On Brand for Bill Callahan

December 29, 2019

by Jay Evans

Down by seven, the Redskins marched 99 yards in the twilight of a division game against the New York Giants. The ensuing decision by interim head coach Bill Callahan to opt for overtime rather than attempt to win the game in regulation was unequivocally wrong and borderline criminal. The decision to kick was the final coaching straw that needed to break for the 2019 coaching staff.

The first matchup of the 2019 draft’s two highest drafted signal callers (Daniel Jones – 6 and Dwayne Haskins – 15) overdelivered in the first half. The game began with five consecutive touchdown scoring drives between the two anemic franchises.

By halftime, the two rookie quarterbacks had five passing touchdowns (3 for Jones, 2 for Haskins), zero interceptions, and combined to score 42 points.

Former starting quarterback Case Keenum entered the game after Haskins’ ankle was pinned between two Giants on the first play out of the halftime break.  The backup quarterback overcame two separate 14-point deficits in the second half and led a six-minute drive in the final minutes of the game.

Ultimately, Keenum capped off the trip down the field with a one-yard touchdown scamper, which brought the score to 35-34. A decision to go for two was imminent and the Redskins offense looked to the sideline for the conclusive play. Then came an interminably painful timeout.

While the coaching staffed mulled the available options for play, design, motions, alignments…it became certain the leadership was entirely uncertain. The blatant delineations of ineptitude that have been apparent for weeks, months, even years to those paying attention have smothered the organization.

The malignance culminated into one concise pathetic moment. Was overtime necessary for two 3-11 squads battling for the second overall draft pick?

Instead of capping off the season’s longest drive with an emphatic two-point conversion for a capricious victory, the Redskins opted to tie the game and leave the decision up to the overtime gods, essentially a coin flip.

After Dustin Hopkins tied the game at 35 apiece, the Giants won the coin toss, picked apart a high school secondary, and scored a winner-take-all touchdown to end the game. The result was ceremoniously shallow for both teams.

At stake was the possible chance to draft a highly projected talent or check off a box of things-to-do list for the betterment of the current team. Neither is a sip of homemade hot cocoa on a chilly day, but rather just a stale morsel of a Kirkland’s brand marshmallow.

Why did the Redskins not attempt a two-point conversion? Did they want to win? Did they want to be on the field for another series or fully understand the conditions of the game? Did they even comprehend what was seriously happening?

Bill Callahan is a coach behind the times. His offensive style is archaic, reminiscent of an era when the president would ask “where’s Ricky Sanders” instead of a period when the president would prefer to tweet @RickySanders #good.

The audience has matured. The public doesn’t gulp down John Madden’s whap quaffs or Chris Berman’s jowl-induced back-back-back-back homerun calls as analysis. The NFL has evolved and the anachronistic mindset of the coach was on display.

Promoting Callahan to the interim head coach position was never a long-term commitment. The man wanted to leave last offseason because he had grown tired of the innerworkings of Ashburn.

Callahan never appreciated former head coach Jay Gruden’s style until the heat of the job took its toll on the interim coach. Then, when the time was inappropriate, Callahan took a shiv to his former coworker by saying, “[I] tried to bring back a work ethic into the program that I thought was lacking.”

The Redskins will never be confused for the Billy Beane “Moneyball” Oakland Athletics. The age of analytics is death incarnate in D.C. Call the swinging gate twice while you are at it. Fool me once…you can’t get fooled again.

Football stubbornly clings to the notion that experience always trumps analysis. If the Redskins truly wanted to win the only question Callahan had to ask was, “Which would improve our chances of winning more, the first point or the second point?”

Since the second point included possibly losing, the coaching staff immediately balked without truly analyzing the risk. However, the value of the extra session is not conducive to all things being equal. Construction of a rudimentary “Go or No-Go” chart are all that is needed to change the team’s probability for success and yet nothing of the ilk exists with the Redskins.

Bill Callahan doubled down on his strategy after the 41-35 loss, stating, “I felt good that we would go into overtime and just thought it was the right decision.” He went on to say, “Guys were playing hard, and I thought our defense had an opportunity to make a play in the overtime. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that type of stop. I felt confident we could stop it, get the ball back and score.”

The risk of injury never crossed thought process of the interim coaches, but a defense without its best pass rusher, top three cornerbacks, and had yielded 477 yards of offense prior to the extra session should have weighed on the decision of the coach.

Callahan’s gruff position in the NFL is not at risk. His aptitude of the game is far superior to yours or mine, but his ignorance isn’t chartable. Coaching by the feeling in his pants is admiral and on brand, but as we have learned, futile.

The Redskins have one game remaining in Bill Callahan’s tenure. The Dallas Cowboys have the incentive of the division championship in reach and the Redskins’ expected defensive backfield wouldn’t start for a team in the college playoffs.

With Haskins done for the season with an ankle sprain and Terry McLaurin in concussion protocol, there are no meaningful milestones for the Redskins to achieve. Pay attention to the performance of the players still putting out positive effort, but don’t judge harshly given the severe coaching deficiencies and injury status of the team.

Hand the ball to Adrian Peterson seventy plays in a row and let the defensive front attack the Cowboys. End the game in under two hours. That’s all.

The offseason can’t come soon enough. “Black Monday” will be the most interesting event of the entire year. If reports are correct it will be the final day of Bruce Allen’s command of football operations and the first of many changes.

Monday can’t arrive quick enough. If the game comes down to a last-minute play, rather than subject the fanbase to another minute of this team, just spare everyone and take a knee.