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Welcome Michael Gattone to Crossing Broad.  We'll be adding some additional writers this week, so stayed tuned for an official announcement and welcoming.       

The glorious capital of our nation was dubbed by it’s the forefathers as “The City of Magnificent Distances.”  Now, you’re sitting there reading this saying why could that be (or maybe you’re thinking who gives a shit?) well either way, here is why.  Apparently before it became riddled with crack, AIDS, or even parasitic politicians, it was brimming with lush green meadows rolling rivers and mighty oak trees.  Hard to imagine huh?

Fast forward a few hundred years and it appears that this nickname has taken on a new form.  According to stats over the first 3 games, the most “Magnificent Distance” in Washington D.C. is the 60 feet between the 20 yard line and the end zone. The Redskins have scored a dismal 29 points in their nine possessions in the red zone in 2010. 

Clinton Portis is anything but pleased with the situation and according to a column by Jason Reid, The Washington Post’s “Redskins Insider”, the veteran RB thinks it might be because coach is putting the ball in the hands of the infamous #5 a bit too often.

Clinton was disgusted with the play calling, “We really haven’t tried to run the ball in the red zone.  When we did, we tried the Houston game, and we came away with two touchdowns.”  Portis also offers some harsh criticism of his team’s early rash of penalties.  One that stood out to me, of course, was the dreaded DELAY OF GAME.  

"When we come back and watch film, it's nothing that the defense is doing that's stopping us. It's us stopping ourselves. There's been numerous times we had third and short and jumped offside. Or we didn't get the play in on time. We just got to execute, get out of the huddle better and get the snap count better."

 

If you have watched the birds over the last few years, you know all about this penalty.  You can often see this infraction called at the beginning of a quarter or coming out of a time out.  We still aren’t really sure why it happened so much over the last few years because the only explanation we’ve ever heard from Big Red is “We have to do a better job there.”

So, Washington can’t score in the red zone, they don’t run the ball enough, and they get delay of game penalties at crucial moments of the game.   This all sounds eerily familiar doesn't it?