Posted on October 17th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
LANDOVER – Forrest Gump said life is like box of chocolates because you never know what you’re going to get. But at least chocolates look different on the outside.
Coach Jay Gruden’s team has been more like a bag of powdered donuts each game. The filling is a mystery.
Cream? Vanilla or chocolate? Jelly? Grape or strawberry?
Whatever your preference, though, they’ve been hmm-hmm good lately. Washington doesn’t have the recipe down pat quite yet, but we’re seeing glimpses of what’s possible if it stays in the kitchen. Sunday’s offering was as close as the Skins have come to a finished product, a 27-20 victory against Philadelphia that should’ve been a three-touchdown margin.
Consider this game from any view besides the scoreboard – yards, first downs, time of possession – and it was a rout. The defense recorded five sacks and didn’t allow a touchdown. The offense amassed nearly 500 yards and converted 53% of its third-down opportunities. If not for special teams yielding a 96-yard touchdown on a kickoff return – and quarterback Kirk Cousins throwing a 64-yard pick-six roughly four minutes later – Washington played its most dominant game this season.
“If you compare them to the other games, then I would say so,” Gruden said. “You still give up an interception for a touchdown and a kickoff return for a touchdown, that’s not good. Still, I’ve made the point many times before: Our games are going to be a grind. They’re going to be coming down to the wire in the majority of them.”
That doesn’t have to be the case when both sides of the ball click like they did against Philadelphia. Even without favorite-target Jordan Reed, Cousins registered his third-highest total in passing yardage this season (263 yards) and threw two touchdowns. On each occasion, first to Jamison Crowder and then to Vernon Davis, the recipients were wide open, a recurrent theme.
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Posted on October 12th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
I don’t believe in curses, jinxes, hexes or mojo. But that’s all you’re left to talk about when your team keeps losing crucial games at the most inopportune time.
Three NL East titles in five years is a wonderful accomplishment by the Nationals, not to be taken lightly or for granted. However, what have they done for us in October? Teddy Pendergrass’ “Bad Luck” could be the unofficial theme song when the postseason rolls around.
On the flip side is whatever you make of the San Francisco Giants’ run. Those fans enjoyed a wonderfully heady streak before the Chicago Cubs snapped it Tuesday night. How do you explain a ballclub winning the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014, while missing the playoffs altogether in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015?
The Giants had the flimsiest reason to claim “this is our year!” Yet, their argument made cosmic sense until they faced baseball’s best team, which is dragging a steamer trunk crammed with 108 years of misfortune.
No one on the south side of Chicago has patience with fan bases that complain about postseason futility. But the Cubs’ sorry recent history is no salve for Washington Nationals fans, whose wounds are at risk of being re-opened Thursday night in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
The Nats are working on their own even/odd streak, except it’s a polar opposite to the Giants’ run. Washington reached the playoffs in 2012, 2014 and 2016, with also-ran campaigns sandwiched between. In 2012 and 2014, the fun ended with losses in the NLDS, first at Nationals Park, then on the road.
So Thursday’s game represents a two-fold pattern, set to happen or set to be broken.
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Posted on October 10th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
Just when you think the NFL has hit rock bottom and found the absolute floor of sheer hypocrisy, the league goes deeper to demonstrate you haven’t seen anything yet.
The latest guffaw-inducing measure involves this season’s sharp spike in unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for celebrations/taunting. According to ESPN Stats and Information, taunting penalties are up by more than 200 percent over the first four weeks from the same amount of games last season, while unsportsmanlike flags have increased by 56 percent,
Of particular note is Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Brown. He was hit with a penalty and $12,154 fine for twerking after scoring a touchdown against Washington in Week 1. He changed his celebratory move to pelvic pumps after scoring against Kansas City in Week 4, but the refs flagged him for that, too. The league levied a $24,309 fine, upping the amount because it was his second offense.
“I don’t think excessive celebrating should cost more than hitting guys in the helmet,” Brown told reporters last week. “Twenty-four thousand dollars for a guy scoring touchdowns and having fun is more than a guy getting hit in the head, targeting with the helmet.”
Actually, $24,309 is the exact same amount players are fined for impermissible use of the helmet or hitting defenseless player. But Brown’s point is no less valid.
Concerns about players’ head trauma and debilitating injuries are rampant. The on-field product is uneven and frequently uninspiring, with too many quarterbacks who are nothing special. TV ratings are sagging and national-anthem protests are a national phenomenon, raising questions of oversaturation and alienation.
So, naturally, players shaking their booty in the end zone are a high priority.
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Posted on October 10th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
BALTIMORE – Beauty is easily appreciated. Whether it’s in a bouncing baby, a majestic sunset or panoramic landscape, elements can come together to form an exceedingly pleasing visual stew.
The same is true in football. When an offense is clicking and a defense is sticking, when X’s and O’s work exactly as they’re drawn, it’s a wonderful thing. There’s a sense that nothing gets much better than that.
No one will confuse Washington’s football team with lovely NFL counterparts in New England and Pittsburgh. But after defeating Baltimore to win its third consecutive game, Washington can’t be mistaken for a losing team, either. The Skins prevailed, 16-10 at M&T Bank Stadium, in typical non-glamorous fashion, with stretches of play that caused winces, groans and shudders.
“It’s never going to be pretty when you come here,” coach John Gruden said. “This is a tough place to play.”
His team is growing to be as tough as any venue it visits. The Skins won’t fare well in beauty pageants. But they’re grisly and brawny and unsightly enough to overcome early deficit and two turnovers in a stadium where the home team has averaged fewer than two losses since 2007.
Pointing out the capricious caroms of an oblong object sounds like excuse-making when you’re on the short end of the score. Bad breaks and losing can seem to go hand-in-hand. But there’s no denying that Washington was the recipient of some fortuitous bounces against the Ravens.
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Posted on October 6th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
All rise!
This court is now in session. First case on the docket is Chris Bosh vs.the Miami Heat.
Mr. Bosh, who has decided to represent himself, is charging the Heat with cruel and unusual treatment of an athlete to whom they owe $76 million, whether or not he ever plays for them again.
The team, represented by president Pat Riley, counters that it is putting Bosh’s interests ahead of its own, thereby setting a precedent in pro sports for kind and compassionate treatment of an athlete.
His last two seasons were cut short by blood clots and Mr. Bosh failed his physical prior to training camp last month, leading Mr. Riley to state recently that the 11-time All-Star’s career in Miami is probably over. Mr. Bosh says he can still play with the condition and has found a doctor to back him up.
Mr. Bosh, your opening statement, please.
BOSH: Thank you your honor. Ladies and gentlemen, I know the risks involved in playing with blood clots and playing while taking blood-thinning medication. A clot during a game could lead to a graphic, on-court incident. Physical contact while on blood thinners could lead to internal bleeding. I get it. But I’m a full-grown man willing to sign a waiver. The risk is mine and the decision should be mine, too. I ask that you agree and condemn the Heat for treating me like a child.
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Posted on October 3rd, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
Can’t run and can’t stop the run.
That was the book on Washington, authored by general manager Scot McCloughan, entering this season. In actuality it was a sequel from last year, penned after McCloughan ignored pleas for a rewrite. His 2012 roster included no one proven to stuff runs or break runs. The Skins were poised to lag toward the bottom of the NFL in those two crucial categories.
Through one-quarter of the season, Washington is searching for a more favorable personality and making progress on Matt Jones’ side of the ball. The 6-foot-2, 232-pound halfback has lived up to his physique in the last two games, pounding Cleveland on Sunday and the Giants a week earlier.
Fifty-three of Jones’ 65 rushing yards against New York came in the second half. He was even more dominant in the late stages against the Browns, gaining 79 yards on 11 carries in the fourth quarter. Jones ripped off runs of 8, 11 and 15 yards on the drive for Washington’s go-ahead touchdown and had a 25-yard jaunt on the next possession. He scored a 1-yard touchdown on the game-clinching drive after breaking free for 16 yards on the previous play.
“I’m still learning,” the second-year back said after the game. “It’s just me learning from last week and being a decisive, decisive runner. I just want to carry that over throughout the season.”
That would help improve half of the team’s bad reputation. But when it comes to stopping guys like Jones, the defense might as well enter the witness protection program.
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Posted on October 2nd, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
LANDOVER, Md. – Victory Mondays in the NFL are not accompanied by ifs, ands or buts. Those hypothetical conjunctions are the utterings of losers, who are left talking about what might have been instead of what actually happened.
But over the course of four quarters, when momentum swings and outcomes hang in the balance, there are imperceptible differences between winning football and plays that reek of defeat. One moment, the home team is cruising the field like a riding mower, putting its finishing touches in the end zone for a change. The next moment, it appears that the visitors won’t be stopped unless fans leave their seats to join the effort.
The final score read Washington 31, Cleveland 20, and that’s really all that matters. The Skins evened their record at the quarter-pole and avoided a dreaded 0-3 start at FedEx Field. As defensive end Ricky Jean Francois said, now the players can go home and enjoy the highlights and walk around team headquarters without having to avert their eyes.
But the Browns exposed some legitimate concerns, too, primarily the gashing they inflicted in gaining 163 yards on the ground. A non-rookie quarterback presumably would take advantage of that rushing attack better than Cody Kessler did. Cleveland also managed to slow down Washington’s offense when it seemed a blowout might be in store.
All in all, the Skins played mind games on the announced crowd of 76,249 fans.
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Posted on September 28th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
There’s loss and then there’s loss, all of which is relative.
In Washington, the Nationals and fans are lamenting the knee injury that ended catcher Wilson Ramos’ season.
In Miami and throughout baseball, folks are in mourning after a boating accident ended pitcher Jose Fernandez’s life.
Fretting about the impact of Ramos’ absence as the Nats enter the postseason is put in perspective when compared to the suffering in Miami, where teammates, fans and a pregnant girlfriend are steeling themselves for a final goodbye. The stark contrast adds weight to the words spoken by Washington manager Dusty Baker after Ramos was declared out for the playoffs.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us,” he told reporters. “We’ve just got to next man up.”
Sometimes it’s hard to not feel sorry for yourself when circumstances conspire against you. Losing the woe-is-me feeling is easier when a real tragedy occurs and breaks up your pity party.
But in the not-grand scheme of things, what happened to the Nats catcher stinks.
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Posted on September 27th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Remember when the national anthem prior to games was such a big deal that networks didn’t bother televising it? When many fans barely paid attention, too concerned with their concessions and conversations, their smartphones and last-second sprints to the restroom? When folks at home didn’t know and didn’t care whether players stood, kneeled, put hands over hearts or fists in the air?
Seems like a long time ago.
Now TV cameras pan the sideline during the formality, looking for signs of protest. Fans at the stadium make their own star-spangled statements, with homemade signs as back-up. Media members compile weekly lists of who did what as the song was sung, later seeking answers from the participants.
The national anthem has become a national obsession, thanks to a second-string quarterback’s opposition to oppression.
Colin Kaepernick was on the cover of Time magazine last week, with a headline that read “The Perilous Fight.” His decision to take a knee during the anthem has sparked a wave of similar actions, trickling down to colleges and high schools, too. The decision also has riled a considerable segment of society, unleashing a steady stream of invective at Kaepernick and his sympathizers.
Then the game begins and we sort of forget about the controversies (the singing and the shootings). Sports proceeds to work as the escape so many want.
Except the discussion continues because people keep weighing in on the protest (and police officers keep killing unarmed people). Then it’s time for the next game and the next anthem and the cycle repeats.
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Posted on September 26th, 2016
By DERON SNYDER
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The weekly referendum began with Kirk Cousins leading Washington to a field goal. And then another three points on the ensuing possession and another don’t-come-away-empty drive on the third series.
It ended with Cousins throwing two incompletions (drawing a roughing-the-passer penalty on one) and handing off to Matt Jones eight times for … you guessed it … yet another successful Dustin Hopkins kick to give the Skins a 29-27 victory in a wild and wacky affair against the New York Giants.
If this game proved anything besides the fact that Washington is a gritty, resilient team, it demonstrated that everything indeed doesn’t revolve around No. 8, despite appearances and airwaves.
Yes, quarterbacks receive too much credit and too much blame. But Cousins takes that equation to new, unbalanced extremes, receiving little acknowledgment for victories and the brunt of criticism for defeats. It’s like he can’t win even when the team does, which hadn’t happened in two outings entering Sunday’s contest.
Cousins did his part against the Giants – throwing for 296 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. He completed 60 percent of his passes and finished with a 106.4 rating compared to his Super Bowl-winning counterpart Eli Manning (82.1).
True, the Skins were 0-for-4 in red zone efficiency and Cousins left points and yards on the table with several errant throws, But he put the Skins in position to salvage a desperately-needed win in their personal shop of horrors.
However, the list of significant contributors is lengthy and full of unexpected names.
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