I’ve enjoyed this and this insightful comment on the Redskins season from my friend Andre at Every Square Inch.
“How to inspire great execution” is the key struggle Andre identifies, and I agree. To restate my comments back to Andre, I’d also ask how does the Redskins leadership–from Dan Snyder down to every assistant coach–demand great execution? This is a matter of culture. Does everything happening within the Redskins culture align around the central value of winning on the football field, or is it something else?
Rich Gannon, a former Redskin, recently met with Dan Snyder and then came out publicly to tell others what he hold Snyder, which is that there is a massive lack of discipline up and down the organization. That’s a statement about the Redskins culture.
Where I have been flat out wrong about these Redskins is at the level of culture–by being a loyal fan more than a being dispassionate analyst, I was willingly blinded to the obvious: there is a lack of consistent football execution with this organization.
While I stick by my observation that there is greatness in this team, it is at the personal level, where guys have rallied together and taken their lumps like men, without complaint and with the greater good of the team in mind. I love that. But, as I am learning in my love for bold predictions, there is not necessarily a connection between such character traits and winning. Discipline and execution are completely impartial as to faith, creed, race, or whatever. That’s why competition is so inspiring and revealing.
That leads me to see why the Redskins always seem to play to the level of their competition. There is no one person in the Redskins organization creating a winning football culture–an identity that carries from every front office decision down to the field of play in every game situation.
That said, perhaps there is some hope in that the Redskins have become a momentum team over the past few years, in lieu of being a team driven by a clear cultural identity. So they play week to week, typically right around the level of their competition. If this team is truly bad, expect a brutal stretch as they play the toughest part of their schedule, beginning with Atlanta.
But if this is a team that plays to the level of their competition, and when the start playing well it can build on itself and produce some momentum and unexpected winning streaks (as we saw in their two playoff runs under Joe Gibbs), then perhaps they will elevate their play starting right now…
