The Passion of the Gibbs: Redskins Move To 3-0
For three quarters on Sunday, the Redskins rode a solid gameplan, gritty defense and a scintillating performance from Mark Brunell, taking a lead on the visiting Seattle Seahawks. In the end, however, it took some late-game heroics and a few lucky breaks to secure the win and remain undefeated as the team pulled out a 20-17 overtime win.
What’s to be done when your team has a peerless defensive side but an offense that’s struggled to move the ball for the past year? Approaching the second-best offense in the league in the Seattle Seahawks, Coach Gibbs had an answer: why not put the whole team on a defensive footing? The offense came out on Sunday bent and determined to hold the ball and grind the clock, keeping the ball out of the hands of Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander. The mindset worked, especially in the first half. Brunell played with poise and accuracy, capping one monster 16-play, 8 minute drive with a touchdown toss to Robert Royal that sent the Redskins to the locker room up 7-3. Seattle’s influence on the game barely registered in the first half: the Redskins held the ball of a crushing twenty-two minutes and change and the defense held Alexander to a paltry 12 yards rushing.
As Seattle’s offense seemed to be stirring to life at the start of the second half, the Redskins quickly moved to add to their lead. Aided by a phantom pass-interference call, the Skins worked their way down the field and found Mike Sellars on a goal-line playfake that looked like a carbon copy of the previous touchdown. But the ‘Hawks got it back on their ensuing drive. Alexander finally broke off a run to get his team to the Redskins 29 yard line, but from there, the drive stalled, leaving Seattle with a third and ten. In a move that’s surely not going to escape the attention of anti-blitz guru Gregg Easterbrook, his equally tastefully named counterpart Gregg Williams dialed up an eight-man blitz. This left Seahawk wideout Darrell Jackson so wide open that he was deep in negotiations with area real-estate developers by the time the ball got to him. Jackson took the rock to the three, and Alexander capped the drive with a wholly academic touchdown run.
Nick Novak managed an important figgie on the ensuing drive, but the momentum had palpably shifted to the Seahawks side, and on a long drive of their own, tied the game on a touchdown pass to Darrell Jackson. The game seemed headed to overtime until Brunell was freakishly intercepted on a deflection by Kelly Herndon, allowing the Seahawks to set up shop at the Skins 33yard line with only a minute and change remaining. With a second to play in regulation, Josh Brown kicked a game-winning 47 yard field-goal attempt, but the ball, seemingly bending to the will of the ninety-thousand fans in attendance, drifted slightly leftward and bounced off the upright. A rain of defiant cheers followed.
Fortunately winning the overtime coin toss, the Redskins took the field and began a game winning drive that featured a replay of some heroic moments of the Dallas game, including another mad scramble by Brunell on third down and a pair of critical completions to Santana Moss. Stranding the Seahawks offense on the sidelines during overtime was a must for the Redskins, and newly minted kicker Nick Novak made sure they never got another chance, hitting his 39-yard game winner.
It was an important win in which the Redskins showed a lot of needed improvement. Brunell, it must be said, played his best game as a Redskin he spread the ball around, put zip on his short passes so his receivers had a chance to make a move after the catch, and calmly led the team out of many unmanageable third down situations. Overall, the offense played with a capability they’ve only shown rarely as of late, dictating tempo and asserting their game plan. After four weeks, the Redskins are one of the League’s four unbeaten teams, and they remain a game ahead of Philadelphia and New York in the NFC East division. A rough fortnight looms, however, with road games that will take the Redskins to Denver and Kansas City in consecutive weeks.