It’s hard for fans to judge a football team by anything other than what they see on the field on Sunday afternoons in the Fall.
Whatever happens on the practice field each week leading up to the games is relegated to quick-hitting tweets from beat reporters and short snippets of videos that rarely show anything other than stretching routines and individual drills.
For fans of the Washington Redskins, there’s little reason to believe that the team has shown anything other than complete ineptitude because that’s all they’ve seen on the field this season. However, coach Bill Callahan said recently that one of the most frustrating things he’s seen this season is that the team is struggling to carry over great play from practice into the games on Sunday.
“The translation is what really gets to me, taking plays from the grass to the game,” Callahan said, via NBC Sports Washington. “Nobody wants to hear it and I understand that. No one wants to hear how hard you practice and how hard you prepare because everyone does in the National Football League. You’ve got to come to the game and you’ve got to make plays. When that doesn’t translate, yeah there’s a disappointment.”
Maybe the Redskins do practice hard, and maybe they are world-beaters when playing at Redskins Park on any random weekday. Maybe Callahan is trying to paint a prettier picture than there really is.
What matters is that when the players take the field on Sundays, or Thursdays, or Mondays, it looks like they haven’t even practiced that week. That’s a problem and one that needs fixing right away.
