Washington Commanders
Game Week
George Allen poses with some of his offensive charges: Charlie Harraway, Sonny Jurgensen, Len Hauss, and Larry Brown. George arrived in 1971 bringing a new energy and focus to the franchise. Allen took over for Bill Austin after a 6-8 season. During his 7-years with the team he never had a losing season while going to the playoffs in 5 of the 7-years. His playoff record was less than stellar, however at 2-5 including a Super Bowl loss. If Washington football is broken down into eras the Allen era was a successful time. Jack Pardee followed Allen for three short years. Then Joe Gibbs and the Glory Days came. The problem with NFL football is that the period between seasons is too long and too full of minutiae that gets “analyzed” into supposed meaningfulness. The tea leaf readers are out in legion. Labor Day is the annual exercise of projecting team records and eventual champions. It’s a fun albeit silly ritual. Way back in the day the afternoon Drive on sports talk radio featured Rich “The Coach” Gilgallon and Kevin Kiley. The Cowboys were the juggernaut at the time. Gilgallon’s line about them was that they were “One twisted ankle away from mediocrity.” In today’s League that same line is true for every team. Washington is not exempt. Nervous? For most of the League’s fans there is both a sense of relief that the season is at hand coupled with enthusiastic hope for the home team’s season. In Washington Nation the relief is muted by the dread for the prospects of another failed season. The appropriately named “Junkies” are a reliable spring of negativity. There’s little need to feed the perpetually pessimistic. It’s the “Independents” the radio shills are after. This is a fanbase always perched within an easy reach…
Pre-Season Game #3
Mark Rypien behind a curtain of granite in Super Bowl 26: Jeff Bostic -C, Raleigh MacKenzie -LG, Jim Lachey -LT, Mark Schlereth -RG, and Joe Jacoby- RT. For the entire season Rypien was sacked 9-times with a big fat 0 in the Super Bowl. This last pre-season game comes amid stress-saturated hyperventilation over the state of the current Offensive Line. Whatever that state truly is it will be a safe bet they won’t be as good as this 1992-Champions O-line was. These two teams want this pre-season to be over with early. Tonight’s game starts at 6:00pm EDT. Washington has been up near Baltimore already once this week. It was a lovely day for a picnic. But, it was a lousy day for a Washington fan. Baltimore had the better of things by a large margin. The hype machine has exhausted the lexicon for words that convey a sense of things gone awry: Disaster, Dysfunctional, Dismal (There are more words starting with “D” but by now you get the point.) It was bad per the eyeballs actually there to watch it. The problem is that will have been the last real work against humans from another team until Sunday, September 13 in the always unfriendly confines of Philadelphia’s Lincoln Field. ‘Tis a long time to sit and digest this latest piece of gristle. What We Really Know …is that the Center of this Line with backups is really poor. A lot of this was known beforehand. Matt Gulbin is the 6th-Round pick that was plugged into the fire. He’s Strong. He’s not quick, though. Zone-Read Running plays need linemen that can move. Brandon Coleman is going to be great at zone blocking. He’s already shown it. Gulbin, though, will probably never crack Backup status. But, he was out there because…
From Pearls to Powder
Len Hauss #56 (1942-2021) was the very definition of a Solid Center. He played the position for 14-years with all of them being with Washington. His Rookie year he started 10 o f 14-games. He would start every single game for the rest of his 14-year career. Len was selected to the Pro Bowl (when that really meant something) some 5-times. The current team could use a player like Len Hauss. Off-season football is a tease quite unlike any other sport. It begins with “Black Monday” when nearly one-fourth of the League’s coaching staffs are sent packing. Every move from then on is proctologically examined. Impending doom or soaring success are the two options available for ascription. The height of the lunacy is the Draft. The player grading system is dysfunctional. You’ll notice that the top two Receivers on this WFT roster are a 3rd and 5th-Rounder. Diggs was the 21st-Wide Receiver selected. The first was Amari Cooper. Diggs has more Receptions, Touchdowns, and Yards than Amari. The second selected was Kevin White. He had 28-Receptions all told. Other than QBs where there is a definite relationship between the 1st-Round and Playoff success the whole thing is a Craps Shoot. But, the real Pearl Clutching waits for Training Camp. After last week’s exhibition in Detroit the pearls have been ground to dust. Extrapolation Rules An old colleague used to say that he was, “Drowning in data, but starved for information.” The problem with Training Camp and pre-season is that the data is limited to miniscule portions. But, the attempts to make real information out of it are continuous. Two data points don’t make a trend, the old Professor would say. No one writing the screeds about the team for money attended that class. One data point often makes a solid…