Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Three and out: Rocca a good find

Moss moves the chains—Santana Moss had six receptions against the Giants and all of them resulted in first downs. Possibly the biggest came in the second quarter when the caught a 10-yard pass from Grossman to convert a fourth and five. The Redskins first touchdown followed a few plays later. There are those who wonder why the Redskins gave him a $5 million per year contract but anyone who watches the team week in and week out knows his value to the team.

Rocca pins them back—Sav Rocca had a nice punting average of 43 yards but that did not tell the whole story of how good a game he had. He put four of his six punts inside the 20. After years of watching Redskins punters boom kicks into the end zone, it’s good to see. Between Rocca’s work and Graham Gano’s strong kickoffs, the Giants started only one of their final 11 drives past their own 20. That one drive was the result of Rex Grossman’s fourth-quarter fumble.

Snapping streaks of six—The Redskins snapped three different six-game losing streaks by beating the Giants yesterday. New York had won six straight in the overall series. The Giants also had won six straight against the Redskins at FedEx Field. The last time the Redskins had a home win against the G-Men was a 35-20 win in December of 2005. New York also had won the last six times the two team met to open the season. Washington started the season 0-1 thanks to the Giants in 1977, 1988, 1988, 1998, 2008, and 2009. Their last season-opening win over the Giants came in 1976.

 

Three and out: Davis' contract year starts out well

By Rich Tandler

Today's three things that may only interest me:

Davis in his contract year—Fred Davis’ (pictured) rookie deal expires after this year and he got his contract season off to a good start with a career-high 105 receiving yards. There is a long way to go this year but Davis has shown that he can be productive when given an opportunity. Chris Cooley will have two years left on the seven-year deal at about $3.8 million per season. Will the Redskins keep two premium-priced tight ends around? It’s early but the situation bears watching.

Around the division—We can’t let the Cowboys’ collapse against the Jets go by without commenting. It takes a team effort to blow a 14-point fourth-quarter lead but the onus falls right on Tony Romo’s shoulders. A dumb fumble and a dumb interception set up the loss. I thought the Rams would give the Eagles a better game at home but Philly pulled away in the second half. LeSean McCoy is the best running back in the division one of the elite backs in the NFL.

Reed Doughty—After the Redskins won yesterday the only team-related trending topic on Twitter was Doughty. He seems to be the fans’ new whipping boy following the departure of Carlos Rogers. Doughty did not have a great game yesterday or even a very good one. But keep in mind that the rules are set up to favor the offense in today’s NFL and defensive backs are going to get beaten. A more consistent pass rush also would help. One of the deep passes over Doughty came on a double move and the quarterback has to have a lot of time to throw to have time to throw on of those.