Redskins Head to 0-1

Its a few days later but I wanted to get my thoughts about the Redskins' opening night loss recorded on the blog. It was a frustrating game for Washington fans, and it definitely appears that the final two preseason games were more of a sign of things to come than they were an aberration. Part of judging the Redskins is also judging the Giants. I thought the Giants played fairly well, despite only winnings by 9. Their defense held the Skins down all night, and the offense moved the ball pretty well. They have two big offensive stars in Brandon Jacobs and Plaxico Burress. They both made the Redskins defense look bad in the 1st half, but couldn't capitalize with appearances in the endzone. I've never thought Eli Manning was that great, despite his impressive performance in the playoffs last season. His passer rating was worse than Campbell's, and he has a huge advantage heading into each game that Plax is playing in.


On the positive side for the Skins.

Clinton Portis - CP had a pretty solid game. I've got no problem with him missing pre-season, because I'm a believer in the idea that running backs have a finite number of carries in their career. So keeping him fresh for the regular season is fine by me, and he showed up in week 1. His line was 23 carries for 84 yards. Thats just 3.7 yards per carry, but I rate him high based on HOW he ran the ball. He was moving forward all night and getting the most out of his carries. Unfortunately the line wasn't great and there were several times when he had no place to go.

Rock Cartwright - He had too many kick return opportunities, but a 29 yard average is great. The Redskins don't get on the scoreboard without his 50 yard return in the 2nd quarter. He also had a great open field tackle on a punt, and is just a great special teams guy like Brian Mitchell and James Thrash.

London Fletcher - I can't praise the Redskins' secondary, and the line allowed 154 yards on the ground. However, London Fletcher is and always has been a beast. He came to play with 17 total tackles.

On to the things that disappointed me.

Jim Zorn - I understand its his first regular season game, but there are some things that I thought I wouldn't see. The first one was the conservative nature of the offense. As a former quarterback and a west coast offense type of guy, I thought the Skins would be tossing the ball around some. However, with all of the runs on 1st and 2nd downs, I thought Joe Gibbs was making the calls from somewhere in NASCAR country. I heard from John Madden all night that Jason Campbell didn't look comfortable. That may be true, but it didn't look like his coach was helping him out. One way he could have done that would have been getting #47 some more touches. Chris Cooley is a pro bowl tight end, and its not because of his blocking ability. He had just one catch on the night in the 4th quarter, after a screen pass run for him earlier was called back because of holding. Getting him more involved in the passing game is necessary. I was also disappointed to see him highlighted twice getting beat in the running game by the Giants ends. Put Cooley in motion, split him out wide, and give Todd Yoder a little more time in the running game.

The second thing that bothered me aboout Zorn was the lack of urgency towards the end of the game. Needing at least two scores to win the game, the offense was huddling and taking their time at the line during the last 5 or so minutes. Shots of Zorn on the sideline with his play sheet in front of his mouth made me think that he saw no urgency in the situation. As a QB coach and former NFL quarterback, I thought Zorn would have a better sense of the situation than what appeared on the field. Its almost as if the Redskins forgot to practice the two minute drill before this game.

The Secondary - Having Laron Landry back was a good sign, but this unit was extremely disappointing. The cornerbacks were awful in the first half. Plaxico Burress is a star, and will get his catches. However, the Skins didn't even look like they were challenging him early on. I doubted Carlos Rogers' health and/or heart on one play when he was seen jogging after Plax after being embarassed by a double move. Smoot was slightly better, but again the Giants made the plays they needed early on in the passing game.
The safeties were better, and it was nice to see Laron Landry covering a lot of ground back there. Reed Doughty was a decent support in the run game, but he and LL got embarassed by Brandon Jacobs and his abundance of mass. However, Landry did drop a potential interception. His was the last of three on the night that should have been caught. Each one of those was on different drives, and if the Redskins pick those off, they give their offense a lot more opportunities. Eli Manning should definitely have had more than just one INT on Thursday night.

And finally I have some neutral feelings on things as well.

Jason Campbell - As the team goes, so goes the quarterback. Since the Redskins' offense struggled, its only natural that JC has to shoulder some of the blame. However, I can't think about many plays where he really hurt the Skins. The first drop back when he was sacked is the one time I remember yelling at him. Following that though he got the ball off quickly like a West Coast QB is supposed to do. He wasn't sacked from that point on, and there is no doubt the Giants were coming hard. I think people could argue that he didn't go downfield enough, but I'm not sure how much of that is on him and how much is on the play calling. He went to his checkdowns a lot, but I don't remember seeing receivers running open down field. The biggest problem with Campbell so far in his career has been ball protection. His interception numbers are decent...not great. However, he really struggled last year putting the ball on the turf with 13 fumbles, 8 of which were lost. He didn't fumble or throw an interception. I don't even remember a pass that could have been picked off. So I give him credit for taking care of the ball.

I've read that despite Zorn's insistence that Campbell is athletic enough to run the West Coast offense, that Campbell is better suited to a traditional 5 and 7 step drop offense. Campbell is going to give things his best, so I expect Zorn to put him in situations where he can suceed. In Thursday's game I saw more problems with how the offense was run by the play calling than I did with Campbell's performance.

Jason Taylor - Taylor didn't have a good game, but this isn't a good situation to judge him by. He wasn't 100%, so its not like we saw him at his best. He was a liability in the running game, and a big reason for Brandon Jacobs' great game. Taylor was unable to hold his ground on the line, and Jacobs was able to turn his shoulders up field early on off-tackle runs. Facing a physical back like Jacobs with his knee in its current condition was not a good start for Taylor. He probably would have fared better against a team showing more of a zone rush or pass first look. Despite his weak game against the Giants, all it will take is a couple of sacks for the Redskins fans to be jumping up and down about number 55.

Redskins Playoff Outlook

I feel decent about the Redskins because they have a winning record and still are barely on the outside of the playoffs. I hear the pessimists saying they should be 3-5, and the optimists saying they should be 7-2. Look! The reality is that they are slightly ahead of the middle in the NFC. 5-4 is perfectly reasonable for this team right now. They have had a fair amount of injuries to key guys, and are still keeping themselves in games. (Note...the Patriots game never actually happened). Injuries to Carlos Rogers and Sean Taylor will surely hurt the team's potential over the rest of the year, but that doesn't spell doom.

Currently the 'Skins are 7th in the NFC. That leaves them as the last team out of the playoffs. At 8-1, Green Bay and Dallas look to have spots wrapped up already. The Buccaneers and Seahawks, both at 5-4, are no better than the 'Skins on the field, but have the benefit of playing in crappy divisons. They or some other mediocre team will take those 2 divisonal slots. So that leaves the Lions and Giants, both 6-4, as the Redskins primary competition for one of the 2 Wild Card spots.

Detroit and NY play each other this week, which gives the Skins an opportunity to pick up a game on atleast one of them. However, the Burgundy and Gold also have to travel to Dallas for their first test against the Cowboys this year. A win in Big D would be huge for the 'Skins' playoff picture. However, even with a loss and a drop back to .500 they have a chance for the Wild Card.

The Giants have the best road ahead of these 3 teams. After the Lions they have Minnesota, Chicago, Philly, Washington, Buffalo, and New England. I see them getting 4 0r 5 wins out of that stretch, which would put them at 10-6 or 11-5 to finish the season. Thats a solid Wild Card team.

Detroit has a much tougher finish to their season. After their matchup with the Giants, they still have to face Green Bay twice and Dallas.(Likely outcome, 1-2) Its hard to predict wins for Jon Kitna during those weeks. While KC and Minnesota look to be struggling now, San Diego is a team that is hard to judge. That game is a toss up to predict. (Likely outcome 2-1). So I see Detroit going 3-3 after this weeks matchup. Three or four more wins would have them looking at 9-7 or 10-6.

Now I'm not up to date on all of my playoff tiebreakers for the NFL, but I would assume the Redskins beat the Lions for a playoff spot because of the Redskins win over Detroit during the regular season. So the 'Skins should be realistically aiming for a 10-6 finish. The Redskins schedule finishing up looks like this.
Dal - W/L
TB - W/L
Buf - W
Chi - W
NYG - W/L
Min - W
Dal - W/L
The three games with the W next to them are must wins for Washington. A loss to Buffalo, Chicago, or Minnesota could be a nail in the Skins' coffin. However, even with those 3 wins the team would still have just 8 victories. To get to 10-6 and to feel comfortable with a playoff spot, the Redskins would have to split their 4 games with likely playoff opponents. All but one of those games will be on the road.

It looks like the Giants will likely get one of the two Wild Card spots. Detroit and Washington both have a shaky road towards the end, but have the best shots of any other NFC teams. DC fans really need to cheer hard for anybody coming up against the Lions this year, and the 2 Dallas games for the Skins take on even more of a meaning this year with where the standings are now.