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So a disappointing season has limped to and end. Back in my First Look articles, from last August, I saw us finishing last but was hoping we’d make a fight of it. It wasn’t really to be.

The likable, but perhaps out of his depth Jim Zorn has gone, in a move that is in no way surprising – he’d probably been emptying his office steadily over the last few months – and Mike Shanahan is in. Not just as Coach, but in an Final Say role that he likes and that the team needs. But there’s a lot to fix, let’s take a look at some of the problems he’s inherited.

The Offensive Line
Make no mistake, this was a terrible unit this year. Whether it was injuries or just bad play it all starts with these guys and a lot of the other issues are direct results of these guys. When passing, there is never any confidence that when Campbell drops back he is going to have any time or space, that the pocket will hold as long as it needs to.

When Running, there’s little confidence that they’ll clear the way or win the battles that they need to The ‘Skins were 27th in rushing yards, with a paltry 94.4 yards per game. That’s something to be addressed. Which leads me onto… … More

One swallow doesn’t make a summer, but this was a good win. And one I saw coming, which makes it even more sweeter.

Three things I liked:

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I was excited for this game, though to be honest I never saw us winning it. Mainly I wanted to see how week looked coming out of the bye-week. Would there be an improvement on the offense, will the defence be strong… sadly the answer to both these questions was “No, not really.”

The defense wasn’t the unit we’re used to seeing and gave up yards to Michael Turner because of really shabby tackling. And the offense capped out – again – at 17 points, which just isn’t enough.
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A special review this week, and one that allows me to stop thinking about how bad the Redskins are or dwelling on Chris Cooley’s broken ankle.

So NFL Sunday at Wembley! As we’ve done for all three years now, I met up with Graham, Ant (Pats’ fan) and Dom (general good time guy) early in the afternoon near one of the many eating and drinking huts that were set-up around the stadium. In the past we’ve played a sort of Shirt Bingo – to see if we can see all 32 teams represented. They obviously are, and this year we limited ourselves to picking out shirts of distinction (“Is that a JaMarcus Russel shirt? In public?”… that sort of thing).
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Well, it’s all getting a bit silly isn’t it?

In all honesty though, I never saw us doing more than propping up the division so I’m not hugely surprised at our results. Just how bad we are though… that is surprising.

Another scoreless first half, more of the same again and again. I just… really, I don’t know what to say. This season is shot to pieces and if anything we’re being flattered with our 2-4 record. We have no easy games coming up any time soon and could easily be looking at 2-8 when we travel to Oakland in week 14.
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Well, talk about a game of two halves!

First half… well this was just awful. All the same issues cropping up again and again: 4th down calls, Jason Campbell throwing interceptions twice whislt trying to get the ball to Kelly (one bad throw, one bad decision into double coverage), Campbell fumbling to allow the Bucs to score their first 1st quarter points of the season, Clinton Portis getting stuffed at the line, Ladell Betts getting stuffed behind it, penalties on Casey Rabach… it goes on and on.
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Strangely enough, I don’t feel as bad about the 19-14 loss to the Detroit Lions as I did about the 9-7 win against the Rams last week. This wasn’t, after all, the 0-16 Lions. It was the 0-2 Lions, who are barely recognisable in any way from the record setting 2008 variety. Likewise, we’re not the 6-2 Washington Redskins who opened up 2008 so strongly.

So it’s all the same complaints on the offense as last week: bad calls, no running game, Jason Campbell still looking like a deer in the headlights. However, we can compound the offensive problems with some defensive ones too: 99 yard drive for a touchdown? Check. Below average 3rd down performance? Check. This was shocking.

Needless to say, I struggled to find three things I liked this week.

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Oh dear, that was an awful game to watch. Firstly it was a lot closer than it really should have been because… secondly, we showed a complete inability to score and thirdly Dante Hall still doesn’t look very good.

To be fair to Hall, he did OK for most of the game but got beaten for the Rams’ only score. The defence as a whole looked really good though; I love to see Chris Horton making plays and it was great to see Haynesworth getting involved too.
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This was always going to be a difficult week and to be honest I never saw us beating the Giants. Certainly not in New York and doubly so in week 1. However, I was pleasantly surprised with some of the play. The offense always seems to take a game to get into their stride, so I expect better next week. Not just because it’s the Rams visiting either.

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