And The Beatings Shall Continue...

The last time I saw a coach who seemed to care so little about the physical punishment his quarterback was taking, the coach was Steve Spurrier and the QB was Patrick Ramsey.

Move over, you two.

Because Mike Shanahan clearly doesn't give two shits about possibly totalling his brand new Ferrari of a QB in Robert Griffin III.

He's worse than Lindsay Lohan.

Back when Spurrier was trying to run his college offense in the pros, Ramsey stood like a cement pillar in the flimsy pocket, 5-wideouts scurrying about, and got pulverized week after week.

'Twas no "fun and gun" my friends.

Now Shanny & Co. are implementing their own spin on a college offense (the triple-option-wishbone-zone-read-something) with RGIII, and it's getting ugly.

The Cincinnati Bengals crushed Griffin repeatedly, and in various ways. Crushing blindside sacks. Split-second post-release pops. Malachi-crunch take downs on designed runs. Concussion-inducing knockdowns on zone-read runs.

Terrance Newman even took a cheap-and-obvious sideline shot at the end of the game.

Superman put on a brave face after the game. Said Griffin: "Teams think if you hit the QB enough he'll stop coming after you. I just want to let everybody know that's never going to happen."

Okay. Wonderful. But that's not the point, Robert.

When you get your leg broken, you won't be playing.

So what's going on in Shanny's mind here? Is he more pressed to win right now than we think? Is it ego? Or is there real job pressure? He seriously doesn't seem to give a shit that Griffin is getting hammered. At least Spurrier would wince and promise to do better on protection the next week.

Not Shanny. He has zero concern.

I thought the ol' Crimson Fox in Week 1 at New Orleans enjoyed his finest hour. I thought it was all about unveiling a healthy dose of option looks after a summer of secrecy, to catch the Saints flat footed and bag an improbable win to start the season.

Bravo. /slow clap.

But I thought the college stuff would start to fade away by now, and be used only in special situations.

Wrong.

Shanny is running Griffin into the ground. And we are THREE games into his career.

It's nuts.

You want to run some of this stuff in goal-to-go situations, or 4th and short? Fine. In fact, perfect.

You can't run it exclusively for two straight drives, like the Skins did today.

Well, I mean, you CAN do that. But it's stupid. This is not an offense you can win with in December and January. 

The thought of zone-reading Griffin left and right in an NFC championship game at a rock-hard Meadowlands after 17 or 18 games in a season is laughable.

Furthermore, if you are down 7 late in a big game, you generally can't/won't run the option to victory against NFL defenses.

So in other words, we are working on installing and running an offense, that you simply can't win with.

And it's going to kill our star QB, a guy the same geniuses surrendered four draft picks to get.

Griffin is plenty accurate enough, smart enough, and patient enough to be a "regular" NFL pocket passer. It's what he will need to be eventually anyway. So let's get started with his education on that front.

The season is quickly getting sideways on Shanny. Not only does the schedule get harder real quick, but the injuries are piling up quickly. And the ability to gimmick your way to wins with this college scheme is going to rapidly approach the point of diminishing returns.

So let's slow down and take our ups and downs with a talented young QB while he learns how to play the PRO game. So what if the learning curve is painful at times? That's what this year was expected to be anyway, right?

Unless, something else is going on with our gravel-voiced leader.

Shanahan is now 12-23 in Washington. If the "win-one-lose-two" pace continues through the season, that'll probably make him 6-10 for a 3-year run of 17-31.

Furthermore, Shanny is now 4-13 at HOME in face-matching burgundy golf shirts.

Is that good?

So what if I tried this theory on for size? Let's say Shanny is exposing RGIII to massive punishment now for two basic reasons.

1. He knows the roster will continue to fall apart as the season wears on. So he MUST bag wins NOW, and this college scheme is the best/only way to do it.

2. If Griffin DOES get hurt, and misses games, he won't be happy of course, but it WOULD buy him some more time. Maybe another year.

I think Shanny is solid here through 2013 no matter what.

But an injury to RGIII resets the "get this dummy out of here" clock even further.

I know, crazy talk.

But what if Shanny actually DOES think this option-heavy scheme can have LONG TERM success in this league? What if he really does envision Year 4 of the Zone-Read with Griffin FINALLY becoming an unstoppable force?

Now, that, would be truly crazy.

I'm not sure which scares me more.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The good ol' days....