A Shot in the Dark

Well, after 4 straight weeks of looking like a minor league team the Washington Redskins went out and played a game in which they actually resembled a NFL-caliber team. The deficiencies are still there and very much noticeable but the improvement from the previous 3 games was evident. The defense played OK, they did give up 2 (should have been 3) long touchdown bombs and made Kyle Orton look like John Elway for the 1st part of the quarter but then did manage to get some more pressure on him and after a sack by Brian Orakpo (the best draft pick the Redskins have had since S. Taylor) he was out of the game and the Redskins defense was allowed to play against a quarterback that hadn't been on the field in 2 years, game over. While the defense did their job and shut out the quarterbackless Broncos, the offense actually showed some resolve and ran the ball down the throat of the 2nd-ranked defense in the NFL, not too shabby but hardly something to celebrate as these Broncos don't resemble what they looked like in the first 6 weeks of the season. The biggest difference from the Redskins on Sunday to the previous 8 games was the hitting. They were popping the Broncos all over the field on special teams, offense, and defense including a huge shot that Lorenzo Alexander gave LaMont Jordan on the punt return and another pop that Rocky McIntosh gave Moreno up the middle, that set the tone for the game and gave the Redskins the extra juice they needed to make the game a typical NFL East game with heavy doses of running and hitting them in the mouth on every snap, a welcome sign that has been missing all year long. 

OFFENSE

The offensive line looked much better than it had the previous week, Heyer was back on the right side (he can't play left tackle at all!) and Levi Jones looked like the best replacement so far for the injured Chris Samuels which allowed the team to run the ball well and used the Broncos' eagerness to get to Campbell against them as they constantly ran the ball up the gut behind Dockery and Rabach, giving them positive yards on 1st and 2nd downs thus putting them in 3rd & short on most occasions which gave them a better chance to make first downs.

While I have heard many people saying that Betts is better than Portis and that he should replace him they seem to ignore the fact that the offensive playcalling has gotten much better since Sherm Lewis aka the Bingo Caller took over. He has allowed Sherm Smith to run more up the gut and quick-hitting running plays vs. the stretch plays that Zorn loves to call. At a point in the game, a crucial 4th down run, you could tell that Zorn made the call because they ran the stretch play and went for a 1-yard loss. This points to the fact that Zorn is very stubborn because that stretch play has not worked all year and is a big factor in why Portis has not been more productive. While Portis is no longer a great back, he is still good enough to pick up 5 or 6 yards per play, just not a guy that will break a long run, but neither is Betts. Betts played a very good game but was by no means dominating, most of his yards came in the 4th quarter when the undersized Broncos defense had been on the field forever because their offense couldn't move the ball against the Redskins defense, this was a big factor in his production.

Jason Campbell continued to take sacks because of his indecisiveness and still looks like a guy that doesn't have IT, that thing that gives QB's a clock in their head and a feel for the rush that allows them to make a throw right before a defender is about to get to him, look at Peyton Manning play to see exactly what I am talking about. Campbell still doesn't make enough tight throws and takes many sacks because he pats the ball as he only looks for guys that are wide open, something that doesn't occur that often in the NFL. I still don't see him as the answer and know that both he and Zorn will be gone in the offseason, and Cerrato too I hope!

DEFENSE

The first quarter of the game showed how miscommunication by Smoot and Hall could leave Marshall wide open on the 2nd touchdown and Carlos Rogers (benched for this play) was burnt for the second week in a row on another double-move, something that he has been susceptible to throughout his career.

The defensive line did a good job throughout most of the game but seemed to have their eyes open wide when Chris Sims came in the game, it was like the sharks could smell blood in the water and attacked more often and with greater success as the game went on. Haynesworth was his usual self, he pushed the pocket back regularly and then went to the ground as is his MO, just to come back to line up again, he seems to be out of shape but is not soft as many would like to paint him, with a real coach and a strict team, he would be even better! Orakpo and Carter took turns bouncing Sims around and looked to be unstoppable against a good Denver offensive line.

The secondary shored up their issues with zone coverage and tightened it enough to not give the Broncos the kind of space in their routes they gave them in the first half. Smoot came back after giving up that long touchdown and knocked away a ball in the endzone above Marshall, it seems that it was the highest that Smoot has jumped since he was a rookie. DeAngelo Hall proved again that he is the only corner that can catch the ball as he took an ill-advised throw from Sims in his hands like a punt and returned it out of the endzone for 20+ yards. 

SPECIAL TEAMS

The Redskins MVP was back on the field, Hunter Smith did it again as the special teams coach, Danny Smith, showed that he has the best coaching mind on the team as he came up with another great gadget play eventhough they showed their hand when they were forced to take a timeout (10 men on the field) beforehand, they still executed the play perfectly and Smith's pump fake to the right is what freed up Sellers to run wide open down the left side of the field. He was, once again, very good on his punts and Suisham continued his solid year by putting in both of his kicks.

The punt and kickoff coverage, a sore spot with the Redskins over the past couple of weeks, was solid by not allowing Eddie Royal to get any returns to speak of. They did a good job of bottling him up and wrapping him up on the open field tackles that they made. A solid performance by unit that has let the team down severely in the past few games.

COACHING

The fake fieldgoal call was brilliant and the overall offensive playcalls were pretty good except for when Zorn put his 2 cents in and called a stretch play to the right when they had been running the ball up the middle successfully all game, not exactly a good call, we can call the 2 calls a draw. Overall the coaching was better, there were less penalties this week and less confusion on defense which showed up in their execution as well, an improvement over last week for sure.

While as a Redskins fan you have to be happy with the win, you also must be frustrated with the fact that we have to celebrate when the offensive line blocks and the team scores over 20 points (FIRST TIME ALL YEAR, WTF?) and not about a 40-point explosion that every other team in the league seems to have. This game will not cover up the fact that this team still has no direction, no coaching and discipline, all things needed to make a playoff run and to be a good team. Let's see what happens this Sunday in Dallas, hopefully they can do some of the things they did this week and shove the ball down the Cowboy's throat by running more 50-gut plays and please, for the love of god, don't run anymore stretch plays because it DOES NOT work!

Here's hoping that they can build on this game to at least become a bad NFL team and not an embarrassment of a team that tarnishes a great tradition that has been built in this city over the past 75 years.