Thursday, September 16, 2004

Putting the D back in Redskins - The Washington Times: Sports - September 14, 2004

The big test for Gregg Williams' blitzing defense is what will happen when the opposing offensive coordinator calls screen after screen? Screens and reverses are designed to make teams second guess an aggressive rush. I have no doubt that would be a huge part of a Bill Parcells gameplan. I sincerely hope that Williams has the right plays called that don't leave them susceptible to big chunks of yardage through those offensive counters. Fake pressure and delay blitzes to see if the play is a screen or swing pass to the flat?

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

For a hard-fought win by the Redskins, how good was this team? On kickoff returns, they were obviously pretty good. On defense, despite the loss of Warren Sapp and Lynch, the Bucs still looked solid. They clamped down on the Redskins pretty well after that opening TD by Portis for less than 300 yards total.

The Bucs offense was the big question mark. It's harder to judge the 169 yards as a factor of more of Gregg Williams' aggressive defense or the Buc O's ineptness. Any proud player always puts more onus on himself or his teammates not executing rather than giving praise to his opponent. However, in this case, it was indeed Williams' defense that outcalled and outplayed the men on the other side of the line. A lack of execution brings to mind overthrown balls, dropped passes, fumbles, penalties, missed blocks, and other mistakes. The Bucs had a TD that slipped through Galloway's fingers. Other than that, though, the sacks were a function of well-planned blitzes. The fumble was forced. The interception was due to great pressure. The Bucs were outplayed.

Then the question is, how will the Bucs play against future opponents? Against the Redskins, Alstott and Garner couldn't get any rushing room. Michael Clayton was making some nice catches against the Redskins zones but Tim Brown and Bill Shroeder were inconsequential. The Bucs offense isn't overly talented compared to the rest of the NFL. Any success on their part would be due entirely to Gruden's playcalling.

Fortunately for the Redskins, they have two of the best playcallers in Joe Gibbs and Gregg Williams.

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Redskins 16, Bucs 10

What an exhilirating win for the Skins. The energy level of the players, especially on defense was incredible. Guys were flying all over the place, getting after the ball.

A quick strike from Portis on his first touch as a Redskin, on the Skins' opening series, and it conjures up the wildest of expectations from any fan. This followed on the heels of a decisive 3-and-out pitched by the defense. However, as many football fans can attest, a dominating quarter can easily fade as the game progresses and momentum shifts. Luckily for the Redskins, the defense played at an outstanding level all game long to keep the Bucs ever from hitting a stride.

Players of the game
Offense: Clinton Portis
Portis is only as successful as the O-line will allow him to be. With Joe Bugel whipping the Dirtbags into shape, Portis was able to run to daylight on his very first play. It's disappointing that the Skins weren't able to continue to pound the rock in good chunks in the 2nd and 3rd quarters but they did drain the clock sufficiently in the fourth quarter.

Defense: Matt Bowen
This is really a reflection of Gregg Williams' ability to put his players in the position to make plays. Bowen's slapping of the ball out of Brad Johnson's hands was a thing of beauty. Fred Smoot deserves honorable mention for his excellent coverage and stout tackles. It's hard to award this to Bowen over Smoot but in the end, Bowen's two sacks and forced fumble were bigger plays.

Special Teams: Tom Tupa
The kickoff coverage was horrendous. Frank Murphy seemingly threatened to take every kickoff back for a touchdown. John Hall would have been the vote had he made the 50-yarder. However, Tupa's fine effort of averaging nearly 50 yard average for 7 punts earns him the nod.


Sunday, September 05, 2004

Washington Redskins

THE CUTS
It's quite surprising that Bauman and Upshaw were both cut. It would seem that the Skins need more than 4 healthy CBs. Apparently, extra DBs for 5 WR sets will come in the form of safeties.

Upshaw's release is particularly puzzling without any rave reviews about the understudies at the DE position (Demetric Evans and Ron Warner).

On the other hand, while everyone knew that Gibbs would have a plethora of candidates for the H-back position during the preseason, it's a puzzle that he kept five players rather than four. If anything, I would have figured Sellers, Kozlowski, or Rasby to fight for two spots.

I'm extremely glad that Ladell Betts made the cut because in the long run he should help the team immensely, assuming he's stays healthy. It seems that he had the injury bug at an unfortunate time and was starting to get the injury-prone label despite a very healthy college career. Gibbs likely sees Betts in the mold of his typical power back and a more than capable backup to Portis (knock on wood). Betts runs with authority and has shown that he can pound it between the tackles.

The Redskins should make a move to pick up Kato Serwanga, who was released by the Colts today. He was a star special teams player for the Skins a few years ago.

There's hope that Bugel can mold Mark Wilson (5th round pick) and Jim Molinaro (6th round pick) into the Hogs of tomorrow. In the short term, though, we'll have to cross our fingers that one of them can adjust to the speed of the pro game should Kenyatta Jones falter or Chris Samuels get injured. With Joe Bugel captaining the O-line ship, though, the OL should be in the best shape of any group on the team.

The LB corps will be critical in providing the badly needed pass rush. As with the Marvin Lewis scheme, Arrington should replace one of the DTs on the D-line on passing downs, with Wynn moving inside. The Skins can still afford to scan the waiver wire for a DE upgrade.

THE EAGLES
Now for some speculation about the Redskins' main competition in the NFC East. RB is a big weakness for the Eagles. It's a big question mark as to whether Brian Westbrook can hold up as the main tailback for an entire season. If he gets injured, can an unknown like Reno Mahe carry the load?

The losses of Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent were made to be a big deal but the Eagles had to make the move considering two main factors: 1) salary cap, and 2) rule enforcement of the 5-yard illegal contact rule. As physical CBs, Taylor and Vincent would have been far less effective with the officials throwing more flags for illegal contact.

With Koy Detmer and Jeff Blake behind McNabb, the Eagles are set at QB. At WR, there doesn't ever to be any risk of losing TO to injury but if he does goes down, then there is the dramatic dropoff to last year's talent level of Pinkston and Freddie Mitchell.

Philly's biggest asset is the consistency of the coaching regime with Andy Reid's staff in place for as long as it's been. The players don't have to learn new schemes every year, which the Redskins have had to do.