11/10/2007

Disclaimer: I am a huge Jason Campbell fan and have been since his days back at Auburn. That being said, I was curious as to how he’s stacked up against the man he replaced, veteran Mark Brunell. With no real idea of how the numbers would look, I set out to compare the last 15 games of the Mark Brunell Era to the first 15 games of the Jason Campbell Era. Here’s what I found:

Jason Campbell
G CMP ATT PCT YDS AVG TD INT RTG W-L
15 243 434 56.0 2817 6.5 16 13 75.6 7-8

Mark Brunell
G CMP ATT PCT YDS AVG TD INT RTG W-L
15 239 392 61.0 2677 6.8 17 9 86.2 9-6

For those who are curious, Brunell’s numbers run from the 23-17 overtime loss to San Diego in week 12 of the 2005 season to the 27-3 loss at Philadelphia in week 10 of last season.

Some quick math shows that Campbell gives the Redskins 187.8 yards per game versus 178.5 yards per game for Brunell. And then there are the two most important categories – touchdowns/interceptions and team record. Brunell threw for one more touchdown and four less interceptions. Thanks largely to the five-game winning streak to close the 2005 season, the Redskins had a 9-6 record with Brunell running the show compared to a 7-8 record since Campbell took over. I chose to only use regular season games since Campbell has not been to the postseason yet, so the two playoff games Brunell played in during the 2005 season are not factored in.

I think what was surprising to me was the yards per attempt – Brunell with 6.8 and Campbell with 6.5. Redskins fans openly booed Brunell because of the dink-and-dunk offense he ran, but he actually outgained Campbell. Al Saunders was brought in to open up the offense and bring Washington the firepower that his Kansas City Chiefs teams were known for and Campbell was handed the keys because he has a canon for an arm. But at the end of the day, not much has changed in the way of quarterback production. And here’s the kicker – the biggest play for Campbell was a 66-yard touchdown pass to tight end Chris Cooley during his second start, which was against the Carolina Panthers. Brunell had a 74-yard pass to Clinton Portis against Houston and the 68-yard game-winning touchdown to Santana Moss against Jacksonville last year. So the offense posted bigger plays when Brunell was calling the shots.

This is the part where I mention that, even though we’ve reached the halfway point of the 2007 season, no wide receiver has a touchdown reception this season. In fact, the last time a receiver caught a touchdown pass was when Santana Moss caught a 48-yarder in week 17 of the 2006 season and sadly, that was thrown by Antwaan Randle El. You have to go back to the week 15 victory over New Orleans to find the last time Campbell threw a touchdown pass to a wide receiver (that’s 11 games, folks).

That would lead me to believe this goes bigger than Jason Campbell, and that there’s a systemic flaw with the offensive approach. Anyone watching the Redskins this season knows that the homerun-type plays are missing. The team calls one or two deep passes a game and they rarely connect. In fact, the Redskins have just one completion over 30 yards in the last five games (a 37-yard completion to Antwaan Randle El in the Detroit game). My advice to the coaching staff is to take the training wheels off of Jason Campbell and let him air it out. Have confidence in him and actually let Campbell try to challenge the defenses. If nothing else, it’ll force opponents to respect the passing game and open things up for Clinton Portis and the running game. This team has too much talent for the offense to be this anemic.

10/13/2007

You might have noticed a scary trend heading into the Redskins game in Green Bay. It seems after an impressive win last week at home against the Lions that the "experts" are overly eager to jump on the 'Skins bandwagon. Jason Whitlock, Peter King and others are lining up to sing the praise of young Jason Campbell and the rest of the guys in burgundy and gold. Well, I'm here to tell you that's not a good thing. I've said before on the podcast that this team is still learning how to win consistently, and recent history shows that the moment this team begins to read the press clippings and pat themselves on the back is the moment they fall flat on their collective faces and lose a winnable game.

A 3-1 record is good, but no team has ever made the playoffs with a three-win season. There's a long way to go and this week's match-up is one that the Redskins typically lose. Needless to say, we'll know a lot more about the character of the 2007 Washington Redskins at around 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Here's hoping Grandpa Gibbs and General Gregg have their troops mentally prepared for their stiffest challenge yet -- and here's hoping this team continues to build upon a promising season during their stay in Green Bay.

- murf

03/22/2007

Adalius Thomas is a smarter man than Adam Archuleta. I don’t have a clue what each athlete scored on their SATs or the Wonderlic Test, but I’m here to tell you – Thomas is a much wiser man. That’s because when he became a free agent this offseason, the former Baltimore linebacker opted for the best overall situation instead of running toward the biggest payday.

When free agency began this year, the San Francisco 49ers had money to burn – lots of it. And they were ready to break the bank on Thomas, universally viewed as the best linebacker available. If reports are true, Thomas could have made at least a million dollars more per year to play for the rebuilding 49ers, but Ray Lewis’ former sidekick opted to sign with the Patriots because it was the best fit for him and New England had a much better chance of winning. What a novel concept.

That brings me to Archuleta, who last year signed the largest contract for a safety in league history. He chose to come to Washington and play for the Redskins because of The Danny’s never-ending wad of cash rather than play for Lovie Smith and the Chicago Bears, even though Smith was the defensive coordinator in St. Louis when Archuleta broke into the league.

A year later, he’s taking a monster pay cut and the Redskins are cutting their losses, shipping Archuleta for a sixth-rounder in this year’s NFL draft. Had Archuleta stepped back and thought about the big picture, he would have realized that money doesn’t always make it better. Instead, he was the highest-paid punter protector in league history and an informant for ESPN writer Tom Friend’s tell-all tale on the 2006 Washington Redskins. Call him Deep Throat 2.0. Not just for being a rat and bad mouthing his team, but for prostituting himself for a couple extra dollars.

- murf

03/09/2007

Hey kids, I’m Brian Murphy – the newest addition to the roster. Fear not, I am not the talentless hack of the same name who used to write for ESPN.com.
My Irish parents just weren’t that creative, so I go by murf.

If you’re on the site you’re either a Redskins fan or someone in Dallas who realizes how bad the Wade Phillips Era is going to be. Either way, we welcome you. People ask me how long I’ve been a ‘Skins fan and I always tell them the same thing – my parents put me in a Dallas diaper at a young age to teach me to shit on the star and I’ve been hooked on the burgundy and gold ever since.

Over the last two years I’ve been afforded both the opportunity and access to my favorite football team most fans can only dream of. I’ve interviewed nearly the entire roster and taken photos from the sidelines during some of the most exciting moments in FedEx Field history (Santana Moss’ three TD performance on Christmas Eve against the Giants, Moss’ overtime walk-off touchdown versus the Jags and Troy Vincent’s miracle fieldgoal block against the Cowboys to name a few).

Hell, I’ve even eaten dinner with The Danny and Grandpa Gibbs. Does this make me a better fan or more knowledgeable than anyone else on the ‘Net? Of course not. But I do bring a solid resume, a different perspective and a warped sense of humor to the table. So feel free to check back in and attempt to decipher my semi-coherent ramblings from time to time. If nothing else it’ll make you feel better about yourself.

- murf

themurf@skinscast.com