Monday, October 31, 2011

Right on Schedule (Part 1 of 3)


Every media outlet in the DMV had their own opinion about the Redskins in late August, but they all were saying the same thing...no better than 8-8, and that's probably a stretch. Now I'm no math major or anything but I'm pretty sure that puts the Skins right on schedule at this point in the season. But if you listen carefully to the radio, or read the Post, maybe even turn on the local sports show..you would think that we were in Miami talking about the Dolphins. As long as the Skins are still competing at a high level, win or lose..that's OK with me. Whether or not anybody wants to admit it, we're rebuilding. But the performance I witnessed yesterday was unacceptable..whether you're fighting for the playoffs or going through a down season.
So now that we've been shutout, lost 3 straight, and have fallen to 3-4..it's time to get rid of the coaches, players, and maybe even Bruce Allen. Wait a second, I don't know if I sound more like the local media or an emotional teenage girl. Everyone knew that we weren't going to be very good this year, but now that that's happening..fans are ready to blow it up. If you feel like the Skins gave you false hope starting 3-1, or that maybe you feel as though they've let you down somehow...then you're probably right. But you should be used to it by now...hell we're Skins fans!
When a coach is hired in the NFL you should expect a 4-year window to turn things around and right the ship. We're in year two, and there isn't one fan out there who can tell me that we're worse off now than we were last year. We're starting to put the right pieces together, but we still have aways to go.
It's a bumpy road Skins fans, always has been, always will be...but the true Redskin fans will hang on throughout. Everyone else will jump off along the way. And I say good riddance!
Stay patient, stay passionate...

Fight On!

-Check back in tomorrow to catch part 2 of this article when I talk about Shanahan's press conference, Brian Mitchell's swagger, & the future of Chris Cooley.

Pump the Brakes Mr. Crawford

There is a very fine line between confidence and delusion.

Remember this Wizard?
Jordan Crawford I should thank you for this fantastic opportunity. If Washington D.C. sports was a normal sports town, I would never get to have much fun with this blog. Enter Jordan Crawford. For those of you who haven't heard of him, he was a rookie last year out of Xavier. He made his way to Washington via trade last year and wasn't expected to do much. Injuries and another awful Wizards season gave Crawford the chance to start alongside John Wall and average around 18 points as a starter here.

Now that you're all caught up, here's his most famous quote, along with my comments in red:



Jordan Crawford-Jordan?
“I don’t tell nobody (I think you're about to), but I feel like I can be better than Michael Jordan (At this point I choked on my unusually large spoonful of Corn Pops). When I’m done playing, I don’t want people to say, Michael Jordan is the best player (Now that's just rude). I want that to be me (Now you just sound like Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). That’s how I am. That’s how I was built.” Crawford said.

Oh my goodness that was fun. Now, this is America and what do we do here? We pass blame. This can't possibly be Jordan Crawford's fault that he's delusional can it? Of course not. He has been conditioned by an increasingly egotistical, selfish, Jersey Shore world! Lucky for you guys, I know just who to blame. DRUM ROLL PLEASE. . . . .



Davey takes over

Washington Nationals announce that Davey Johnson will stay on as manager for the 2011-2012 season. Johnson took over in mid June last year and went 40-43 to finish the season one game under .500 at 80-81. Davey has some lofty expectations for his club for the immediate future and has made that very clear:

"Winning the pennant. Winning the division. Winning the National League. . .I couldn't have said that last spring. I didn't think the talent was ready," Davey explained. "But after being there and seeing the progress that some of the young players made, I think we definitely can contend. And I would be sorely disappointed if we didn't do just that. The talent's there."

We shall see, Mr. Johnson. We. Shall. See.



Scott Burnside isn't too worried about the Caps 2 game losing streak. A 7-2-0 record is enough to keep the Capitals number 1 in ESPN's NHL power rankings for the second straight week.





The Boudreau Effect

"We had a bad first so the coach comes in and yells," Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Our team comes out and has a better second. They come back out, and we knew what was going to happen in the third as far as effort, and they got the first one, so it generates more energy in the building. We sort of sagged for five minutes and the game's over."



Friday, October 28, 2011

The Curse of J-Will...


On October 21st, 2008 Gary Williams, unbeknownst to him, would sign a player who would ultimately decide his fate as head coach at the University of Maryland. Some may say that's a little harsh, but I say F*ck that jingo jango. A mid-level recruit named Jordan Williams was out of "the land of steady habits" aka Connecticut. The only steady habit Jordan Williams had was eating...a lot! Word around town was that they wouldn't let him in the locker room until he did the truffle shuffle. Now let's fast forward a bit to two years later, and Jordan McWendys turns into a straight beast! Cutting weight and becoming an imposing inside presence in his sophomore year, he was starting to blossom into the best post-presence since Bambale "Boom" Osb...I mean Lonny Baxter. Many Terps fans thought the sky was the limit for Jordan and this young Terp squad. With talented freshmen guards in Terrell Stoglin and Pe'shon Howard getting key minutes, and young players such as Mychael Parker and Hawk Paulsson ready to break out, Maryland could see a very bright future. Adding to that future within the next two years would be Nick Faust, Martin Breunig, Sterling Gibbs, & Top 25 recruit Justin Anderson. This mix of players with the coaching experience of Gary led me to believe one thing..National Champions! Annnd I totally just went from 6 to midnight..BUT HANG ON..I once again have led myself to get too excited prematurely...story of my life!

Once the 2010-11 season had ended, Jordan said he had a very difficult decision to make, either go to the NBA and make millions of dollars, or come back to College Park and help end the sports recession of the DMV. My man dipped out quicker than Shawn Kemp after finding out he was about to have his 47th kid. A huge shot to the hearts of the Terrapin faithful, and little did we know Coach Williams was already packing his bags the moment the announcement was made. You can't blame Coach for this one..he got the raw end of the deal with the whole Gilchrist, McCray, Garrison, & Caner-Medley class, and now knowing his last shot was going to be riding on J-Will's shoulders...game over. Little by little everything started to fall apart. Here's a little reminder of how:
1.) Jordan Williams enters the NBA Draft
2.) Gary Williams retires
3.) Sean Miller, Brad Stevens, & Mike Brey turn down coaching job
4.) Hawk Paulsson leaves to play overseas
5.) Sterling Gibbs, Martin Bruenig & Justin Anderson de-commit
6.) Pe'shon Howard breaks his foot
7.) .....

So in conclusion, I want to give a little shout out to you Jordan Williams. Thank you for reminding us where we live, the fact that we can't get too excited about our teams, & for making me re-enroll in anger management classes. I take solace in knowing that because of the NBA lockout, everyone in the DMV makes more money than you do right now. Until the next player/team breaks our hearts...

Fight on DMV!

Caps-Oilers Reaction

It's a trap!

After back to back wins against Philly and Detroit, Edmonton should be a piece of cake right? Wrong. This was a trap game all the way and the Caps walked face first into it, and by "it" I mean the penalty box.

Khabibulin was an absolute monster in the third period of this one. The first period played out pretty evenly with one goal a piece. The second period was a different story entirely. Thank Tomas Vokoun for keeping us in the game because the Caps committed penalty after penalty. I thought I had seen it all until Alzner was called for holding the stick (with his legs). And can we please change the rules for diving? Although the Caps benefited from it this time, why on earth the NHL thinks that the dive, and the hook, slash or trip that caused it should both be called is beyond me. Just call one or the other! Either Anton Lander hooked Matt Hendricks, or Hendricks took a dive! It can't be both! I can only imagine Boudreau's 2nd intermission rant after that one, but it worked. The Caps came out on all cylinders during a third period where at one point the Caps were out shooting the Oilers 15-5. None of that mattered however, because Nikolai Khabibulin stopped everything the Caps threw at him.

I don't think this was a bad loss for the caps. There was some sloppy play, which can happen after four days off and riding high on a 7 game win streak, but as Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin said many times, the refs were calling this game "by the book." Most games won't be called this way and the Caps came into this game with one of the fewest total penalty minutes in the NHL. I don't see this being a problem for the future. Boudreau will get this team re-focused for Saturday night and back on track.

Till next time! I'm off to play what might be my last round of golf this year.

FIGHT ON DMV

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Shots For Beags!


Click on the "Caps" tab up top to find out how Ben & I are going to honor Jay Beagle for the rest of the season. Join the revolution and ROCK THE RED!

Caps Look for Eight Straight

"We're getting lucky bounces at the right times, and Thursday we might not get any of the bounces," Boudreau said. "Things are going our way right now, but as we all know in sports, they can change in a heartbeat."


MoJo is a big reason for our early success
Lets hope that doesn't happen tonight. It's been four days since the Caps outplayed Hockey Town's own Detroit Red Wings to the tune of 7 goals to 1. Seven goals will get you a win just about every time but I give a lot of credit to Vokoun and the Caps penalty kill. The Caps sandwiched two great periods around one where they spent most of it in the penalty box. As head coach Bruce Boudreau noted, "Those two 5-on-3s were difference makers. . .We took four penalties in about eight minutes there. It could have been 3-3 in a heartbeat. If you look at the past history, they're always in the top five on the power play."


Last Saturday night's game was about the last two undefeated teams playing for the right to be the only undefeated team. Tonight's game against Edmonton has a much different vibe to it. Edmonton comes in at a respectable 4-2-2 record, with all of their wins coming against 2010 playoff teams. They are going to be looking to add to that list in front of a hometown crowd who haven't hosted a playoff game since 2004. 


The Washington Capitals are favored today but here is the one key to becoming only the sixth team in NHL history to start a season 8-0-0. Keep doing what you are doing. The Caps know that they can beat any team in the league, but they need to make sure they don't mentally skip by any games. Four days off is a long time in this league and they need to avoid coming out sluggish in this one. Alex Ovechkin needs to come out and make a few big hits early and establish the tempo of the game. The Oilers just caught Vancouver sleeping. Give them an early lead, and they will have the confidence they need to do the same to us. 


KEY MATCH UP:


Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle vs. Karl Alzner and John Carlson


The Oilers win or lose with their first line of Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins and Hall. Keep them frustrated and they will have a tough time beating us. 


FIGHT ON DMV!





Olsen's Army will Return!



I'll drink to that! One of the greatest DCU players of all time will be back for at least one more season as United's General. I don't know if it's just his fiery personality, or a partial Napoleon complex, but whatever it is..he's got the "it" factor, and I back him 100%. I see big things coming for Benny and DC United next season. Some would say this season was a disappointment, but watching the turmoil and uncertainty of the past few seasons I'll take anything I can get. By the way, Ben (Jammer) thought the DeRo trade was a huge mistake. Good call douche! Click on the DC United tab and check out the video clip for who earned "DCU Performance of the Year"

BARRA BRAVA 4 LIFE!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

About the "Author?"

BEN. Short, simple, dare I say. . . perfect.


Here's a quick bio of one of the men behind the curtain for this blog. I've stared at this screen for a few minutes filtering out important information from the unimportant, or vice versa, and then it hit me like Brian Orakpo hit Cam Newton's spine. Most of my background doesn't matter. If I took the time to create a blog dedicated to professional sports in the DMV, that sums it up fairly well I would think. Most people who read this blog can probably relate at least on an extremely superficial level to me. We've all felt the sting of what seemed like 72 botched snaps and missed field goals in 1999. We all feel as though we are stuck in some kind of "sports owner purgatory" while stuck with Dan Snyder and Peter Angelos running the show. But hey, in the end it's all good because at least there is a show, right?


Pregame Bullsheet



What Up Sports World,

My name is Rick, an avid sports fan of our beloved DMV (actually just the D&M, but I won't discriminate). I grew up playing every sport you can think of...doesn't matter if I was actually good at them or not, so shut up! I'm born and raised in MD and have loved our Skins, Caps, Bullets, Terps, DC United, & Orioles since forever. And no, I am not a Nationals fan. Just because a new team rolls into town doesn't mean you jump ship! If that were the case, I would've been a Ravens fan a long time ago...but F*ck that noise. If you are one of these unfortunate Natty or Purple Nurple fans have no fear..I'll still give you all a shout out from time to time.


Chad Dukes Hang Up on You Too?

 
Motivation. If you take an action, an idea, a sentence, a product, anything at all, and break it down, what's inside? Some kind of motivation. This blog is no different. Although there are many different reasons for the creation of this blog, number one on the list is frustration. No, I was not hung up on by Chad Dukes, but there are countless who have. I'm sick and tired of listening to Chad Dukes put down callers, hang up on callers and basically act like one big douche just because he is sitting next to LaVar Arrington every day. When the show first started, listeners were able to call in, say what they wanted in an open forum and be heard without prejudice, judgment or interruption. Unfortunately for every DMV Sports fan, this is no longer the case. Every day on my drive to and from work my options for local sports radio are AM radio, or The Junkies in the morning and LaVar and Dukes on 106.7 the FAN in the evening. This blog is our putting an end to it. If you are SICK and TIRED of being treated like you don't know anything because you either aren't in radio, or haven't played professionally, join us in this quest. Join us in the revolution. Because every once in awhile, revolution is a good thing.

Right now there is only one option for sports radio in the DMV. Our goal is to double that. Check in daily for conversations, critiques, and about ANYTHING DMV sports. Shoot me an email if you have questions or something you want us to cover. DMV sports fans, we are here for you!

FIGHT ON DMV!