Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Instant analysis: Redskins claim Choice on waivers

By Rich Tandler

The Redskins claimed former Cowboys running back Tashard Choice off of waivers on Monday. Here are a few quick thoughts on the move.

--There was talk this year that he was going to be a starter in Dallas but as it turned out head coach Jason Garrett wasn’t a particular fan of Choice and they drafted DeMarco Murray for the purpose of replacing him. Choice played very sparingly this year, getting 28 carries for 75 yards in six games.

--Redskins fans will mainly remember Choice for the last play of the first half of the 2010 season opener. That’s when DeAngelo Hall stripped Choice of the ball and returned it for the Redskins only touchdown of the game in Washington’s 13-7 victory. Choice has fumbled twice this year.

--The Redskins have little to lose by claiming him. He is in the last year of his rookie contract and is making the league minimum. Choice will be a free agent after this year.

--Clearly, the Redskins do not think that rookie Evan Royster is worth brining up from the practice squad. He needs the rest of the this year for more seasoning and then we’ll see what he can do next year in camp.

--The Redskins have to make a move to waive a player to make room for Choice on the roster. It is possible that they will cut cornerback Brandyn Thompson and put him back on the practice squad if they believe their defensive backfield is healthy. They will have to do something quickly, however. 

What do you think of the Choice pickup? Let us know in the comments!

Stats didn't lie this time

By Rich Tandler

Sometimes, statistics lie. For the Redskins yesterday, they did not.

You have heard the main numbers. The Bills outgained the Redskins by a margin of better than 2-1 (390 yards to 178) and they converted half of their third downs (7 of 14) while the Redskins converted less than a third of theirs (4 of 14). Ryan Fitzpatrick had nearly 10 yards per pass attempt (262 yards on 27 passes) and a rating of 116.4. John Beck averaged 6.3 per attempt (208 yards on 33 passes) and had a rating of 53.6.

Freddie Jackson outgained the Redskins on his own, posting 120 yards rushing and 74 yards receiving.

This post is going to be short since there is no point in piling on but let’s take a quick look at the drive chart before moving on. For the first three quarters, when the Redskins were still at least theoretically in the game, they got no more than one first downs during a drive just once. They got two on their third drive. The Redskins got 41 yards on that drive, the only one in the first three quarters where they got more than nine yards. Not surprisingly, the Bills had a time of possession advantage of almost 10 minutes. 

Sometimes a bad performance on offense is one that stops and starts. This one didn’t even have any starts.

 

Where were the adjustments?

By Rich Tandler

Last week, I asked Kyle Shanahan about teams making adjustments to what John Beck did well against the Panthers and if he needs to be coming up with ways to counter the defensive countermeasures. Here was his response:

The more you put on tape as the year goes, the more that you have got to adjust. It’s not just game-to-game, it’s series to series and half to half, so I think that is the game of football. It is a chess match and you always want to stay one step ahead. Any time a team takes something away, you’ve got to go back to something else.

The part about the chess match is interesting. As the game unfolded yesterday it became apparent that only one team was playing chess and that was the Buffalo Bills. The Redskins were playing Candyland.

Actually, the Redskins offense did not force Bills defensive coordinator George Edwards, who was laughed out of town after a year in Washington as Steve Spurrier’s defensive coordinator, to do much of anything beyond Pawn to King 4. The Redskins worked their way into checkmate early and often.

At some point during the “series-to-series and half-to-half” time frames, why did Kyle not try to do anything different? If your quarterback gets sacked nine times, shouldn’t you at some point make an adjustment? The tried and true ways to beat a pass rush are quick passes with three-step drops, draw plays, and keeping more blockers in. Even without a thorough review of the game tape I think that I can safely say that if any of these methods was tried yesterday it happened only briefly.

There was a similar lack of adjustments in the running game. Since going off for 135 yards against the Rams, Ryan Torain has gained a total of 17 yards in the two games since. When he struggled at the beginning of yesterday’s game, it was pretty obvious that he did not have the sought-after hot hand. So, the solution was to give up on the run entirely. Roy Helu, who came into the game averaging 4.9 yards per carry, did not have a single rushing attempt. Given that even Donte Stallworth got a carry, that borders on coaching malpractice.

Time after time, the Bills took away what the Redskins were doing. Time after time, the Redskins did not go to something else. At some point, persistence at doing the same thing turns to predictability, which turns to stubborn, which turns to stupid. After yesterday’s game, the Redskins are at some point pretty far down that path.

 

Pivot Point: Strategy and execution fail near halftime

By Rich Tandler

Although they had done next to nothing offensively and had allowed the Buffalo Bills’ offense to move up and down the field, the Redskins still were in the game as the two-minute warning approached. The Bills led 10-0 and faced third and goal at the eight. That’s when, for the first time all day, someone on the Redskins made a play.

Ryan Fitzpatrick fired a pass to Stevie Johnson, who was about a yard into the end zone. It seemed that Fitzpatrick expected Johnson to cut in front of London Fletcher for the reception. But Fletcher was having none of that as he fended off Johnson and made the interception.

The Redskins had the ball back at their own 20 with 1:55 and two timeouts left. If they could get on the scoreboard before halftime they could go into the locker room with some momentum, something that has eluded them since the first half of the Rams game. Even if they could just kill the clock they could get back to the locker room and regroup they still would have been in it.

From the 20, John Beck scrambled for seven yards. In what has become an infuriating pattern, the clock ticked down seconds while the Redskins tried to line up to get off another play. There was 1:48 left in the half when Beck slid at the end of his run. The clock read 1:28 by the time the ball was snapped on second and three. The Redskins got all set offensively but the Bills got set as well.

Against the four-man rush from a team that had just four sacks in six games coming into this one, Beck had less than two seconds to throw before the Buffalo’s Dwan Edwards was in his face and he was sacked for a loss of seven.

Facing third and 10 at their own 20 with 1:22 left in the half, Mike Shanahan made the curious decision to call a timeout. Perhaps if the Washington offense had shown any signs of life that would have been a good idea. But they had just 53 yards of total offense at that point. The better thing to do would have been to let the clock run or let the Bills to use one of their timeouts.

A screen pass to Roy Helu was good for eight yards and the Bills burned their first timeout. Team MVP Sav Rocca boomed a 52-yard punt and Buffalo got the ball back at its own 20 with 1:05 left in the half. Two plays later it looked like the Bills would go into the locker room up by 10 as it was third and four at the 26.

But Fitzgerald fired a pass to Johnson, who got the first down just past the 30. On the next play, Fitzgerald threw to Freddie Jackson near the right sideline. Rocky McIntosh was right there but he whiffed on the tackle and Jackson scooted up the sideline for 46 yards to the Redskins 23.

Three plays later, Fitzpatrick spiked the ball with two seconds left (leading one to wonder how this might have played out if the clock had continued to run when the Redskins had to ball third and 10 or if the Bills had been forced to use a timeout then) and Rian Lindell kicked a field goal.

Any chance the Redskins had at momentum was gone. Buffalo took the second-half kickoff, marched swiftly downfield for a touchdown to make it 20-0 and the competitive phase of the game was over.  

 

Up-Downs: At least nobody got hurt

By Ryan O’Halloran

The Week 8 addition of Redskins’ up-downs, following their 23-0 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

UP
No new injuries.

At least that’s what appeared to be the case. A depleted roster with little remaining depth can’t afford too many injuries although it was interesting Keyaron Fox replaced Rocky McIntosh at inside linebacker on several occasions.

Runner-up up: The time of game. If you’re a Redskins fan, at least Sunday’s loss took a mere 2 hours, 42 minutes.

DOWN
The Redskins’ offense.

Sunday’s game was reminiscent of the 2004 season, when Joe Gibbs’ offense was in the Stone Age and Mark Brunell clearly wasn’t the answer (although he would be, to a certain extent, in 2005).

Part of it is personnel, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of ingenuity going on. A point I made after the game was the Redskins’ results on their first offensive drive, which is a part of a script of plays that have been drilled into the players for days.

The Redskins’ seven first-drive results: Punt (three-and-out), interception (60-yard drive), field goal (42-yard drive), punt (four-and-out), interception (four-play drive), fumble (eight-play drive) and punt (three-and-out).

UP
Getting two takeaways.

The Redskins had hoped for weeks their fumble recovery fortunes would turn in their favor and it happened in the second quarter when Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick mis-handled the snap and Brian Orakpo recovered. The Redskins have retrieved only four of their opponents’ 16 fumbles.

London Fletcher intercepted a pass in the end zone late in the first half. But the result was the same – no points. The Redskins had a field goal blocked after Orakpo’s recovery and punted (which led to a Buffalo field goal) after Fletcher’s INT.

DOWN MULTIPLED BY 9
The Redskins’ offense reached the franchise’s record book Sunday by giving up nine sacks (ties a single-game record).

Even more concerning is that Buffalo entered with four sacks … in SIX games.

Having glanced at some of the replays, this appears to be more of a coverage issue (receivers can’t get open) than just blown protections. Only one time do I remember a Bills rusher reaching Beck unblocked.

UP
Fletcher.

Although we all knew he was going to play (he’s never missed a game), the hamstring injury had to bother him and although there was an issue or two in coverage, he finished with 20 tackles, a half-sack and one interception.

And he was the rare Redskins player who showed any emotion as things went down to the tube.

DOWN
Winter weather … in late October. 

I’ve had a pretty decent streak going since I started covering the team during the 2004 off-season. Only one missed regular season game (Jim Zorn’s finale in San Diego, a few days after the Washington Times’ sports section’s finale).

The Buffalo game was my first missed because of weather. Delayed flight (nearly three hours) from Dulles to Newark. Delayed and ultimately cancelled flight from Newark to Toronto (axed around 5 p.m.). No hotel rooms in New Jersey. Cancelled flight Sunday morning from Newark to Toronto. Nothing cost-efficient from D.C. to Toronto on Sunday. Train from Newark to D.C. Union Station (car still at Dulles). One for ‘The List,’ for sure.

Not that I missed much.

 

First Take: No offense dooms Redskins

By Rich Tandler

The Redskins did very little right on offense in losing to the Bills 23-0.

Fred Davis caught eight passes for 94 yards. Other than that, well, not much. On the negative side were the nine sacks they gave up, the most since they started officially keeping the stat in 1982. The rushed for 26 yards, 2.2 yards a carry.

They were not stellar defensively. The Redskins hard particular difficulty stopping running back Fred Jackson who rushed for 120 yards and caught three passes for 74 more. He easily outgained the Redskins on his own as Washington posted just 178 total yards.

In reality, the defense did not play that badly. The Bills came into the game averaging 31 points a game so holding them to 23 is hardly an embarrassment. They got two takeaways, one of which could have set up points for the Redskins, the other at least temporarily prevented a Bills score.

But the Redskins didn’t score after Brian Orakpo recovered a fumble at the Buffalo 31. And a London Fletcher interception in the end zone at the two-minute warning was followed by a three and out, a punt, and a Bills drive to a field goal.

Simply put, the offense needs to do its part. Injuries don’t help. However, offensive line injuries are not really an excuse for the nine sacks. The Bills were playing with Redskins reject Chad Rinehart at left guard and their third-string left tackle, were playing against the team leading the league in sacks and Ryan Fitzpatrick got sacked just twice.

When things aren’t working, coaches face a choice. They can keep on doing what they have been doing, believing that repetition and better execution will eventually help things click. Or they can scrap when they have been doing and make major adjustments, hoping that the fresh approach will click and things will start moving.

The first approach can be called being patient or it can be called being stubborn. The latter approach can be called flexible or it can be called panicking.

The only way to come out of it looking good is to find something that worked. 

 

Redskins live game blog: Bills dominating, up 23-0

By Rich Tandler

Welcome to the Redskins-Bills live game blog!

What we are going to do here is keep a running blog of news, notes, and nuggets that will run until just before kickoff. Then we’ll continue this right into the live game blog and keep you going on that until the clock reads 0:00.

Refresh your browser frequently to get the latest updates.

Of course this is all about you. If you have questions or comments, leave them in the comment section here or hit me on Twitter @Rich_Tandler.

Fourth quarter

Summary—Mike Shanahan went his entire career without his team getting shut out—until today. The Redskins’ 23-0 shellacking was a total team effort.

There isn’t much else right now, I’ll be getting my initial thoughts about this stinker up in a little while, please check back in a little while. 

7:48—The Redskins start to move the ball, Donte Stallworth trips, Byrd picks off the deep pass, and Fred Davis draws a 15-yard penalty on the tackle. I’d say that about sums up the day, but not enough bad happened on the play.

12:48—I present the following comment to the blog from Ron Torain. Your thoughts are welcome:

Let's face it, this Shananigans' experiment is a total bust!! He doesn't show one scintilla of a clue about how to put a winning football team together. I know Dan wants to stay out of it because of all of the flack he's taken in the past for so-called "medling" but sometimes, you've got to do like Jerry and keep working it until you get it right and to hell what other people say! After all, he's not just an owner, Dan's a Skins fan first and I know this has got to be painful!! And, the bottom line is: If Kyle and Mike think they can win with poor ole Rex and John (two questionable back-ups at best),and if Dan lets them have it their way, then I truly wonder how he made all those millions in the first place!! Oh well, Beck just got intercepted again, "how sad for us" "This is truly saaaaaddd!! I don't see any positive future for this Shananigans-led mess!!

Third quarter

Summary—The good news is that the Bills scored only seven points in this quarter. The bad news is that the Redskins still haven’t scored any. They have no running game against one of the worst run defenses in the NFL and they have given up seven sacks to a team that had four on the season coming into this game.

Hard to find much positive to say here. 

3:44—The Redskins go nowhere after Brandon Banks gives them decent field position with a punt return to midfield. A sack of Beck made it difficult and then with a four-man rush the Bills get their seventh sack on fourth down.

7:34—The Redskins mustered a first down, so the drive wasn’t a total failure. Well, maybe since it was followed by a penalty and a sack. MVP Sav Rocca booms another punt and the Bills have the ball back. This one is officially out of hand. It would take a major turnaround to even make it competitive.

11:01—The Bills get a drive sparked by a long run by, you guessed it, Jackson. A 15-yard TD pass from Fitzpatrick to Scott Chandler. It looked like London Fletcher was looking for some help as he was the only one near Chandler. 

Second quarter

Summary—The Redskins’ offense has been awful and the defense hasn’t been much better. I’d say you can blame the four sacks partially on the Redskins’ offensive line and partially on John Beck being reluctant to get rid of the ball.

Buffalo outgained the Redskins 230 yards to 61 and Washington is fortunate that it’s only 13-0. 

1:55—The Redskins might have saved their season with an end zone interception. Well, they have to play a lot better if there is anything to be saved. Still, it remains 10-0 with the Redskins and Beck attempting a two-minute drive. Oops, fourth sack of the game for the Bills, who had four sacks coming into the game. 

9:26—Keyaron Fox, in the game because Rocky McIntosh is out with an ankle injury, just saved a first down and possibly a touchdown with a nice open field tackle of Jackson on a screen pass. The Bills get only a field goal after a bad pass interference penalty on Josh Wilson (bad play by Wilson, not bad call) moves the Bills downfield.

On second down, Ryan Kerrigan, who is playing well, got some good pressure on Fitzpatrick, forcing him out of the pocket and into an incompletion.

11:44—Wow, looks like Roy Helu should have picked up the blitz. Beck sacked, field goal blocked, the Redskins come away empty. 

14:27—The Redskins get a gift turnover as Fitzpatrick fumbled the snap. Jackson tried to scoop it up and run but he couldn’t get the handle on it and the Redskins recovered. It was the first fumble the Bills have lost this year.

First quarter

Summary—The Bills did pretty much whatever they wanted to on their second drive. Washington's defense isn't getting much pass pressure and receivers are wide open. The Redskins, on the other hand, have looked sluggish offensively. The Redskins need to get a stop or this one will get out of hand.

1:01—Leonard Hankerson got his first career catch good for 23 yards to convert a third down but the drive stalls after that. Beck went to Anthony Armstrong in a tight window to try to convert third and eight. It looked like maybe Armstrong could have fought for the ball a little harder but, regardless, it was incomplete and team MVP Sav Rocca punts.

5:11—The Bills finish the drive on a 20-yard TD pass from Fitzpatrick to Chandler. It’s about time for the Redskins to open up the offense a little more and answer. Scoring drive was 8 plays, 80 yards. I don’t think the Bills faced a third down in the drive.

7:30—The Bills are spreading the field a lot with five wide receivers on first down. On their second drive it’s working as they are getting good yardage on first and are nearing the red zone.

10:20—The Redskins have another three and out. Terrence Austin was less than a yard short of the line to make near midfield, but Mike Shanahan decided not to gamble. Perhaps the fact that Ryan Torain didn’t get much on his first two runs nudged along the decision. 

12:25—The teams trade three and outs on their first possession. Like the defense for the Redskins on third and 12, they rushed just three, knowing that Fitzpatrick would get rid of the ball quickly anyway. He completed the pass but it was short of the first down. 

Pregame

Shanny works with the D

0:35 to kickoff—When Mike Shanahan came on board as the head coach of the Redskins, he wanted to be sure that everyone knew that he wasn’t just an offensive specialist. He said that in his position, he has to have detailed knowledge on both sides of the ball despite his reputation as an offensive guru.

He apparently put that knowledge to work this week. He spent some time with defense in practice to try to straighten up the issues that have led to them giving up over 400 yards in each of the last two games.

If the defense can regain its form and keep the Redskins in the game, Shanahan may start to regain the Mastermind moniker he had in Denver.

Shockers abound in the NFL

0:55 to kickoff—The Dolphins still lead the Giants; it’s now 17-10 with the third quarter winding down. This is “one of those days” in the NFL so far with the winless Rams now pounding the Saints 24-0.

If the Giants do lose, the Redskins will end the day no worse than one game out of first place in the NFC East.

Torain to start

1:10 to kickoff—The Redskins announced that Ryan Torain will start at running back. It remains to be seen if he or Roy Helu will get the majority of the carries against a suspect Bills rushing defense.

Bills inactives

1:45 to kickoff--WR Donald Jones, CB Aaron Williams, CB T.Wheatley, LB A.Coleman, OL Chris Hairston, OL Demetrius Bell, NT Kyle Williams.

Inactives announced

1:20 to kickoff—The Redskins inactives are out a little quicker than we thought: Phillip Buchanon, Mike Sellers, Markus White, Trent Williams, Dominique Byrd, Santana Moss, Darrion Scott.

Atogwe warming up

1:30 to kickoff—Perhaps the most questionable of the Redskins listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report was free safety Oshiomogho Atogwe. He missed the Carolina game with a knee injury and he didn’t practice a whole lot this week. Reports are that he is out on the field warming up. That doesn’t necessarily mean he will play but it is a positive sign.

We should get the inactives about 45 minutes from now. 

It’s still early, but . . .

2:10 to kickoff—The Giants, who are in first place in the NFC East, a game ahead of the Redskins and Cowboys, are in trouble against the winless Miami Dolphins. They trail Miami 14-3 with about nine minutes left in the second quarter. The Dolphins have scored on consecutive drives for the first time this season. 

Uniform watch

2:30 to kickoff—Several tweets from folks on the scene in Toronto indicate that the Redskins will be sporting their old-school gold pants for today’s game along with white jerseys.

Will Beck open it up?

3:00 to kickoff—In his Basics article on CSN Washington today, Ryan O’Halloran writes that the Redskins will not have the luxury of taking it easy on John Beck today. Even if they get a running game going in the absence of Tim Hightower—and they could with Torain and Helu—they will need Beck to attack the suspect defense of the Bills, who boast a high-scoring offense. 

Will Hank get another shot today?

4:00 to kickoff—I heard on Friday that all six wide receivers who are able to suit up will do so. That would put Jabar Gaffney, Anthony Armstrong, Terrence Austin, Niles Paul, Donte Stallworth, and Leonard Hankerson in uniform.

This is subject to change, of course. The absence of Mike Sellers will ding special teams so perhaps Hankerson won’t be up. If he is, it will be interesting to see if he will get any snaps and opportunities prior to garbage time. Mike Shanahan said last Monday that Hankerson has been practicing well and that he earned his game-day jersey by doing that. With Santana Moss out and with Armstrong still finding his niche in the offense after missing two and a half games with a hamstring injury the Redskins need to find a combination of receivers that works.

Hankerson could be part of that mix.

5:30 to kickoff—Thanks to NFL.com’s NFL Rewind service, I can watch an entire game in about 45 minutes with their “condensed” feature. I took a look at the Bills loss to the Giants and some of their win over the Eagles. I jotted down a few things to look for here in my Enemy Intel article. 

 

Enemy Intel: Davis should have opportunities

By Rich Tandler

I took a look at the Bills’ loss to the Giants and at their win over the Giants. Here are some quick observations:

—Look for a big game from Fred Davis. Giants’ tight end Jake Ballard had a big day with five catches for 81 yards. The just couldn’t cover him and Davis is a much better player.

—The Redskins can’t let Freddie Jackson get into the open field on them. He had an 80-yard run and he made the last 20 by changing direction seemingly by feeling defenders approaching from behind. And he is fast getting to the edge.

—Brian Orakpo should get his track shoes on. The Bills are not in good shape on the left side of their line. If the defensive backs can keep with their receivers for just a couple of seconds, that will be enough time to disrupt the play with pass pressure.

—They try to get a little too cute from time to time. On third and less than a yard, they went Wildcat and Brad Smith went up the middle and got stuffed.

—If John Beck keeps his feet under him and doesn’t try to make any heroic throws he should be OK as far as not turning the ball over. When Vick threw four picks he was just trying to do too much.

—Conversely, Ryan Fitzpatrick will throw it up for grabs if he’s rattled at all. They lost a chance to tie or beat the Giants in the last minute when he just threw a terrible pass that Cory Webster easily picked off inside the five.

 

CSN Picks: A tough call

It’s a tough game to pick as we are not really sure if the Bills will have a home field advantage at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Here are the selections of the CSNwashington.com crew:

Ryan O’Halloran (3-3)

I’ve picked the Redskins to win each of their first six games – that doesn’t necessarily mean I thought they would be 6-0 at this point, though. They lost by two at Dallas, by seven to Philadelphia and by 13 at Carolina. The first two games could have gone either way; the third loss was just a plain ol’ stinker. Now comes Buffalo and this is just a bad match-up. The Bills run more four-receiver sets than any team in the NFL and that will create running lanes for Fred Jackson. The Redskins may be ravaged by injuries offensively, but expect a big day by John Beck.

Bills 34, Redskins 30

Jennifer X. Williams (4-2)

Sunday, when the Skins face the Bills in Toronto, one team will get tricks and one team will get a treat in notching the W. So who will leave Canada with a bag of peanut butter cups and who will have to go through customs with a sack full of boxed raisins?

The odds are in favor the Bills, who are 4-2 and averaging 31.3 points per game.  However, their defense is by far their weakest link, having recorded just 4 sacks this entire season. John Beck can breathe a sigh of relief.

Toronto's Rogers Centre, is technically a neutral site, but the Skins can really take Buffalo into foreign territory by shutting down their offense. The Bills have lost contests were they were unable to score 31 points or more.  Washington can hold Buffalo is by dismantling the highly underrated Fred Jackson, who is projected for 90 rushing yards and 30 receiving on Sunday.

The Skins D was the strength of the Skins up until the inconsistency of the past 2 weeks versus the Panthers and the Eagles allowing well over 300 yards combined.  If London Fletcher and company can channel a monster performance playing the entire game like they did the second half versus the Eagles, than the Skins have a chance at a frightful upset in Canada. Boo!  

Redskins 23, Bills 20

Rich Tandler (4-2)

It would not shock me at all if the Redskins won. They are at the point where they need someone to make a big play like Ryan Kerrigan’s pick six in the Giants game. If they can get a play like and seize momentum, they could ride it to the win. And Ryan Fitzpatrick will put the ball up for grabs—he has thrown seven interceptions. However, it is hard to project a play like that and if the Redskins don’t get one they will have a very hard time outscoring the Bills even if the Washington defense can hold Buffalo substantially under its average of 31 points per game.

Bills 24, Redskins 20

 

Redskins Reset: Depth to be tested

What this season is going to come down to is how well the players who are subbing for the injured Redskins are going to play. Ryan O'Halloran seems to be ready to write off the season; I'm not so sure.

 (By the way, I will not wear that shirt in any more videos.)