(photo by Brian Murphy)

Anyone who has read my thoughts on the Washington Capitals this season should know by now that I’m convinced this team is critically flawed.

This roster, as presently constructed, doesn’t appear capable of coexisting with the system Dale Hunter wants to utilize. So what Caps fans are “treated” to most nights is uneven play in which the rink looks completely tilted against Washington.

The Capitals end up getting out-shot and out-worked seemingly every time they take the ice. They rarely turn up the pressure on their opponent, so quality scoring chances and powerplays* are few and far between.

For at least 20 minutes every game, the players look completely disinterested as they go through the motions shift after uninspired shift.

*Although, to be fair, the team’s powerplay is horrid. They need a four minute five-on-three man advantage just to get enough of a sustained attack on a goalie to make him sweat. So I’m halfway convinced that referees have stopped calling penalties against Washington’s opponents in hopes of preventing further embarrassment. But I digress.

That this has been farce has been allowed to continue all season long is a slap in the face to anyone who actually cares about this team.

As I wrote last week, it’s clear that the window has closed on these Capitals. Anyone who believes these players are capable of winning a championship is clearly delusional.

Even with Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green all healthy and motivated (which apparently is easier said than done), the Caps still aren’t best suited to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty the way Hunter wants them to.

The best outcome anyone can reasonably hope for this season is for the Capitals to make the playoffs and then get bounced after a round or two.

You know, like they did each of the previous four seasons under that coach who wasn’t good enough to keep around anymore.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

Hello friends. Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week, but I was out of town and had very little access to the internet.

On the plus side though, I had the pleasure of spending a week out in San Francisco and was more than happy to enjoy a week of fantastic weather and playoff football.

While much of the east coast was stuck dealing with cold and rainy weather, I was loving life while rocking short sleeves as the temperature never dipped below 60 degrees.

If that wasn’t enough, I was also fortunate enough to be in a city that was absolutely ecstatic over hosting a playoff game.

Considering how rare home playoff games are here locally, it was a sight for sore eyes to see everyone wearing their favorite jerseys, etc. in the days leading up to the San Francisco 49ers hosting the New Orleans Saints.

Although I had little rooting interest in the 49ers prior to the Saints game, it was nearly impossible to not get caught up in the sense of pride shown by seemingly everyone I ran into.

And the more I looked into the 49ers, the easier it was to get behind the team as it is presently constructed.

Seriously Redskins fans, take a quick look at San Francisco’s roster and try not to start weeping.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

Once again, the NFL playoffs are in full effect while the Washington Redskins are left on the outside looking in.

Because the franchise has just one playoff victory over the last decade, you’d think this would get easier to swallow, but that’s never the case.

With losses far outnumbering the wins in Washington, it’s not unreasonable to think that management might try to cut corners during a slow and painful rebuilding process, but mercifully, it appears those days are a thing of the past.

Instead, head coach Mike Shanahan appears to be attempting to build legitimate depth the old fashioned way – focusing the bulk of his energy on the NFL Draft as the primary method of acquiring talent while judiciously utilizing trades and free agency to round out the roster.

This conventional mindset might be “old hat” for most NFL teams, but the Redskins aren’t most NFL teams.

Seeing the front office target younger, cheaper talent as opposed to chasing the biggest names in free agency was a pleasant surprise last offseason, and the hope is that trend continues again this time around.

Before the Redskins can turn their attention to this year’s crop of free agents and college standouts who will enter the draft though, Washington must first make some tough decisions in-house.

Namely, which of the team’s free agents are worthy of a new contract and which players it’s time to part ways with. Here’s my take on some of the players Shanahan and friends will likely focus on between now and the start of free agency in early March.

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(photos by Brian Murphy)

For better or for worse, another year of disappointing football has come and gone in our nation’s capital. And while the 2011 season wasn’t exactly what fans of the Washington Redskins hoped for, it wasn’t all bad.

Head coach Mike Shanahan continues to retool and reshape his roster — dumping overpaid and underwhelming players in hopes of building a younger and hungrier roster.

The Redskins are no longer the oldest team in football. Nor are they the automatic punchline when an aging veteran hopes to collect one last payday before heading off into the sunset. These are obviously positives that a beleaguered fanbase can take pride in.

On a personal level, the 2011 campaign represented the first time in my seven years covering the team that I was able to cover all 16 regular season games.

In fact, the only time the Redskins took the field without me on the sidelines the entire year was when they traveled to Indianapolis for a meaningless exhibition game during the preseason.

Otherwise, I was there for the highest of the highs (also known as Week 1) and the lowest of the lows (a.k.a. – The John Beck Experiment).

Additionally, this was also the year I made a conscientious effort to push myself as a photographer. I figured it was well past time to take the training wheels off and see if I could keep up with the big boys on my own.

Once the season finally ended, I wanted to go back through my photos from 19 weeks of football to see what I was able to come up with.

With that in mind, here are the most compelling photos I was able to capture during the 2011 season. Please take a moment to look through them and let me know which ones, if any, stand out to you.

And finally, I’d like to sincerely thank all of you for your amazing support throughout the years. It really does make all of the long hours and travel worth it.

Hail.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

As I walked into the locker room of the Washington Redskins following the team’s season-ending 34-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, I happened to catch a sincere moment between two teammates.

Middle linebacker London Fletcher, the 36-year-old grizzled veteran, was quietly chatting with rookie linebacker Ryan Kerrigan as the two finished getting dressed.

“You’re going to be so much better next year,” Fletcher said. “You’re going to have another year in this system, so you’re going to spend less time thinking and be able to react more naturally.”

It was clear by the tone of the conversation that Fletcher is excited to see the Purdue standout build off of his impressive rookie campaign – which featured 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and an interception returned for a touchdown.

Kerrigan, who the Redskins landed with the 16th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, made a strong case for defensive rookie of the year.

His chief competition for the award is Denver linebacker Von Miller, who finished with one more tackle (64 to 63), four more sacks (11.5 to 7.5), but had two less forced fumbles (two to four), zero interceptions and zero touchdowns.

Regardless of whether or not Kerrigan beats out Miller for the award, he’s my pick for the Redskins’ player of the year because of one amazing statistic – Kerrigan played every single snap for Washington this season.

Even though the lockout caused him to miss out on the organized team activities and minicamps that rookies are usually afforded, Kerrigan came into a brand-new 3-4 scheme for the first time and was still able to take the field on day one and never look back.

You figure a defense is typically on the field for about 60 plays a game. Over the span of 16 games, that works out to roughly 960 plays in a season. And if that’s how many plays the Redskins’ defense faced, then Kerrigan was on the field for all 960 of them – making him the only player on either side of the ball to play every single down.

“It’s not surprising to me,” Atogwe said in regards to Kerrigan playing every snap of the 2011 season. “Ever since he fell from planet Krypton he’s been making plays. He’s durable and he’s the man of steel, so I’m not surprised.”

Count Atogwe as another individual who feels Kerrigan deserves to be recognized for his outstanding rookie season.

“Ryan was spectacular from the first game to the last,” said safety Oshiomogho Atogwe. “He’s going to be a phenomenal player.”

Off the field, Kerrigan’s impact could be even bigger for Washington.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

11. No Hawaii for London – Despite London Fletcher’s impressive season – in which the middle linebacker racked up an NFL-best 166 tackles, 14 quarterback pressures, three forced fumbles, two interceptions and 1.5 sacks – the 36-year-old will not be participating in the Pro Bowl this year.

In fact, the only person associated with the Redskins who earned a trip to the NFL’s glorified all-star game is cheerleader Abby, as Washington will not be sending a single player to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl for the first time since 1993.*

*Unless, of course, someone backs out due to injury, which is always a possibility.

Fletcher is a first alternate, behind San Francisco’s Patrick Willis and Chicago’s Brian Urlacher – even though his stats far surpass Urlacher’s this season. But this is what happens when your team goes 5-11.

So while it sucks for Fletcher, who absolutely deserves to be recognized as one of the league’s elite, it’s not exactly out of the ordinary for bad teams with abysmal records to miss out on positive recognition.

10. Mister Rogers New Neighborhood – Cornerback Carlos Rogers might have been Washington’s least appreciated players over the last decade. During his six seasons in D.C., he was a solid cover corner, but his hands were made of stone. Therefore, local fans only cared about how many would-be interceptions the veteran failed to haul in over the years, rather than accepting him for who he was.

Once head coach Mike Shanahan took over the keys to the franchise, it was clear Rogers’ days in D.C. were numbered. The 30-year-old signed a one-year deal with San Francisco this past offseason and has thrived in his new environment – picking off six passes, which puts him one behind the NFL lead.

To put that in perspective, Rogers had as many interceptions in one season with the 49ers as he did in his last five seasons in Washington combined.

And let’s not forget defensive end Andre Carter, who finished the season with 10 sacks in 14 games for New England after being let go by the current regime because he didn’t fit into their current 3-4 scheme. For better or worse, those two former mainstays remained highly productive even after they were deemed expendable.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “Communication Breakdown” by Led Zeppelin

This game, and the 2011 season in general, can be summed up by one sequence of plays that ended the first half.

The Washington Redskins had the ball on the 4-yard line with 26 seconds remaining in the first half when quarterback Rex Grossman dropped back and threw a pass in the corner of the endzone to receiver Santana Moss.

As Moss made a play on the ball, a Philadelphia Eagles defender essentially mugged him, but no penalty was called. Clearly frustrated, Moss made a costly mistake by taking off his helmet while voicing his opinion of the non-call.

That earned him a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct for taking his helmet off on the field of play and pushed Washington back to the 19-yard line. Two plays later, Grossman connected with receiver Jabar Gaffney for an eight-yard gain. The only problem? He was tackled in the middle of the field on the 7-yard line and the Redskins had no timeouts remaining.

The call from the sidelines was to send the field goal unit out in hopes of picking up three points on a chip shot attempt before the clock expired. The only problem? When long snapper Nick Sundberg and friends ran onto the field, the offensive players were screaming out “Spike the ball!” and center Will Montgomery was lined up in the middle of the line with his hand of the football.

Because no one had any clue what anyone else involved was doing, the Redskins missed out on easy points and went into halftime trying to figure out what went wrong.

2. “Bad Habit” by The Offspring

Even when things went well for the Redskins, the team did its best to ruin the moment. Like, for example, when running back Roy Helu caught a pass underneath from Grossman and raced down the sideline for a 47-yard touchdown less than five minutes into the second half.

The touchdown was huge because it cut the Philadelphia lead to 10-7, but any momentum Washington would have gained from the eight-play, 80-yard drive was nullified by the unnecessary celebration by wide out Donte Stallworth. For reasons that remain unclear, Stallworth ran up to Helu in the endzone, dropped to a knee and began dusting off Helu’s shoes.*

*I was standing on the sidelines for both of these plays and they elicited two very different reactions. The non-call on Moss had the entire Redskins sideline fuming. Head coach Mike Shanahan stormed over to the nearest official and yelled “Are you watching the game?”

On the same play, punter Sav Rocca, who was standing next to me, yelled “Crikey!” which was amazingly awesome. But when Stallworth was whistled for his penalty, Shanahan was screaming into his headset “We know we can’t clean off his @#$%ing shoes!” while staring daggers into Stallworth a few feet away. Needless to say, he wasn’t pleased.

That resulted in a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, which gave the Eagles better field position on their next drive. Philadelphia marched down the field on a 13-play, 72-yard drive that resulted in a field goal and never looked back — scoring touchdowns on three of their final four possessions in the 34-10 blowout.

And it all started to fall apart thanks to Moss, an 11-year pro, and Stallworth, who has nine years of NFL experience. That’s a combined 20 years between the two veterans, and yet, they both made mind-numbingly stupid decisions that cost their team.

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