Dog whipped

[Khyber53]

Dog whipped, that's what they used to call it.

It's what happens when a tough guy, the best fighter on the block, gets beaten, humiliated publicly, breaking their spirit, taking their mojo so to say. And no matter how many more times they put up their dukes again, everyone can take down the former best.

Roberto Duran's famous "No Mas! No Mas! (No More! No More!)" fight. The Raiders after their last Super Bowl. France after the Battle of Waterloo.

The Panthers after the Arizona play-off game.

It always happens on the biggest of stages, in front of the biggest crowd imaginable. It's embarassing, it's humiliating. It's a shame that weighs incredibly heavily on the loser. It's a shame that no one will let the abused shrug off and so it keeps weighing on them, turning an incident into a new norm.

As a team, we're wearing that mantle. Arizona, through excellent play and a great game plan last year, beat the dog water out of us. And sportswriters, fans and even children on the street (so to say) pointed out that the emperor was no longer wearing clothes. And they pointed out that there was a new yellow stripe running down the team's back.

We, the faithful, held onto hope that it was a one-time aberration. 21 of our stalwarts would take the field again together and show their strength, grit and ingenuity. And then one falls in training camp, unable to answer the bell this year. Surely, though, the 20 would stand strong, joined by the new recruits.

And then the preseason. We told ourselves it really didn't matter. It's just preseason, no one keeps those stats.

And then the Eagles came into our house and whipped us in front of our own kids. Our quarterback repeats his playoff performance. Our vaunted defense does the same.

And then Atlanta gives us a tease, but we go down in the 10th round, swinging ineffectively. We eat the canvas again.

And now Dallas. We look strong going in at the half, but five minutes into the third quarter we get the "can't help its" and become a blubbering mess as Dallas commences to pound on us in front of 100,000 of their closest friends. And you can see it on the sidelines, even the fiery Steve Smith is flinching from the beating, pointing at his team mates, trying to shift the blows to someone else.

You could see it in their eyes and the way they carried themselves. They were beaten. The tough kid was now the school yard victim and everyone was going to take their turn to make 'em cry.

The coach bowed his head and covered his eyes at times. The line broke and ran, the quarterback died alone and unsupported. Peppers stood on the sidelines looking disinterested during the third quarter while the defense was on the field. Our running game (best in the league) got buried in the dirt. Our tampon-2 defensive backs stopped, admired catches and allowed two linebackers to chase down and make tackles.

Our punter didn't screw up.

We are so completely dog whipped. They broke this team in the playoffs last year. We put on a brave face and came out to play. But you've seen it in each game so far... the team finds, somewhere during the game, that they just don't have it in them. They are beaten.

Dog whipped. Knocked from Alpha wolf to Omega dog over the next 13 games. I just don't see a win in these guys eyes anymore.

[Chaos]

nice post.

[JungleCat]

The sad truth.

[CharlotteBeer.com]

Pretty well-written post. I'm really beginning to think this team didn't really show much determination last year, but rather took advantage of an easy schedule and some very dynamic players at wide receiver and running back. I wish every player had Beason's drive.

[Khyber53]

Here's what they need to do:

1. Bench Jake. I'm a big fan of Jake's, but they've got to sit him. Put Moore in and give him a chance. Let Jake sit until Moore starts to fail and Jake WANTS, NEEDS, HAS to get back in there. Bench him until he is ready to be the guy again who came off the bench to take over for Rodney Peete in a desperate situation.

2. The Offensive Line scraps their blocking schemes. Their new mission is to create push... take the man in front of each of them and push them back three yards on every danged play. No excuses.

3. Run the ball until DWill is ready to puke. Then send in JStew and do the same until he is ready to puke. Use them to beat down the linebackers.

4. Put Smitty in the slot and use him to run the two or three guys defending him AWAY from the play.

5. Move Davis back to free safety and have him get on the opponent's TE every dang play. Or blitz if there is no TE on the play.

6. Move Peppers to OLB and let him roam. Give him something new to do, because he ain't doing his old job any more.

7. Get Diggs healthy again. He may not be star quality, but he is dependable and Beason never has to cover his weaknesses.

8. Cut Dwayne Jarrett and give Marvin Harrison a call.

9. Get Hoover healthy again and put a fullback in every play, if nothing more than to use as a battering ram against defensive linemen.

10. Play Damione Lewis as DT and use three DEs on the line with him.

11. Blitz every down, ya idiots! It was working last night.

12. Don't run the ball every time Moose shifts.

13. New policy: Give it your all, every danged play or ride the pine next week.

[Mr. Scot]

Sad, but looks true.

[Khyber53]

14. Can everyone on defense at least TRY to make a tackle of the ballcarrier gets near them?