Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

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. 

 

First look: Redskins vs. Giants

[caption id="attachment_1565" align="aligncenter" width="306" caption="Osi's back"][/caption] NFL games are about matchups and the Washington Redskins have one that doesn't work in their favor when they take on the Giants on Sunday. The Redskins' weakest unit is their offensive line. New York is loaded with talent on its defensive line. Some mismatches spell trouble. This one potentially spells disaster. It did in 2008. The Redskins mustered just seven points in each of their two games against the Giants last year. The low point total wasn't due to mistakes or bad luck or turnovers. New York simply dominated the line. Clinton Portis had nowhere to run; Jason Campbell had no time to throw. And that Giants D-line did not have Osi Umenyiora, who was out for the season with a knee injury, or Chris Canty, who was playing for the Dallas Cowboys before coming over as a free agent. Last year it didn't seem like Jim Zorn adjusted to the Giants' DL dominance. It looked like he was figuring that if he ignored it, it would go away. It's difficult and usually futile but you can try quick passes, traps, screens and an occasional deep pass with maximum protection. We didn't see much of that last year and the Redskins really never had a chance in either game. This doesn't mean that all is lost for the visitors. Even though the Giants have a strong offensive line they could struggle to score. The Redskins' defensive backfield against the Giants' receivers is a good matchup for Washington. Until someone emerges as a genuine threat to replace the departed Plaxico Burress Eli Manning will have difficulty finding someone to throw to. The Redskins' defensive line will be put to the test. The key to stopping Brandon Jacobs is to get him moving sideways. If he's allowed to get up a head of steam into the second level defensive backs end up getting posterized. I'll make my prediction later in the week. The good news is that the Redskins will face such an OL-DL mismatch just a few times this year but they're going to have to figure a way around it if they want to steal that most precious of regular-season NFL prizes, a division road win.

An “a win is a win” win

The Browns came to Washington for the first time since 1991. The game unfolded much like one from 1981. Clinton Portis was running like the Redskins' top back from 1971.

This was not a game for those who love high-scoring affairs. The first half was scoreless, the first time the Redskins have been involved in a scoreless first half since the Giants came to RFK Stadium on September 13, 1981. I like a good defensive struggle but this was more a case of bumbling offense than rib-rocking defense.

On the rare occasions when Derrick Anderson's passes found their targets, the Cleveland receivers usually dropped them. Anderson was three for 14 in the first half. That's a 21% completion rate.

Jason Campbell was better, but not by much. Jim Zorn's play calling was very conservative and somewhat puzzling. He seemed determined to get Fred Davis involved in the offense, to the point where he called the rookie tight end's number on an end around. Speed is not one of Davis' main attributes nor is he particularly elusive. You could have left your seat to get a cold one—hell, you could have gone out and brewed a cold one—in the time it took Davis to make his way across the field.

Clinton Portis picked up 75 yards in the half. He was a latter-day Larry Brown, hurling his body through cracks in the line, making something out of nothing time after time.

The scoring picked up in the second half as the Redskins put together two nice touchdown drives. After the second one took it up to 14-3, the Redskins had a pair of great goal-line stands. I'll go into them in detail in another post, but although the Browns ultimately scored, they had to burn off over five precious minutes of clock after their initial first and goal at the one.

This game won't burn up much space in the Redskins' 2008 highlight show except perhaps for a few Portis runs to show how he led the NFL in rushing. But there are no style points next to the "W" column.

Redskins-Saints First Take

The Washington Redskins have their work cut out for them on Sunday.

The New Orleans Saints come marching in to FedEx Field fresh off of a 24-20 win over Tampa Bay. The Saints scored on a 42-yard pass from Drew Brees to Reggie Bush midway through the fourth quarter to take the lead and they held on when linebacker Scott Fujita spiked a late Bucs rally with an interception at the New Orleans 20 with about 40 seconds left.

Brees and Bush were the top offensive stars for the winning team and they are the players that the Redskins will have to slow down to win the game. Brees averaged well over 10 yards per pass attempt, going 23 for 32 for 343 yards and three touchdowns. Bush caught eight of those passes for 112 yards and he had 14 rushing attempts for another 51.

A little side note here: Many Redskins fans look at Brees with envious eyes, wishing that the Skins had a young veteran quarterback who could pass for over 300 yards in a win and have it be nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps, then, they might be well served to display a bit more patience with Jason Campbell. After three years and 27 starts for the Chargers he was mediocre and seemed to be regressing. The Chargers stuck with him, perhaps against their will—an extended holdout prevented Phillip Rivers from competing for the job—and they were rewarded with a breakout season in 2004, his fourth year in the NFL. Jason Campbell came into his fourth NFL season with 21 starts on his resume.

The New Orleans defense was good but not dominant. Tampa Bay racked up 352 yards, getting good production on the ground out of Earnest Graham (10 carries for 91 yards) and Warrick Dunn (9 for 54). Jeff Garcia was not very efficient, needing 41 attempts to get 221 yards. He was sacked twice.

You can't always tell much from one game, but on first look, it appears that the Redskins will have to post a score in the 20's in order to win on Sunday. For an offense that isn't quite there yet, that will be tough to do.

Skins-Giants first take

My initial impression of the upcoming Washington Redskins-New York Giants game is that this is a winnable game for the Redskins.

That doesn't mean that I'm going to pick them to win. I'm not sure about that just yet. But it doesn't seem to me that this is as daunting a task as one normally would think that going into the house of the defending Super Bowl champs would be.

No disrespect intended for the Giants here. I'm not one of those who calls their run to the title last year a fluke or anything like that. Three road wins in the playoffs, two of them against the #1 and #2 seeds, and then beating the supposedly unbeatable team ready to be crowned as the Greatest of All Time in the Super Bowl is no fluke.

The championship run is history. So is the last meeting between these two teams, a 22-10 win for the Skins in Week 15, a game that was not as close as the final score indicated. Eli Manning threw a mind-numbing, record-setting 35 incomplete passes. Clinton Portis rushed for 126 yards on 26 carries. The Redskins were in charge of the contest throughout, building a 22-3 lead in the third quarter that emptied out Giants Stadium early.

If you'd told any of those chilled, disgusted fans then that their team would be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in a little less than two months, you would have gotten some strange looks. If you'd told them then that the Redskins would be returning to that stadium in the teams' first game of 2008, most would have looked for a place to bet the Redskins.

So, the question is: Are the Giants a better team now than they were on December 16, 2007?

In regards to personnel, the answer would seem to be no, they are worse. The loss of Osi Umenyiora to injury added to the retirement of Michael Strahan puts a couple of major dents into the defensive line. Fortunately for the Giants the position was one of great strength and depth. Justin Tuck is a quality replacement and while linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka
may develop into a good DE some day, there still is a dropoff from Strahan and Osil.

Tight end Jeremy Shockey was injured and put out for the season in that December game. Kevin Boss starts in his place and while he caught a few key passes down the stretch, the Shockey trade may end up being one of those that seemed to be a good idea at the time, but later on maybe not so much.

Manning certainly rebounded from that dismal showing in the swirling Jersey winds with a nice showing in the postseason. He threw for 854 yards with six TD's to one INT for a 95.7 rating during the playoffs. His confidence—and, just as important, his teammates' confidence in him—grew by the game.

Confidence was what the run was all about. It was at a low point after the loss to the Skins. The next week against the Bills, the G-Men were in danger of missing the playoffs altogether as they bumbled and stumbled and trailed a pesky Bills team in Buffalo.

They came back and won that game to clinch a playoff spot, and then gave the Patriots all they could handle in the season finale. They got on a roll that didn't stop until they dashed New England's dreams of grandeur in Arizona.

But it's seven months later now. Can momentum carry itself through spring and summer, through ring ceremonies and mall openings, through writing books and collecting accolades? If the answer is yes, can Big Mo make up for the absence of Umenyiora and Strahan?