Redskins Fumble Away Opportunities in Green Bay
Ugh. Really. I'm at the point now where I never want to see Washington attempt another wide receiver end around again. While the play had its heyday about twenty years ago, I cannot remember the last time Washington executed the offensive gimmick in a satisfying way. Surely there is a successful occasion of its execution that a mind untrammeled by the frustration of this past weekend might recall (feel free to have your way with me, commenters!) but to my memory, it seems to be, in the hands of the Redskins, a complicated way to pick up seven yards at best.
At worst, we get what we got Sunday: a stripped ball resulting in a defensive touchdown. In a game in which both offenses seemed to be hell-bent on stockpiling enough venial sins to fill a confessional, Santana Moss' fumble was the lone mortal sin. And it cost, providing the difference in a 17-14 loss.
That botched play ended up wasting an otherwise fantastic outing by the Washington defense, who gave up one big play - a long pass-and-run down the middle by Donald Lee that positioned the Green Bay offense for their only touchdown. Otherwise, the defense held Brett Favre and his latest collection of supporting players ("Vernand Morency" sounds more like a term used in French agronomics than it does a football player's name) admirably in check throughout the rest of the game. Even without Marcus Washington, the Redskins' D shut down Green Bay's rushers, chased the Packers off the field on third downs, and only allowed their opponent three drives that went beyond thirty yards.
The defense was also bailing out the sins of the offense where they could, most notably on one occasion where Clinton Portis coughed up the ball deep in Washington territory. The defense drove the Pack backwards from that point, and their efforts were rewarded when Packers kicker Mason Crosby sent his field-goal attempt crashing into the upright for a fortunate miss. But the bigger story there may have been the way defensive coordinator Gregg Williams totally frosted Portis when he came to the sidelines to apologize. Portis seems to be losing the handle on a lot of balls lately, and he was pretty lucky that Williams' charges were able to bail him out.
The Savior posted a decent stat line for himself Sunday, but the overall certainty and consistency he displayed at home against the Lions faded back into streakiness on the road. When Campbell was good yesterday, he was very good. JC was near perfect on the drive that culminated in another Chris Cooley touchdown.
Overall, the offense reverted to near anemia Sunday. Campbell had trouble finding his wideouts, and an abundance of dropped passes didn't help. Also, Al Saunders still insists on occasionally throwing passes to Brandon Lloyd, which is sort of a high-tech way of drawing up a play for an incomplete pass. Most glaringly, Campbell's green-ness showed itself on the play that ended Washington's last-gasp drive, where even the permanently concussed Troy Aikman noticed that he should have checked down instead of throwing the ball to an already-eVited-to-his-own-tackling Ladell Betts.
The good news is that at 3-2, Washington is still on the good side of the playoff divide in the NFC, and lost no ground to the division-leading Cowboys, who the Patriots finally got around to murdering in cold blood after dicking around for three quarters. The bad news is that if Atlanta loses tonight, the Giants will end up in second place of the division, a half-game-plus-tiebreak ahead of us. Next week, we welcome the Arizona Cardinals to FedEx Field, who, as you may have heard, have broken with a decades-old franchise tradition and now occasionally run the ball successfully.
And, oh yeah--if you or your loved ones have any particularly bulky pieces of furniture you want to offload, bring them to Redskins Park and perhaps they can start on our totally depleted offensive line next week!