From the Washington Redskins Inside Slant in USA Today.com:
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Our (special) teams are pretty good. We don't want to be average at anything. We punted nine times in (the wild-card playoff loss at) Seattle and we didn't have a 4.5 hang time on any of 'em. If you line-drive the ball, these premier returners will stick it right back down your throat." — Special teams coach Danny Smith explaining why incumbent punter Derrick Frost is being challenged by sixth-round draft choice Durant Brooks.
Certainly, the poor hang time points to the fact that the Redskins would benefit from an upgrade at the punter position. I've come out strongly in favor of the drafting of Brooks.
But that's not what struck me about this quote. It's the number of punts—nine. I went to NFL.com and looked at the Gamebook. The Redskins' first six possessions ended in punts. Their seventh ended on downs. Their next one ended when the first half expired.
You just can't go on the road and win a playoff game with an offensive performance like that. It points to the lack of offensive firepower that has been keeping this team from breaking out of the ranks of the mediocre this decade.
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