Being cynical, I have to wonder if Shanahan would’ve gotten even more heat if he’d benched RGIII “just in case” before the game, or what the talking heads would be saying if the Redskins managed to pull out a win.
I think most fans would have said: it’s more important to protect RGIII’s knee now so he can continue to be RGIII for the next decade instead of a pale copy, than it is to win this one playoff game. And Cousins has shown he can do the job.
And if the Redskins had pulled out a win, but RGIII had injured his knee like that as he threw the go-ahead TD, nobody in town would have been saying it was worth it.
Disagree. The blame is on the medical staff/training staff/team doctors, whatever they’re called. And, the decision is based on a full examination… not simply asking the player if he is okay, as apparently happened.
I think that’s what reasonable fans would have said. You can’t worry too much about the unreasonable ones. Anyway how much chance would the team have had this weekend if they’d won at the expense of Griffin being injured?
I’m not sure what kind of job they did during the game.
The trainers did that? I think that’s what Shanahan did - he asked if he was OK and he said yes. Based on everything I’ve read and seen (I only saw a little of the game), there was no sensible reason for Shanahan not to take Griffin out during the second quarter or at the half, and the reasons he’s offered for leaving him in are crap. Shanahan has been in the NFL for about 30 years and he’s been a coach for a long time. He knows that players downplay or lie about their injuries. He’s also not coaching for his job this season. The team was ahead of schedule this year and he knows he’s overseeing a longer term project.
Seeing the Vikings get rolled the day before probably influenced Shanahan’s decision to start Griffin. But once they had a lead, I don’t understand why they left him in the game. But Shanahan was wrong even to start him unless he had clearance from trainers and doctors. The Sox lost a chance at the series in 2003 when they kept Martinez on the mound after asking him he could continue. In any field you don’t simply ask professionals if they can do something, it’s not in the nature of skilled people to say no, whether you’re a coach or a corporate manager, you have to take the responsibility to make dispassionate decisions. But this won’t be the last time it happens in football, other sports, or any profession.
Not so I don’t believe… Doctor Andrews asked Griffin if he could play and of course Griff said yes (as just about every player would). Andrews then told Shanahan that Griff was cleared to play so he sent him back out there. Point being, it doesn’t appear that the medical staff really did exam Griffin… they just asked him. The head coach has a lot of responsibility during a game but the medical work is not one of them.
I agree with Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Shanahan should be fired.
I loved this headline from the Onio: “Mike Shanahan clears RG III to help carry furniture down some icy steps.”
http://www.theonion.com/articles/mike-shanahan-clears-rg-iii-to-help-carry-furnitur,30827/
ISTR seeing Griffin go into the locker room sometime in the second or third quarter to get his brace adjusted. That is clearly the time that the coaching/training staff really should have pulled him. But, of course, they saw the game starting to slip away from them, so extraordinary measures were apparently in order. Not sure what they would have had in mind for the following week.
Well, that’s just it. There was no way they could ride that knee to the Super Bowl. Again and again, they had Cousins. Shanahan has been around long enough to remember when Tony Romo replaced an injured Drew Bledsoe and went on to be a Pro-bowler.
I wonder if Shanahan has a tattoo of his wife wearing only an RGIII jersey?
It’s funny that you choose Tony Romo as the replaced-an-injured-drew-bledsoe-pro-bowler.
Yeah, that’s either a whoosh or R. P. McMurphy meant Tom Brady…
At least it wasn’t J.P. Losman.
There are a few times in sports where everyone except the coach knows to pull a player. I remember one time watching my Mariners in the playoffs against the Indians where Pinella was trying to get one more inning out of his starter. The batter got a HUGE foul ball off the pitcher and it was clear to everyone that the pitcher was spent. Pinella leaves him in and sure enough there is a home run and the Mariners give up the lead and lose.
When RGIII ran that bootleg and was not only limping but trying to get out of bounds as quickly as possible and not even try to get that last yard for the first down, no one except Shanahan would have dreamed of leaving RGIII in.
Well, there are more than a few examples. That one just came off the top of my head. Something similar but not exactly the same is Green Bay letting Farve go because they had Rodgers. In Washington’s case it is imperative to keep RGIII healthy because they could lose Cousins or might have to trade him to fill holes. If it’s my team RGIII is the definite starter. But, I’m not going to take a Lamborghini out in snowstorm in the mountains to test its handling.