New head coach, new offensive scheme, new play-caller, new defensive coordinator, similar but different defensive scheme and playing without the teams best defensive back in Shawn Springs…could Redskins fans really have expected anything better than the dismal and disjointed 16-7 loss that ensued?
I actually expected the Redskins would lose this game, but what I did not expect were these things:
1) Lack of a passing game
I’m not talking about expecting Jason Campbell to become the 2nd coming of the mighty Matt Hasselbeck, I just expected that the Redskins would actually get a passing yard before the last 2 minutes of the 2nd quarter. Campbell didn’t complete a pass until there was 1:19 left in the first half and luckily his 2nd completion was for a TD.
Here’s what my armchair quarterback coach self saw. Jason Campbell was not in sync with any of his receivers. He was either waiting for a route to be run right or waiting for the one receiver he was, for some reason, locked in on to get open or not reading the defenses correctly to throw the ball to where they weren’t since they were blitzing a lot or his line was breaking down around him, partly because he was holding onto the ball for too long. All of this happened, sometimes they all happened on the same play.
I’m not saying its all Campbell’s fault, receivers do run bad routes and linemen do miss tackles, but on numerous occasions in the 1st half there were open players right in the middle of the field to pass to while Campbell was locked into Moss or Randle-El on the sidelines. Why didn’t he throw to his tight ends more? Cooley and Yoder are perfect safety outlets and would have saved Campbell on numerous occasions.
2) The Defense bent a lot…but luckily only broke once.
This is not last year’s GGGregg Williams defense. The exotic blitz packages are gone and it showed. If the Redskins thought they could get pressure with a 4 man front that was the same as last year plus Jason Taylor, who is looked like Bruce Smith II in this game, then they are going to get beat like a rag all season.
This was a defense without its best player, Shawn Springs, so why did they not do more zone coverage to help cover up that huge hole? It appeared to me at least that there was single man coverage on most the receivers, especially Plaxico Burress who beat them repeatedly. With all that man coverage, the Giants were able to dink and dunk slants and curls all over the joint since there was no, from my vantage point, underneath coverage. It was like the Redskins were playing a Man Prevent the entire game. The cushions the Giants receivers were given were ginormous and they took advantage the entire game.
And what the hell is up with Brandon Jacobs? Redskins D line turned him into Christian Okoye out there. London Fletcher had more tackles than the entire D line did. That will not win football games.
By the grace of God, the Giants offense couldn’t take full advantage of any of this and only got 1 touchdown, giving Redskins fans everywhere the false hope that they could actually come back.
3) The Head Coach is awful new at this
Why did Zorn not get the Redskins in the hurry up offense starting with the start of their 2nd to last possession with 6 minutes left in the game? They were down 2 scores and weren’t moving the ball all that quickly before, but the coach kept them huddling up and even ran the ball twice when the clock was under 4 minutes.
I’m also going to question the decision to go for it on 4th and 13 on the 43 yard line with 2 minutes left and down by 2 scores. That is hardly a gimme field goal and I guess Zorn didn’t think that Suisham could kick a 55 yarder with great success, the flip side is that if they did kick and make it, they would only need 1 score and could probably get the ball back (which they did when they didn’t convert the 4th down) and try to score again. See, by going for it on 4th down though Zorn pretty much ended the game.
If you miss the kick or not get the first down the result is the same, the game is over. If you make the 1st down, you have 2 minutes left, 4 more time sucking plays and all your time outs to score from 30 yards out, give the ball back to the giants, and try to stop them with time left to get another score. That is an awful lot to ask, but if you make the kick, you’re down by 1 score with just under 2 minutes left, you give the ball back and need a stop with all your timeouts left to try to get time to get another score. With those two scenarios, the one that would give the Redskins the most time on the clock to get the 2nd score is kicking the field goal.
So what to expect in the future? Luckily, all of this is correctable. Its all just practice and scheming at this point. The players are just as talented as most teams in the league. The coaches need to work harder to game plan better (the D’s halftime adjustments were quite good) and the players need to practice more to get their act together. The Defense looks mediocre right now and on offense they don’t even look that. They should at least strive for being average.
Zorn photo (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun); (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Campbell photo(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Jacobs photo (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Ever wondered what would happen if you merged the long, week by week crawl of an NFL season with the long arduous task of crossing the Oregon trail? Well someone did and combined it to make this video for Gridiron Trail. Yes, you can get dysentery. Its actually pretty funny, especially if you remember playing the classic Oregon Trail, Tecmo Bowl and Madden 92 (b/c the ambulance is BACK baby!!). Check it out.
