions in the past; he predicted big things for the Wizards in the 2007-08 season before re-injuring his knee. Now Gilbert Arenas understands that his team needs to prove it on the court before they get any accolades.

Arenas in a Washington Times article says this:
"Where did we finish in the East last year?" [Arenas] asked. "Last. Then until we prove ourselves, that's what we are. You can't predict. Anyone can guess where we're gonna be at. But until the ball goes up in the air, we're last in the East. We took some steps in the right direction this summer, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I saw. If you wanna say stuff, it's just for conversation, just for the chat rooms. And it's all great and wonderful, but it doesn't mean anything."


Caron Butler is a little bit more bold in a Washington Wizards Interview citing that this team: he believes the Wizards are ready to compete this season.

Now that [Arenas] has the confidence, I think the sky is the limit. You can expect big things out of Agent Zero. We definitely need him because we are ready to win this season.

Surprisingly, the most bold teammate is none other than the veteran leader and captain Antawn Jamison. Here's what he has to say in Wizards Insider.

"I've been around here for six years and championship talk wasn't a norm around our locker room. That's all we're talking about now," Jamsion said, with less than two weeks remaining before training camp. "If we stay healthy, I think we can compete with the upper echelon of the NBA."

And don't try to tell him that he is raising the bar too high.

"I don't care," Jamison said. "What you mean raising the bar too high? We won 19 games last year and I'll be honest with you, we didn't have a lot of our horses. But I don't have anything else to play for. I'm not going to sit here and sugar coat things because it's not the right thing to say. I believe it.

"I believe playing the game the right way and staying healthy, we can compete with Boston, we can compete with Cleveland and Orlando and if you can compete with those teams, you can put yourself in that category as far as teams that can contend for a championship," he said.

While it's technically true that all team's are championship contenders from the first game of the season, they are realistically 5-6 teams that are truly considered contenders given the lack of parity in basketball. At this point, the Wizards are not among them: the short list among most experts includes:

1. The LA Lakers
2. Boston Celtics
3. Denver Nugggets
4. Orlando Magic
5. Cleveland Cavaliers
6. San Antonio Spurs

Still, nothing is to say the Wizards cannot move up in that list, especially if Gilbert Arenas is back close to 100% as noted by LeBron James, Andre Iguodala via twitter, and Wizards' coach Flip Saunders. Upsets can happen; for instance, few predicted that Orlando would make it to the NBA finals at the beginning of the 2008-09 season.

It may be surprising that Jamison is the one who makes the more assertive predictions. However, he is already 34 years old and even if his game relies on his craftiness as opposed to his athleticism, he relizes that he only has a few years left in his prime to compete for a championship.