Before we get to the obvious, allow me to unload this and then move on – first three games, 10 penalties, last two games a total of 19! C'mon fellas, keep it clean!
Okay, now to the storyline that will be front and center this week and beyond. When Deion Sanders said last week on The NFL Network that Rex Grossman was the best quarterback in the NFC East, many fans were thinking, 'Huh?'
Four more picks and one loss later, the Redskins' offense is now, for better or for worse, John Beck's to lead.
Whether you wanted Beck or Grossman to start the year doesn't matter. I said it at the beginning of the season and I'll say it again: there will be changes (plural) at the quarterback position this season.
Both Beck and Grossman are stopgap measures until the long-term solution puts on a Redskins uniform. That person is most like on a college campus right now attending or not attending classes.
The real concern for the Redskins is that the injury bug, which they had avoided the first month of the season, has caught up to them and it has hit them at the most important unit on the field: the offensive line.
First Kory Lichtensteiger went down for the season and then Trent Williams was sidelined for a couple of weeks. The decision to carry eight wide receivers on the roster and not more depth on the offensive line will definitely be in question if this offense can't keep Beck from getting hit like a piñata.
The same thing happened in Jim Zorn's first year when the team started out 6-2. There were injures to the line and Jason Campbell was sacked an obscene amount of times. The Redskins ended up 8-8.
I know it's in the past, but the Redskins' loss to Dallas a few weeks ago was really significant. This team should be 4-1 with a 2-1 record in the division.
No more looking back (at least in this writing entry), though. Two of the games that you would have put in the win category at the beginning of the season are just the contrary. Carolina and then Buffalo in Toronto, with a new quarterback and a reshuffled offensive line, will make for one nail-biting Redskins Nation.
Beck has better mobility than Grossman, but sooner or later the revamped left side of the offensive line will have to let him throw a pass farther that 10 yards and prove to other defenses that running the ball, if Mike and Kyle Shanahan stick with it, can still be effective on either side.
While John Beck might be the most-watched person on the field Sunday, I will be watching Sean Locklear and Erik Cook. Who besides those three will you be looking at and why?
