Friday, October 28, 2005

Giants-Redskins Matchup

The ESPN analysts are picking the Redskins to come out on top. However, there is much more to this game than the Skins' D vs. Giants' O and vice versa. The main poits that is ignored is the intangibles factor.

The emotional aspect where the home team will be honoring Wellington Mara is a definitive edge. In addition, Antonio Pierce is highly motivated against his former compatriots. Brunell is playing against his former head coach in Tom Coughlin. Tim Hasselbeck knows the Skins' offense and has been briefing the Giants organization all week. These factors, combined with the fact that the Skins haven't solved the turnover problem (except for one week against the lowly Niners) will likely amount to big problems for the Redskins. It's easy to imagine that the Giants defense will elevate their level of play several notches, inspired by the emotional calling. They will probably play better than they have all season. Plus, once they force a couple turnovers, the face of the game changes completely.

CBS Sportsline has analysts who are believers of this latter theory. Plus, they point out that despite giving up a lot of yardage, the Giants defense has forced a league-leading 18 turnovers.
NFL.com - NFL News

All the NFL.com analysts vote Mark Brunell as the "new" QB of the year. The question is how long he can maintain his impressive performance. Closely tied to Brunell's fortunes are those of Santana Moss. He is on a tear, on pace to break the team record for receiving yardage. Clearly, the revamped offense has worked wonders in the first half of the year.

What will happen, though, is that opposing defensive coordinators will get more footage of the opened-up Redskins' offense with each successive game. They will then be able to game-plan better to contain Moss. The Brunell to Moss combo will be far less potent in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, the running game will open up as defenses back off to prevent the big play. Defensive coordinators will also be more than willing to give up the underneath stuff. Gibbs then has to be ready to adjust his receivers' routes to hitches, curls, and slants.

An exciting play to see unfold was the double screen to Cooley in the San Francisco game. As John Madden always notes, defenses have become much better at sniffing out and defending screen than offenses have been at executing them. However, the double screen is often very effective because the defense gets spread out.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

As Taylor matures, his game improves�-�Sports�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Sean Taylor is a force to be reckoned with. He hit Patrick Crayton so hard it forced the ball out to prevent a 3rd down conversion late in the game as the Cowboys were driving. I still believe that was possession and a fumble.

He made a big play with an interception against the 49ers. The tackle from Brandon Lloyd looked like it could have caused a severe ankle injury. Nevertheless, all indications are that Taylor will play against the Giants.

On the other hand, I stand by my previous post that Sean Taylor is around for this season only. Each game that they get out of him is a bonus since his assault charge likely means serious jail time.

With Taylor, Marcus Washington, and now LaVar Arrington back in the mix, commentators and analysts can't refer to Gregg Williams' defense as a no-name defense.


Monday, October 24, 2005

Griffin's Status: Day-to-Day

Losing Griffin would be quite a blow. Between Burress, Shockey, Manning, and Barber, the Giants have an explosive offense. Griffin truly anchors the middle. Without him, the Skins would have a gaping hole.

On the other hand, going to a 3-4 could allow LaVar Arrington to get on the field more. Renaldo Wynn and Philip Daniels are perfectly suited to be 3-4 ends that are closer to being defensive tackles and plugs than anything else. It's convenient that the Skins were able to get some practice at the 3-4 against the hapless Niners.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Redskins Quash the Niners

Despite Gibbs' rants, this was a gimme win. Nevertheless, it's Gibbs' role to make sure his team doesn't get complacent and overlook a lowly team like the Niners. Luckily, they performed the way most people expected them to. They beat the Niners soundly in all three phases of the games. They got LaVar Arrington significant playing time, they racked up sacks, they created turnovers. Portis scored. The offense minimized mistakes. This was the complete performance that defines a good team. It will be interesting to see if the team can keep the momentum heading into the roughest part of their schedule, starting with the Giants next week.

The rushing TD that the second team allowed to Frank Gore was awful. Up to that point, they had allowed ~70 yards rushing. Then that rushing yardage was promptly doubled.

Friday, October 21, 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001821.html

This article mentions a point that many Skins followers, myself included, thought -- going from Coles with his great work ethic to injured Moss would be a downgrade. It seemed as though their speed was probably equivalent. In reality, it's a significant difference. Moss has breakaway speed and consistently makes big plays work. Switching from Coles and Gardner to Moss and Patten seemed like a push at best. However, Moss' game-breaking ability is head and shoulders above what preceded him. Patten still has yet to prove that he was a worthy addition. As more defenses roll toward Moss, he'll get his opportunity.

Many fans who have felt hopeless with Dan Snyder running the show and recognized that he was too involved. He was the one who felt that the Skins should have drafted Santana Moss whereas Schottenheimer, who was calling all the football shots at the time, drafted Gardner instead. Now this proves that at least on this one point, Snyder was right. For fans, this may be a dangerous precedent because they don't want to see "Jerry Jones hand-picks Quincy Carter and Chad Hutchinson"-type moves.

Coles is still a good player. If he got his foot operated on and was 100%, he'd be in the upper echelon again. Imagine if the Skins had Coles and Moss (rather than Gardner).

Who would have predicted that the Skins offense would be humming along, at least yardage-wise? Who else besides Joe Gibbs looked at the offseason moves and thought that the Skins had actually upgraded? There's still a long season to go but all the parts are there to continue the ride the rest of the season. The nagging thing is the turnover battle.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Skins Bumblingly Lose to the Chiefs

Sigh. I guess it was to be expected. I already foresee a 1-2 or possibly even 0-3 stretch with NY, Philly, and TB. The turnover ratio is absolutely crippling to the team. Football analysts are singing Gregg Williams' praises and hailing the Skins defense as a playoff-caliber defense. However, without forcing any turnovers, it definitely falls short of the mark. A suffocating defense that doesn't force turnovers is simply a bend don't break defense. In this case, the Redskins defense has bent and broken. Last weekend, it was Tatum Bell with two explosive runs and Jeb Putzier with a big play down the middle. This weekend, Priest Holmes had an impressive screen-run and catch where multiple defenders grasped at air, looking pedestrian in pursuit. Where are the zone blitzes? Where are the sacks? A defense that allows less yardage but doesn't sacks nor turnovers isn't as valuable as a defense that does the opposite.

On the other side of the ball, one can only wonder how stalwart Jon Jansen, former Pro Bowler Chris Samuels, and line coach Joe Bugel let a rookie beat each of them to have a phenomenal game. He pressured, he sacked, he forced fumbles, and he recovered.

The Niners offer hope for redemption, however short. For one week, the Skins have an opportunity to get back on track and play mistake free football. They have the opportunity to start fresh and carry that over into their next three games.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

The Broncos loss stung. The defense just couldn't contain Tatum Bell, who sprung open for two long TD runs. The Skins made a go of it at the end but the missed FG opportunities made all the difference. What I don't understand is why, at the end of the first half, Gibbs chose to Hail Mary it instead of giving Novak a shot from 59 yards. His leg seemed strong enough on the 54 yarder (which was wiped out by Sellers' false start).

Tomorrow's game against the Chiefs is critical. If they can win, it'll be tremendous - they'll push their record to 4-1 with the Niners the following week. They could be 5-1 and exuding confidence when they enter the roughest part of their schedule -- facing the Giants, Eagles, and Bucs. On the other hand, if they end up losing to the Chiefs and are on a downward trend, it looks like trouble. Even given a win against the 49ers (which is no guarantee in this league), they'd be 4-2 but without the confidence boost and could potentially drop three in a row and be 4-5 in a very bad-case scenario. Then they face a troubled but talented Raiders team (with a vengeful Norv) having lost 4 of their last 5. The Skins really have to be at their best and prove that they can eliminate mistakes, force turnovers, and execute in all three phases.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Arrington's Hefty Contract Limits Redskins' Options

Arrington's Hefty Contract Limits Redskins' Options

LaVar Arrington's lack of playing time is extremely disappointing. He was one of the players dedicated to the Redskins, who went out of his way to make accommodations for the team (if I'm remembering correctly) by restructuring his contract, and starred for the team when they struggled mightily. There is no doubt that he's a talented and charismatic player. The fact that he isn't getting any playing time is not only perplexing; it seems downright dismissive of Skins coaching and management.

Arrington has been known to play out of position and make mistakes in the past but by sitting him on the bench and not working with him, the Skins are wasting a perennial Pro Bowl talent who once had an incredibly bright looking future.
3-0. Fans in DC are getting excited but some of us know better. Three wins by a total of six points against mediocre to bad teams is far from impressive. It's certainly better than 0-3 but playing a good team like the Broncos is truly going to show the team what it is made of. If the Skins are able to split the 2-game road trip against the Chiefs and Broncos, there will be merit to their record.

Otherwise, playing against a hot team like the Giants or the perennial powerhouse that is the Eagles will bring them crashing back down to earth.