SKINS WIN BUT CIRCLE DEFENSE A CONCERN

The Washington Redskins opened the season yesterday with a win over the Miami Dolphins 16-13 in OT at FedEx Field in Landover, MD.  The game wasn’t exciting but many of the wins in the Joe Gibbs era aren’t because they revolve around defense and running the ball. Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts gutted the Dolphins for 191 yards and Jason Campbell served notice to the rest of the league that he will attempt to stretch defenses this year.

 With the win, the Redskins are now in first place in the NFC East!

 As silly as that sounds, it is a true statement and on the surface that is the end result from the game yesterday. But of course the game isn’t that simple and I will now go beneath the surface and break down the game unit by unit like only BOS can.

 OFFENSE

I will not criticize an offense that gets 400 yard on the 4^th ranked defense from last year but I will critique the individual units performances.

 Offensive Line

The offensive line played a very good game yesterday even with the possibly season ending loss of right tackle Jon Jansen. University of Maryland rookie Stephen Heyer stepped in and did a helluva job filling in for Jansen. The fact that you rarely heard his name called is a clear sign that he did a good job. Heyer along with the rest of the line did a good job protecting Jason Campbell and cleared the way for Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts to gain an eye-opening 191 yards on the ground.

 Quarterback

Jason Campbell was very average yesterday. He was awesome on his deep throws and showed some zip on his deep in route passes but he missed a few big short throws that could’ve moved the chains and kept some drives alive. Jason showed some good pocket presence and was able to use his legs to scramble for some crucial first downs but he held on to the ball a little too long at times. He also eyes his receivers a bit much, which resulted in his first of two interceptions, but he is young and that will be corrected with experience. His last fault, I will put mostly on the coaches, is his failure to change up the snap count. This puts the O-line in bad positions and sometimes destroys plays before they start. Coaches have to see this as well but this is part of Jason’s maturity and he has to pick up on this.

 Running Back

Clinton Portis took the first of at least 16 steps of showing the rest of the league that he is still one of the elite running backs in the league. He gained 98 yards on 17 carries and showed great burst and great instincts on many of his runs. He also took a step in proving to Redskins fans on who is the better running back on the roster regardless of the system. With the same amount of carries Ladell Betts gained 59 yards and did a good job of keeping the running game going when Portis rested. Portis has to get back in game shape quickly because 17 carries is not enough and Betts needs to run with a bit more vision as he appears to run into lineman far too much to be considered a great back.

 Receivers

Antwaan Randle El had hopefully a statement game, catching 5 passes for 162 yards. The statement would be, “the Redskins have more than one receiver” and he made great catches on two deep balls from Jason Campbell. It’s one thing to catch the deep ball but the fact that he was able to get behind and stretch the defense is very encouraging. Santana Moss showed that he was human yesterday with a rare bad game for him. He had two uncharacteristic drops on two pretty good passes. If Santana Moss was all we had to worry about, I would feel pretty secure. Brandon Lloyd is climbing up the ranks and gaining on Dana Stubblefield, Deion Sanders, Jeramiah Trotter and Adam Archuletta as the worst free agents in Redskins history. He only had two balls thrown his way and one was intercepted.  Chris Cooley had only one catch but it was a big one in overtime. Cooley gets much more attention now and he has to adjust. The first Campbell interception was from a flat route from Cooley because he was double-teamed.

DEFENSE

The defense looked fast, quick and very physical. The linebacking core are definitely for real. They held the Dolphins to 273 yards and 13 points. The reason I call the defense the “Circle Defense” because of the lack of corners.

 Defensive Line

One of the biggest concerns going into the offseason that wasn’t addressed continued to be a concern. They did have two sacks but no consistent pressure and allowed Trent Green way too much time to throw. One of the sacks was by Andre Carter which is very promising since it took him about 10 games last year to get one. They did a good job in the run game however tying up the lineman so the linebackers can make plays.

 Linebackers

This unit will be the main reason this defense improves this season. London Fletcher had 12 tackles(10 solo) and Rocky Macintosh had 12 tackles(9 solo), one sack and a forced fumble. These are two extreme upgrades from this unit last year. London is a tackling machine and Macintosh has game changing ability and will be fun to watch this year. Marcus Washington wasn’t his normal self because of the injury to his elbow in the preseason. He missed a couple of tackles that he normally makes. They helped limit the Dolphins to 66 total yards and turned them into a one dimensional team.

 Secondary

The sole reason this game was closer than it had to be was Mr. Fred Smoot and Carlos Rogers. They play way too soft and do not play the ball well at all. With it very obvious that he was a target, Fred Smoot wilted to the pressure instead of stepping up. If it were not for the very limited Miami offense, they would’ve blown the game. Shawn Springs was absent from the starting lineup for some unknown reason. If you’re wondering why Gregg Williams didn’t blitz, his cornerbacks were the reason. Fred Smoot had a chance to make up for his terrible day by picking off a pass to end the game but of course he dropped it.Hard to get a gauge on how the safeties played because they were covering for the corners from much of the game. They did support the run and didn’t allow anyone to get behind them in the passing game. Should be fun to watch them and the linebackers fly around this year.

COACHING

If you guys listen to the show, you know that I am a coach without a team. The coaching staff also had an uneven performance yesterday. On offense, they have to instruct Jason Campbell to mix-up the snap count or they will have problems all year. You can’t tell me with all of this experience on this coaching staff that they don’t notice this. It was a problem last year as well and is very disappointing to see it hasn’t been corrected. The decision, although successful, to kick a 40 yard field on 1^st down in overtime was very sketchy. The decision on defense to start Fred Smoot instead of Shawn Springs was very surprising but the decision to leave him in after being repeatedly torched almost cost them the game.