The Good, The Bad, The Ugly:
Washington Redskins: 31
St. Louis Rams: 28
The Good
I am one of the harshest critics to Sam Bradford, and rightfully so thus far in his career, but I can admit when he does a good job, and this game was one of his best of his career.
He was accurate, 74% of his passes for a very efficient 8.9 yards per attempt. He made one bad read in the game, on his interception throw in the end zone, but the rest of the game was what Rams fans have seen glimpses of, and more importantly what Rams fans know he is capable of, and trust me THEY KNOW as I have been told multiple times.
What Bradford flashed shows why he was taken 1st overall, and he used his own version of Wes Welker in Danny Amendola, to perfection.
Even if it is cliche to say, Amendola was the perfect security blanket for Bradford and his 15 catches for 160 yards and a touchdown showed the comfort level that Bradford and Amendola have developed.
It is early, but game 1 and 2 have shown a good development for Bradford, and if this continues maybe the NFC West will be the best division in football.
On the other side you had what I would call the more likely RG3 game this year, as the rookie signal caller completed 69% of his passes for 206 yards and added 3 totals touchdowns, 1 through the air and 2 on the ground.
While Griffin was solid, he didn’t have the long pass plays that we saw in game one, and that wasn’t because the Skins weren’t throwing the ball deep, but rather they tackled the player after the short passes thrown by Griffin.
I expect to see more of these games, and really that will be impressive, than what we saw in game 1, but it is obvious that Robert Griffin III is already comfortable, and you really have to tip your hat to the Shannahan’s for devising a game plan and an offense that Griffin knew already.
The Bad
I haven’t said much about the refs, and I’ll keep it short, but their lack of control in this game almost cost the Rams the game when Steven Jackson was benched for an, um “groin injury”, after receiving his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for showing up the refs and then did cost the Redskins a chance to tie the game after the dumbest penalty ever by Josh Morgan.
I understand that Morgan has to keep his cool there, and he needs to shoulder the entire load of the blame for that specific play, but if the refs had control of the game earlier, and weren’t allowing the crap after the whistle blew to continue, I like to believe a veteran like Morgan wouldn’t have been that dumb. Hey, but maybe I am blaming the wrong person.
Again, I don’t mind the hits that were going on at all, saw a lot of people screaming about the Janoris Jenkins hit late in the game specificly, but the extracurricular stuff needs to be stopped.
The Ugly
This was supposed to be a stepping stone year for the Redskins, so some people may not think much of it, but the losses of Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker on the defensive side of the ball, a unit that wasn’t exactly striking fear in opponents as is, will likely kill any chance the Redskins had of competing deep into the season.
I don’t like to make excuses, and most Redskins fans I know won’t make any excuses, but the NFC East hasn’t impressed me at all thus far, and the Skins schedule has some winnable games games coming up, but now, with a couple of injuries to the front seven of the defense, it could become a much longer season than it should be.
Original Story:
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September 18, 2012
