Biggs: How many delay of game penalties for 'Skins?
So, you’ve got your squares pool all set for “Monday Night Football” when Philadelphia heads down I-95 to visit Washington.
What about a little pool for the number of delay of game penalties for the Redskins and/or the number of penalties burned to avoid delay of game penalties?
It could be a rocky start to the Sherm Lewis play calling experience in Washington. The consultant has been on the job for two weeks, and all Bingo parlor jokes aside when it comes to Lewis, it would be a daunting task for anyone to master a playbook in that short a period of time. Could a running back come in and pick things up and go out and play? Sure. Could a lineman? Maybe. But Lewis has to be a master of the Redskins’ playbook, although you could probably construct a good argument that he can’t do any worse than neutered head coach Jim Zorn did.
Lewis is going to be in the coaches’ box and he will relay the play calls down to the field to offensive coordinator Sherman Smith. NFL teams cannot send plays directly from the coaches’ box to the quarterback’s helmet. Smith will then send the plays into quarterback Jason Campbell. Previously, Zorn was calling the plays into Campbell himself. Now, the Redskins have added an extra step to the process, although a lot of teams have the play caller in the booth and have him relay the call through the sideline to the field.
The quarterback’s headset cuts out when the play clock reaches 15 seconds. This is a new process with a new trigger man, and it’s not going to be easy. Lewis is very familiar with the West Coast offense that Zorn used, but the Redskins have carryover in their playbook from the Joe Gibbs era. A lot of the running plays are Gibbs’ plays. The terminology is different. It’s like two playbooks for one man who has been on the job for two weeks.
We’ll see how Lewis can pull this off. The bar has not been set real high. The Redskins have not scored more than 17 points this season and they’ve been held under 10 twice, including in their embarrassing loss to the previously winless Kansas City Chiefs last week.
Stay tuned. Count those flags Monday night.
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