Taking a look at Washington's Turnaround Season

[MHS831]

Washington's wins feature 1 impressive victory: 

Eagles, Cowboys x 2, Bengals, Steelers, and 49ers.  The Steelers upset is the only quality win, and there is something going wrong in the Steel City.  And that was before the Alex Smith injury

Now take a look at their losses:

• Cardinals by 15
• 'Browns by 14
• Ravens by 14
• Rams by 20
• Giants by 1
• Giants by 3
• Lions by 3
• Seahawks by 5 with Haskins at QB

You definitely see improvement--They have won 4 of their last 5 and their last 4 losses were by a combined 12 points.  The defense has improved.

Alex Smith is probably likely to at least be available this week, if not get the start.  I have not seen where his status has been determined, but he had a "mild calf strain" vs. SF a few weeks ago.  The line is currently Washington -2, but if Smith is active and starting, it could go to -4 or 5. 

 

 

[Waldo]

Smith vs Teddy? Everyone losses.

Ron should be able to get them to 7-9 / 9-7 with his skillset. The real fireworks come when he is at the job a couple of years doing the same crap while everything around him passing bye. Then again, that is an improvement for the nameless shame in DC. Anyone that is in a close game has a chance to steal a win from Ron. He has been quoted on liking close games which is just beautiful irony here. 

[electro's horse]

yeah the nfc east is terrible OP

[MHS831]

9 minutes ago, electro's horse said:

yeah the nfc east is terrible OP

It is terrible, and unpredictable--but they have improved because they had zero expectations.

[Khyber53]

Dude has produced a better season there than we've had here. He has had to deal with massive change at the QB position. He has been blessed to be stuck in with the NFCLEast and that helps, but he's had to coach a team that wasn't just dealing with an identity problem because of coaching change but an entire team name/branding change that is just hanging out there.

He has been saddled with the picks and washouts from the previous administration there and the ongoing scandals with ownership/management. At least he's ridden that horse before.

Oh yeah, and he coached this season while undergoing chemo for life threatening cancer. 

Yeah, maybe this one time we ought to back off of cheap-shotting Rivera and give the guy a bit of respect. Seems like he has earned it this season. 

And yeah, I like Rhule and hope to see great stuff here. Ron has run a better, and tougher, race than we have this season. Props to the man.

[Pazhoosier89]

I'm pretty sure we could win the NFC east if we were in that division.  That's not saying much though.

[panthers55]

1 minute ago, Pazhoosier89 said:

I'm pretty sure we could win the NFC east if we were in that division.  That's not saying much though.

Said the same thing about the NFC South in 2014 when we won the division with a losing record.

[MHS831]

Washington's defense has played better of late.  Yes, you could argue that the opposition was weaker--and that is so subjective I would bring this back to, "they are all NFL teams and the average margin of victory is less than a score."  Over the span of the last 5 games, Washington has surrendered 20 points (once to Seattle) or less going 4-1. (average about 16-17 points)

There is something there. 

 

[Ivan Knight-Jordan]

WFT already had a solid defense Rivera is very good with consistency. They had none before him. So squeezing out a few extra wins against a very easy schedule shouldn’t be a huge surprise. After more film on Scott Turner comes out and Rivera’s continued complacency kicks in he will revert back to his old trends that caused his welcome to be worn out here. Don’t dislike the guy or want to see him do bad but sometimes you gotta call it like it is with people. 

 

[MHS831]

2 minutes ago, Ivan Knight-Jordan said:

WFT already had a solid defense Rivera is very good with consistency. They had none before him. So squeezing out a few extra wins against a very easy schedule shouldn’t be a huge surprise. After more film on Scott Turner comes out and Rivera’s continued complacency kicks in he will revert back to his old trends that caused his welcome to be worn out here. Don’t dislike the guy or want to see him do bad but sometimes you gotta call it like it is with people. 

 

Yes--he will get "weighed, measured, and accounted for"  I expect a fairly low-scoring game--20-16 or something like that.

[Snake]

33 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Dude has produced a better season there than we've had here. He has had to deal with massive change at the QB position. He has been blessed to be stuck in with the NFCLEast and that helps, but he's had to coach a team that wasn't just dealing with an identity problem because of coaching change but an entire team name/branding change that is just hanging out there.

He has been saddled with the picks and washouts from the previous administration there and the ongoing scandals with ownership/management. At least he's ridden that horse before.

Oh yeah, and he coached this season while undergoing chemo for life threatening cancer. 

Yeah, maybe this one time we ought to back off of cheap-shotting Rivera and give the guy a bit of respect. Seems like he has earned it this season. 

And yeah, I like Rhule and hope to see great stuff here. Ron has run a better, and tougher, race than we have this season. Props to the man.

Ron was given a better situation and has two more wins than us. I wouldn't say that's massive improvement. Not only that but he and Marty left Carolina in shambles. Ron is a decent coach and surround him with generational talent he will get the Football team back to the playoffs. 

[Khyber53]

36 minutes ago, Snake said:

Ron was given a better situation and has two more wins than us. I wouldn't say that's massive improvement. Not only that but he and Marty left Carolina in shambles. Ron is a decent coach and surround him with generational talent he will get the Football team back to the playoffs. 

yadda yadda yadda

[PootieNunu]

1 hour ago, Snake said:

Ron was given a better situation and has two more wins than us. I wouldn't say that's massive improvement. Not only that but he and Marty left Carolina in shambles. Ron is a decent coach and surround him with generational talent he will get the Football team back to the playoffs. 

This. 2 more wins in the nfc south would be good for 3rd place? Ron is doing what he has always done, he just changed location. 

Lets take away the 2x cowboys wins and the eagles win. Ok now replace those with 2 games vs TB and a game vs NO. Ron would have 3 wins.

[t96]

2 hours ago, Snake said:

Ron was given a better situation and has two more wins than us. I wouldn't say that's massive improvement. Not only that but he and Marty left Carolina in shambles. Ron is a decent coach and surround him with generational talent he will get the Football team back to the playoffs. 

How was Ron given a better situation? Skins were considered to be one of the biggest messes in the entire league before Ron got there. Their D has a ton of young promising players on the DL (especially now with Young) but really shouldn't be nearly as good as they have been this year. And their QB situation is even worse than ours. Smith is similar to Teddy this year but he's missed a ton of time. Allen was okay but Haskins has been terrible. And they don't have the weapons we have.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think moving on from Ron was 100% the right move and I love Rhule. But, Ron has definitely done a tremendous job in Washington so far. Will he ever get them over the hump to a championship? I have my doubts, but he was a great choice for them to start the rebuild and bring some stability to that team. Hoping for his sake that they don't actually consider bringing Hurney in. Look at Ron's record with DG vs. with Hurney. If they can find a solid GM who can help push Rivera with his faults (like when DG pushed him to replace Rodgers as ST coordinator) then I think he can continue to do well there. He should absolutely be given credit for this season, as most people thought the Skins would be a bottom feeder along with the Jags, Jets, etc.