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Out of the box: How often does that happen, the Super Bowl champions come to visit you at your house? For the Redskins tonight they can only hope this guest is not as rude as last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers come back to Redskins stadium for a 7:30 preseason football game.
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The story so far: In the preseason there are always two storylines for each game, how is the team progressing and how did the team fare last time it played the opponent in a for real game. To the latter thread, the Steelers came to Redskins Stadium with a retinue of yellow flag waving fans numbering in the thousands on a cold Monday night game nine last season and with a backup quarterback beat the tar out of Washington, it was the beginning of the beginning of the end for a team that started 6-2, ended 8-8. Even though it is preseason that game must stick in the craw of some players. Throw in Pittsburgh defensive end Brett Keisel's dirty hit on Jason Campbell in 2007 preseason game two and there could be some bad blood.
To the other thread the Redskins are coming off a weak zero point performance in Baltimore against the Ravens last week in preseason game one in which Washington's vaunted defense gave up 500 yards and allowed 23 points, the day after the game head coach Jim Zorn called the team soft... five separate times. Bright spots were to be found, like early game offensive line blocking and individual performances by Brian Orakpo and Jeremy Jarmon and there were no serious injuries, in general it was just a blah game.
In the ensuing week there was lots of Redskins news. Quarterback Colt Brennan was rumored to be courting Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo's sloppy seconds Jessica Simpson, if that is true it will take an astrophysicist to measure the interval of time between the confirmation and when Redskins fans turn their love of Colt into mocking hatred from which Colt will never recover in this town.
Cornerback Fred Smoot, a nine year veteran, took some snaps at safety (op. cit. and op. cit.), it is not uncommon for cornerbacks to play some safety as they get older, see also Shawn Springs, Troy Vincent and Rod Woodson. Whether Fred is back there or not this season the Redskins are stacked at safety. Defensive end Phillip Daniels got all misty eyed about coming back at 36 and realizing like most of us in life that he did not appreciate the experience of being in his prime.
A fight finally broke out, maybe things are not going so well in camp, maybe it was a choregraphed response to being called soft.
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Curly R aside: the Redskins are in another legal dispute and once again making things difficult from themselves, this time it is a pack of former employees in ticket sales, the team changed them from salaried (exempt) to hourly (non exempt) as a result of a court case involving ticket sales staff of an NBA team. The Redskins employees then requested back pay for overtime they would have been paid had they been hourly in the first place, the team refused then people started getting fired or quitting. The central question in the case seems to me to be, is the switch to hourly equitable for the employees, this would answer the question as to whether back pay would be owed, a fairly straightforward legal question. However as they are wont to do the team is making it more difficult for itself with unfortunately timed er, coincidences of people getting fired. It is difficult to overstate that, despite being worth millions and having enormous influence in the marketplace, each NFL franchise is essentially a small business and as such is subject to poor decision making and lack of transparency common to many small businesses run essentially by one person.
Curly R aside continues: has GOT to be the stupidest thing ever, to ban the use of Twitter and cell phones, presumably for texting to sites or people that will relay, by the media at practices (op. cit.). Why don't you just write their stories for them? In banning instant reporting the team is seeking to prevent injuries and strategy from leaking to the public, it makes some sense, another bad PR move though, telling the media they cannot report.
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Oppo research: Ben Roethlisberger is hurt but then again he always is. Brett Kimo van Oelhoffen Keisel still plays defensive end. Santonio Holmes may or may not be stoned. If you need more go check out Curly R fave Behind the Steel Curtain. They mock us there.
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Trainer's table: Right tackle Mike Williams, the formerly 400 pound man that has lost 111 pounds in six months, strained an abdominal in the Ravens game, he should be back tonight (ibid.). Defensive end Phillip Daniels and tight end Chris Cooley sat out Wednesday's practice, Phillip with soreness in his reconstructed knee and Chris with back spasms, neither is considered serious. Overall the Redskins injury situation is very good.
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Gameplan: More of the same preseason plan, show a little more leg, let the offense do a little more and let us see if they can score some points, coach Zorn will let the first team offense play into the second quarter tonight.
Let Fred Davis have the ball again, his two fumble performance last week may be a fluke, we need to find out. Work the running game a little harder, the Redskins know what they have in tailbacks Clinton Portis, Ladell Betts and Rock Cartwright, spread it around and see if Marcus Mason and the other comic book tailbacks can do anything.
Two players that did not play last week, tailback Clinton Portis and defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who cannot figure out his way around town, will play tonight.
Figure out if among the five receivers vying for the fifth spot, who among Marko Mitchell, Marques Hagans (Wahoowa!), DJ Hackett, Trent Shelton and Keith Eloi is standing out.
Do not worry about the defensive line, they are good to go. Focus on the secondary and linebackers, except for London Fletcher that is, did you know only Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Ronde Barber (Wahoowa!) have more consecutive starts than London?
Make some progress in the competition for kicker, neither Dave Rayner nor incumbent Shaun Suisham has distinguished (op. cit.).
Get fourth string quarterback Chase Daniel out there and see what he can do. He is facing long odds competing with Todd Collins and Colt Brennan, the team needs to give him a chance to perform. It is true, Washington loves its backup quarterbacks.
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My take in 60 words or less: Preseason or not, the first team offense needs to create some positive outcomes, the offensive line needs to be more consistent, is Stephon Heyer ready to be a full time NFL starter? Justin Tryon, Kevin Barnes and Robert Henson need to get off the shit list.
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Mark Steven at The Om Field has a wish list; SkinsCast weather, the game will be on NBC and Comcast SportsNet in Washington markets.
This is a gameday open thread.
NFL helmets from here.
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