While the Skins racked up 2 more wins than they managed in 2009, 2010 did not feel like the Great Leap Forward that we had hoped Shanaplan would preside over. I'll get to the stats that I feel best tell the tale of the season in a bit, but first a note on the atmospherics of 2010.
From a fan memory perspective, two events stand out most about last year. First, the almost childish war of wills between Shanahan and Haynesworth leading up to the season, culminating in the image of big moosey having himself a lay down during the Eagles game.
Second, the benching of Donovan McNabb at the end of the Lions game, launching an all-too familiar soap opera marked by disparaging remarks, an overly generous contract extension that looked like a mea culpa and then the treat of watching Rex Grossman take the field for the final three games. Way to preserve McNabb's trade value, guys.
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| Yep. That's about right. |
I feel bad for McNabb, who's a great player in a bad situation, but I feel worse for the Redskins, realizing that they gave up two valuable draft picks to get him, spent considerable energy getting Redskins Nation to overcome their prior resentment of #5 with dreams of division titles, and then sabotaged team unity and the chance to move on from the McNabb experiment at least somewhat close to net neutral from a draft perspective.
But the past is the past, and as we look forward to what we hope will be football in 2011, there are some telling stats that deserve priority attention, because they sketch out the nature of the work ahead. The tricky thing about watching games last season was that there didn't seem to be a singular, capital-P Problem that repeated week after week. One week the Skins couldn't get any yards on the ground, then the next Torain trucks for a c-note. Two weeks after losing by 14 to the Rams we're grinding out a win against the eventual Super Bowl champs. With the exception of the MNF Eagles game, I always had the feeling that our defense could either stop a team or force a turnover, but very often that faith was demonstrably misplaced.
So keeping those idiosyncrasies in mind, here are my top 5 stats to focus on improving for a successful 2011 (and by successful, I mean 8 wins, at least one against the Cowboys).
1. Rushing Yards per Game: 91.3 on an average of just under 22 carries
Our opponents in 2010 rushed an average of 28 times per game, and while their commitment may be due more to the pores in our D than to better strategy, the Redskins' rush deficit meant that they couldn't control the clock as well and that defenders could feel more comfortable keying up blitzes. The Skins threw the ball an average of 39 times per game - subtract an average of 5 screens per game and you still have a wide disparity between the playcalling. All those dropbacks netted 46 sacks for the opposition. This year we're loaded with young legs at tailback, so there's no excuse to limit the run to keep a stud fresh. The o-line is not among the league's elite, but this is the year for the Shanaplan zone blocking scheme to sink or swim. These guys need reps together so they can learn each other's tendencies. Stick to the run for future success.
- Ideal 2011 Statline Improvement: +5 carries per game
2. Made Field Goals Percentage: 68.6% (24 of 38)
This stat, while ugly on its face, doesn't even capture the full horror. The Texans game was lost after a blocked 29 yarder in the fourth quarter. Gano missed from 34 and 24(!) in the Tampa Bay game, which also featured a botched extra point and a final score of 17-16. And Graham blanked his three attempts from 50+ yards, making his last attempt in week 11, after which coach abandoned all hope of making the long shot. I'm not hanging it all on Gano, but teams that miss makeable field goals with regularity are teams that don't have their shit together. Partly it seems FedEx is to blame - opponents managed to convert only 73.7% of their kicks in Landover, as compared with the visitors posting a 92.6% field goal success rate in Jerry Jones World. But still, get your shit together guys.
- Ideal 2011 Statline Improvement: 74%+ field goal make rate, with at least two 50+ boots through the uprights
3. Interceptions: 14
To make this stat more stark, let's take out D-Hall's record-tying 4-INT game against the diabetic douchebag and we're left with 10 picks over 15 games. Even the Giants' maligned secondary posted an average of 1.0 interception per game. Someone once said, if you take the ball away from the other team before they score on you, you get more chances to score points, and it's good for game winning and stuff. Preach.
- Ideal 2011 Statline Improvement: 1.25 picks per game, or 20 on the season
4. Sacks: 29
Brian Orakpo. Albert Haynesworth. London Fletcher playing sure-handed catcher behind the line. And an 11-sack dropoff from 2009's sack tally. I blame Haslett for this one. The silver lining was the number of holding penalties drawn by Rak, including a memorable one glimpsed through the fog at the end of the season opener. But averaging less than 2 per game with that kind of talent? C'mon, man! Unleash Kerrakpo!
- Ideal 2011 Statline Improvement: 41+ sacks
5. Washington Time of Possession as %: 46.5%
While that number seems close to 50%, time of possession is a zero sum stat, meaning that the Skins' opponents controlled the football 15% more than the Redskins did. That 15% is a huge edge in wearing down a defense. The Redskins were sixth from the bottom in terms of time of possession. Their opponents' 4 minutes and 10 seconds of extra possession allowed them to run an average of nine more plays. Of the Skins ten losses, six were decided by a touchdown or less. You can't convince me that running nine more plays wouldn't have affected the outcome of most of those games.
- Ideal 2011 Statline Improvement: 50.1% Time of Possession (I'm not asking for the moon here)
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| Bring the noise. |
