01. After this game and into the week we’re going to hear lots of quotes from Redskins players and coaches, as well as happy-talk aficionado Larry Michaels about how the Redskins aren’t playing up to their potential. About how they need to “pick it up” and “turn it up a notch” and how the playoffs are not out of the question. Pay no attention to this nonsense. The Redskins ARE playing up to their potential. What we saw today against the Giants was not the Redskins playing poorly, it was the Redskins playing about as well as they can on the road against a good team. The Redskins are terrible. I’ve written it before and I’ll keep writing it: In terms of production, age, and salary, the Redskins have the worst roster in the NFL. The Washington Redskins are a very bad football team. As I keep writing, the roster must be torn apart and rebuilt from the ground up. The smart thing to do is just face reality and treat the Redskins like an expansion team. The vast majority of players on the roster should be discarded. The Redskins are losing with an old and expensive roster. They should lose with a younger and cheaper roster that might be able to grow and improve with time.
02. Head Coach Mike Shanahan still refuses to see how bad his team is. Why are players like WR Roydell Williams still playing in the 4th quarter of games? The Redskins should be playing WR Brandon Banks and WR Terrence Austin. CB Kevin Barnes should be playing more instead of just coming in when Phillip Buchanon is benched for incompetence.
03. I thought the Redskins would be dominated by New York’s superior offensive and defensive lines today and that’s just what happened. NT Ma’ake Kemoeatu was pushed around all day and things were little better for DL Kedric Golston, DL Adam Carriker, DL Vonnie Holliday and any of the other castoffs the Redskins pushed out on the line. The nose tackle position is critical for a 3-4 defense to be successful and Shanahan and Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett don’t have one. Once Haynesworth refused to play the position the team had a responsibility to plan accordingly. They didn’t. They just plugged in Kemoeatu, who was a major question mark coming off a serious injury that cost him the entire 2009 season. The Kemoeatu experiment has been a failure and the responsibility for that lies with Shanny and Haslett.
04. For all the credit OLB Brian Orakpo gets as a pass-rusher, there is little talk about how often he is out of position on running plays, allowing the defense to get gashed on cutback runs where Orakpo has left his lane.
05. TB Keiland Williams looked like a real find a few weeks ago and I still think he can be a valuable contributor, but he’s taken a few steps back the past two weeks. Against the Giants today I saw him block well a few times, but he’s not making any plays in the running game and that fumble on the shovel pass was inexcusable. Just sloppy football by a rookie.
06. Williams wasn’t the only one who looked sloppy today. TE Chris Cooley had a sloppy fumble, QB Donovan McNabb had a sloppy fumble, WR Anthony Armstrong had a sloppy fumble and McNabb threw a terrible interception in the end zone, when he threw deep to WR Santana Moss into double coverage. The last turnover, an interception off a hideous sideline pass by Donovan McNabb, was just silly and desperate. Washington’s 6 turnovers were all unforced and sloppy.
07. Donovan McNabb was pretty terrible today. He made some nice passes, but he couldn’t overcome the pass rush and even when the rush wasn’t there, he made some stupid mistakes. I counted 9 negative plays by McNabb: 6 bad passes that resulted in incompletions, the fumble and the two interceptions. Nine bad plays by your starting quarterback is a lot to overcome, particularly for an untalented team like the Redskins. McNabb’s first interception, thrown towards Moss in the end zone, was a terrible decision. Moss was double-covered on the play and the Giants made the easy interception. I thought Eli Manning’s fumble two weeks ago was the ugliest of the year, but McNabb matched him with his own preposterous fumble. McNabb could have run for the first down at any time, but he waited so long to do so that he allowed the defense to close on him and he was completely unprepared for the contact when it came. The ball popped out and it was basically an unforced error.
08. The Redskins defense is awful unless it forces a lot of turnovers and it hasn’t forced them for two weeks. The Redskins defense gives up a ton of yards and a ton of points and it doesn’t generate quarterback pressures or sacks. The only way the Redskins defense can compete is to create turnovers, as it did against the Cowboys, the Bears and the Green Bay Packers. If the turnovers are not there, the defense is completely torn to pieces. Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett is responsible for this awful defense and although I’m sure he won’t lose his job at the end of this season, he should. The transition to a 3-4 defense was his responsibility and he has failed completely. Haslett’s reputation as a defensive coordinator was always exaggerated and now we’re seeing just how undeserving he is of this job.
09. I saw some good things from new TB James Davis today. He ran hard through tackles and I loved his 28-yard run on the screen pass. Considering the alternatives, Davis looks like a keeper.
10. Laron Landry has a potentially serious injury to his foot. If it gets worse he could be out for a calendar year. The Redskins are awful with or without him. He should sit out the rest of the season and try to come out healthy in 2011 — if NFL football is played in 2011.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Redskins trail Giants 21-0 at halftime
- Redskins TE Coach to leave for college
- Ryan Torain on the New York trip
- Did the Redskins meet 2010 expectations?
- Game Preview: Redskins at Giants
Original Story:
http://dcprosportsreport.com/2010/12/...
