The Washington Redskins have gone from Superbowl champions to the worst team in the NFL in the spam of two games.....at least in the eyes of the fans. After beating the Saints in New Orleans, the Redskins lost to the Rams in St. Louis in a very close game, by the score of 31-28. What most fans will remember of the game, unfortunately, is the unsportsmanlike play by Josh Morgan, when he threw the ball at Cortland Finnegan after being tackled short of the first down mark. But before getting into that, and the other negatives about the game, let me first look at the positives.
The best thing about the game for Redskins fans was RG3. He was able to impress by with abilities once again. He had a long bomb to Leonard Hankerson for a TD that was a thing of beauty. RG3 threw the ball 68 yards, and it landed right in Hankerson's hands. Hankerson did not have to slow down, or speed up, or change directions, or stretch out for the catch. He was running at full speed, and simply opened his arms and the ball landed perfectly. However, he did almost drop the pass, but was able to keep a hold of it and take it a few yards to the endzone. RG3's arm strength was well known, but he showed that he is damn accurate with the long balls as well. He also had another deep pass to Aldrick Robinson, but the 2nd year WR was not able to make the play as the ball bounced off his shoulderpads.
RG3 also showed off his rushing abilities, carrying the ball 11 times for a total of 82 yards and 2 TD's. It appeared that he was able to run fairly easily when they had QB sneak play called. On one of the TD's, he was able to split two would-be-tacklers very quickly and smoothly, and make it to the endzone. The only concern is that over the length of the season, if he continues to rush as many times, his body will not be able to handle it, or that he will leave himself open for a very nasty hit. I'm hoping that day won't come, as the Redskins need RG3 to be healthy for a very long time.
The rest of the offense played well also. Alfred Morris had another good rushing game, going 89 yards on 16 carries, but he was not able to find the endzone. The great thing about Morris is that whenever he is hit, he has so much momentum, that he almost always falls forward another yard or two. And he is a rookie, so if he is also able to stay healthy, the Redskins have a fine RB leading the rushing game.
The WR core played ok, as they were able to make catches, but they were not that good at yards after the catch, mainly due to the fact that Pierre Garcon did not play in this game. He is their number one WR, and the main person for YAC yards. He should be back next week, and should be able to contribute once again.
The Offensive line also played well, allowing only one sack on RG3, but he was rushed a number of times. This unit is doing a pretty good job, but the last two weeks they have not been fully tested, because both of their opponents had D-line issues. With more time playing together, the unit can protect RG3 pretty well.
Now onto the negatives. In regards to refs, I will just say that they have been horrendous in the entire league. Even though they were horrible, making extremely back calls and multiple no calls, they were doing it to both sides, for the most part. However, the real refs know about player reputations, and who to watch out for, which in this case would be Cortland Finnegan, the CB of the Rams, and the entire Rams team, because of their head coach Jeff Fisher. Fisher, when he was with the Titans, had a team that in his tenure led the league in most personal fouls, with 163. The 2nd highest teams were the Giants and Cardinals, with only 137. In those 10 years, the Titans committed 67 unnecessary roughness penalties, 46 roughing the passer, 18 unsportsmanlike conducts, and 32 in other variations of personal fouls. This team was also the same team that had the famous head stomp by Albert Haynsworth. Cortland Finnegan was also with the Titans, before coming to the Rams. In 2010, he was fined $5000 for throwing Giants WR to the ground by his helmet, then $10,000 for unnecessary roughness when he hit a Broncos' lineman who had lost his helmet, and then ejected from a game against the Texans and fined $25,000 for getting into a fist fight with Andre Johnson. Finnegan is a very good CB, but he is considered one of the dirtiest players in all of sports.
Although a major negative in the game, it was nothing the Redskins could do anything about, other than to hold their composure, which they did for the most part. What the Redskins had problems with, to start, was surprisingly the Defense. For years now the Redskins had relied on the D to keep them in games, in hopes of being able to get lucky and score enough to win games. It appears that this season the roles have been reversed. The Offense is able to score points, but the D is not able to stop the other teams. They gave up 32 points to the Saints, which can be chalked off to the fact that they are a formidable offense, and this week they gave up 31 to the Rams. Now the Rams do have a good QB in Sam Bradford, and a very good RB in Steven Jackson, but Jackson was sidelined after the 1st quarter, and a rookie RB was killing the Redskins defense. Sam Bradford was also able to easily find receivers open throughout the game, mainly Danny Amendola, who racked up a total of 15 catches for 160 yards and 1 TD. It appeared that the Redskins could not cover any of the Rams' WR's, specially Amendola, until the end of the game, when they finally cut back on the zone scheme defense. For the day, Bradford was 26 of 35 passing, for 310 yards, and 3 TD's, with only one INT. On top of that, the Redskins gave up 151 yards on the ground. The Rams were also about to convert 7 out of 12 3rd downs, which means the Defense was not able to get off the field and give the Offense a chance to score points.
The Redskins also gave up a blocked punt, for the 2nd time in as many games. Although the reason for the blocked punt was given as one of the linemen releasing too early, this is not looking good for the special teams. This on top of the fact that Brandon Banks fumbled another return. He is not being used in the passing game, and his sole purpose is to return kicks, for which he isn't doing a great job, and he is having major problems hanging on to the ball. If this continues, they will need to find a different solution.
Besides the Redskins defensive coaches not being able to adjust fast enough to what the Rams were doing, another major bad point in the game was the head coach, Mike Shanahan. There were two calls make by Shanahan, which in my and many other's minds were completely wrong and dumb. His first was at the end of the first half, when the Rams were going for a long FG. Mike called a timeout right before the ball was snapped, a "move" that he has been credited with creating. The idea behind this is to get into the mind of the kicker and make him miss on the second attempt. This move has only worked a very, and I mean very small number of times, and this was not one of them. The Rams actually missed the kick on the 1st attempt, but since Shanahan called a timeout, the kick did not count and they were able to retake it, which he nailed. That gave the Rams 3 points which they should not have had. The second dumb move came at the end of the game, and this one I have a major issue with. The Redskins were pushed back to 4th and 15, because of Josh Morgan's mistake, and well out of FG range. Their kicker, Billy Cundiff, has been in the league since 2002. His career long successful FG kick is 56 yards, which he kicked in 2005. That is also the last time he made a FG longer than 55 yards. Since then, he is 1 for 10 in kicks over 50 yards, and in his career, he is only 5-20. From those stats, anyone can see that he is NOT a long distance kicker. If I, and many other fans, know these stats, then I sure hope that the coaches know it as well. Which is why I am baffled at the fact that they brought him out to try a 62 yard FG!!! Just to add to that point, the NFL record for the longest FG is 63 yards... So that means that the coaching staff, mainly Mike Shanahan, since he makes the calls, thought that a guy who hadn't made a FG of more than 56 yards in his career, and who had missed 9 out of 10 FG of over 50 yards, would somehow be able to make a 62 yard FG, with a Offensive line that has had issues protecting FG attempts, and the game on the line. This instead of having RG3, who was having a very good day against the Rams defense, specially when he ran the ball, trying to give the Redskins a first down. If that is not the worst decision in the game, I am not sure what is.
I am hoping the Defense can get it together this week, as they have a pretty good Offensive team coming to town, because if they cannot, then it will be a very long day, and a very high scoring game.
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