Saturday, January 07, 2006

The Skins win, defeat Bucs 17-10!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/07/AR2006010700671.html

In unimpressive fashion, the Skins sprung out to an early lead in the first quarter, thanks to the defense and then hung on to edge out the Buccaneers.

The Washington offense was completely ineffective against the league's best defense, with under 100 yards rushing and 50 yards passing. Was it team speed? Was it a lack of weapons by the Redskins? Somewhere along the line, teams have beaten the Bucs defense but it sure looked impenetrable today.

The Redskins were the beneficiaries of two close calls. The Sean Taylor fumble return for a touchdown was probably Marcus Washington down by contact in the scrum. Fortunately for the Redskins, there wasn't any video evidence to conclusively indicate that was the case. The Edell Shepherd non-touchdown is a tough one to swallow for Tampa Bay fans. However, the league is being consistent. I believe last year Laveranues Coles had a catch on the sidelines that was also ruled incomplete. Although he'd clearly established possession in the air and gotten both feet inbounds, he didn't retain possession upon hitting the ground. When it comes back to today's game, in the end, it's a bit of karma. The Bucs benefited from the questionable call that was Alstott's 2-point conversion in the first matchup, and the Redskins benefited from these calls.

Sean Taylor's ejection for spitting was troubling. Will he be suspended for the next game? The Skins will desperately need him.

The Redskins now travel to Seattle to face the top NFC-seeded 'Hawks. The Skins got a lucky bounce when Brown's kick hit the uprights. Gibbs' offense will fare better against the Seahawks' defense than Monte Kiffin's unit. But the question is, is Gregg Williams' unit up to the task of stopping Shaun Alexander, Matt Hasselbeck, and that prolific Seahawks offense?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

they were just lucky

Anonymous said...

Although I agree that yesterday's performance was raggedy, a win is still a win and we are moving forward! HOWEVER, they cannot play like THAT and expect to beat the Seahawks. First of all, Brunell must complete passes (to Redskins players only, I should add). Defense beat the Bucs, but the offense is gonna have to step it up and get some points on the board. As long as they do the job right, and don't make the STUPID mistakes that cost them several games that they should have easily won in the regular season, they can pull off another win. Let's go Skins!