Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Moss in best shape of his career

RG3 and teammates impressed with turnout of Redskins fans

A possible destination for Santana Moss

Free agent wide receiver Santana Moss has said that he wants to return to the Washington Redskins in 2011 and beyond. "My first choice is to stay in Washington," Moss told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk in February. He has repeated that sentiment to others since then. And there are many reasons to believe that the Redskins would like to retain Moss' services. Although they drafted three wide receivers in April, rookie wideouts are slow to develop. If Moss departs, the Redskins leading returning receiver would be Anthony Armstrong, who has 871 career receiving yards. But the Redskins knew that Moss would be a free agent when his contract voided in February and they did not make him an offer he couldn't refuse prior to the lockout. This makes me wonder how competitive an offer the Redskins will make when the time comes. It seems likely that Moss will have alternatives. On Rotoworld, Evan Silva predicts that Moss will end up with the Patriots. Another potential suitor is the Bears. In a mailba   g segment on the Bears' official website, senior writer Larry Mayer wrote the following in response to a question about Moss.

When you hear about receivers who are due to become free agents, his name is rarely among the first few mentioned. But he has been highly productive, averaging 81 receptions for 2,251 yards and three touchdowns the past three seasons for a Redskins team that has struggled at the quarterback position. Moss has said that he wants to re-sign with Washington, but I see no reason why the Bears wouldn’t at least consider taking a look at him unless they feel he’s too similar in size, stature and style to receivers such as Johnny Knox and Devin Hester who are already on their roster.

To be sure, this is speculation in response to a question on the writer's part and he is not reporting that anyone in the Bears organization has expressed any interest in signing Moss. The point here is that a lot of teams could use a good receiver like Moss. The return of Santana Moss is not entirely up to the Redskins. From what Moss says it appears that he will be willing to give the Redskins a hometown discount, perhaps a substantial one. But it appears that the Redskins are no longer going to engage in bidding wars, especially against themselves. While I would say that right now the odds favor a Moss return, Redskins fans should be prepared to see him in a different uniform in 2011.

How the Redskins beat the Packers in Week 5

As the Green Bay Packers piled the points on the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons on Saturday night and moved on to the NFC championship game, Redskins fans everywhere wondered the same thing. How did the Redskins beat Green Bay 16-13 in FedEx Field in Week 5 this year? Let’s take a look. The Redskins won the turnover ratio—They won it by just 2-1 but that was enough. In the early going Washington forced tight end Jermichal Finley to fumble deep in Packers territory. That opportunity was squandered when a shotgun snap sailed over Donovan McNabb’s head for a huge loss. But the second takeaway, well, more on that in a minute. McNabb threw an interception on a Hail Mary at the end of regulation. Green Bay suffered some key injuries—Finley, their star tight end, went out for the season with a knee injury on the play where he fumbled. More importantly, linebacker Clay Matthews, who was spending a lot of time in McNabb’s face and causing havoc in general, left with a hamstring pull. McNabb passed for 357 yards—The Redskins never did get much of a ground game going, posting just 51 yards rushing. But McNabb kept his team in it with five completions of 20 yards or more. A scrambling, 52-yard bomb to Santana Moss converted a third and 18 and set up a Graham Gano field goal that got Washington on the board with 17 seconds left in the first half. Aaron Rodgers was contained on third down—Rodgers had a decent stat line, as he went 27 of 46 (58.7%) for 293 yards (6.4 yards/attempt). But the Rodgers and the Packers converted just 2 of 13 first downs (15%) so they were unable to sustain drives. That let the Redskins hang around despite the fact that Green Bay was playing better. The Redskins rallied in the fourth quarter—Washington trailed 13-3 entering the fourth quarter. The Redskins got a spark and a much-needed flip of field position when Brandon Banks returned a punt 30 yards to the Washington 40. Two plays later McNabb launched one for Anthony Armstrong in the end zone. Armstrong made a leaping catch over safety Charlie Peprah for 48 yards and the touchdown to make it 13-10. One drive led to a 51-yard field goal that Graham Gano pushed to the right. The next time down the Redskins got Gano a little closer and his 45-yard field goal tied the game at 13-13 with 1:07 left to play. A bit of good fortune—Rodgers moved the Packers into position for a 53-yard field goal with seven seconds left. It looked good most of the time it was in the air but it smacked off of the left upright. A clutch play by their best player—Each team had a possession in overtime and punted. Then on a play from the Green Bay 24, Redskins end Jeremy Jarmon got pressure on Rodgers, affecting his pass to Greg Jennings. LaRon Landry swooped in and picked it off at the 39. A defensive holding call and a pass interference penalty helped the Redskins move into position for Gano’s 33-yard game winning field goal.

5 years ago: Skins have chances but fall to Seahawks

The Redskins have had their share of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" moments in their recent past and one of them came five years ago in Seattle. They had their share of opportunities to take a lead on the Super Bowl-bound Seahawks and after they failed to do that they blew a golden opportunity to pull out a win at the end. The loss closed out what was Joe Gibbs' best season in his return to coaching. Washington had gone 10-6 and they were as hot as any team in the league going into the playoffs. But a lack of offense almost cost them a week earlier in the first round of the playoffs against Tampa Bay and it doomed them in the divisional round.

Seahawks 20, Redskins 10 NFC Divisional Playoff Qwest Field Seattle, Washington Saturday, January 14, 2006

The Seattle Seahawks will spend the next week preparing for the NFC Championship Game. The Redskins will spend the week—and probably many more after it—ruing the opportunities they missed in their 20-10 playoff loss to the Seahawks. Seattle starting out the game playing like the favorites they were. A drive to the Washington 11, however, ended when NFL MVP Sean Alexander fumbled and Lemar Marshall recovered. The Seattle offense stalled after that, going three and out four straight times. Late in the first quarter they lost Alexander to a concussion. They appeared to be on the ropes. But the Redskins did not deliver any punches. They one-upped their opponents by reeling off five consecutive three-and-out series. After the fifth, they got the break they needed. The punt was muffed and Pierson Prioleau recovered at the Seattle 41. The Redskins did string together a couple of first downs but failed to take full advantage of the turnover. The drive died at the seven and John Hall’s 26-yard field goal gave Washington a 3-0 lead. Soon after that from the Seattle 26, Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck threw a pass right into the hands of Carlos Rogers. The rookie cornerback had nothing but empty field turn between himself and the goal line and, for a moment, it looked like the Redskins would take control of the game. But the ball bounced off of Rogers’ hands. Seattle continued the drive that culminated in a 26-yard touchdown pass from Hasselbeck to Darrell Jackson. That made it 7-3 and the score held until halftime. The Washington offense remained in the deep freeze and the Seahawks stretched their lead to 17-3 on a six-yard Hasselbeck touchdown run and a Josh Brown field goal. When the Redskins finally cranked out a sustained drive into Seattle territory, it died when Brunell was sacked and fumbled on fourth down from the 33 with 1:55 left in the third quarter. The Redskins, however, managed to create one last chance. After Brown’s field goal with 14:20 left to play, Chris Cooley grabbed a Brunell pass and rumbled 52 yards to the Seattle 24. On third down from the 20, Brunell’s pass was knocked away by cornerback Andre Dyson. But the ball hung in the air long enough for Moss to seize it out of the air for a touchdown and suddenly, it was 17-10. As if that wasn’t enough good fortune, Josh Scobey fumbled the ensuing kickoff. The Redskins moved from the Seattle 40 down to the 18 but couldn’t seal the deal. Brunell misfired while trying to hit Moss on third down and Hall pushed his 36-yard field goal attempt wide left. Seattle then burned off all but the last three minutes and Brown’s 31-yard field goal put it out of reach at 20-10.

Player evals: Offense

After the Washington Redskins regular season ended on Sunday, the players scattered to their offseason homes, and fans got into their usual January mode of contemplating next year. The coaches, however, barely took a breather before returning to work. “What we do for the next few days, is coaches go back, write up their position players, and they will put them in a pecking order; strengths, weaknesses, starters, backups, ascending player, descending player,” Mike Shanahan said. We think that we can give the coaches a few days off. Today and on Monday we will go through the Redskins’ roster and put players into the proper spot on the matrix of ascending/descending and starter/backup. Today, we’ll take a look at the offense.

Go here for the rest of the article.

Join me for a live chat during the Eagles-Packers game on Sunday. Kickoff is at 4:30, we'll get going at around 4:00. We can talk about the game, try to figure out how the Redskins beat both of the teams involved, go over the draft and free agency, and anything else you want to chat about.

First Take: Building something?

[caption id="attachment_1879" align="aligncenter" width="394" caption="Campbell turns a rocky start into a good finish"][/caption] The Washington Redskins got off to a slow start against the Bucs on Sunday but they got things rolling after halftime. Does this mean that they can do a similar turnaround after a tough start to their 2009 season? The answer, of course, is not necessarily. There were some positives that the team can build on. For the second week in a row, Jason Campbell hit Santana Moss for a long touchdown pass (and this time the play was successful because it worked as it was drawn up, not because of a broken coverage). He fired a touchdown pass in the red zone. Clinton Portis rumbled for 98 yards. The defense got two takeaways, one of which turned the game's momentum in Washington's favor while the other clinched the game. They sacked Josh Johnson three times and had him harried and on the run for much of the game. The fact that the positives, for the offense at least, came in the wake of a first half that could be charitably described as putrid makes them a bit more impressive. They gained 99 yards of offense. Campbell had a quarterback rating of 18.1 thanks largely to a pair of interceptions. The fumble that set up Johnson's touchdown pass isn't factored in to the rating. Last week against the Lions the Redskins played a horrid first half and then cobbled together a second-half rally to make a game of it. This week against a team that appears to be even worse than the Lions they were able to finish off the rally. That's progress, I suppose. If they gained any small bit of momentum from Sunday's rally the next couple of weeks would be a good time to build up the snowball. If it's possible, the Panthers are in greater disarray than are the Redskins. This was a 12-win team last year that now sits at 0-3. Jake Delhomme is under the microscope every bit as much as is Campbell. After that, they face the 0-4 Chiefs. Casey Rabach said, "We're taking baby steps. I hate to say it because of the way it sounds, but that's the way it is. We took a baby step today, and we've gotta try to take another one next week and just keep going." We all know that babies sometimes take a few steps and then fall down. We'll see if the Redskins maintain the pitter-patter or if the fall down and go boom.

At WarpathConfidential.com--Weighty issues at WR

One receiver is putting on weight, the other gave up his favorite foods in an effort to lose some. Read my new article at Warpath Confidential.