The Team Wins You Win

The Big Blue Bugaboo is coming to Washington again. And the Commanders, despite the historical record, are ten point favorites.

I hate to bring this up but Norv Turner was fired one really bleak Sunday after losing to the New York Football Giants. With all the clamoring for Ron Rivera's head in Washington, it is hard not to get flashbacks to the time when Rivera's friend and mentor, who he coached with in San Diego, was axed by the football equivalent of Emperor Nero.

We don't want a repeat. Not even on December 3, the precise anniversary of that dark day for football.

Washington has tended to get stuck in development hell. Rivera's tenure in D.C. mirrors in some respects the careers of Turner, Shanahan, and Gruden in that he's gotten stuck in neutral, guns the motor, and goes nowhere.

What got lost in all those regimes was the fact that winning is part of development. Some might say it is the final phase. Nothing is final in the NFL. But there are things that winning does to the psychology of a football team that spurs growth and improves performance. 

It beats me what is retarding the progression to winning in Washington. If I had to guess, it would be the veritable lame-duck status of Ron Rivera and his staff. That it is stultifying things on a subconscious level. That is a hard level to clear out. 

The players they say are going to check out. The theory of money motivation implies they SHOULD not check out. Winning tends to improve salaries as well as performances. Winning, to put it another way, takes your game to another level and takes your salary along with it. Theoretically, this idea should keep you motivated.

It isn't just individual greed we're talking about. Winning is a team concept. The team wins you win. Smart selfishness behooves one to contribute to Team Harmony. Sometimes this means relenting on your preconceived notions. And Coaches need to play as a team as well as players. Offense, Defense, Special Teams are a mutual aid society. Or they aren't a team.

To some extent, recognition is needed. Recognize you don't have all the time in the world. This staff to this point has lacked recognition. From the actual football game, what needs to be done when, to the status of the roster, in the areas of the offensive line and linebacking, to the feasibility of certain schemes in relation to who it is you actually have on your roster. 

Do you have a defense that can stay on the field for 70 plus plays? Do you have an offense that can do nothing but pass? How do the answers to these questions impact the two? How is it related to playing as a team?

There's the idea that we need to pass the ball to develop the Quarterback. Are we ready to recognize that there is little else the Quarterback can do in the regular season to prove his mettle? The Playoffs are the only venue where we can learn anything more this year about the Quarterback. Or anybody else. Coach or player.

Waiting until next year isn't going to help the Quarterback develop. The Team winning will. Is it smart selfishness to pass the ball relentlessly and lose pretty or run the ball a little and win, sometimes ugly, sometimes going away?

Can we afford to fail to recognize the physical facts of football? Offenses benefit from lots of plays. Defenses benefit from less plays. Shootouts require lots of plays from the Defense. To some extent shootouts are inevitable and reguire performances above and beyond the norm from the defense. But shootouts should not be artificially induced. You end up wearing your defense out mentally and physically.

These coaches have won before. They've been to and won Super Bowls. Jack Del Rio was on that Cowboy team that turned the corner in 1991. Ron Rivera was the defensive coordinator of Norv Turner's 13-3 San Diego Squad. Teams can and do emerge from development hell into football heaven.

Somebody is telling these players they have all the time in the world. That's not true. Now is the time. 

Now is ALWAYS the time.