Mad Men, Redskins Edition ‒ Where the Truth Lies

Train Wreck: The morning after RG3Gate….

Is Mike Shanahan a lying liar who lies? Not so fast, cowboy.

Hog Heaven's meek, mild-mannered alter ego found career success selling capital equipment for the world's largest computer technology company. One lesson learned that he wants you to know is that customers lie.

They don't share the truth behind an adverse decision. They lie. In the same circumstance:

§  spouses lie.

§  politicians lie.

§  used car salesmen lie.

§  coaches lie.

Mike Shanahan lied when he gave us his reasons for what may be the correct decision to shut down Robert Griffin III, now referred to as "RG3-and-out" by the national media. Shanny gave us everything but "conditioning" as the reason for deactivating RG for the season.

Here's what you need to remember about Mike Shanahan. At his very first Redskins press conference, he quipped:

"You all know how this works. You ask the questions and I don't answer them."

It was meant and taken as a laugh line. Very funny. It was also pure Shanahan.

Shanny is unrivaled at coach-speak, and I mean at Joe Gibbs-epic proportion. I name-drop Gibbs to remind Redskins fans that Saint Joe did the same thing for the same good reason. Employee evaluations are private and none of our business.

John Madden: Mike Shanahan's explanation about RG3 "baloney" http://t.co/iYxMhGZ7Op via @sharethis #Redskins

— Anthony Brown (@SkinsHogHeaven) December 12, 2013

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Hog Heaven no longer believes the benching to be a Shanny vs. Danny thing. Mike the Knife consulted with Daniel Snyder on the move a week before he did the deed.  

So we are left to guess at Coach Shanahan's real reason for benching the savior of Redskins football at this moment. But Redskins legends from Sonny, to Theismann to Green and Cooley have been critical of RG, too. The kid is not performing with NFL precision. Defensing him is too easy for opposing defenses.

This is Nathan Jessup in the final moments before admitting he ordered the code red.

— Rick Snider (@Snide_Remarks) December 11, 2013

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"Taking too many hits" could mean the O-line is incredibly bad (they are), defenses are incredibly good (49ers and Chiefs are), or RG is taking too many avoidable hits (he is).

Control. Alt. Delete.

Shanahan was Jim Zorn-candid in his press conference yesterday. His reasons for shutting down Griffin were entirely plausible, brilliant even. Upon reflection, they don't have the ring of truth.  Can Redskins fans can handle the truth?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_GdiZLdD-24?rel=0

Robert Griffin the Third is not playing well enough to start in this offense. Something funny is going on in the Redskins' locker room and coach is at his wits end to fix it.

Here's the issue with Kirk Cousins. While his skill set when they were drafted was on par with Griffin's in this offense, he is down 28-1 in starts to RG. He needs six to eight starts to find his level just as Griffin, Nick Noles and Russell Wilson did. There isn't enough runway left to this season for him to do that.

Sometime today, Hog Heaven will peek at 2012 rookie quarterbacks game performance for their second through fourth games and see if that suggests anything we might expect from Cousins.

The adventure continues.

Mobile Report Thursday

Most Redskins Hog Heaven readers have migrated to the new app by Roost, so we aren't getting complaints anymore about lack of updates. We haven't had the need to post them every Wednesday as was our recent practice. Thank gawd for that.

We appreciate the football comments we get from those handheld thingies. Rather than wait until Wednesdays to publish and respond, Hog Heaven will append to posts as they arrive.

Readers over age 50 might not understand how hard it is to text on a handheld where spellchecker works against you. We publish the comments as they are received. The message, not the medium, is key. Hail!

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