The Redskins Blog

John Beck Fares Well, By The Numbers

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This summer, amidst great fanfare, ESPN unveiled its QBR rating system to replace the confusing quarterback rating system.

Now we have a brand new, shiny, (confusing) quarterback rating system.  And according to that system, John Beck was pretty alright yesterday.

As I noted yesterday, Beck turned in the second-highest Redskins (archaic) quarterback rating of the season.  Today, we learned via ESPN NFC East Blogger Dan Graziano’s piece, that Beck turned in the third-highest Redskins (shiny) quarterback rating of the season.  Not only that, but he was 12th-highest in the league yesterday.

This is the added analysis by Graziano: Read more »

Hightower’s Fiery Locker Room Speech

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With 88 yards in the first 33 minutes of play, Redskins running back Tim Hightower was closing in on one of the greatest statistical performances of his career.

On the Redskins first drive of the second half, the offense drove down the field to the Carolina 36-yard line.  On first-and-10, Hightower took a handoff to his left, cut back up the field to his right, and his knee gave out.

Helped up by the Redskins medical staff several minutes later, Hightower tried to put weight on it and looked visibly frustrated by the pain.

“I’m very passionate about what I do,” he said after the game.  ”In a situation like that, when you kinda feel helpless, you’re not able to help your team and you’re not able to do what you were brought here to do, it’s a terrible feeling.” Read more »

Austin As A Backup Quarterback?

Under the new NFL collective bargaining agreement, teams are able to dress 46 players for gameday, instead of 45 plus a backup quarterback.  Under these rules, teams like the Redskins elected not to carry that third quarterback option, and instead chose to keep another position player.

This decision almost backfired yesterday.

John Beck was named the starting quarterback early in the week, but by the weekend, his backup Rex Grossman had pneumonia and a 103-degree fever.

Surprisingly, Grossman was still a possibility if needed.

“[Grossman] was ready to go at it if John went down,” head coach Mike Shanahan said after the game.  ”We brought him out for pre-game. You could see that he was having a tough time so we kept him in here watching it on TV in case we needed him.”

With no other bona fide quarterbacks on the roster, multiple players auditioned under center before the game.

“We had a couple of guys take hand-offs,” Shanahan explained.  ”We had two or three guys that could do that. It really didn’t matter.”

“Terrence Austin would probably have been the one.” Read more »

Meet And Greet With Jammal Brown

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Interested in meeting an All-Pro, Super Bowl winning offensive tackle?  Tomorrow, Redskins right tackle Jammal Brown will be at the AT&T Store in Arlington.

Here are the details:

Who: Redskins OT, Jammal Brown

Where: AT&T Store

3000 Wilson Blvd.

Arlington, Va. 22201

When: 6-7 p.m.

Why: To meet you! Come on out and meet with him while you check out the store.

How: Show up and look for the man pictured above.

Monday Morning Redux: The Big Picture

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One of the best parts about the NFL, is that each game gets its own week of preparation and expectation.  Each game becomes an event within itself, and a win can propel those involved into the stratosphere.

But a loss can drive people into a severe Monday morning funk.

Losing is hard, and it’s good that it is hard; losing should never be easy.  I’m not a salesman, and I’m not a “flufferer,” but I can think of at least three reason to be optimistic about the state of your Washington Redskins: Read more »