By Ryan O’Halloran
CSNwashington.com
The Week 3 up-downs from the Redskins’ 18-16 come-from-ahead loss to Dallas Monday night.
UP
LaRon Landry’s return.
Think heat-seeking missile with a No. 30 license plate tag. Landry was back on the field for the first time since last November and produced four tackles and a forced fumble. He didn’t look like a guy who hadn’t gone through a full practice much less played in a game.
DOWN
Giving up a third-and-21
Totally inexcusable. The Redskins rushed eight against a seven-man protection and Tony Romo slid to his right to buy enough time for Dez Bryant to spring free from DeAngelo Hall for a 30-yard reception (plus a 15-yard penalty). It was one of Dallas’ three third-down conversions in 13 tries.
DOWN
Second-half offense
It was completely impotent save for a nine-play, 76-yard drive on their initial third-quarter series. The rest of the second half – 3 plays-0-yards-punt, 4 plays-18 yards-punt, 6 plays-32 yards-punt and five plays-20 yards-fumble.
DOWN
Rush offense and defense
The Redskins couldn’t run it (22 rushes-65 yards) and they couldn’t stop the run (26 rushes-125 yards), including a 40-yard run by Felix Jones. The Redskins didn’t have a single run longer than 9 yards.
UP
Running back Roy Helu’s role
Helu’s statistics weren’t eye-popping – five carries for 15 yards and two catches for 17 yards – but even as the Redskins enter Week 4, his role will continue to expand. Tim Hightower provided an opening with a tough first half trying to get the run game going.
DOWN
Rex Grossman’s turnovers
An interception and a fumble makes it five in three games, confirming his modus operandi throughout his NFL starting career. The biggest thing, is how long it takes for his out-route throws from the opposite hash to get to the receiver. Teams would be stupid not to start jumping routes.
DOWN
Another botched field goal
The Redskins have one miss and two blocks in the first three games, not a great percentage considering Graham Gano had 11 misses last year. Gano bounced back with a career-high 50-yarder to end the first half. But the operation needs to be more consistent.
Rich, I know you watched the other games. Do you not remember them? Do you need to watch the tape? One interception was Santana Moss slipping and falling down after the ball was thrown and delivered to where Santana had been when upright, and the other pick was a ball that AA batted UP to the defender. The fumble was caused by Trent Williams totally whiffing on one of the league's most devastating pass rushers.
You love statistics. Here's a statistic: Grossman has driven the team down the field on long drives resulting in scores at the end of every half this season with the exception of one, the second half of last night's game. That's a success rate of five out of six, or 83%.
BTW, Rich, what happened to your prediction that batted balls were going to be a HUGE issue the rest of this season? It proved to be as inconsequential as your current over-reaction to this week's turnovers. Once again, you are over-reacting and projecting one negative element into the future, to the exclusion of all this season's positives.
When an offense has no ground game it constantly places the QB in 2nd and long and 3rd and long situations. Does that offense's overall performance "firstly" fall on the QB? Or did the other ten guys on that offense bear responsibility for the lack of that running attack? For a guy who wasn't supposed to carry this offense on his back, it sure seems like Grossman is being forced to do exactly that.
Buy that's fine. The guy is resilient, and will have a good outing against the Rams.
But I'm with you. If the United States' Director of the Interior can successfully force the moronic Preston Marshall to racially integrate the Redskins, shouldn't an even half-decent President be able to appoint Peyton Manning (oh wait, scratch that one) Tom Brady to be the Redskins' QB? It's a national emergency, considering Rex's two turnovers this week.
Posted by: Belly Kilmer | Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 02:00 PM