Bleacher Report - Articles by Mark Steven

Redskins Vs Steelers Review: Defense (and Other Stories)

Mark Steven — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:09:30 -0400

There were several Redskins defensive storylines I could have focused on Saturday night when Washington squared off against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Preseason Week Two.

You know the kind …

Had middle linebacker London Fletcher really lost the half-step he seemed to have misplaced a couple of times against the Ravens in Week One? Did sophomore cornerback Justin Tryon replace the athletic supporter said marauding purple gang stole from him? Was Redskins Defensive Coordinator Greg Blache going to demonstrate yet again that there is, in fact, a flavor less than vanilla?

But at “game” time, when it came right down to it, turns out the only thing I was really dialed in to see was whether or not the Redskins revamped defensive line could get after the damn quarterback.

Drilling down even further, I discovered the one thing I really wanted to see was how the starting group fared in that regard. Depth is a wonderful thing, to be sure. A dynamic, dominating wall of slobbering oncoming burgundy and gold, overrunning the offensive line from the opening gun, however, is even, well …more wonderfull.

The last time the Redskins had one of those, I had hair. Sometimes I wonder if there’s a connection.

So, preseason level of appropriate seriousness properly calibrated …

The first series lived up to the hype—all of it.

DT Albert Haynesworth and Co. swarmed, harassed and otherwise flummoxed Pittsburgh QB Charlie Batch (who I think might have hair once too) and his offensive line on four successive pass plays, forcing a holding call, four ugly incompletions and leaving the Steelers with 4th-and-11.

FedEx Field was rockin’ and your humble scribe grinnin’.

1-10-PIT 29 (8:08) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete short left to 39-W.Parker (99-A.Carter). PENALTY on PIT-78-M.Starks, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at PIT 29 - No Play.
1-20-PIT 19 (8:03) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete short right to 39-W.Parker.
2-20-PIT 19 (7:57) (Shotgun) 16-C.Batch pass short right to 39-W.Parker to PIT 21 for 2 yards (23-D.Hall).

Apparently, the officials got caught up in the moment too, however, because after the 3rd down play, they called a really [emphatic epithet] weak personal foul on Redskins CB DeAngelo Hall for an alleged late “hit” (somewhere, Night Train Lane ran off his tracks).

3-18-PIT 21 (7:10) (Shotgun) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete short left to 83-H.Miller.
PENALTY on WAS-23-D.Hall, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced at PIT 21.

Personally, I think they wanted to watch the Redskins defense do their thing some more.

Which they did.

1-10-PIT 36 (7:04) 39-W.Parker up the middle to PIT 38 for 2 yards (93-P.Daniels, 23-D.Hall).
2-8-PIT 38 (6:26) PENALTY on PIT-38-C.Davis, False Start, 4 yards, enforced at PIT 38 - No Play.
2-12-PIT 34 (6:06) 39-W.Parker left tackle to PIT 35 for 1 yard (99-A.Carter, 64-K.Golston).
3-11-PIT 35 (5:23) (Shotgun) 16-C.Batch pass deep middle to 10-S.Holmes to WAS 18 for 47 yards (22-C.Rogers). Washington challenged the pass completion ruling, and the play was REVERSED. (Shotgun) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete deep middle to 86-H.Ward (23-D.Hall).

There was a brief “Immaculate Reception Lite” moment there when the officials, clearly enjoying themselves, allowed a 3rd-and-11 pass to bounce off the ground to a grateful (and surely guilt-ridden) Steelers WR Santonio Holmes, who pranced with it all the way to the Redskins 18.

Fortunately, the 21st century prevailed and instant replay set the record straight.

First string defense, first possession:

8 plays, 6 yds, 2 penalties
Passing: 1-for-4, 2 yds
Rushing: 2 carries, 3 yds

As first impressions go—starting Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger or no Pittsburgh starting QB Ben Roethlisberger—turning in a couple of emphatic three-and-outs in succession against the defending champions was a pretty nice home introduction to Greg Blache’s new toy.

The happy buzz didn’t last, of course. The next time the defense trotted on the field, setting up shop at midfield (more on that below), the Steelers reminded everyone watching of two very important facts:

1. They are, in fact, the defending world champions, and
2. Preseason giveth, and preseason taketh away.

1-10- (4:03) 39-W.Parker right end to WAS 43 for 7 yards (23-D.Hall).
2-3-WAS 43 (3:25) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete short middle [96-C.Griffin]. PENALTY on PIT-16-C.Batch, Intentional Grounding, 10 yards, enforced at WAS 43.
3-13-PIT 47 (3:19) (Shotgun) 16-C.Batch pass short middle to 10-S.Holmes to WAS 37 for 16 yards (48-C.Horton; 22-C.Rogers).
1-10-WAS 37 (2:39) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete deep left to 17-M.Wallace.
2-10-WAS 37 (2:32) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete short right to 86-H.Ward.
3-10-WAS 37 (2:28) (Shotgun) 16-C.Batch pass deep middle to 86-H.Ward to WAS 13 for 24 yards (30-L.Landry).
1-10-WAS 13 (1:45) (Shotgun) 16-C.Batch pass short left to 83-H.Miller to WAS 3 for 10 yards (22-C.Rogers, 48-C.Horton).
1-3-WAS 3 (1:03) 16-C.Batch pass incomplete short right to 83-H.Miller.
2-3-WAS 3 (:58) 39-W.Parker right end for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

As you have no doubt surmised, there is a reason the two third down plays are bolded. Those of you who have followed the Redskins the past few years don’t need me to explain. For those who have not … they’re bolded because the Redskins always give up third and long conversions. Those two plays were highly unwelcome symbolism, given The Moment was supposed to belong to Big Albert and Co. And if you saw his face on the sidelines afterwards, it was apparent he agreed.

The drive went nine plays in total. On the seven non 3rd-down plays, the Steelers picked up 20 yards—10 passing (1-for-5, including an intentional grounding call), and 10 rushing (two carries, including the 3-yard TD).

On the other two plays, both 3rd-and-long situations, they converted on two relatively easy-looking passes over the middle for 40 yards (16, 24). Hey, if you found yourself mumbling “I’ve seen this movie,” you weren’t alone.

And that was it for the first team. The next time the Redskins defense took the field, most of the starters were wearing baseball caps and quaffing Gatorade on the sideline.

Total Steelers offensive numbers on the first two possessions:

Plays: 15 (6, 9)
Total yds: 56 (6, 50)
Passing: 4-for-10, 52 yds
Rushing: 4 carries, 13 yds
Points: 7

[Don’t yell at my math—the breakout numbers account for penalties]

So what does it all mean?

It means that the defensive line, at full bore, looks every bit as capable of wreaking havoc on offensive lines as has been projected since the day Haynesworth put ink to the dotted line.

It means that for at least one more week, despite said brief glimpse of dominance, the lingering concern in some minds that the Redskins defense still can’t get off the field on third downs remains alive. It was "only" two plays out of 15, but they were killers. We know that drill. We don't like it.

It means that, on at least one of the two possessions, the starting corners and safeties played far enough off the ball to allow opposing receivers to roam pretty much at will underneath … while the defensive line either got tired, bored or something else bummer-inducing and didn’t apply any pressure. Or the Steelers offensive line took pity on Charlie Batch after the first series debacle and decided to save his life.

Or Greg Blache decided he had played with his shiny new toy enough on the first possession, and on the second went back to giving vanilla a bad name, and calling off the dogs and torturing his DB’s by putting them on the proverbial desert island again.

And it clearly means that trying to read anything serious into preseason is … please feel free to fill in the blank. Me, I’m fresh out of preseason adjectives.

Still, those first few plays, with the crowd on the edge of its collective seat, and the Redskins defense exploding off the ball and hunting in packs through the Steelers offensive backfield … far as I'm concerned, the regular season really can’t come soon enough.

***

One other defense-related thing that put a smile on my face was the last series. It seems like it’s been a long time since I watched them get after the passer in the final minutes of a one-score game. For years, it's seemed as if the master plan has been to sit back in the dreaded “prevent” and hope to stop somebody.

This last Saturday night, with the “game” on the line, the Redskins defense looked determined to punch somebody in the mouth and steal their candy.

1-10-PIT 32 (4:04) 33-I.Redman up the middle to PIT 33 for 1 yard (57-C.Glenn).
2-9-PIT 33 (3:31) 13-M.Reilly pass short middle to 15-M.Nance to PIT 41 for 8 yards (29-L.Holmes).
3-1-PIT 41 (2:52) 33-I.Redman right tackle to PIT 43 for 2 yards (75D-A.Dixon, 58-R.Henson).
1-10-PIT 43 (2:18) (Shotgun) 13-M.Reilly scrambles up the middle to PIT 48 for 5 yards (76-J.Jarmon).
Timeout #1 by PIT at 02:10.
2-5-PIT 48 (2:10) (Shotgun) 13-M.Reilly sacked at PIT 41 for -7 yards (95-C.Wilson).
Two-Minute Warning
3-12-PIT 41 (2:00) (Shotgun) 13-M.Reilly right end to WAS 39 for 20 yards (41-K.Moore).
Timeout #2 by PIT at 01:45.
1-10-WAS 39 (1:45) PENALTY on PIT-84-D.Sherrod, Illegal Substitution, 5 yards, enforced at WAS 39 - No Play.
1-15-WAS 44 (1:45) (Shotgun) 13-M.Reilly pass incomplete deep right to 19-T.Grisham.
2-15-WAS 44 (1:40) (Shotgun) 13-M.Reilly pass short middle to 19-T.Grisham to WAS 35 for 9 yards (29-L.Holmes) [91-R.Jackson].
3-6-WAS 35 (1:17) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 13-M.Reilly pass incomplete short right to 82-B.Williams (40-M.Grant).
4-6-WAS 35 (1:14) (Shotgun) 13-M.Reilly pass incomplete short left to 82-B.Williams [76-J.Jarmon].

Yeah, I know—I see the third-and-long conversion too. Old habits die hard.

Preseason or no preseason, fact is it did this old heart good to see the Redskins get after the quarterback in a game-ending one-score-game scenario and slam the door shut. If that alone turns out to be an indication of a shift in Blachian philosophy, sitting through four preseason "games" will have been worth it.

***

Going over the NFL’s drive stats for this piece, something jumped out. So for [stuff] and giggles (and since at one point during the game I remarked—not for the first time—“does it seem like the entire game is being played in Redskins territory?”), here is a breakdown of the starting field position for each team throughout the game.

See what if anything jumps out at you ...

Pittsburgh (9 possessions)

First half:
26 (6 yds), 50 (TD), 31 (1 yd), 10 (21 yds), 38 (46 yds, FG), +35 (5 yds, Missed FG)
Avg start: 31.6 yard line

Second half:
26 (9 yds), +45 (22 yds, FG), 46 (-4 yds), 32 (33 yds, end game)
Avg. start: 39.75 yard line

Game: 34.8 yard line

Washington (10 possessions)

First Half:
35 (62 yds, FG), 11 (0 yds), 20 (7 yds), 8 (33 yds), 36 (1 yd), 18 (21 yds, INT)
Avg. start: 21.3
Second Half:
40 (TD), 24 (25 yds), +18 (TD), 20 (69 yds, INT)
Avg. start: 41.5

Game: 29.4 yard line

Maybe there’s more to this whole defense thing than just ... defense?

Okay, I'm outta here.

NEXT UP: Colt Brennan & Chase Daniel

Redskins Vs. Steelers Review: QB Jason Campbell

Mark Steven — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:48:46 -0400

Coming off a solid-but-forgettable debut against the Baltimore Ravens last week, Redskins starting QB Jason Campbell had an opportunity against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night to take the proverbial bull by the horns.

A good performance against the defending champions would have gone a long way toward quieting the growing undercurrent of concern among Redskins fans that Jason Campbell may not be The Man for The Job in 2009.

Going 1-for-7 for 10 yards, and engineering just three points, was probably not what he had in mind.

However, since numbers alone rarely tell the whole story, I reviewed his plays and tried to look a little deeper.

On the first play of the game, Campbell got good protection from his offensive line and went deep to a streaking Malcolm Kelly, who had gotten behind Steelers super-safety Troy Polamalu on a deep post. Campbell’s pass was under thrown (as much as a tight spiral that travels 60 yards in the air can be) and off line. It forced Kelly to slow and adjust his route back toward the center of the field and allowed Polamalu to catch up and knock the pass away.

After the game, Campbell admitted being surprised by Kelly’s speed, which was a statement that initially raised my eyebrows. Given time to reflect, perhaps it should better serve as a reminder as to how little actual gametime the two have had working together.

"It was close,” said Kelly. “The crazy thing, though, is that me and Jason never practiced that route all week long. The first time we ran it was in the game. We'll get it done, though—we'll complete it next time."

Time will tell.

Former Redskins QB Joe Theismann, by the way, doing color commentary on Comcast, mentioned the wet ball as a possible factor. Anyone who has ever tried throwing deep with a wet football can understand the sentiment, but I suspect most fans would chalk that up to simple excuse-making. Whether it played a role or not, I’m glad Campbell didn’t go there.

Campbell’s second pass was supposed to be a screen to RB Clinton Portis in the right flat, but the Steelers diagnosed it and Campbell threw the ball away. Should he have tried to make a play anyway, maybe scramble and look downfield for a second option? There's a good chance Brett Favre would have.

Jim Zorn, on the other hand, I have to believe, would say no. Preseason. Rain. The Pittsburgh Steeler defense. The smart, veteran play in that situation was to throw it away.

The subsequent 3rd-and-10 play was a pass over the middle to an open Santana Moss that appeared to get away from Campbell and sailed high. A leaping Moss was unable to make the catch, and it was fourth down.

All in all, not the most auspicious beginning for Jason Campbell…but upon further review, perhaps not as dire as I suspect a whole lot of ramped up fans thought.

Campbell has a history of starting out games too jacked up, missing early passes, then settling down and getting going. The compressed time frame and sample size of a half-dozen passes per preseason "game" forces the issue and leaves us with the temptation to project the raw numbers over an entire game.

Instead of punting the ball after the Moss incompletion, Jim Zorn authorized the fake punt, and RB Rock Cartwright rumbled 15 yards for the first down. I don’t expect to see many gambles like that—fake punts on 3rd-and-10 from his own 35, two minutes into a game—in the regular season...but in this case, Zorn’s gamble worked and provided Campbell and the offense with new life.

Which became evident immediately.

1-10-PIT 45 (14:13) C.Portis up the middle for two yards.
2-8-PIT 43 (13:45) C.Portis left tackle for three yards
3-5-PIT 40 (13:06) (Shotgun) J.Campbell pass short right to 82-A.Randle El (PENALTY on WAS-60-C.Samuels, Illegal Formation, five yards - No Play.)
3-10-PIT 45 (12:38) (Shotgun) J.Campbell pass short middle to C.Cooley for 10 yards
1-10-PIT 35 (11:54) C.Portis left tackle for two yards
2-8-PIT 33 (11:16) J.Campbell scrambles up the middle to PIT 29 for four yards
3-4-PIT 29 (10:35) L.Betts left tackle to PIT 22 for seven yards
1-10-PIT 22 (10:01) C.Portis left guard for 11 yards
1-10-PIT 11 (9:23) C.Portis right end for eight yards
2-2-PIT 3 (9:14) L.Betts left tackle for one yard
3-1-PIT 2 (8:34) L.Betts left tackle loss of a yard
4-2-PIT 3 (8:17) S.Suisham 20-yard field goal is GOOD

As reflected in the bolded plays, Jason Campbell had a good series. He stepped up and threw accurately and on rhythm, hitting Randle El on a crisp 3rd-and-6 conversion over the middle that was nullified by the Chris Samuels' formation penalty.

On the subsequent 3rd-and-11, he slid up into the pocket to avoid pressure and drilled Chris Cooley for the first down.

Two plays later, he pulled it down and scrambled—a quick, aggressive decision for positive yards. [The man really does need to learn to slide, though. To borrow a phrase once used to describe former Redskins QB Gus Frerotte’s running style, Jason Campbell slides like an octopus falling out of a tree.]

With the offensive line protecting well and opening lanes for the running game, Zorn found a play-calling rhythm on the drive, and the offense rolled down to the Pittsburgh three-yard line. There, faced with 2nd-and-2, Zorn opted to take the ball out of Campbell’s hands, sending Betts off left tackle twice.

I would really like to have seen him let Campbell roll out and take a shot into the end zone on at least one of those plays—a TD pass there would have been a great confidence-builder—but for reasons I’m sure he thought more important at the time, Zorn went Ground Jim instead.

The Betts' first run picked up a little more than a yard and left the Redskins 3rd-and-inches. The second attempt, disappointingly, was a fairly tentative, too-upright run on which Betts lost at least a yard.

Zorn, knowing his team needed to come away with its first points of the year, opted for the chip-shot field goal. I had no problem with the decision to take the points in that situation…if I had a question, it's with the decision to run straight up the gut into the teeth of the No. 1 defense in football on second and third down.

But...it’s preseason. Maybe Zorn was simply “evaluating” Ladell Betts. Given the results, Mr. Betts may want to hope not.

Regardless, the offensive series after the fake punt was easily the starting Redskins offense first moment of clarity in 2009. All the elements—playcalling, QB, line, receivers and RBs—came together, giving both the team and its fans a taste of success and the welcome feeling that maybe things were indeed headed in the right direction.

Unfortunately, it didn’t carry over to the next possession.

Zorn started aggressively again, calling for another deep ball; this time up the left sideline to Santana Moss. The good news? The offensive line provided good protection and Moss had inside position and a lot of green in front of him.

The bad news? Campbell’s pass, again, was short and off line; this time wrong-shouldering Moss. Maybe the wet ball thing wasn't so far off...one thing we have rarely seen from Jason Campbell is a tentative deep ball.

On second down, Betts was stopped again for no gain, and on 3rd-and-10 Campbell rolled right, didn’t see anything he liked and threw it away again.

And that was it. Todd Collins was in on the next Redskins possession.

The smart thing to do, of course, would be to yet again point out that it's preseason, and nothing we've seen has any guaranteed bearing on what we will see come the regular season. But what fun would that be? We have a week to kill before the next "game" and time to over-analyze, so let's get our money's worth.

One thing about Jason Campbell throughout his time in Washington: he’s been pretty deft on the long ball. If anything, he’s been too long on occasion, rarely too short. I’m not all that concerned with the two missed deep shots.

For one thing, he was able to take them behind good protection from his line. And on both occasions the receivers had separation. Maybe the wet ball was a factor, maybe not. Bottom line, for now, I’m just filing the under-throws away as something to keep an eye on.

The two deep passes and miss over the middle to Moss were the three passes you’d like to have back. The throw to Randle El that was nullified by penalty, and the subsequent one to Cooley, were money. The two throwaways and the scramble I have no problem with.

There is no way to project what would have happened next in an actual game. How many times have we seen a quarterback start a game with bad numbers, say 1-for-7 for 10 yards, then go 7-for-8 for 100 yards and a score to head into halftime 8-for-15 for 110 yards and a TD?

Unfortunately for Campbell, until we actually see some extended success, his 2009 numbers have not been encouraging:

4-for-13, 48 yds., 0 TD, 0 INT
Completion percentage: 30.8
QB rating: 43.1
Possessions: 6 (including 3-and-out prior to fake punt)
First Downs: 6
3-and-outs: 3
Points scored: 3

That kind of production is not going to get it done, and Jason Campbell knows it as well as anyone. There have been some extenuating circumstances (play-calling, routes by receivers, penalties, weather, etc.) that should buy him at least some continued benefit of the doubt, but the fact remains the production has been lacking.

Moreover, what I had most hoped to see from Jason—indication that the game has finally slowed down for him, rather than the speed of the game dictating to him—has yet to materialize.

Much as I want to believe in his development into a playoff-level quarterback, I haven’t seen him take that step yet. While clearly a subjective read, to me, he still appears too often a beat slow reading the coverage and getting the ball out.

And next week against the NE Patriots, the road to that necessary destination won't get any easier. Bill Belichick defenses are traditionally not the best to get untracked against, preseason or not.

One thing is for sure…another statistically poor performance, without at least a little magic (that elusive touchdown pass would go a long way), and it won't be hard to believe that the creeping doubt among many fans will also begin to permeate in the locker room.

So far through two preseason games, Jason Campbell has not looked like the more confident, quicker, decisive, and accurate passer we’ve heard about in camp. Instead, he's looked at various times unsettled, unsure, and inaccurate.

Here’s hoping what has come across from the stands and on TV looks a lot worse than it really is, and that Jason’s lack of production has been due as much to the nature of preseason, the plays he’s been asked to run, and various outside factors…and not the water-treading at best, and regression at worst, that it appears to be.

NEXT UP: Greg Blache & the Defense

Preseason Week 2: QB Hopes Top Redskins Wish List

Mark Steven — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:03:04 -0400

With one preseason “game” under our belts—last week’s 23-0 bummer against the Baltimore Ravens—I have pared the wish list down for week two:

I. All season, the single most crucial element in any real Redskins game will be the play of its young veteran quarterback, Jason Campbell. His performance in tonight’s preseason “game” against the Pittsburgh Steelers won’t have much bearing in terms of the final score, but it will carry significance in terms of confidence and progression for his teammates, his coaches, fans, and Campbell himself.

Last week Campbell was solid, if unspectacular. He chose safe underneath routes, seemingly the result of both his own instincts and the design of head coach Jim Zorn. Zorn stated after the game he went into it with legitimate concerns about his offensive line’s ability to protect Campbell against the Ravens’ aggressive pass rush, and called Campbell’s few plays accordingly.

Fair enough.

In week two I’ll be looking to see both Zorn and Campbell build on that and pull the trigger on at least 2-3 downfield looks. They don’t have to be 50-yard rainbows—I’ll settle for a couple of 25-yard seam routes or deep outs. Just call for the man to take a deep drop and cut it loose a couple of times.

What that will also do, of course, is test the starting offensive line.

Though the linemen protected Campbell well last week, they faced no jailbreak blitzes or sophisticated stunts from Baltimore. The Ravens didn’t start really coming after the Redskins passers until after Campbell was done for the night. I’m not expecting the same from the Steelers tonight.

I hope to see the Pittsburgh send the house at Campbell a couple of times, see the Redskins pick it up professionally and Campbell execute the right quick read to beat it.

The line and Campbell’s consistent inability to do that during over the second half of last season was a primary cause of their 2-6 slide. In all likelihood, their ability to reverse the trend in 2009 will be the primary factor in what kind of season the Redskins are going to have.

II. For all the focus on pass protection heading into last week’s opener, one thing that jumped out during the “game” was the starting offensive line’s inability to create even a whiff of running room.

Here are the running plays from the starting units’ two series, and the eleven total runs during the first half. I didn’t do the second half because, well … I was bummed.

First team:

1-10-WAS 27 (14:19) 46-L.Betts right tackle to WAS 27 for no gain
2-10-WAS 38 (13:03) 46-L.Betts right end to WAS 42 for 4 yards
1-10-WAS 39 (5:35) 46-L.Betts left tackle to WAS 39 for no gain
2-10-WAS 39 (5:02) 46-L.Betts right guard to WAS 42 for 3 yards

In four running plays over two drives, the Redskins starters managed seven yards (averaging 1.75 per carry). And it wasn’t against a Ravens defense putting eight men in the box to stuff the run, either. With the exception of the final play of the second possession, Baltimore came out in base 4-3-4 sets and simply ran to the ball.

Unfortunately, no Redskins broke through the line into the second level to take on a LB or the safeties. There was no movement up front at all.

The rest of the first half, with the second and third groups, didn’t go much better:

2-10-WAS 23 (12:17) 24-M.Mason right end to WAS 28 for 5 yards
1-10-WAS 22 (11:09) 24-M.Mason left tackle to WAS 23 for 1 yard
2-9-WAS 23 (10:29) 24-M.Mason up the middle to WAS 26 for 3 yards
1-10-WAS 11 (6:50) 24-M.Mason left end to WAS 11 for no gain
2-4-WAS 29 (5:18) 24-M.Mason left end to WAS 28 for -1 yards
1-10-BAL 34 (1:59) 31-R.Cartwright up the middle to BAL 30 for 4 yards
1-10-WAS 38 (:02) 31-R.Cartwright left tackle to WAS 43 for 5 yards

Rock Cartwright did pick up nine yards in two carries at the end of the half, but against a Baltimore defense playing "prevent" in the 2-minute drill.

I have no illusions about using tonight’s preseason action against the defending champions and their top-ranked defense to “get the running game un-tracked”—it ain’t gonna happen. But I would like to see a couple of seams in there.

Maybe a six-yard off-tackle run or two where someone blows someone else off the line. Just something to show me that the old legs up front can still get a little push and coordinate a lane or two in the normal course of play.

III. The only real surprise from last week’s preseason clunker was the ease with which Baltimore moved the ball against the first defensive group. Game plan or no game plan, different team agendas or not, that wasn’t what I was expecting to see from a unit widely viewed as among the elite defensive units heading into 2009.

I’d like very much to think the starting defense will come out a little hungrier tonight, looking to make a statement in front of the home fans.

(Assuming there are any "home fans" among the expected throng of Steeler fans at FedEx tonight, using the Redskins as an excuse to get out of town for a while. Not that it's that surprising. If I lived in Pittsburgh I’d grab every opportunity to come to Washing—er, Landover, too.

Oh, relax Pittsburgher—it was a joke. Mostly.)

We won’t really see it tonight, but maybe we will see the first visible hint of what could turn out to be one of the more interesting side stories of the year—the reincarnation of Greg Blache as a riverboat gambler.

According to several players, the presence of [DT Albert] Haynesworth has made old-school defensive coordinator Greg Blache more daring in his approach. With young players such as first-round pick Brian Orakpo and third-round supplemental pick Jeremy Jarmon, Blache has a lot more speed and depth to work with. – ESPN

Please, let it be so. And let this kind of talk not only indicate an overall more aggressive approach, but prescience:

Greg Blache now believes [S LaRon] Landry should be more than just an NFL starter. Here would be Blache's goals for the third-year safety, simply put.

‘Creating turnovers for us," he said this week. "Having six-eight picks. Some devastating plays where he's got some of these highlight kind of hits and breakups on the ball, and at the end of it him taking a trip to Hawaii as a Pro Bowl safety as opposed to being an alternate.’

I'm looking for a huge year out of LaRon, because he is healthy. This is his third year. He's got the position figured out. This could be a real break-out year for him. - RedskinsInsider

Two things could make the 2009 Washington Redskins special,

1) the emergence of Jason Campbell as a legitimate Pro Bowl-level quarterback, and
2) the defense playing up to their level of expectation.

Of the two, if you had to bet real money you’d probably go defense without a second thought. An early series or two of dominance—even of the “yeah, but it’s just preseason” sort, would be a tasty morsel to take with us into the next week of hyper-dissection leading up to preseason “game” three against Tom Brady and his merry band of Patriots from up New England way.

IV. No injuries.

Enjoy tonight, and if you're going to the game and planning to tailgate...be smart. We don't want to lose any Redskins fans to tragedy because they forgot that they, too, were in preseason mode. Keep your wits about you.

Hail.

The Michael Vick Conundrum

Mark Steven — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:01:52 -0400

So...Michael Vick.

I wasn’t intending to "go there" in this space. To me, this is a straight social issue, and only tangentially Redskins-related in that Vick’s new team, the Philadelphia Eagles, play in the same division.

However, a friend of mine whose thoughts I value and respect deeply recently wrote a strongly-worded, passionate piece about Vick’s return to the NFL, and it got my juices flowing a bit.

Add to that the fact I am a Virginia Tech grad myself, and have followed Vick’s career since he showed up in Blacksburg a decade ago with fascination and natural partisan interest, and next thing I know, I'm writing this.

For the record, I do not claim original insight here, nor do I offer this as some soapbox social statement. I would just like to touch on an aspect of this entire situation that I haven’t seen given as much play as I think is warranted: Everyone’s personal view of this entire incident is inextricably bound to and viewed through the lens of their own personal value system.

That's an obvious statement on a certain level that I know we all understand intellectually. I’m just not sure how many of the more passionate voices I’ve heard speak on the subject have really accounted for it or acknowledged its relevance.

Personally, I find dog fighting abhorrent. I ache for the animals, harbor righteous rage against the humans who perpetrate it, and feel deeply frustrated confusion at the reality that so many fellow human beings utterly lack the empathy gene.

I find the way women are treated in much of the world abhorrent. The thought process behind treating any fellow human being as chattel has always been and will always be incomprehensible to me.

I find it incomprehensible that children are abandoned, beaten, abused, exploited, and ignored. I did so long before I had kids of my own; and today, as a father, it's an issue I cannot even think about without bringing knots to my gut and bile to my throat.

I feel these things, in large part, because I was raised in an environment where they were considered wrong.

But I also do things I know others find abhorrent. I eat meat. I don't subscribe to any of man's religions, and I am not shy about debating the matter with those who do. I don't care a whit about anyone else's sexual orientation.

I don't find those things abhorrent, in large part, because I was raised in an environment where they were considered normal.

Vick was raised in an environment where dogfighting is viewed by many as perfectly normal. That is not to imply he had no choice but to find it normal, no. But it is a factor—one it is both unfair and unrealistic to dismiss out of hand.

I will never condone his actions, but I will also not forget the context in which he made them when it comes to how I view who he is now and what I believe our society should demand and expect from him for the rest of his life.

None of us will ever know what if anything has changed in Vick's heart. It is possible he's a changed man today, and his experience will create in him the champion of and ultimate weapon against animal cruelty the world over.

It is also possible he remains the exact same man he was before this whole sorry affair broke, and the only thing that's really changed is that he is and will be one hell of a lot more careful about what he shows in public.

The truth, I suspect, is somewhere in between. It almost always is.

Should he be allowed to make a living at the thing he does best? Of course he should. To suggest otherwise flies in the face of the legal system we live by—you pay your debt to society as the laws of the day dictate, then have the right to get on with your life.

Should the NFL have been forced, legally, morally or otherwise, into the role of social conscience or arbiter? I think not—not unless we're prepared to live in a society where some Solomonic regulatory agency has the right and/or duty to dictate to any business who it can and cannot hire based on whatever crimes they have already been punished for in the legal system.

I don't want to live in that society. But that's a discussion for another day.

The bottom line is, I do not and will not pretend to know what is in Vick's heart. I do think he should be able to play in the NFL. And I do think the Philadelphia Eagles would be totally justified demanding, in return for hiring him, that he use his celebrity to help bring the stark realities of dogfighting into the light, and to hopefully have some small effect in someday bringing it, if not to an end, at least to its knees. But that decision should be theirs, not imposed on them from without.

There will always be people who take pleasure in blood sports, in activities that take advantage of those—human and otherwise—who cannot say no. We all know that. But "the rest of us," even while admittedly superimposing our own value systems, also have the right and/or—depending on your own values—the duty, to try to reduce their numbers.

I believe that for as long as his skills allow, Vick can and should serve society—not to mention the current and future generations of man’s best friend—in that regard, particularly given the stage and platform of the NFL.

Whether his heart is in it or not.

Review: Jason Campbell's Six Passing Plays

Mark Steven — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:00:40 -0400

A lot of people seem to think there was a football game played at M&T Bank Stadium Thursday night. I’m not one of them.

Don’t worry. I’m not going to go on about NFL teams approaching preseason games so differently, and using them for such different purposes, that projecting any regular-season meaning onto them—final score or otherwise—is a straight waste of time.

And I won’t get into how these preseason affairs are glorified scrimmages at best, and slickly packaged, almost criminally overpriced hype passed off as “games” to a football-starved public at worst.

Not today. Today I’m going to parse the only thing I had any real interest in (Brian Orakpo and no injuries notwithstanding)...Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell and the offensive line’s performance on passing plays.

There were six while Campbell was in the game. Here’s how I saw them:

First Possession

1st-and-10, WAS 15

Ravens put four on the LOS. Redskins OL holds firm—no penetration. Campbell takes a 3-step drop, looks far right at Devin Thomas on a slant, short middle at Fred Davis, short middle left at Chris Cooley, then finally to Ladell Betts in the left flat.

Four options. The OL is doing its job. Campbell might have chosen to go to Cooley at the first down marker (with a LB about a yard off left shoulder), but he chooses Betts instead, alone in the left flat with blockers. Campbell’s throw is on target as he leads Betts up field for 11 yards (-2 catch, 13 RAC).

Campbell and OL both solid.

2nd-and-9, WAS 27

Ravens put four on the LOS. Redskins OL holds firm—no penetration. Campbell takes a five-step drop (play-action fake to Betts), then looks right side toward Thomas and Cooley. Thomas runs a skinny post, crossing with Cooley as he breaks toward the sideline. Campbell delivers on rhythm to Cooley for 11 (9 catch, 2 RAC).

Campbell and OL both solid.

1st-and-10, WAS 38

Ravens put four on the LOS. Campbell takes a threestep drop, turns and throws immediately toward Thomas, who is five yards upfield on the left numbers. A LB is moving to cover Betts in the flat and crosses between Campbell and Thomas. Campbell appears to see him just as he’s releasing the ball and pulls the string a little. The ball sails high and skips off Thomas’ fingertips incomplete.

There was no apparent reason to rush throw given the protection—Campbell’s better option would have been Randle El, uncovered at the first down marker out of the left slot. Campbell dropped, turned and threw without any hesitation or seeming to find Thomas first; clearly throwing to a spot. Unless he was directed to throw that pass regardless of coverage, it’s a poor decision given the time to throw, the rushed and/or forced pass and missed opportunity for the likely first down attempt to ARE.

OL solid; Campbell questionable.

3rd-and-6, WAS 42

Ravens put four on the LOS. Campbell in shotgun, takes a 3-step drop. OL holds the DL, Samuels rides the RDE wide. Campbell looks right side to Cooley at first down marker, just coming out of his break. He starts to throw, then pulls it down. Cooley breaks open as Campbell steps up into pocket and looks away to the middle of the field.

Ray Lewis closes, Betts lets him go, sliding in behind him into the open middle to provide an outlet. As Lewis gets to him, Campbell throws at the last instant, without stepping in (can't), going deep sideline to a wide-open Marques Hagans at the Ravens 28. Hagans leaps but the ball is inches high and off his fingertips.

Campbell may have given up on Cooley too soon. The OL provided enough time to allow him to give Cooley the extra half-second necessary to finish his break, and Cooley was open at the first down marker. If Campbell had connected with Hagans—and it was close—it would have been a good play, potentially a big one if the uncovered Hagans had been able to say in bounds.

However, by passing up the high percentage conversion play available on 3rd down, and then missing Hagans, the series is over.

OL solid; Campbell questionable.

Second Possession

1st-and-10, WAS 24

Ravens put four on the LOS. The OL holds—no penetration. Campbell takes a 7-step drop (play-action to Betts). He steps and throws in rhythm to his first option, Randle El, in the intermediate middle, for 14 yards (14 catch, 0 RAC). Campbell had Cooley available in the right flat at the LOS with a 5-yard cushion to run, but elected to go with the deeper option. The pass was a little low, forcing a good to-ground catch by ARE, but the ball was on time and on target, covering 23 yards without ever getting more than 3 off the ground. The man has an arm.

Campbell and OL...solid.

3rd-and-8, WAS 41

Ravens put seven on the LOS. Redskins have six (OL, TE). Campbell in shotgun. Ravens bring four from the left side, drop two from the right into coverage. Betts slides left to pick up the safety blitzing off the edge. Cooley takes a bad angle on the blitzing LB, allowing immediate inside pressure on Campbell. The only visible bailout target is Randle El at the first down marker—but two Ravens are in the throwing lane. The LB hits Campbell as he throws, the ball comes out low and skips short.

The Ravens zone blitz left Dockery, Rabach and Rhinehart blocking air, while Heyer neutralized the DE. The play came down to Cooley’s whiff block on the LB, forcing Campbell to have to throw it away.

Campbell and OL acceptable. Cooley not so much.

In their brief appearance, with zero motion, misdirection or apparent interest in going downfield to threaten the defense, the Redskins starting quarterback and offensive line were solid, if not particularly dynamic.

The offensive line did well in six pass protection opportunities, even if only facing one schemed blitz on the evening. Couldn’t have asked for more.

Jason Campbell (3-for-6, 38 yards) looked good on three, made what appeared questionable decisions on two, and appeared to throw it away smartly on the last.

Draw from that what conclusions you will, my friends. And feel free to disagree with my read on any of the plays. Personally, I found the performance mildly encouraging, and will head into next week's glorified practice session against the Pittsburgh Steelers at FedEx Field hoping to see no worse than more of the same. And maybe even a pass down the field for grins.

Preseason NFL Football. Gotta love it.

Jason Campbell and the Washington Redskins: One Split Second Away

Mark Steven — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:32:43 -0400

Have you seen this man?

(Photo by Brian Schurman)

If you have seen him—sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating, ever the work-in-progress—the Redskins will remain what they have been for years...a team capable of beating the best in the NFL one week, and losing to the worst the next.

A team that will, ultimately, fall short of expectation.

If you have not seen him, however, and the man wearing "17" in burgundy and gold jogging onto the field at Giants Stadium on September 13 turns out to be the guy they were talking about in Ashburn just a week ago...hold on to your hats.

The notion that Jason Campbell is the key to their season is hardly novel—you can’t find a Redskins piece these days that doesn’t cover that angle. Not many drill down just how close the Redskins might be to breaking out, how dependent that possibility is on Campbell, and just how close Campbell might be to making that jump.

Let’s take it macro to micro.

Ownership is in place. For all the fits, starts, learning curve, and unresolved philosophical cranial flatulence concerning the offensive line, Dan Snyder is serious about procuring the pieces. If you can find a lifelong Lions, Bengals or Cardinals fan, see if they can say the same with a straight face.

The coaching staff is in place. Head Coach Jim Zorn enters his second year under the big headset with all the attendant advantages—familiarity with his players, coaching staff, rhythms of the job, and a full year to adapt and refine his roster and offense to fit one another. He has acquired one invaluable thing that can only be gained one way...experience. And with solid assistant coaching up and down the line (DC Greg Blache, OL Coach Joe Bugel, DB Coach Jerry Gray, et al), Zorn will not go to battle alone.

He'll be flanked by battle-hardened lieutenants.

The defense is in place. Last year's fourth-ranked overall unit (seventh passing; eighth rushing) didn’t stand pat and didn’t tinker, it upgraded—big time. The Redskins added DT Albert Haynesworth, the consensus “Best Available Free Agent” and arguably most dominant defensive lineman in football.

They also added rookie DE/LB Brian Orakpo, on the short list of best pass-rushing prospects in the 2008 NFL Draft, and early training camp surprise DE Jeremy Jarmon from Kentucky.

Factor in another year of maturity for young veterans S LaRon Landry, CB DeAngelo Hall, S Chris Horton, DT’s Anthony Montgomery and Kedric Golston, and LB Rocky McIntosh. Furthermore, add the solid leadership from players such as LB London Fletcher, DT Cornelius Griffin, and returning DE’s Phillip Daniels and Renaldo Wynn.

Stir them together under the steady hand of Greg Blache, and it is hard to envision a dropoff. Logic suggests, instead, that the Redskins defense will be better, maybe even dominant.

Offensively, things are less clear, but perhaps not as dire as many would have you believe. Last year at this time, criticism came from many quarters about how the Redskins had badly neglected the defense by using their top three draft selections on offensive players. Specifically, the criticism was of skill players brought in to do something all agreed was a serious concern—upgrading the passing game.

WR’s Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly and TE Fred Davis are no longer rookies and no longer afterthoughts. If even one of the three emerges as a legitimate weapon to complement WR Santana Moss in 2009, the upgrade could be dramatic.

Give someone like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady an array of Santana Moss, Devin Thomas, Malcolm Kelly, Antwaan Randle El, Chris Cooley, Fred Davis, and Todd Yoder, and you would hear few complaints about the receiving corps.

Behind RB’s Clinton Portis, Ladell Betts, and Rock Cartwright, along with big FB Mike Sellers, the running game may be a top ten unit in the league. This is particularly true if they ever get to face honest defenses, no longer stacking the line or scrimmage because the Redskins pose no legitimate passing threat.

The offensive line, of course, is where many suggest the season will turn. I disagree...and bear in mind, I do so having yelled from the rooftops as loudly as anyone about this franchise's inexcusable neglect the offensive line for the past decade. The Redskins are going to have bad days in pass protection this season.

Count on it.

Thing is, with breakout quarterbacking, they could have a breakout season anyway. And from where I sit, only one question mark remains as to whether or not Jason Campbell is the man to lead the charge:

Cannon arm capable of any NFL throw? Check.

Character? Check.

Work ethic? Check.

Athleticism? Check.

Leadership? Check-minus. It might not be Manning-esque, and may not always show from the stands, but the unqualified, unsolicited supportive locker room comments from teammates over four years speak volumes.

Pocket presence and processing speed? Ah...the heart of the matter.

Jason Campbell can step up in the pocket and make any throw required of an NFL quarterback; he’s done it often enough to prove the point. He has a tendency still to drift backwards away from an edge rush rather than step up in games where he’s been pin-balled all day, but you won’t find many QB’s who don’t.

Where Jason Campbell remains a question mark—and the key to the success of the 2009 Washington Redskins—is whether or not he can make the equivalent of the plays below, one by Todd Collins and one by Colt Brennan.

The kind of play that is often the difference between a hard fought win and a heartbreaking loss.

The kind of play that is pure read-and-react instinct.

The kind of play that requires a deft touch throw under duress, from an off-balance platform, in the face of a fierce rush, in the deciding moments of a game.

The kind of play we have not often seen from young Jason Campbell.

13:57 of 2nd Qtr: Campbell steps up, reads, fires accurately.
2:49 of 2nd Qtr: Campbell hesitates, drifts, holds too long, pays steep price.
13:29 of 3rd Qtr: Collins pass to Portis in the flat, under control, accurate, decisive.
2:43 of 4th Qtr: Collins TD to Betts. Reaction, timing, accuracy, touch.

Redskins vs Bears, 12/6/07

This one speaks for itself:

Redskins vs Jets, 8/16/07

You can’t teach those plays—instinct, reaction time, and accuracy under duress are gifts. You either have them or you don’t. To date, Jason Campbell has not shown he possesses them in sufficient quantity to make the leap from average to elite.

The truth is, I still see Jason Campbell as miscast in Jim Zorn’s offense. I still think he’s the classic drop-back, downfield play-action passer Joe Gibbs drafted him to be, not the step-and-fire, quick-release surgeon Jim Zorn needs him to be.

But I’ve also seen enough good things from Campbell to hold out hope that he can still speed up his game enough to finally force defenses to play the Redskins honestly again. To not allow them to stack the line of scrimmage, pin their ears back ,and attack a shaky pass-protecting OL with little respect for and no real fear of the quarterback's ability to made them pay.

If Campbell has made real strides this offseason, and can reduce by a fraction of a second the time between what his eyes see as he drops from center and the ball leaving his hand in response...the results will be clear and perhaps startling.

It won’t happen in one game, maybe not even two or three. Defensive coordinators around the league will begin this season as they have the past several, believing that the way to shut down the Washington Redskins offense is to throw the kitchen sink at their quarterback and count on making more plays than they give up.

Only one thing will force them to adjust...a quarterback who makes them pay for their aggressiveness, coming up with the one or two key throws a game at the most crucial times, when a split-second decision and accurate touch throw ultimately decides whether Redskins Nation spends its Monday thumping its collective chest or kicking its cat.

Preseason game or not, come Thursday night when the Redskins open their season in Baltimore, I’ll be looking for indications of whether or not we have, in fact, seen Jason Campbell.

[Photo courtesy of BGO (Elephant)]

Brian Orakpo and Redskins Reaction

Mark Steven — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:21:15 -0400

I admit it.

When the NY Jets moved up to grab Franchise QB-designee Mark Sanchez with the fifth overall selection of the 2009 NFL Draft on Saturday, and the realization set in that there would be no tumultuous quarterback transition in Washington this offseason (or at least this weekend), I experienced a moment of vague disappointment.

In fairness, it was probably due as much to the sense of “losing out” to another team—the competitive juices flow hard on draft day—as it was legitimate concern over the long-term best interests of the Washington Redskins (talking QB changes everything). Nonetheless, in that instant I felt a little deflated.

It didn’t last long.

As the subsequent picks unfolded and the Redskins selection drew closer, with big men like OT Michael Oher and DE's Brian Orakpo, Robert Ayers and Aaron Maybin still on the board, I got jazzed all over again. And when Denver surprisingly chose RB Knowshon Moreno at No. 12, leaving the Redskins a virtual smorgasbord of highly-rated big men from which to choose, I quietly pumped a fist.

I certainly didn't expect the Redskins to send someone sprinting to the podium before the echo of the Moreno announcement even faded to turn in their card (seriously, what was that?—if you aren't going to use your allotted time to field possible trade offers, at least give your fans the full allotment in which to revel—we waited months for those 10 minutes), but when they did, and the Commissioner read off the name Brian Orakpo, my gut reaction was fierce...

“Oh hell yes.”

It only took a moment for the mental image of Orakpo putting his hand in the dirt alongside Cornelius Griffin, Albert Haynesworth, and Andre Carter to dance into my head. It took only a few seconds more to envision him standing over Phillip Daniels, Renaldo Wynn or Chris Wilson’s shoulder on that first 2nd-and-long of the new season, or sliding up and down the line on 3rd-and-long behind Haynesworth, as NY Giants QB Eli Manning tracks him warily.

It sank in fast...the Redskins may well have built themselves pass rush Saturday.

Been talking a lot lately about how the Redskins haven’t had a pure pass-rusher since Charles Mann (no disrespect to Andre Carter) left town in 1993. They have had good defenses in that time, yes, particularly since defensive coordinator Gregg Williams brought his act to town in 2004 and Greg Blache continued it in 2008. But one thing they have not been known for since the end of the first Gibbs era has been pass rush.

The additions of Haynesworth and Orakpo remake the Redskins defensive profile almost overnight, and potentially at least, point to an evolution away from the strictly containment-type units they have fielded for years and toward the kind of aggressive, ball-hawking defenses in cities like Pittsburgh and Baltimore that Redskins fans have eyed jealously for so long.

There are no guarantees, of course, that any of this will happen. Orakpo could become 2009's version of Mike Mamula as easily he could its Dwight Freeney. But as of today, with seemingly unlimited potential stretching for the next 10 years in front of him, and what his development could mean for his team, it is difficult to look at his selection with anything other than excitement and anticipation.

We will see the Redskins new prize bull take the field in a Redskins uniform for the first time in the Redskins preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens on August 13. For those scoring at home, that’s 108 days.

Bring it.

Brian Orakpo becomes the first defensive lineman the Redskins have drafted in the first round since they made DE Kennard Lang the 17th overall choice in 1997.

A quick look at their draft history shows that defensive lineman has never really been targeted a position of first choice for Redskins brain trusts:

In the 72 college drafts since the franchise moved to Washington in 1937, Brian Orakpo becomes the Redskins' eighth defensive lineman chosen with their first available pick.

He becomes only the fourth defensive lineman selected in the first round.

He becomes the second-highest overall defensive line selection in team history, behind only DT Joe Rutgens, chosen third overall in 1961.

2009—DE Brian Orakpo, first round (13)
1997—DE Kenard Lang, first round (17)
1991—DT Bobby Wilson, first round (17)
1989—DT Tracy Rocker, third round (66)
1986—DE Marcus Koch, second round (30)
1984—DT Bob Slater, second round (31)
1970—DT Bill Brundige, second round (43)
1961—DT Joe Rutgens, first round (3)

I will give my take on the rest of the Redskins draft in the days ahead...but for today, it’s all about the big man. Regardless of his selection slot, regardless of how close the team did or did not come to opting for Sanchez and a titanic quarterback controversy instead, the fact remains that Brian Orakpo—physical specimen, consensus man-beast and potentially the strongest pass-rushing burgundy and gold presence Dexter Manley—is a Washington Redskin.

As someone old to remember what that looks like on game days, count me as pretty damn juiced.

By the way, one quick request to young Mr. Orakpo. About that “big bed” you plan to buy, so you can relax and take it all in? Invest in an alarm as well. Maybe give new teammate Fred Davis a buzz—I hear he’s done some research.

Hail.

The Washington Redskins' O-Line: Tale Of the Tape

Mark Steven — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:55:38 -0400

Continuing the offseason look into the current state of the Redskins' lines of scrimmage and how they arrived there...

During the Pittsburgh and Baltimore games in weeks nine and 10 last year, it became crystal clear to me that the Redskins were simply overmatched on the offensive line of scrimmage.

As a result, I have been thinking (okay, borderline-obsessing) about how the Redskins stack up against the NFL in those areas ever since, and the notion I’ve had in my head is that the Redskins were not only older than most teams on the line, but smaller as well.

Taking a quick break, therefore, from pondering the combination of offensive tackles, defensive ends and linebackers the Redskins will surely draft later this month, I thought I would put that unsubstantiated impression to the test.

Setting aside for today the comparative skill levels of the players involved, as well as how their skill sets might fit the schemes they are being asked to run (a factor in the transition from a Gibbs/Saunders offense to Jim Zorn's that cannot be overlooked), I started by looking at the three other NFC East teams.

It is inescapable—those games are generally the barometer for success in any given season. The Redskins play six combined games a year against the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles, comprising 37.5% of their regular season schedule.

Fare well in those six games, 4-2 or better, and we are probably looking at a burgundy and gold playoff season. Fare poorly, and we are almost definitely looking at January basketball.

Shudder.

Hypothesis

Compared to rest of the NFC East, the Redskins are old and undersized on the offensive line.

The Redskins starting OL, as of the end of 2008, by name, age, height and weight:

And for those already saying, "Yeah, but Derrick Dockery (28, 6-6, 330) for Pete Kendall changes everything ..."

WAS - 33, 6-5, 300 (w/ Kendall)

WAS - 31, 6-5, 309 (w/ Dockery)

The rest of the NFC East:

How the Redskins stack up:

Data Source: NFL.com team depth charts, Apr. 7.

Note: I acknowledge the depth charts are not up-to-date; some players listed are no longer on their respective rosters, others have been added. Given the fluid nature of team rosters at the moment, it was practical to look at the depth charts as they were at the end of the 2008 season.

In addition, this exercise is less about predicting what will happen in 2009 than assessing where each team was the last time it took to the field of play. If nothing else, it should give us some idea of how the teams in question were constructed.

It must be noted that other teams have made changes that impact these numbers as well.

A good example is seen in Philadelphia, with free agent OT Stacy Andrews (27, 6'7", 342lbs) replacing departing veteran Jon Runyan (35, 6'7", 330lbs), the result of which makes them both younger and bigger as well.

The results will come as no surprise to those who follow the team—particularly not the age (oldest by two years).

They may or may not be surprised to learn that of the four NFC East teams, the Redskins were also on average the lightest (by an average of 24 pounds), though they are even with Dallas and Philadelphia in average height (6'5" to NYG @ 6'3") among the starting offensive lines.

And since we already invoked the Dockery factor...plugging his numbers in place of Kendall's, the Redskins are tied for oldest (with Dallas at 31), tied for tallest (6'5" to NYG @ 6'3"), but still by far the lightest (by an average of 15 pounds).

Interestingly, the second-string shows Washington just about even. At an average of 27 years old, age-wise they are tied with the Giants (although Fabini, at 71, pretty much blows out the average).

Height and weight-wise, however, at 6'4", 312 pounds, they are right in the mix. Which reminds us again that this specific exercise calls for setting aside the players’ relative skill levels and experience—the latter being particularly true in the case of “depth”players.

All that said, the bottom line is I don't think it's any coincidence that late in games, late in the season, and when matched up against the NFL’s elite defenses, the Redskins' offensive line simply looked overmatched.

Add to that the fact that not one of the Redskins' starting five in 2008 (or currently projected to start in 2009) were initially brought in with skill sets targeted to running the West Coast offense, and the only real surprise in 2008 might have been that the o-line helped the team get off to a 6-2 start to begin with.

By midseason, as defenses studied enough film to cover any confusion over Zorn's new schemes and were able to start defending the Redskins aggressively, the element of surprise was lost, and so was the line of scrimmage.

What was also apparent down the stretch was that the Redskins were fielding an offensive line that was at best average, and at worst, slow, worn out and ineffective.

We all know age and size are only part of the equation. If the Redskins o-line was older and smaller than the opposition, but made of individuals all playing at a Pro Bowl level, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Sadly, they were not, and so we are.

The data confirmed my impression that the Redskins OL was, and as of today still is, not just arguably too old to be effective over the course of a long season, but also, by a noticeable margin, the smallest in an historically smash-mouth division. Hate to say, it but ... size matters.

To explore the idea further I plan to get into the skill-level question in a subsequent piece, but first will be comparing the 2008 Redskins line by age and size to a broader NFL cross-section—the teams that qualified for the playoffs.

I hope to find otherwise, but my instinct is that we will find the Redskins firmly planted in the older, smaller end of the spectrum in that company as well.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I also plan to also conduct a similar exercise with the other side of the line of scrimmage.

Until then, though, if you happen to be partial to the burgundy and gold, please consider deploying any karmic ammunition you might have at your disposal and join me in beaming it directly toward the quiet D.C. suburb of Ashburn, VA.

"Draft big ... draft big ... draft big ..."

Redskins 2009 Preseason Schedule (Premature) Release

Mark Steven — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:30:53 -0400

It only lasted a few seconds, but I caught a whiff of football today.

Aug 13 @Baltimore 7:30PM
Aug 20-24 vs.Pittsburgh
Aug 28 vs.New England 8PM
Sept 3-4 @Jacksonville

Funny how the mind works. With the release of the Redskins 2009 preseason schedule, barely a ripple in the vast football ocean, within about in a ten-second span my mind went through a process something like this:

Damn–that’s four tough-ass games.

Let’s see...three monster defenses, one primetime date with Tom “Allow Me To Demonstrate How I’m Still Damn Terrific” Brady.

I smell 1-3.

At Baltimore. Better hope Colt (Brennan, for the uninitiated) runs around and makes second-half magic or we may get shut out. Be pretty cool to see Haynesworth get a series though. I just want to hear his name called once. Then get him the hell out of there. The Ravens will want it more though. Show they don’t miss Ryan’s kid. Home crowd. Opener.

Just get out healthy Zorn.

Steelers here, huh? FedEx will be half Pittsburgh fans, half Redskins fan in a foul mood about it. Got Mace? Defending champions and all though—Steelers won’t be up for this one unless they lay an egg in their opener. Stay close, maybe grab an lead early. Maybe Zorn turns Brennan loose against the scrubs with Kelly, Thomas and Davis to play with. Good shot at a W.

For what it’s worth.

The New England Patriots come to FedEx Field. Cool—might have to go to that one. Hey, we own Brady and Belichick at FedEx. Good news is it’ll be a treat to see the best team of the last decade up close. Bad news is Game three is when the generally get some extended playing time, and Brady will be chomping at the bit to show he’s all the way back. Plus his backup—whoever that is—will be all about showing they didn’t screw up letting Cassell go.

Going to be interesting.

At Jacksonville in the finale...meh. Gregg with three G’s is gone, right? Only thing interesting there will be watching Colt stir things up again, maybe hopefully the new draft picks will get some run. But by then preseason will have gotten really old—it always does—and I’ll be watching with one side of my brain tied behind my back.

Still, looks pretty damn good from here. Looks like football. Aug. 13, you say? Lemme grab my calendar...June, July...here we go.

Aug. 13 is a...Thursday. Huh. Well, Friday’s Casual Day, that works. So let’s see that’s...1 day left in March, 30 in April, May has 31, June 30 , July 31...and 13 more in August.

* tap, tap ... tap, tap ... click *

One hundred and thirty-six days.

Sigh.

NFL Draft: A Brief History of Pick No. 243

Mark Steven — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:16:36 -0400

In its charity and wisdom, the National Football League has awarded the Washington Redskins one compensatory draft pick in the upcoming 2009 NFL Draft. Meaning, in addition to their other bounty, Washington now owns the 243rd selection in the April NFL Draft as well.

The gift of Brunell just keeps on giving.

So, why do a piece on the 243rd pick?

Because a whole lot of jawing and gnashing of teeth goes on amongst serious pro football fans about the value of late-round draft picks. And more often that not, it is largely done devoid of context. You may have participated in such a conversation yourself—I know I have.

"Smith? Sucks. I can't believe they gave up Jones and next years' seventh for that (loser)."

So, fresh off compiling a serious piece about the history of the 13th pick in the NFL draft (the Redskins first round pick in April), I thought we might amuse ourselves with quick look at just what kind of success the league has had with pick number 243.

Below, you will find a list of the last 30 players chosen with the 243rd selection in the draft.

Why 30? Two reasons.

One, I have a job. And two, because it allows a ten-year period for players whose careers are still in progress, while still covering 20 additional years, a full generation, from which to draw data.

If anyone would like to go farther, by all means please feel free to do so. If you want I’ll even append it here. Word to the wise, however—The NFL's records are great, but don't rely on them 100 percent. For example, they didn't start keeping official sack records until 1983, or tackles until 2001.

I went into the exercise with no preconceived notions, but did target some obvious questions:

Please note:

1) I am a writer, not a statistician. I have made every effort to nail the numbers, but if I have erred, please let me know and I’ll make it right.

2) Again, as of this writing there are three active 243rd picks in the league. I have taken that into account in answering the following.

Let's get to it.

How many of those picks washed out without ever making an NFL roster?

Answer: 8 of 30 (26.6%)

How many have played at least two years?

Answer: 15 of 29 (51.7%)

How many played at least five years?

Answer: 10 of 25 (40%)

How many started 10 or more games in their career?

Answer: 9 of 27 (33.3%)

Who were these diamonds in the rough, and how many starts did each have?

125 - JEFF HERROD, LB, IND (1988)

107 - JASON FISK, DT, MIN (1995)

85 - KEITH UECKER, OT, DEN (1982)

61 - AVON RILEY, LB, HOU (1981)

52 - KELVIN GARMON, OG, DAL (1999)

33 - ADAM SCHREIBER, OG, SEA (1984)

29 - GREG BRACELIN, LB, DEN (1980)

21 - DOUG BEAUDOIN, DB, NE (1976)

13 - TERDELL SANDS,* DT, KC (2001; active)

(Pretty good run there in the early 80's. Of course, that could just mean the pro talent pool didn’t run as deep then, and it was “easier” for late-rounders to hang on...)

How many of the 30 have made the Pro Bowl?

Answer: None, though three remain active and hopeful.

Notes/Observations

■ Pick #243, by Position:

9 - Offensive Line

7 - Linebacker

4 - Running Back

4 - Defensive Line

3 - Defensive Back

1 - Quarterback

1 - Wide receiver

1 - Tight End

■ You know those nine players listed above who started double and triple-digit games? Check what positions all but one played. I'm not making this stuff up, Mr. Cerrato.

■ Washington has made the 243rd selection three times in the past 30 drafts:

1991 - CHARLES BELL, DB, WAS

1990 - TIM MOXLEY, OG, WAS

1978 - JOHN HURLEY, QB, WAS

None made an NFL roster.

Conclusions

No hard ones, really. A study like this would be far more meaningful broadening the field to more than just one particular-numbered pick, even over a 30 year time period. If we were to analyze all seventh round picks, say, over that period (approx. 1000 players), the results would obviously carry more weight.

But as a general feeling, I walked away thinking that while you aren't likely to stumble into a Hall of Famer or even a Pro Bowler (though a few guys, like Herrod, Fisk and Uecker, proved outstanding value as late-round picks), you do have a better chance of landing a player who can provide productive depth for a few years than you do a player whose name you end up peeling off a locker before the leaves turn.

And of course, the more picks you have—be they late-round, first-day or in between—the better your odds of finding gold in them thar hills. But then…we already knew that.

Didn’t we?

***

NOTES:

* There were no 243rd picks in 1998, 1997, 1994, 1993

* NFL.com does not record tackles prior to 2001

* NFL started tracking sacks in 1982

* Stats not broken down OFF/DEF vs Special Teams

* "Out of NFL" = not on NFL roster in 2008

* Where NFL stats incomplete, filled in w/ PFR

KEY:

DNP = did not play

plyd = games played in

strt = games started

tckls = tackles

scks = sacks

2008 - JOEY LAROCQUE LB,* CHI

1 YR CHI - plyd 14 gms

Career-to-date: 1 yr, 14 gms, 6 tckls

2007 - CLARK HARRIS, TE, HOU

1 YR HOU - plyd 4 gms (no stats)

Out of NFL

2006 - TONY PALMER, OG STL/GB

2 YRS GB - plyd 8 gms

Out of NFL

2005 - ANTHONY DAVIS, RB, IND

Out of NFL

2004 - DOMINIC FURIO, C PHI

1 YR PHI - DNP

Out of NFL

2003 - ETHAN KELLEY, NT NE

1 YR NE - plyd 1

3 YRS CLE - plyd 35, strt 9

Career: 4 yrs, 9 strt, 2 scks, 63 tckls

(Out of NFL)

2002 - CHRIS MASSEY,* C STL

Career-to-date: 7 YRS STL - plyd 112, strt 1 (rookie)

2001 - TERDELL SANDS,* DT, KC

1 YR KC - DNP

1 YR GB - plyd 1

6 YRS OAK - plyd 76 gms, 13 strts

Career-to-date: 7 yrs, 77 gms, 13 strt, 129 Tckls, 4 scks, 1 INT

2000 - SHYRONE STITH, RB, JAX

1 YR JAX - plyd 14

2 YRS IND - plyd 1

Career: 3 yrs, 15 gms, 20 carr., 55 yds, 1 TD

1999 - KELVIN GARMON, OG, DAL

4 YRS DAL - plyd/strt 21

2 YRS SD - plyd 23, strt 21

1 YR CLE - plyd/strt 8

Career: 6 yrs, 52 gms, 50 strt

1996 - RYAN WOOD, RB, DAL

Out of NFL

1995 - JASON FISK, DT, MIN

4 YRS MIN - plyd 54, strt 16

3 YRS TEN - plyd/strt 47

3 YRS SD - plyd 47, strt 30

1 YR CLE - plyd 16, strt 14

1 YR STL - plyd 16

Career: 12 yrs, 180 gms, 107 strt, 280 tckls, 19 scks, 3 INT

1992 - KEITH ALEX, OT, ATL

1 YR ATL - plyd 14

1 YR MIN - DNP

Career: 2 yrs, 14 gms

1991 - CHARLES BELL, DB, WAS

Out of NFL

1990 - TIM MOXLEY, OG, WAS

Out of NFL

1989 - LASALLE HARPER, LB, CHI

1 YR NYG - plyd 1

1 YR CHI - plyd 3

Career: 2 yrs, 4 gms (no stats listed)

1988 - JEFF HERROD, LB, IND

9 YRS IND - plyd 133, 89 strt

1 YR PHI - plyd 10, strt 2

1 YR IND - plyd 10, strt 7

Career: 11 yrs, 153 gms, 125 strt, 14.5 scks, 5 INT, 1 TD, ? tckls

1987 - M.L. JOHNSON, LB, SEA

3 YRS SEA - plyd 37

Career: 3 yrs, 37 gms (no stats listed)

1986 - ELBERT WATTS, DB, LA Rams

1 YR GB - plyd 9

Career: 1 yr, 9 gms, 1 sack, 1 INT

1985 - SCOTT STRASBURGER, LB, DAL

Out of NFL

1984 - ADAM SCHREIBER, OG, SEA

1 YR SEA - plyd 6

1 YR NO - plyd 1

3 YRS PHI - plyd 27, strt 12

2 YRS NYJ - plyd 23

4 YRS MIN - plyd 63, strt 17 (16 in '93)

3 YRS NYG - plyd 47, strt 4

3 YRS ATL - plyd 35

Career: 17 yrs, 202 gms, 33 strt

1983 - ROBIN HAM, C, GB

Out of NFL

1982 - KEITH UECKER, OT, DEN

2 YRS DEN - plyd 21, strt 2

6 YRS GB - plyd 64, strt 47

Career: 8 yrs, 85 gms, 49 strt

1981 - AVON RILEY, LB, HOU

6 YRS HOU - plyd 88, 61 strt

1 YR PIT - plyd 3

Career: 7 yrs, 91 gms, 61 strt, 6.5 scks, 3 INT, ? tckls

1980 - GREG BRACELIN, LB, DEN

1 YR DEN - plyd 12

1 YR OAK - plyd 15

3 YRS BAL/IND - plyd 41, strt 29

Career: 5 yrs, 68 gms, 29 strt, 9.5 scks, 3 INT, ? tckls

1979 - RICH ELLENDER, WR HOU

1 YR HOU - plyd 13

Career: 1 yr, 13 gms, 1 rec, 15 yds

1978 - JOHN HURLEY, QB, WAS

Out of League

1977 - JOHNNY JACKSON, DT, STL

1 YR PHI - plyd 2

Career: 1 yr, 2 gms (no stats listed)

1976 - DOUG BEAUDOIN, DB, NE

4 YRS NE - plyd 45, strt 21

1 YR MIA - plyd 10

1 YR SD - plyd 4

Career: 7 yrs, 59 gms, 21 strt, 4 INT, ? tckls

1975 - DONNE LAYTON, RB, SF

Out of League

NFL Draft: A History Of Pick No. 13

Mark Steven — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:35:44 -0400

NFL Draft: History of Pick No.13

On April 25, the Washington Redskins will exercise their right to claim the 13th selection in the 2009 NFL Draft. Should they opt to use the pick on a player (as opposed to trading it away), what kind of player can they reasonably be expected to get?

Thirteen is an interesting spot after all. On the one hand, it doesn't carry with it the white-hot pressure of, say, a top five pick ... the kind of pick that, when missed badly, can set a franchise back for years.

On the other hand, it is hardly a throwaway either. Maybe at pick 28 you can write a bust off to bad luck, but at 13, you better hope the guy you tap isn't a whiff. No, there isn't a set formula for judging the merits of career after-the-fact–injuries, regime-changes and other X factors can sometimes overtake the most promising of careers—but at the very least, you do want to be able to look back five or 10 years down the road and say, "Yeah, but he could play."

With pre-draft hype building to a crescendo (you can't swing a dead cat around the Internet these days without hitting draft analysis and prediction), this week we're taking a look at the history of the 13th pick.

As one might expect, over the course of 73 years (as far back as NFL.com keeps draft records), the success/failure spectrum has run the gamut. On one extreme you'll find all-time greats and Hall-of-Famers, like RB Jim Brown (arguably the greatest player in league history), RB Franco Harris, DE Carl Eller and TE Tony Gonzalez.

On the other you'll find afterthoughts and asterisks, like OT James Fitzpatrick, WR Lindsay Scott, DT Troy Archer, LB Jim Files.

You'll even find tragedy, like that of RB David Overstreet.

This research is not offered as prediction or analysis of what the Washington Redskins will do with the 13th pick in the 2009 draft. Instead, it is offered as context and a chance to consider flesh-and-blood examples of the kind of player the pick has brought through NFL history.

My original intent was to look at a representative sample of thirteenth picks, and I set out using a 30-year window as a base line. Before I knew it, however, I had gone back 40 years, to 1969, (what can I say, the internet connection was cooking).

Here for your consideration is what I found.

Since 1969, players chosen at #13:

• Fourteen have played 10 years or more (not counting active players at less than 10).

• Nine have played 5 years or less (not counting active players).

• Longest career: 17 yrs (OT Mike Kenn, ATL)

• Shortest career: one year (RB David Overstreet (MIA) deceased; two years RB Leon Burns (SD))

• Average career length (retired players): 8.1 yrs

• Drafted By Position:

8 - Defensive Line

7 - Linebacker

6 - Offensive Line

6 - Running Back

3 - Tight End

2 - Defensive Back

1 - Quarterback

• One positive trend that bears mention is recent success rate. A quick look at the last ten years shows a very solid list of players, including DT's Adam Carriker, Marcus Stroud and Ty Warren, DE/LB John Abraham, and OT Jammal Brown. The Redskins should be so lucky.

Since 1936, players chosen at #13:

• Hall of Famers: 5 - RB Jim Brown, DE Carl Eller, RB Franco Harris, TE Kellen Winslow, TE Tony Gonzalez (book it)

• There's a certain symmetry at play. As noted above, NFL.com's official draft history goes back to 1936. The 13th pick that year was used to select RB Bernie Scherer, by a team called the Boston Redskins. One year later, that team would leave Beantown and head south to its new home in Washington, DC. In the 73 years since, the Redskins have had the 13th selection one other time, and selected...RB Ray McDonald in 1967. Redskins fans jonesing for RB Knowshon Moreno should take note. Could be karma.

• Best Name: Tie - OG Tarzan White, RB McArthur Lane

• Worst Name: LB Percy Snow

Let's get to the matter at hand. The list below is broken into three sections:

1. The NFL started tracking games started in 1980, so for the 29-year period between 1980-2008, each player is listed by career length (retired players only), number of years in which he started at least half of games he played in ("strt"), and teams with which he spent his career.

2. Pre-1980, players are listed by career length and teams played for.

3. Pre-1969 (my artificial 40-year cut-off; the internet connection wasn't that fast), players are listed only by name, position and team drafted by.

You are invited to make your own observations, offer additional breakdowns and, if you wish, draw your own conclusions. And, as I have found myself doing the last couple of days, you may take a second or two reflecting on your own job, and whether or not it hangs on something as tenuous telling a Jim Brown from a Chet Hanulak before the fact.

Hail, and enjoy ...

***

EDIT 3/23:
Two errors to note:
1) I mistakenly listed Bernie Scherer as the 13th pick in 1936, by the Boston Redskins. NFL.com's draft "History" page has him as the 13th player *listed* in 1936, but selected by the GB Packers. They have the Redskins choosing FB Ed Smith with the 14th player *listed*.
2) I managed to leave out the following disclaimer:
Note: the records on NFL.com appear either incomplete or misnumbered, as ALL picks are not numbered sequentially prior to 1967. For purposes of this piece I rely on the accuracy of the official league record. If there are errors, please let me know.
Thanks to the attentive anonymous reader who brought this to my attention.]

***

[* = active player]

2008 - JONATHAN STEWART,* RB, CAR
1 yr. (0 strt)

2007 - ADAM CARRIKER,* DT, STL
2 yrs. (2 strt)

2006 - KAMERION WIMBLEY,* LB, CLE
3 yrs. (3 strt)

2005 - JAMMAL BROWN,* OT, NO
4 yrs. (4 strt)

2004 - LEE EVANS,* WR, BUF
5 yrs. (5 strt)

2003 - TY WARREN,* DT, NE
6 yrs. (5 strt)

2002 - DONTE' STALLWORTH,* WR, NO
7 yrs. (6 strt) - 4 NO (3 strt), 1 PHI, CLE, NE (all strt)

2001 - MARCUS STROUD,* DT, JAX
8 yrs. (7 strt) - 7 JAX (6 strt), 1 BUF (strt)

2000 - JOHN ABRAHAM,* DE/LB, NYJ
9 yrs. (8 strt) - 6 NYJ (5 strt), 3 ATL (3 strt)

1999 - TROY EDWARDS, WR, PIT
7 yrs. (1 strt) - 3 PIT, 1 STL, 2 JAX (1 strt), 1 DET

1998 - TAKEO SPIKES,* LB, CIN
11 yrs. (11 strt) - 5 CIN, 4 BUF, 1 PHI, 1 SF

1997 - TONY GONZALEZ,* TE, KC
11 yrs. (11 strt)

1996 - WALT HARRIS,* CB, CHI
13 yrs. (12 strt) - 6 CHI, 2 IND, 2 WAS (1 strt), 3 SF

1995 - MARK FIELDS, LB, NO
10 yrs. (8 strt) - 6 NO (5 strt), 1 STL (strt), 3 CAR (2 strt)

1994 - JOE JOHNSON, DE, NO
10 yrs. (9 strt) - 8 NO (7 strt), 2 GB (2 strt)

1993 - BRAD HOPKINS, OT, HOU/TEN
13 yrs. (13 strt)

1992 - EUGENE CHUNG, OG, NE
5 yrs. (2 strt) - 3 NE (2 strt), 1 JAX, 1 IND

1991 - MIKE PRITCHARD, WR, ATL
9 yrs. (6 strt) - 3 ATL (3 strt); 2 DEN (1 strt), 4 SEA (2 strt)

1990 - PERCY SNOW, LB, KC
4 yrs. (0 strt) - 3 KC, 1 CHI

1989 - ERIC METCALF, WR, CLE
13 yrs. (5 strt) - 6 CLE (3 strt), 2 ATL (2 strt), 1 SD, AZ, CAR, WAS, GB

1988 - KEITH JACKSON, TE, PHI
9 yrs. (4 strt) - 4 PHI (1 strt), 3 MIA (3 strt), 2 GB

1987 - CHRIS MILLER, QB, ATL
10 yrs. (6 strt) - 7 ATL (3 strt), 2 LA/STL (3 strt), 1 DEN (strt)

1986 - JAMES FITZPATRICK, OT, SD
7 yrs. (0 strt) - 4 SD, 3 LA

1985 - EDDIE BROWN, WR, CIN
8 yrs. (1 strt)

1984 - KEITH MILLARD, DT, MIN
10 yrs. (0 strt) - 7 MIN, 1 SEA, 1 GB, 1 PHI

1983 - JAMES JONES, RB, DET
11 yrs. (0 strtr) - 6 DET, 4 SEA, 1 DET

1982 - LINDSAY SCOTT, WR, NO
4 yrs. (0 strt)

1981 - DAVID OVERSTREET, RB, MIA
1 yr. (0 strt) - deceased

1980 - EARL COOPER, RB, SF
7 yrs. (0 strt) - 6 SF, 1 LA Raiders

1979 - KELLEN WINSLOW, TE, SD (9 yrs.)
1978 - MIKE KENN, OT, ATL (17 yrs.)
1977 - A.J. DUHE, LB, MIA (8 yrs.)
1976 - TROY ARCHER, DT, NYG (3 yrs.)
1975 - LYNN BODEN, OG, DET (5 yrs. - 4 DET, 1 CHI)
1974 - RICK MIDDLETON, LB, NO (5 yrs. - 2 NO, 3 SD)
1973 - BURGESS OWENS, DB, NYJ (10 yrs. 7 NY, 3 OAK/LA)
1972 - FRANCO HARRIS, RB, PIT (13 yrs. - 12 PIT, 1 SEA)
1971 - LEON BURNS, RB, SD (2 yrs. - SD, STL)
1970 - JIM FILES, LB, NYG (4 yrs.)
1969 - FREDDY DRYER, DE, NYG (13 yrs. - 3 NY, 9 LA)

*

1968 - McARTHUR LANE, RB, STL
1967 - RAY McDONALE, RB, WAS
1966 - STAN HINDMAN, DE, SF
1965 - RALPH NEELY, OT, BAL
1964 - CARL ELLER, DE, MIN
1963 - JIM KANICKI, DT, CLE
1962 - CLYDE BROCK, OT, CHI
1961 - RIP HAWKINS, LB, MIN
1960 - WARREN RABB, QB, DET
1959 - ALEX HAWKINS, RB, GB
1958 - JIM PHILLIPS, WR, LA
1957 - JIM BROWN, FB, CLE
1956 - LEON CLARKE, WR, LA
1955 - LINDON CROW, DB, CHI
1954 - CHET HANULAK, RB, CLE
1953 - BILLY REYNOLDS, RB, CLE
1952 - RAY BECK, OG, NYG
1951 - DON JOYCE, DE, CHI
1950 - CHUCK HUNSINGER, RB, CHI
1949 - GEORGE SIMS, DB, LA
1948 - JOE SCOTT, RB, NYG
1947 - FRANK WYDI, OT, PIT
1946 - NICK SCOLLARD, DE, BOS
1945 - JACK DUGGER, OT, PIT
1944 - RALPH HEYWOOD, WR, DET
1943 - TOM FARMER, RB, LA
1942 - ALF BAUMAN, DT, DET
1941 - NORM STANDLEE, RB, CHI
1940 - JOHN SCHIECHL, C, PHI
1939 - GAYLON SMITH, RB, CLE
1938 - BOYD BRUMBAUGH, RB, BKLN
1937 - TARZAN WHITE, OG, NYG
1936 - BERNIE SCHERER, RB, BOS

Meanwhile, Back at Redskins Park...

Mark Steven — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:33:44 -0400

Ninety-nine percent of Redskins talk these days centers on the nut-and-bolt specifics of certain roster spots—primarily SAM linebacker, defensive end and offensive tackle—and what the team plans to do about them via free agency and the April draft.

Fair enough, I have been indulging in it somewhat myself. The discussion is topical, relevant and pure offseason gold for the serious fan feeling the absence of the game itself more acutely with each passing week.

What I found myself thinking about this week, however—in short bouts between fretting over the relative size of potential SAM linebackers and the inexorable process of determining which particular college player the Redskins simply cannot live without come draft day—is what is going on out at the Redskins Park practice fields when no reporters are around, and in the officesnot plastered floor-to-ceiling with player evaluation cards.

What is Head Coach Jim Zorn up to? What does he believe he learned during Year One as an NFL head coach, and what specific things is he doing to incorporate said lessons into Year Two?

How different will his offense be in 2009? Will it look more like the "modified" West Coast Offense he envisioned at this time last year, or, with a year under his belt and resulting familiarity with his quarterback, line and receivers, will he take it in a noticeably new direction? And if so, how far along is he in that process?

What is QB Jason Campbell up to? Who is he throwing to and how often? Has he spent time studying with and/or throwing to Moss, Randle El, Cooley, and more importantly, rising sophomores Devin Thomas, Malcolm Kelly and Fred Davis?

Where is Campbell's head these days? It's a pretty good bet he wonders from time to time exactly what his future holds in Washington, given the window to sign a new contract prior to the season has apparently closed and he will head into the last year of his rookie contract playing for free agency in 2010. How does he feel about that, and will it affect his play?

And speaking of QB's, there's the whole Cult of Colt thing always hovering in the background.

Personally, I'm not a cultist—to me it's a no-brainer Campbell is the incumbent heading into the season, and until and unless the wheels are clearly falling off at mid-season, he's the man throughout the year—but like a whole lot of other Redskins fans, I won't deny it was pretty damn electric watching the kid move around, make plays and ignite the offense last preseason.

If nothing else, I'd sure like to know what kind of progress young Mr. Brennan is making learning the pro game between the ears, and what his chances are of mounting a legitimate challenge to Todd Collins for the No. 2 spot behind Campbell.

What is defensive coordinator Greg Blache thinking? As you recall, he was seriously considering retirement before last season, and was convinced to return by some combination of the owner, general manager and incoming head coach.

After last seasons' successes and frustrations, and with the addition of Albert Haynesworth, who might give him something he's not had here before—serious push up the middle—is Blache re-energized? Is he at the blackboard scheming up nasty new ways to let opposing QB's know the Redskins will, in fact, plant you in the turf from time to time?

And assuming he is (I mean, with AH on board, who wouldn't?), wouldn't it just be amazing to be a fly on the wall?

Point of all this being, as important as personnel acquisition during these frenzied weeks of free agency and the draft are, the fortunes of the 2009 Redskins will turn at least as much, if not considerably more, on the answers to the kinds of questions posed above.

It won't always be easy, but as fans we would do well to remind ourselves of that fact as the free agent market continues, the draft draws closer, the mock drafts proliferate, and whenever we catch ourselves obsessing too much about such things as what as-yet-undetermined player will draw the starting assignment at LDE come opening day in September.

You know what they say about forests and trees.

Washington Redskins Offseason Chronicles: Snowed Again

Mark Steven — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:10:14 -0500

So I'm sitting home today, drafting a piece about the gaping hole the Redskins have at SAM linebacker (hey, it snowed), when I get word they have just released defensive end Jason Taylor.

Sometimes this computer thing, for all its convenience, leaves me cold. It would have been far more satisfying to rip a piece of paper from a typewriter, crumple it theatrically, and bank it off the file cabinet into the wastebasket.

Here's what I was going to say:

The tea leaves were all pointing toward the Redskins drafting a strong-side linebacker with their first-round (No. 13 overall) draft pick in April and looking to land a mid-level veteran free agent as well.

Teams with playoff pretentions don't start rookies at key positions unless they absolutely have to, and given Taylor was a light defensive end to begin with, the need for a steady presence off his hip to hold the point against the run was that much more pronounced.

Figured them to draft SAM at No. 13, plug the free agent into the starting lineup and hope the rook developed quickly enough to take the job from him by midseason.

Now, who knows? With holes at both SAM and left defensive end, the ground has shifted dramatically again, and the 12 million words churned out over the past three days about the new Redskins paradigm have been rendered pretty much moot.

You have to wonder how bemused the people "in the room" at team headquarters around the league really are at this time of year. They know their offseason plan. They know where the myriad variables are and have multiple layers of contingencies in place to deal with them.

The rest of us have our passion for the game and a misguided sense we can predict what a team is going to do based on ... what, maybe 25 percent of the relevant data? 15 percent? 40 percent?

The Redskins knew they were going to let Taylor go when they landed Albert Haynesworth. The suggestion out there is they let him go because he didn't want to honor the workout clause in his contract.

I don't buy it. If the team had seriously wanted Taylor on the field this season, he'd still be here. They would have found a way to make it work—just as they have with certain other players in recent years.

So here we are. This morning, the NFL-observing world thought they had a handle on what the Redskins had in mind for the 2009 offseason.

This evening, it's all back up in the air. The only surprise ought to be that anyone who has watched this league for any length of time could be surprised.

Oh, before I forget:

Clearly, what the Redskins are going to do is now is draft SAM at No. 13, bring in a mid-level free agent to bridge him into the starting lineup, bring back Demetric Evans to start at left defensive end, use their third-round pick on a young speed rushing end to platoon with Evans, trade next year's No. 2 for another third and a fourth-round pick this year, use those picks on an offensive tackle and swing guard, trade the swing guard to Detroit for reserve offensive tackle LeManuel Escatarian, convert defensive tackle Alex Buzbee to tight end, beef up current tight end Fred Davis to take reps at offensive guard and ...

Washington Redskins: Sounds Of Silence

Mark Steven — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:40:21 -0500

Three kinds of silence have been on my mind this week.

I. The one coming from Ashburn. I don’t know about you, but after the clamor of recent offseasons past, I'm finding the current calm quite comforting.

And why not? For once, all the really big questions are off the table. For better or worse, we know who is going to be owning the team, we know who is going to be generally managing it, and we know who is going to be wearing the headsets on the sidelines.

Beyond that, we know who is going to man the high profile positions on the field.

We know who is going to be the quarterback—or at least we think we do. We’re pretty sure we know who is going to be at running back. We’re pretty sure the receivers who will take the field on opening day are on the roster today.

We’re not in bad shape in the secondary, either, and we're arguably okay for at least one more year at linebacker (he says solemnly, burning incense and chanting for the continued health of one London Fletcher).

The line of scrimmage, of course—both sides—is another matter. Predictions of total disaster ahead may be overly dramatic, but there is definitely cause for concern—if not at the start of the year, certainly as another marathon season that it is grinds into December.

But the point here wasn’t to break down the roster—that’s for another day. The point is to acknowledge something or a rarity in these parts of late...the reality that well into February, the Washington Redskins are not a nightly lead story on Sportscenter. No coaching tumult, no serious player unrest, no legal drama, nothing.

I find it...soothing.

II. Okay, it’s another day.

This silence, despite all attempts at reason, is making me nervous. It’s the silence that is not getting broken by word out of Redskins Park that it is no-kidding, get-out-of-our-way, dead damn serious about fixing the lines of scrimmage.

Oh sure, I know they can’t tip their hand.

I know they’re feverishly working the draft and free agent boards.

I know in their heart of hearts they know their offensive line will be an average of 32 years old come September, and cannot possibly be expected to last another entire season without injury or attrition leaving them, once again, marginally effective in crunch time.

And I know they know they haven’t had a legitimate, consistent, double-team-eating, elite pass rusher since Charles Mann left for the West Coast after the 1993 season. For those scoring at home...that was in Richie Petitbone Era.

You know what it is? It’s that this sounds like same silence we have heard about this matter for so very long. And it’s that in recent years past I’ve written confidently, at time of year, that this is surely the year the Redskins pull the trigger, that this is surely the year they’re going to finally get serious about upgrading their lines.

I don’t want them tipping their hand, I really don't. And I'm only half serious here. But the half that is would seriouly like to hear something–anything at all–that might quiet the nagging thought in my head that free agency will again come and go, and the draft will again come and go, and when the dust has settled, we’ll all look around and realize the song remains the same.

It’s quiet. Too quiet.

III. A man died Tuesday.

When he was a young man, he laughed and cried Washington Redskins football with his friend. They were in their 20's then, young and immortal, lives and the universe spread before them. The team they loved was not just winning championships and sealing lifelong memories in those days, they were doing so with a degree of class rarely seen in professional sport.

Those were glorious times for these men. They were a rich and lasting building block in a relationship that eventually turned friends into brothers.

When life eventually led, as it often does, to one brother living here and the other living there, taking from them the ability to live and die burgundy and gold on Sundays together, they adapted. They developed a code.

A highlight-reel play...one ring.

A key score...one ring.

A victory...one ring.

The man who died Tuesday was a big man. Big in size, big in heart, big in personality. He had big appetites, for many things...things that at times themselves were left to dictate when enough was enough. He was not an easy man; he had a stubborn streak as deep as his heart was big, a fierce independence that often ran counter to the interests of his relationships, his health, his life.

As the years passed, the man’s life sometimes got away from him. But the child behind the eyes never faltered. He was all too often unable see his faults as reflected in the eyes of his people or his world, but was as loyal and forgiving of the faults in others as any man likely to have walked the earth.

Well, this man’s time came on Tuesday. It came suddenly, quietly, naturally and utterly unbefitting a man of such outsize dimensions.

Some men go through life waiting for it to happen. Others charge through it full throttle, hair on fire, beating their chest with a twinkle in their eye, talking too loud, charging ahead heedless of the furniture crunching underfoot, living, loving, laughing and crying ‘til the day their final sun comes up.

That was my friend.

For the rest of my days, when the burgundy and gold highlight-reel play unfolds, when the key score is tallied, when the final victory gun sounds...my phone will be silent. It will not ring.

Not even once.

Godspeed brother.

Remembering the 2008 Washington Redskins

Mark Steven — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:31:08 -0500

It has only been four weeks since the Washington Redskins wrapped up their 2008 season. And yet, even as the ups and downs of a season both energizing and exhausting begins to recede in the rear view mirror, it has already begun to crystallize in memory.

Trailing in the fourth quarter of the home opener, in danger of falling to 0-2 and perhaps sending rookie head coach Jim Zorn's debut season spiraling out of control before it even gets started, QB Jason Campbell avoids a fierce New Orleans Saints pass rush and unloads deep to a streaking WR Santana Moss, turning the game around and launching Washington on an unexpected, eye-opening four-game win streak.

As time passes, some football seasons get reduced to a few lasting impressions, a few indelible images. Others just sort of...fade away...not so much lost as relegated to dusty boxes tucked away in a dark corner of the mind’s attic.

Today I found myself wondering how, or even if, I will remember the 2008 Redskins. And not surprisingly, doing so triggered a mental movie reel of seasons past against which they might some day be compared.

The surging Redskins go on the road and beat Dallas and Philadelphia, in consecutive weeks, on the strength of a brutal running game, an emerging Jason Campbell and an opportunistic, inspired defense. No single specific play really stands out, with the possible exception of rookie safety Chris Horton’s brilliantly choreographed game-clinching interception against Tony Romo in Dallas.

More, what emerges is the sense that this is a different Redskins team; quite possibly the first in a generation capable of reclaiming a proud organizations' rightful place among the NFL elite. What may well carry on in memory about the two week stretch is boyish owner Dan Snyder, just after the Eagles win, unselfconsciously expressing what every Redskins fan with a heartbeat felt that day.

Since trips down memory lane can easily slip from pleasant jaunts to marathon treks, I’ll begin, arbitrarily, at the dawn of The Glory Years, and offer here just a few thumbnail mental snapshots of seasons past that stand out, and alongside which 2008 may, or may not, someday take its place.

1982: K Mark Moseley’s fifth field goal of the day in the swirling December snow of RFK Stadium beats the New York Giants, clinching the Redskins first playoff berth in six long years. DE Dexter Manley steam-rolls Dallas QB Danny White in the NFC Championship, knocking him cold and out of the game.

DT Darryl Grant high-steps into the end zone with Manley's deflection of a Gary Hogeboom pass, knocking out the hated Cowboys and propelling the Washington Redskins to the Super Bowl. There, RB John Riggins brushes off Don McNeal like so much sleeve lint and rumbles into immortality.

1983: QB Joe Theismann, Riggins, The Hogs, The Smurfs and The Fun Bunch score at will all season, shattering the NFL record. Good thing too, given The Pearl Harbor Crew. They overwhelm the then–L.A. Rams 51-7 at RFK, in the divisional round, then survive the 49ers and some QB Joe Montana magic to take a second straight NFC title, before heading back to the Super Bowl and a shot at Dynasty.

Rocket Screen. Jack Squirek. Marcus Allen.

The Pittsburgh Steelers come to town. Again no one play stands out–this one turns out to be about the overwhelming sense the 6-2 Redskins are physically overmatched, and the slap-upside-the-head realization that neither the team nor young Jason Campbell are ready for prime time. 2008 swims sharply into focus–the Redskins may be 6-3, but they are not among the league elite.

1985: NY Giants legendary LB Lawrence Taylor gestures in panic toward the Redskins sideline, having just snapped Theismann’s leg like so much kindling. A few minutes later, Jay Schroeder’s first NFL pass—a perfect downfield sideline rope to Art Monk—suggests life might go on after all.

1987: Head Coach Joe Gibbs, on his knees, watches with the rest of us as Minnesota QB Wade Wilson's fourth-down pass to RB Darrin Nelson, Redskins' CB Darrell Green and the RFK goal line converge in the final minute to decide the NFC Championship. Two weeks later, we witness the 35-point blur of brilliant madness that is the second quarter of Super Bowl XXVI...a moment that has long since passed from memory into legend.

1991: Sorry–some boxes are too heavy to thumbnail.

Dallas II. On their final game-clinching drive, the Cowboys Riggo-Drill the Redskins on their own field. As captured perfectly by a similarly attuned fan, that image may well prove the defining moment and lasting memory of the 2008 season, coloring it forever as one that got away.

1993: The Redskins thrash the Dallas Cowboys at RFK in the season opener, Richie Petitbone's head coaching debut–and the realization comes that there might be life after Gibbs. What follows is fifteen weeks of psychic whiplash, and a 4-12 finish. Perhaps there would not.

1994: A hot, young new head coach–a Cowboy, no less–rides into town. Name of Norv Turner. A quarterback named Heath Shuler is drafted third overall. Hello, Franchise. Shuler gets picked off no less than five times at RFK by the moribund Arizona Cardinals, and the Redskins fall to 1-6. Hello, Reality.

Cool rookie backup Gus Frerotte, in funky throwbacks, beats the Colts in Indianapolis a week later in his debut. Washington finishes 3-13, but that’s okay. Turner is collected, competent and confident. "What we do works."

1996: A stirring, stunning 7-1 start. All of Redskindom is pestering Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser to bring The Bandwagon out of mothballs. Tony's terse answer? "After Buffalo." An average Bills team tramples–and exposes–the Redskins, 38-13. Eliminated by week 15, a decisive season-ending win over Dallas in the final game at storied RFK Stadium is rendered bittersweet.

Seattle again. One final, brutal, game-clinching drive briefly resurrects hope.

1999: Exit the Cooke Era, enter the Snyder. FB Larry Centers glides up the San Francisco sideline to beat the 49ers and clinch a playoff berth. The Redskins dominate Gus Frerotte's Detroit Lions at FedExField in Round 1. In round 2, at Tampa Bay, Brian Mitchell takes a kickoff back 100-yards to provide a double-digit second-half lead. The Redskins D is playing great. Could it be?

QB Brad Johnson throws a killer interception, and Bucs RB Warrick Dunn does a Houdini, turning a potential game-clinching fumble recovery into a game-changing Bucs touchdown. Dan Turk (RIP). No, it could not.

2000: Hype, championship-style. CB Deion Sanders, DE Bruce Smith, S Mark Carrier, QB Jeff George. Jeff George? The celebrity Redskins under-achieve from jump, barely squeaking by Caroline, then losing to hapless Detroit. Injuries pile on injuries. 44-year-old K Eddie Murray, good for about 42 yards, is asked to come up with 49 against the Giants in a late season game ripe with playoff implications. Exit the Turner Era.

2001: Enter Marty Schottenheimer. A flaccid 0-5 start includes one of the most disheartening games in modern Redskins history, a 37-0 shellacking at the hands of Green Bay on Monday Night Football. LB LaVar Arrington–the new face of the franchise–comes up with a "look what I found" pick-six against the Carolina Panthers to finally stop the bleeding. The Redskins slug and claw to 5-5...then slip, slide and gag down the stretch to finish 8-8. General, we hardly knew ye.

Back-to-back losses against the Giants and Baltimore Ravens. Once again, no specific plays stand out, only further confirmation these Redskins are not contenders. Worse, there is a deepening conviction that the organization may be fatally flawed. Watching them badly, predictably, lose the battle in the trenches against the league's better teams, with little indication the powers-that-be see the same, there is a sense this team may have truly lost its way.

2002–03: No doubt a defense mechanism, I seem to have reduced immediate recall of The Spurrier Era to one indelible image.

2004: The Return of the King.

2005: a classic Gibbsian December run brings a playoffs berth. The Redskins defensively dominating the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay in Round One. A CB Carlos Rogers dropped interception and prehistoric offensive performance combine to leave them short in Seattle in Round Two, but no matter–the Redskins are back.

2006: Or perhaps not.

2007: Sean Taylor...and tragic magic down the stretch. Jason Campbell goes down, Todd Collins comes and sparks instant offense that leads to another successful December playoff run. Up in Seattle, a perfect bounce of a muffed Seahawks kickoff return finds its way into WR Anthony Mix's hands, and Mix roars into the end zone.

It doesn’t count, of course, and ultimately the Redskins go on to lose, but for a few shining moments the Redskins are the NFL's “It” team, and the sky is the limit. Then...Joe Gibbs announces his surprise retirement.

The King is dead, long live the King.

Up in Cincinnati in week 15, against a woeful Bengals team, the Redskins are still alive for the playoffs and a great story in Zorn’s rookie campaign. They seem to go through the motions for a half, and fall behind. What looks like a stirring comeback effectively ends with FB Mike Sellers goal-line fumble ... and the competitive part of the season is over.

How 2008 is remembered down the road will be different for all of us, of course. We all bring our own unique perspectives, expectations and biases to the table. But it is also largely dependent on what comes next.

If the Redskins soar over the next few years, this 8-8 season could come to be remembered much like Joe Gibbs’ debut in 1980–a stepping stone to great things. Or, if they continue to stumble or just tread water, 2008 may slowly blend in with the many other isolated seasons we scarcely remember at all.

That’s how it is with memories. As they become more distant, they slowly blend into the context in which they were born.

How will 2008 be remembered? Will it be remembered at all?

Only time, and circumstance, will tell.

Hail.

Arizona Cardinals? The Conference Championships

Mark Steven — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:52:13 -0500

For all the fun we’ve had at Jim Mora’s expense over the years, he still gets credit for uttering the single most resonant comment about the National Football League in its storied history.

“You don't know. You just don't know. You may think you know, but you don't know. And you never will."

The NFL slapped us all upside our know-it-all heads last week and reminded us of that undeniable truth. Show me one serious prognostication before the 2008 season—or for that matter, from the week between the end of the regular season and start of the playoffs—that had the Arizona Cardinals hosting the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC Championship, and I’ll either show you a modern-day Nostradamus or someone who picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

Seriously.

The Arizona Cardinals. Hosting the NFC Championship.

I’m 48 years old. Over the course of my lifetime, the Cardinals have never, ever been anything more than a sidebar. Yes, there have been a few interesting players and memorable moments over the years (as you would hope from a franchise that has been around since 1920), but if you pushed me for an off-the-cuff review, my Cardinal Memories could probably be summed up thusly:

Jim Hart.
Mel (Freaking) Gray.
Conrad Dobler.
Terry Metcalf.
Moving to Phoenix. Phoenix?
The 1998 playoff win over the Cowboys in Dallas.

So if you’re a Cardinals official, player or fan, please understand why so many of us are seemingly unable to give your team the “respect” you crave, and probably deserve, for what you have done to get where you are today.

But the truth is, a half-century of “who?” cannot become “whoa” overnight. It just can’t.

Frankly, we’re still kind of in the whiplash phase here. We need a little more time.

A win on Sunday to send you jetting off to Tampa Bay and a shot at the brass ring in SB XLIII wouldn’t hurt either.

PHILADELPHIA at ARIZONA

Sunday, Jan. 18, 6:30 PM EST

I just don’t think it’s going to happen.

Not so much because of how damn hard it is for someone of my generation to envision the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl, but my sense that those damn Eagles are still riding Destiny’s Wave.

Hey, the Cardinals can score. There are some stunned, accomplished football minds down Charlotte way who can attest to that. And the Cardinal defense has been playing lights out the last couple of weeks.

On top of all that, they are playing at home in windless, climate-controlled comfort, with house money. Nobody expected them to be there in the first place—they figure to play loose, let it all hang out and take their best shot.

Thing is...the Eagles' defense isn’t just playing lights out, it’s playing borderline insane. This is a team that has given up 10.8 points per game over past six weeks. You know when the Eagles last gave up a passing touchdown, which figures to be the Cardinals’ best shot?

Five games ago—a garbage-time, one-yard flip from Eli Manning in Philly’s dominating 20-14 win over the Giants in New York that started them on their run.

The good news, at least for Cardinals fans, is that one week before that, in Week 12, the Eagles defense gave up three passing touchdowns to some guy named Kurt Warner. Goods news only travels so far, however.

For one, those three TD tosses came in a 48-20 loss to these same Eagles, in Arizona. For two, Warner also threw three interceptions that day. And for three, the other QB that day, some guy named McNabb, threw four touchdown passes against zero interceptions.

Sorry.

I think the Eagles will try do what they did against the Vikings in the wild-card round, only in reverse. Philly defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, one of the best in the business, sold out to take away the Vikings top (and really only) threat, Adrian Peterson and the running game.

He forced Minnesota to beat him throwing the ball, and young QB Tarvaris Jackson was not up to the challenge.

Against Arizona I look for Johnson to sell out trying to limit the Cardinals down field passing game, inviting them to beat him with sustained, run-heavy, short-pass drives. I don’t think running backs Edgerrin James and Tim Hightower will be up to it.

Philly won’t completely shut down stud Cardinals receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin—I think the Cardinals will have some success moving the ball—I just think they’ll struggle to finish drives.

Outside of Philadelphia and certain Pennsylvanians jonesing for a Turnpike Super Bowl between the Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers, I think all the NFL world is a Cardinals fan this week. I know I am.

No one loves a good underdog story more than me, and there’s definitely something to be said for shaking up the NFL hierarchy from time to time.

I just don’t think that time is here.

Something tells me the Eagles’ romance with Destiny lasts at least one more week.

Eagles 26
Cardinals 20

BALTIMORE at PITTSBURGH
Sunday, Jan. 18, 3:00 PM EST

Anyone else found themselves thinking this week that the NFL world has done a 180?

To me, as an NFL fan old enough to remember well the 1980’s, this one has the distinct feel of an old NFC Championship grudge match. Two aggressive, powerful defenses and straight-at-you, physical running games, slugging it out in the icy January night for the right to go to the Super Bowl and overwhelm some poor finesse passing team from the AFC.

It’s like we’ve piloted a time machine 25 years into the past, only to find the world as reflected in a mirror. Or something.

At any rate...

I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Both the Raven and Steeler defenses are playing about as well right now as defense can be played. I think they will turn this into a game of attrition—field position, turnovers, last-mistake-loses. Vegas has the over/under hovering around 34.5 this week.

If I was a betting man, I’d take the under and try to hide my grin.

Baltimore safety Ed Reed is playing on such a different level right now that he could easily define the game with another one of those “oh no he di’ent” game-changing plays he’s made look so routine of late.

Or maybe Raven running back Willis McGahee could find a seam or two in the Steeler D and do just enough to tip the scales Baltimore’s way.

But if I had to put my own hard-earned money on this one, I think the deciding factor would be the one matchup I see which favors one team over the other dramatically enough to be “the” difference.

Not QB Ben Roethlisberger over QB Joe Flacco, as you might be thinking—though that’s a decided advantage given the experience factor.

No, I’m thinking Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau over Joe Flacco.

For my money, LeBeau is the best in the business. I think he will put 50 years of football experience to good use and create just enough confusion in the Ravens’ rookie QB’s mind, in enough key situations, where at some point Flacco will make the one big mistake that proves the difference.

That one misread that leads to one bad throw into traffic at one crucial juncture. That one split-second of indecision in the pocket that leads to that one strip-sack that ends up heading the other way.

I like the way Baltimore goes about their business. I like the way they have built their team, and I like the no-frills way they play the game. As much as it pains me to say it as a Redskins fan, that’s the team I’d like mine to be when it grows up.

But as much as I see echoes of their 2000 championship team in the 2008 version, at the end of the day I’m going to have to take the Steelers in this one. I just can’t look past the one matchup I think is the one real mismatch in this game...And for me, tips the scales.

LeBeau versus Flacco.

I did the math.

Steelers 16
Ravens 13

NFL Divisional Playoffs: Best Weekend in Sports

Mark Steven — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:02:54 -0500

In my world, the NFL Divisional Playoffs are quite simply the best weekend in sports.

There may be other two-day events in the conversation–NCAA Final Four, final two rounds of the Masters, World Cup finals, maybe a few others you can feel free to argue at your pleasure—but if you’re reading this, my guess is that for you, as for me, the NFL is king in your sports universe.

Yes, the Super Bowl has become an unofficial American holiday, and I suppose as such it remains the crown jewel for some. Not me. To me, it’s been co-opted; it no longer belongs to the fist-in-the-air fan in his faded jersey, it belongs to the martini in the suit. Not so this weekend. The divisional playoffs weekend is all about the love of the game.

Two days. Eight teams. Four winner-lives, loser-dies, fist-meets-flesh, real-life dramas. For those of us unabashedly passionate about our sports, it just doesn’t get any better.

And as it does every year at this time, the National Football League has once again set our table with a full, rich four-course meal.

Bon appetit.

BALTIMORE at TENNESSEE
Saturday, Jan. 10, 4:30 PM EST

If you’re looking for fast-break football, look elsewhere–this one may break bones.

If you are a fan of the Tennessee Titans, the one team you probably do not want to see coming to town this weekend is the Baltimore Ravens. The team that has set the NFL standard for defensive dominance for a decade is finally getting some offensive support–and the result has been eye-opening.

Rookie QB Joe Flacco hasn’t been great, but he’s been good enough, in enough key spots, to get the Ravens long-dormant offense to at least carry its own weight.

And for a team playing defense like the Ravens are—with otherworldly FS Ed Reed redefining the term “ball hawk” and first-ballot Hall of Fame LB Ray Lewis having apparently discovered the fountain of youth and providing a brand of in-your-face leadership rarely seen in today’s free-agent millionaire NFL—that has been enough to turn this into one serious group of Poe folks (sorry).

I like and respect Tennessee head coach Jeff Fischer, who might well be the most underappreciated head coach of our time. I think QB Kerry Collins’ redemption story is compelling. Didn’t really care for the guy in his younger, brasher days, but this grizzled-veteran incarnation, having overcoming silly odds to lead his an unlikely team to the heights, has been hard not to appreciate.

Plus I usually love home-field advantage at this time of year.

But these Ravens are nasty. They’re feelin’ it–you can see it building. And unless young Mr. Flacco completely unravels (always a possibility with a rookie, though he’s shown no signs of doing so), they may be on the threshold of scary good.

As in Y2K good.

Baltimore Ravens 20, Tennessee Titans 16

ARIZONA at CAROLINA
Saturday, Jan. 10, 8:15 PM EST

When a team goes 61 years between home playoff wins, it is understandable that not all NFL fans take them very seriously after one home wild-card victory. I’ll admit to struggling a bit with that myself.

Fortunately, at least for fans of the Carolina Panthers, the people charged with preparing them to take on the upstart Cardinals Saturday won’t have that problem.

Rest assured head coach John Fox and Co. do not see that old familiar red-and-white uniform–so much NFL filler for decades–and think 60 years of futility. They are looking at them as they are today; an explosive passing team led by a revitalized former Super Bowl and league MVP in QB Kurt Warner, backed by a scrappy defense, that happens to stand between them and a return to NFC Championship Game and shot at taking care of some serious unfinished business.

Think the current Carolina regime has forgotten SB XXXVIII? There will be no overconfidence on the Panther sideline–no “looking past the Cardinals.”

Don’t get me wrong; if this game was being played in Arizona, I’d like their chances. The energy at Roll-away Bed Field last weekend, when the Cardinals took out the Atlanta Falcons, was a huge factor–both in terms of how it affected the young Falcons and the way it focused an Arizona team whose collective mind often seems to wander on the road.

But the game will not be played in climate-controlled comfort. It will be played on the East Coast (where the Cardinals went 0-5 this season), on real grass, in the elements (current forecast: rainy, mid 50s).

More importantly, the host Panthers (8-0 at home), while not spectacular in any one phase, are the kind of balanced, all-around team that always proves tough in the hyper-intense, last-mistake-loses atmosphere of the NFL playoffs.

Much as I try to picture Warner hooking up with stud WR’s Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin enough to outscore Carolina, what I keep seeing instead is Carolina QB Jake Delhomme finding WR's Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad, and the Panthers baby running back tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart taking over the game in the second half.

And DE Julius Peppers and the Panthers' pass rush will be cutting loose on Warner late, protecting, and maybe expanding, their lead.

In a game I don’t believe will be as close as final score indicates...

Carolina Panthers 30, Arizona Cardinals 20

PHILADELPHIA at NY GIANTS
Sunday, Jan. 11, 1:00 PM EST

Ah, yes. The Meadowlands. January. The NFC East.

If you blur your eyes a little, you can almost see the irascible Buddy Ryan leading the likes of Ron Jaworski, Wilbert Montgomery, Reggie White, Randall Cunningham, Seth Joyner, and a host of Eagles icons onto the windswept Meadowlands carpet to do battle with Big Tuna, Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Bavaro, Leonard Marshall, and a host of other names that start to roll of the tongue if you let them.

That the names this Sunday are Andy Reid, Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook, and Brian Dawkins, facing off against Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, Brandon Jacobs, and Justin Tuck, matters not.

For those of us who have followed NFC East football for any length of time, this one is old school, classic Gang Green versus Big Blue. A throwback. A streetfight. And for any pure fan of the NFL game, a January treat.

A little over a month ago, this one would have been easy to call. The Eagles were in imploding, Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid were feeling more Brotherly Wrath than Love, and the Giants were a juggernaut, seemingly rolling toward a second straight NFC Championship.

Today, not so much.

Philadelphia is the one rolling, on a 5-1 run that includes a 44-6 woodshed job on Dallas Cowboys to clinch a playoff spot in the regular-season finale and a solid road playoff win against the Minnesota Vikings—a tough home team one player away from serious Lombardi contention.

The Eagles best player, RB Brian Westbrook, is healthy and dangerous as ever. And if you believe in this kind of thing, given their resurgence and the way the seas parted to allow them into the playoffs in the first place, they look to have that certain feel of Destiny about them.

The Giants, meanwhile, find themselves where so many high playoff seeds have found themselves over the years—having locked up a playoff spot early and played few meaningful games down the stretch.

Add to that the two-week break they earn with the bye, and it can be hit or miss whether the top seeds hit the field with the edge they need to perform at the highest level–the level that earned them that seed to begin with.

All that said...Even in consideration of Philadelphia’s convincing Game 13 win in New York, my head isn’t buying them. Not in the Meadowlands in January. It might take the Giants a quarter or two to get ramped up, but they will.

In the end, home field, a healthy sledgehammer in RB Brandon Jacobs, and 20-year-veteran kicker John Carney’s steady right leg will prove the difference.

Somewhere, Joe Morris will be smiling.

NY Giants 23, Philadelphia Eagles 17

SAN DIEGO at PITTSBURGH
Sunday, Jan. 11, 4:45 PM EST

With apologies to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the story here is the other guys. Particularly for fans who lived through the Norv Turner Era in Washington.

So if you’ll excuse the indulgence...

There is a movement afoot to “give some love” to the star-crossed Chargers head coach this week. After all, his team, left for dead after a 4-8 start, not only rallied to make the playoffs, but beat first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts once they got there.

Well, maybe you're ready to go there, but not I. Not yet.

Don’t get me wrong—it isn't that I don’t like the guy. I do. It's just that down deep in my soul somewhere, I still believe that Norval Eugene Turner is the Plaything of the Gridiron Gods.

I still believe that somewhere "Up There," they have kept an old, well-ventilated voodoo doll of the man around just for kicks. And that they pick up from time to time, grin evil grins, and perforate it with red-hot knitting needles, just to see his reactions.

And I can’t quite shake the feeling they fully intend to pull the rug out from under him this year.

And you know what? All kidding aside, it would probably be just. Maybe I’m out there alone on this one—but where the majority of comments this week seem to be in praise of Turner for rallying the troops, I find myself wondering if maybe it wasn’t more a case of his team winning in spite of Norv Turner’s unique brand of leadership, not because of it.

That's not hating, it's observation. Two years ago, Turner inherited a 14-2 Chargers team universally regarded as Super Bowl ready; as just needing someone other than Marty Schottenheimer and his Amazing Shrinking Cojones come playoff time.

Turner inherited a budding franchise quarterback in Phillip Rivers, arguably the NFL’s top running back in LaDanian Tomlinson, a likely Hall of Fame tight end in Antonio Gates, and the No. 1 scoring offense and No. 7 scoring defense in football.

In his first year, he took that team to 11-5, beat the punchless Tennessee Titans in the wild-card round, then upset the Colts at home in the divisional round before going to lose to the undefeated Patriots in the AFC Title game. Not bad. Not great, given the talent at hand, but not bad.

In his second year, with his imprint firmly on the team, he was 4-8 at the three-quarter pole before rallying to finish at .500. Which by all counts, should have been the end of the Chargers’ season. Yes, really.

In the 39-year history of the AFC West, since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, only four teams have ever even finished second in the division at .500 or worse (the ‘98 Raiders, ‘98 Seahawks and ‘88 Broncos at 8-8; the ‘75 Broncos at 6-8).

Given that no AFC West has ever won the division at .500, and with it received the home-field advantage, and further given that the two AFC wild-card qualifiers this year both went 11-5, one could almost be tempted to say the gods smiled on Norv Turner.

So which is it? Are Turner’s Chargers a scrappy, resilient bunch who refused to quit at 4-8, rallied around their coach and stared failure down ... or a deeply talented bunch of underachievers, two years removed from 14-2, backing into the playoffs against all historic odds despite him?

We’ll know more with the benefit of hindsight, obviously. But for now, I simply cannot shake the feeling that by allowing this Charger team into the playoffs, the Gridiron Gods are setting a decent man up for yet another pratfall; another of the gut-wrenching, soul-killing, my-god-did-that-just-happen losses that fans of his previous teams know only too well.

And I can’t quite convince myself that, at some point in the very near future, They will conspire to leave this poor gentleman once again looking like someone ran over his puppy.

For what it’s worth, I’m pulling for Norv. What can I say, maybe the gods will tire of torturing Norv and move on to Jerry Jones.

And I love puppies.

Heart: San Diego Chargers 23, Pittsburgh Steelers 16

Head: Pittsburgh Steelers 20, San Diego Chargers 19

So enough deep, insightful football analysis.

42" Plasma – check.
Comfortable chair – check.
Phone silenced – check.
Cold beverage – definitely.

Let the games begin.

Washington Redskins: What Went Wrong in 2008

Mark Steven — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:27:27 -0500

So that's that.

With their loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, the 2008 Washington Redskins (8-8) capped off a rollercoaster season—one that began with tumultuous regime change, had their fans breathing the rarified air of contenders in October, and saw them brought precipitously back to earth as pretenders in December.

Along the way, there were great moments we won’t soon forget—like the brilliant Campbell-to-Moss bomb against New Orleans that gave the Redskins life in week two, and the back-to-back road wins in Dallas and Philadelphia to reach 4-1 and ignite January dreams.

There were crushing moments we’d like to forget—like the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town and systematically throttling the 6-2 Redskins under the bright lights of Monday Night Football, exposing the chasm between the Redskins and the NFL elite ... and the crushing Mike Sellers’ goal-line fumble in Cincinnati that effectively ended the 2008 season.

And so now we head into Expert Season, the eight month odyssey between this season and next that everyone—from the highly-paid talking heads on TV to the office know-it-all in the next cubicle—will spend telling you What Went Wrong.

It was the quarterback. Jason Campbell couldn't read defenses, stared down receivers and took too long to windup and deliver. Defenses didn't respect him so they stacked the line of scrimmage, took away the run and short passing game and voila—offensive suckitude.

Can't win without solid QB play.

It was the Offensive Line. Every starter was over 30—no wonder they wore down around midseason and became a sieve. They were a drive-blocking, smashmouth group assembled under a previous regime suddenly being asked to tap dance the delicate rhythms of the west coast offense. And there was no depth.

Can't win without solid OL play.

It was the Play Calling. Coach Zorn was awesome early—beautifully timed gadget plays, running when they expected pass, passing when they expected run. But once the league got some film on him, they caught up, and Zorn had no answers. Or maybe once he got to 6-2, he got complacent and thought all he had to do was line up, run off tackle, rely on his defense and simply "not lose the game."

Either way, can't win without innovative, aggressive playcalling.

It was the Receivers. Santana Moss was a number two receiver masquerading as a number one, and Antwaan Randle El a number three passing himself off as a number two. The rookies weren't good enough to get on the field, much less contribute. And as a group they didn’t know that making pretty catches on crisp, six-yard routes, on third-and-seven, does nothing but sell Maalox.

Can’t win without a solid receiving corps.

It was the defense. Yes they finished statistically in the top five, but they couldn't rush the passer, and as a result didn’t force the turnovers that set up the short fields that lead to the easy touchdowns that win games. And when push came to shove they couldn't get that one last stop when they absolutely, positively had to, and it cost the Redskins, at the very least, the St. Louis, second Dallas and San Francisco games.

Can't win without a pass rush.

It was Vinny Cerrato. He doesn't believe in drafting linemen, wastes time doing radio shows instead of scouting and has a demented laugh.

Can’t win without a solid General Manager.

It was Dan Snyder. As has been the case since he bought the team in 1999, all he was really interested in was 1) making money, and 2) getting to play Fantasy GM in the offseason. That's why he continued to charge a fortune for stadium parking and beer and kept Vinny Cerrato around.

Can’t win without an owner willing to spend gobs of money but otherwise keep his mitts off the team.

It was [fill in the blank].

Here's the good news—you and I know better. We know it wasn't any one of those things, it was a combination of some or all of them.

We know that debating which of those areas was most responsible is great fun, but also understand that doing so is like trying to break down, in cold percentages, which part of sipping champagne at sunset off Oahu, having just made love to a special someone on the deck of the yacht you bought with the $250 million you won in the lottery, is what makes the moment the most special.

And, of course (sorry, back to reality), we know that no one—not Dan Snyder, Vinny Cerrato, Jason LaCanfora, Mike Wilbon, Doc Walker, Brian Mitchell, Steve Czaben, Chris Mortensen, Peter King, Jason Campbell, Clinton Portis, little old me, the guy in front of you at the checkout or your chatty co-worker—has their finger on "The Truth of The Matter."

Only Jim Zorn, Greg Blache (and maybe one or two other top assistants who sat in on enough meetings, were on the field for enough practices and in enough film sessions over the course of the season to know who did and did not do what in any given situation, and what if anything they as coaches could or should have done about it) are even remotely qualified to speak on the specifics, or offer what would pass in a court of law as expert opinion on What Went Wrong—and they ain't talkin'.

But for the rest of us, acting like we do know is irresistible. And the offseason is long. And nature abhors a vacuum.

So we're going to do it anyway.

Of course, as any clear-thinking observer already knows, the REAL problem with the 2008 Redskins was the clear disconnect that developed over the course of the season between what was in Jim Zorn's head as he drew up game plans and called plays from the sidelines, and what the players actually executed on the field.

The trick of course is determining the reason for that disconnect.

Could be Zorn lost confidence in his quarterback, offensive live, receivers or running back somewhere along the way, and with it, the freedom to call the kinds of plays he really wanted to.

Could be he hit his head around midseason and simply forgot how to call plays.

Could be Campbell either could not (rushed/nobody open) or would not (hesitant/confused) throw the passes Zorn called.

Could be Jason Campbell changed too many plays at the line—into bad ones.

Could be that one player here or there simply got beat, on enough key plays, for said key plays to not work the way they were designed, even while the other ten players were kicking ass.

Could be the head coach was a rookie, going through rookie growing pains, implementing a new system, working with 8-8 talent assembled under a different regime with a different system in mind.

Could be some combination of all those things. Could be something else entirely.

Fortunately, we have eight long months—and no shortage of experts—to sort it all out.

Welcome to the offseason.

2008 Redskins: Exit, Stage Left

Mark Steven — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:47:07 -0500

The Washington Redskins will play the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on December 28, 2008, in their final game of this NFL season.

After the final gun—win, lose, or draw (Memo to DM: it happens)—53 men will trot off the field, make their way up the ramp to the visiting locker room, and peel off their burgundy and gold accoutrements for the last time.

Said uniforms will then be whisked away, laundered, neatly folded...and put in storage.

The next time those hallowed threads take the field in earnest will be some seven and a half months hence, in early August 2009, when Washington plays its first preseason game of the new season. That actual date is not yet set in stone, but if past serves as prologue it will be on or around Aug. 7, 2009.

For those keeping score at home, that means:

Three remaining days in December 2008, plus
Thirty-one days in January 2009, plus
Twenty-eight days in February 2009, plus
Thirty-one days in March 2009, plus

(hold on, punching numbers)

... and seven days in August 2009.

Your total?

Two hundred and twenty-two days.

So forget dashed expectations. Be in the moment Sunday. Watch every last minute. Commit the rhythms and feel of the game to memory—hard drive, not RAM. Savor the immediate gut reaction to each and every play, should it fall anywhere along the spectrum from pigskin agony (Sellers fumbling at the goal line) to gridiron ecstasy (Campbell to Moss to beat the Saints).

Because somewhere around mid-March, reality is going to hit. It will seem like forever since you last saw your colors on the field of play, and there will remain almost five months before you see them again.

True, you have the first Philadelphia and Dallas games on DVR. Not the same. Recorded games—even the best—are like memories of lovemaking. Treasures to be sure, but lesser by degrees of magnitude than those magical moments when she glances over her shoulder, starts up the stairs, and her eyes suggest delights yet unknown.

Ahem.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

Hail.

A Christmas Wish

Mark Steven — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:17:08 -0500

For me life has always been about moments.

You can’t plan them, can’t anticipate them. And if you are too caught on your way somewhere to really be where you are, it’s easy to miss them.

The Om Field begins with a reprint of the first “serious” piece of Redskins writing I ever did. In it, I refer to the threads of my “inner burgundy and gold tapestry.”

A little over a year ago, an event happened that served as stark reminder that not all threads are silken, and not all moments bright.

Last night, at the traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my parents’ house, my son said he was looking forward to today because there were going to be “good moments.”

When he handed me my present this morning, it was with a little smile. First thing I saw was the burgundy … the second, “Taylor.”

He’d pinned a little note to it.

"Is it Jason?"

I pulled my jersey from the box, held it up. Turned it around to look at the back. Underneath the nameplate and “21,” he’d pinned another note.

"I didn’t think so either."

It’s all about the moments.

My Christmas wish is that yours has one too.

Peace.

Washington Redskins 10, Philadelphia Eagles 3: A Defensive Parting Gift

Mark Steven — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:37:31 -0500

Tempting as it is to weigh in on the big picture—the front office, the quarterback position, Jim Zorn’s pass offense, part two of Breaking Down the Lines, etc.—the cold reality is there is only one game left in the Washington Redskins 2008 season.

Don’t know about you, but I’m feeling that.

So, for at least one more week I’m sticking with the immediate. Which works out well, because there is one particular stone I don’t want to leave unturned.

I have been trying to recall the last time a Redskins defense has worked harder, surprised me more or, when all is said done, made me prouder than Greg Blache’s undermanned unit has this season. And Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, they drove the point home in a way I believe will burn the the '08 defense in memory.

Yes the Eagles dropped some passes. So did the Redskins—it happens. Yes, Donovan McNabb may have beheaded a handful of worms. Given the way Redskins defenders swarmed to the ball and pounded green people all day, however, perhaps that wasn’t all just happenstance.

Lest we forget, the Eagles came in hot. All week long, this was a team the talking heads were solemnly pronouncing “the one team no one wants to face in the playoffs.”

Philadelphia had won three straight. They had just hung 30 on the Cleveland Browns, and dominated the defending champion Giants in New York the week before. In that game, against one of the best defenses in football, long-time Redskins-killer Brian Westbrook had rushed for 131 yards and caught a 40-yard TD pass from a resurgent Donovan McNabb.

It is easy to discount all that in retrospect, but heading into the game, I suspect most Redskins fans, and just about all neutral observers, expected something pretty similar. I’ll admit it—I did.

The Eagles were playing for everything. The Redskins (having somnambulated through most of their own for-everything game the week before in Cincinnati), were playing for next year. Nobody—nobody—expected the Redskins defense to turn in the kind of performance it did Sunday afternoon.

For fans who allow themselves to enjoy moments of excellence within the context of a season—even a disappointing one—what Greg Blache, London Fletcher, Cornelius Griffin, and the entire back seven did on Sunday, playing not for the playoffs but for pride and professionalism, was an early Christmas present. One that will help ease the transition into what could well turn into another long, eventful offseason.

Know how many NFL games have been won this season by teams scoring 10 points or less? Out of 240 games played to date...four. Besides the Redskins 10-3 win over Philadelphia, the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers both shut down the crushingly disappointing Cleveland Browns 10-6, and San Francisco throttled Buffalo 10-3 two weeks ago.

It is worth noting that the Cleveland offense (for lack of a better term) is tied with the Oakland Raiders for 30th in the league in scoring at 15.5 ppg., and the Bills are 19th at 22.4. The Eagles are 10th, at 24.8.

24.8. These days that’s more than the Redskins offense scores in two.

And it's not like the Redskins offense was much help in this game. Truth is, it gave the defense almost no support at all. In 11 possessions, the offense managed yards 249 yards and 10 points. Seven of those points came courtesy of a short field (18 yards) provided by the defense; Jason Taylor’s strip-sack of McNabb.

The other three came in the Redskins only drive of the day that netted more than 26 yards—a 16-play, 72-yard second quarter affair that ended in a 33-yard Shaun Suisham field goal.

The last three Redskins possessions of the day—starting at the Eagles 44, their own 46 and the Eagles 45, courtesy of stellar punting by embattled Ryan Plackemeier and stifling defense that forced four consecutive Eagles three-and-outs—resulted in 16 total yards, no first downs and, of course, zero points.

What that did, of course, was set up the highlight-reel, last-play-of-the-game, mid-air goal-line stop on Eagles wide receiver Reggie Brown by Fred Smoot and LaRon Landry. A play that put the exclamation point on a memorable game-long defensive effort and will, perhaps, stand up over the course of time.

The image of Brown, high above the frozen FedEx turf, being turned back inches from paydirt may not live on in Redskins lore quite like Ken Houston stoning the Cowboys’ Walt Garrison in 1972, or Darrell Green breaking up Wade Wilson’s pass to Darrin Nelson at the goal line to seal the 1987 NFC Championship, or even former replacement-player Dennis Woodberry’s one-on-one, open-field stop of the Giants’ Tony Galbreath to preserve a key win earlier that year (that’s for my Friend, Tom)…but still. It was big.

And I for one don’t think I’ll forget it any time soon.

So I thought I’d take a look at when a Redskins defense last held an opponent to three points or less…and once I got into it, ended up going back 10 years (don’t ask).

Before Sunday, the last time was in week four of last season, in that hide-the-women-and-children, 34-3 beat-down of the Detroit Lions. In that game they held Detroit to 144 total yards, had six sacks, recorded a safety and forced two turnovers (including a pick-six interception return by Carlos Rogers to ice the cake late in the game—yes, really).

The defense didn’t stand alone that day, however; the Redskins offense ran up 366 yards of their own, scored three touchdowns and held the ball for 34:35.

You have to go back to 2002 to find the next one. They held the Seattle Seahawks to three points in week eight, but gave up 324 yards (264 passing) to Matt Hasselbeck along the way. Considering Washington’s quarterback that day, one Shane Matthews, went 10-for-27 for 114 yards (two TD, one INT), at first blush that looks pretty impressive.

Fortunately, the running back tandem of Kenny Watson (110 yards) and Ladell Betts (37) allowed the Redskins to escape Seattle with the win despite losing the time of possession battle 35:58 to 25:02.

I’ll be honest though—I have zero recollection of that day. Do you?

I do remember Marty Schottenheimer’s Redskins going into Philadelphia and stoning the Eagles, 13-3, in 2001, to win their fifth consecutive game after starting the year 0-5.

Given that the Redskins offense was led that day by QB Tony Banks (12-for-18, 96 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT), saw RB Stephen Davis held mostly in check (22 carries, 79 yards), and featured a receiving corps led by Rod Gardner (four catches, 33 yards) and Michael “Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That” Westbrook (three catches, 22 yards), perhaps the defensive gem turned in by Redskins DC Kurt Schottenheimer’s crew (186 total yards against the eternal, infernal D. McNabb and company) that day deserves a place in Redskins lore.

Who knows, if Schottenheimer's Redskins hadn’t subsequently folded their tent down the stretch that year, once the games actually meant something, recent Redskins history would have played out very different. Perhaps Coach Marty would still be here, the Redskins would be strong in the trenches and we would be fully expecting to lose again in the playoffs this year.

But that's another story.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Norv Turner’s last Redskins team—for those of you either too young or too numb to remember, those were the Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Jeff George, Mark Carrier, Terry Robiskie and Dan Turk (RIP) Redskins—actually held two opponents to three points.

In a slugfest at FedEx, they beat the Baltimore Ravens 10-3 to bring their record to 5-2, then shut down a hapless Arizona Cardinals team 20-3 in a meaningless finale to salvage 8-8.

Hmm...6-2 start, 8-8 finish. Maybe we shouldn’t go there.

A year earlier, Turner’s NFC East title and lone playoff Redskins again laid the lumber, 28-3, to the hapless Cardinals (I should put that in a macro).

And finally, in 1998, the Redskins turned in a three-point, 28-3 woodshed job over the Eagles.

Why the long litany? My own curiosity, mostly, once I started looking. In 159 games over ten years, the Redskins have put together seven three-point-or-less defensive efforts (you have to go back to 1991 to find their last shutout). And because, for whatever reason, I cannot recall any single defensive game that caught my attention as much as this last one.

[Incidentally, over the same 10-year period, the two standards for defense in the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, have turned in 21 (including nine shutouts) and 15 (six shutouts) respectively.]

I am not suggesting that only three-point-or-less defensive games are worthy of note, by the way. For instance...

The Redskins held the Cowboys to six points and 147 total yards (including what at first blush looks like a typo—one yard rushing on 16 carries) in last years' season-ending 27-6 romp at FedEx. But the context of that game—Dallas having already clinched the top playoff seed and mentally if not physically already sunning in Cancun—has to be considered.

Plus the Redskins offense more than held its own, putting up 27 points, racking up 354 yards and owning time of possession, 37:08 to 22:52.

And there was that ugly 9-7 win over the Bears to open the 2005 season, when the defense held Chicago to 166 total yards and hung on despite the Redskins offense turning the ball over three times. Even then, the box score shows the Redskins offense contributed 323 yards that day; 164 rushing, and 175 passing from the two-headed QB tandem of Patrick Ramsey and Mark Brunell.

And who can forget the 35-7 whooping the Redskins laid on Bill Parcells’ Cowboys in December ‘05 (I know we're not going to let them forget), sacking Drew Bledsoe seven times, limiting him to 153 passing yards and picking him off three times. Again, though, the defense was hardly on its own that day. The offense spotted them a 28-0 halftime lead, allowing them to spend the second pawing dirt, flaring nostrils and hunting quarterback.

In 2004, Greg Williams’ first year, the Redskins shut down the NY Giants to the tune of 145 total yards in a 31-7 shellacking at FedEx Field. They had help that day as well, though, as the Redskins offense showed up big time, Clinton Portis rambling for 148 and Patrick Ramsey throwing three TD passes.

The point of this longish stroll down memory lane? Simply to pause and give due credit to Greg Blache and his 2008 defense.

Like many, I have been hard on them for their inability to pressure the quarterback. I've fumed at their inability to stand their ground on several crucial game-ending drives down the stretch, and I have ragged on them for letting more balls slip through their fingers than an arthritic Chicken Ranch trainee.

But when the bile has finally settled this offseason, and the immediacy of watching a 6-2 team fail to close the deal no longer clouds my objectivity, I believe I am going to remember the 2008 Washington Redskins defense rather fondly.

It is easy to celebrate a defense studded with Pro Bowl talent and a nasty, disruptive reputation in the trenches that forces opposing offenses to proceed with cautioun. It’s another thing entriely to recognize a defense that has arguably done more with less up front than any top five defense in memory.

I don’t think they give out Defensive Coordinator of the Year hardware, but if they did, says here in 2008 it goes hands down to Greg Blache. In a year that started with such promise, and is ending with such bittersweet “what ifs,” the Redskins defense has left precious little on the field and carried the burgundy and gold banner proud.

I hope we are not all so focused on the Lombardi destination that we cannot appreciate, and even enjoy, the inner successes and happy surprises along the journey.

Redskins: Breaking Down the Lines (Pt. 1)

Mark Steven — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:54:25 -0500

I have been beating the drum recently about the woeful state of the Washington Redskins offensive and defensive lines.

More specifically, I have taken the front office to task over what I believe is the complete and ultimately disastrous failure to establish a functional pipeline of qualified young linemen to replace their rapidly aging (and based on the evidence in 2008, no longer adequate) starting corps.

Rather than basing that criticism solely on what I see with my own two eyes on game days, I have begun to research the nuts and bolts of how the Redskins have gone about constructing their lines over the past decade and how they arrived where they are today.

Over the coming days and weeks I will be posting the results of that research for reference, discussion and, depending on what we find, perhaps drawing supported conclusions as to whether the Redskins' current struggles to compete with solid opponents at the line of scrimmage are the result of a fundamentally flawed approach, or simply the vagaries of trying to stay competitive in the 21st century NFL.

Let's get to it.

To begin, I broke down the Redskins' college drafts over the past ten years. I limited it to ten years on the premise that beyond that period of time, the data has increasingly little practical relevance to the present, given the number of major external factors (ownership changes, front office changes, coaching changes, player aging and injury, etc.) that come into play.

Here are the raw numbers, broken down by year, total picks, number of linemen selected, player and round selected:

1999 – 6 overall picks, 2 linemen
OT Jon Jansen (2), OG Derek Smith (5)

2000 – 8 picks, 3 linemen
OT C. Samuels (1), OG M. Moore (4), DT D. Cowsette (7)

2001 – 5 picks, 1 lineman
DT Mario Monds (6)

2002 – 10 picks, 2 linemen
OT Reggie Coleman (6), DE Greg Scott (7)

2003 – 3 picks, 1 lineman
OG Derrick Dockery (3)

2004 – 4 picks, 2 linemen
OT Mark Wilson (5), OT Jim Molinaro (6)

2005 – 6 picks, 0 linemen

2006 – 6 picks, 3 linemen
DT A. Montgomery (5), DT K. Golston (6), OG K. Lefotu (7)

2007 – 5 picks, 0 linemen

2008 – 10 picks, 2 linemen
OG Chad Rinehart (3), DE Rob Jackson (7)

Total Picks 63, linemen 16 (25%)

... and broken down by round:

1st Round: 1 (’00)
2nd Round: 1 (’99)
3rd Round: 2 (’03, ’08)
4th Round: 1 (’00)
5th Round: 3 (’99, ’04, ’06)
6th Round: 4 (‘01, ’02, ’04, ’06)
7th Round: 4 (’00, ’02, ’07, ’08)

Of note:

- Over their past five drafts Washington selected 7 linemen (1 third, 2 fifths, 2 sixths, 2 sevenths).

- Dating back to 1992, when the NFL reduced the number of draft rounds from 12 to 7, in those six additional drafts the Redskins selected 12 linemen out of 45 total picks (1 first, 2 seconds, 3 thirds, 1 fourth, 4 fifths and 3sixths).

Moving on …

Recognizing that numbers in a vacuum are of little practical use, I went on to compare and contrast the Redskins’ last ten drafts against those of their primary opponents, the three other NFC East teams.

I chose to start with that comparison because,

1) the six games (37.5% of each regular season) the Redskins play against those three teams every year have such a significant impact on their success or failure, and

2) the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants have provided a baseline of consistently solid programs over that time against which to measure the Redskins’ success.

This is where it starts to get interesting.

Here are the past ten drafts for the NFCE by total picks, rounds in which linemen were selected and year:

Dallas Cowboys
76 total picks; 28 linemen (37%)
1st round: 3 - '99, ‘05 (2)
2nd round: 4 - '99, '02, '03, '04
3rd round: 4 - '01, '04, '06, '07
4th round: 3 - '99, '05, '07
5th round: 1 - '01
6th round: 5 - '01, '02, '05, '06, '08
7th round: 8 - '99, '01, '03, '05, '06 (2)

Philadelphia Eagles
84 picks, 33 linemen (39%)
1st round: 5 – '00, '03, '04, '05, '06
2nd round: 4 – '00, '06, '07, '08
3rd round: 2 – '99, '01
4th round: 7 – '99, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06, '08
5th round: 2 – '05(2)
6th round: 6 – '00(2), '03, '05, '06, '08
7th round: 7 – '99(2), '02, '04(2), '05, '08

New York Giants
72 total picks, 23 linemen (32%)
1st round: 3 – '99, '03, '06
2nd round: 2 – '02, '03
3rd round: 3 – '02, '05, '07
4th round: 4 – '01, '04, '06(2)
5th round: 2 – '99, '03
6th round: 3 – '05, '07, '08
7th round: 6 – '99, '00, '01, '03, '04(2)

Washington Redskins
63 total picks, 16 linemen (25%)
1st round: 1 – '00
2nd round: 1 – '99
3rd round: 2 – '03, '08
4th round: 1 – '00
5th round: 3 – '99, '04, '06
6th round: 4 - '01, '02, '04
7th round: 4 – '00, '02, '07, '08

For side-by-side tables breaking down linemen drafted by NFCE teams, by round and year, click here. I will also be posting a list identifying each of the players referenced.

The Redskins have had 63 total draft picks over the past ten years. The other three teams have had 84 (Eagles), 76 (Cowboys) and 72 (Giants). The disparity speaks loudly to the Redskins philosophy under owner Dan Snyder of using draft picks as currency in the free agency market.

For the record, I have supported the use of free agency, but always as a complement to the draft, not a replacement, which it became overall for several seasons early in Mr. Snyder's tenure and has largely continued to date insofar as the acquisition of linemen.

Which leads to the next obvious element.

Any meaningful analysis of the Redskins overall personnel strategy has to include those players acquired through free agency as well as the draft. To that end, I am currently researching the free agent linemen acquisitions of each of the four NFCE teams over the past ten years. Those results will be published separately in the coming days.

So what does all this mean?

One thing is obvious—compared to their division rivals, the Redskins are far less active drafting linemen—both in terms of total number of picks used (25 percent versus an average of 36 percent), and in terms of how high in each draft they select linemen (see tables).

Another obvious thing is that given the lack of quality young depth ready to step in and take over for aging and/or ineffective starters, the Redskins have been unable to bridge the gap between the number of linemen drafted and those acquired through free agency. Given my intial look at the free agency names and numbers, I suspect that message will be driven home convincingly.

For me at least, though, the case for that statement has already been made. It begins and ends with the fact that this past Sunday night in Baltimore, the Redskins top two reserve offensive tackles were,

1) a second-year undrafted free agent with nine so-so (that’s a technical term) career starts, who lost his starting job at the beginning of the season, and

2) a 2005 6th-round draft pick C/G, already on his third team, who has never started an NFL game.

To be clear—that is not an indictment of the players. It is instead your humble scribe experiencing something bordering on shock after watching a wealthy team, with serious playoff ambitions, find itself in a defining December game with so precious little in the cupboard that it simply had no better pedigreed, qualified or prepared options.

But we'll let the facts to the talking.

Up next, a breakdown of the current lineman depth charts for the Redskins and rest of the NFC East, broken down in terms of how acquired, when, and whatever else of interest springs from the research.

After that, time and interest permitting, we'll move on to look at a representative sample of other NFL teams, focusing on the perennial contenders, to see how the Redskins approach to building the foundation of any football team stacks up.

Until then, I leave you to contemplate the numbers and their significance.

Redskins Vs Ravens: Assessing The Damage

Mark Steven — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:28:20 -0500

I wrote last week that for the rest of the 2008 season, I would be studying the Redskins for certain indicators—both in terms of their chances of qualifying for a wild card playoff spot and, more importantly, with a critical eye toward the future.

What I saw last night only served to confirm the feeling I've had since the Pittsburgh game a month ago. These Redskins are just good enough to break your heart.

Breaking from convention by writing on the day after a game, here's a quick point-by-point look at the specific areas on which I said I’d focus:

"I’ll be watching for signs that Jason Campbell is progressing as Coach Zorn says he is, and as my intellect, if not my gut, still believes."

Jason Campbell continued to look pretty good when he had time to throw, and out of his depth when he did not.

He continued to look like a seven-step-drop, play-action square peg being hammered, with limited success, into a quick-read, quick-release West-Coast-offense round hole.

He continued to peel himself off the turf, dust himself off and go back for more, playing the silent lead-by-example field general on a team desperately lacking offensive fire—literally and figuratively.

In short, his stock neither rose nor fell. In light of how vital progress at the quarterback position is to this team's immediate and long-term success, however, the fact he stayed even is cause for little rejoicing.

Coach Jim Zorn’s biggest offseason priority—beyond convincing Vinny Cerrato to finally, mercifully, draft some big people—will be deciding if Campbell is his long-term solution at QB. If so, my inner clock tells me Jason has until about midseason of next year to prove the coach right. By that point I suspect I will know…and Zorn will as well.

Based on what I’ve seen to this point, I’d put it about 50-50 that Jason Campbell will be the starter heading into 2010.

"I’ll be watching for signs that the receiving corps can threaten defenses with anything other than a double-covered Santana Moss downfield and Chris Cooley underneath."

Ouch.

With a passing game as dysfunctional as the Redskins are fielding these days, it’s not just the receivers, the quarterback, the line, or the play calling. It’s all of them. But the receivers certainly didn’t help the cause much last night.

It’s not so much that they did bad things; They just didn’t do enough good ones. Antwaan Randle El’s late touchdown was definitely big, and it might have proven a whole lot bigger if the defense hadn’t immediately collapsed afterwards.

But beyond that, the 13 catches for 133 yards turned in by the wideouts and tight ends had little impact on the flow of the game.

As has been the case for several weeks, there were no jump-out-of-your-chair big plays—the kind that flip the field and get an entire team going. The day a Redskins receiver goes up and takes a deep ball away from a defender again, or simply blows by someone and hauls one in for seven, I promise to jump out of my chair again.

Until then…fingers tapping.

"I’ll be watching for signs that Zorn has answers to the answers that other teams have come up with for his offense."

One ouch:

When the head coach tells the press after the game that the chief problem offensively early was “communication,” i.e, players knowing protection schemes and being able to adjust them at the line of scrimmage, there’s a problem.

By game 13 of an NFL season, you pretty much need to have figured out who is supposed to block whom and how to get them the word. If you haven’t, and you can’t, it doesn’t particularly matter how good or bad your offensive line is in one-on-one matchups. Going none-on-one is going to lose you games and quarterbacks.

And one “yeah but” plus:

For the first time in several weeks, the Redskins made a concerted effort to get the ball downfield. They gave their quarterback a chance to drop, set and throw deep a handful of times, which was a good sign physically and philosophically. That they were unable to connect on any was a major factor in the game, but it was a damn sight better than not trying at all.

Perhaps we have come out the other side of Coach Zorn’s recent head-scratching affair with Martyball.

"I’ll be watching for signs that defensive coordinator Greg Blache can squeeze blood from a stone and get a hit on the opposing quarterback once in a while."

Ravens QB Joe Flacco woke up this morning, swung his feet to the floor, stretched, yawned, scratched himself and said, “Damn—I feel great.”

The Redskins defense reprised its performance from the Dallas game two weeks ago. They played solid football for 50 minutes, more than making up for the disastrous first series allowing an easy touchdown drive after Ravens safety Ed Reed’s interception, with two late turnovers of their own that gave the Redskins a chance to steal a game they really had no business winning.

But as happened against Dallas, they couldn’t close.

Between the first backpedalling series that gave Baltimore a quick 7-0 lead and the last touchdown drive they allowed the Ravens after Campbell hit Randle El to cut Baltimore's lead to 17-10, the defense did this:

3 plays, 9 yards, punt
3 plays, 4 yards, punt
3 plays, 2 yards, punt
3 plays, 1 yard, punt
4 plays, 35 yards, punt
3 plays, 9 yards, punt
14 plays, 65 yards, FG
3 plays, -3 yards, INT
2 plays, 10 yards, fumble

For those scoring at home, that’s 38 plays for 132 yards (3.47 avg.), six punts, three points allowed and two turnovers.

But then, with their team suddenly back in the game with 11:27 left, they were not up to the task, unable to stop the basic running plays everyone in the stadium and watching on TV knew were coming.

12 plays, 83 yards, 7:52 time of possession, TD
(11 runs for 55 yards, one pass for 28)

Game over.

Just good enough to break your heart.

"And, agonizingly, I’ll be watching the Redskins linemen, on both sides of the ball, continue to get pushed around against the NFL’s big boys.That last part, in my view, is easily the Redskins' biggest problem going forward."

Later this week I’ll post the results of research comparing how the Redskins have approached building their lines of scrimmage as compared to the other NFC East teams, and time permitting, against a few other teams known for physicality as the foundation of sustained success. Pittsburgh and Baltimore spring quickly to mind.

Based on what the numbers have shown so far, my early sense is it will be painfully obvious how and why we have arrived at a point in time where the Washington Redskins are simply not competitive in the trenches against the NFL’s better teams.

I’ll leave it at that for now.

More when the bile settles, the head clears and I can assure myself I’m writing from the latter.

Lambs and Bulls (A Washington Redskins Story)

Mark Steven — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:22:31 -0500

Only one good thing came out of the butt-kicking the NY Giants laid on the Redskins last Sunday:

Clarity. We know who the 2008 Redskins are.

What this Redskins team has shown is the ability to win the games it “should.” Against teams coming in with losing records, they have gone 3-1 (Cleveland, Detroit, Seattle, St. Louis). That’s a good thing—and something that was not a given coming into 2008 given the coaching and systemic changes.

When the season is over and the immediacy of the letdown that appears to be at hand from following a 6-2 start with scratching, clawing and scoreboard-watching down the stretch just to make the playoffs, overall I think most fans will be pleased with what the team was able to establish in Jim Zorn’s rookie year.

Unfortunately, what the 2008 Redskins have also shown is that they are not ready to compete with the NFL’s big boys.

Washington has chalked up four “quality” wins this season (all in the four-week stretch after losing the opener in New York)—New Orleans, Arizona, Dallas and Philadelphia.

Since then, as the season has moved from the first-half appetizer to second-half main course, they have faced three tests against some of the NFL’s best teams—Pittsburgh, Dallas (much as it pains me to say it) and the Giants again. In each, the Redskins were overmatched physically and beaten convincingly.

Even in the 4-point home loss (to a Dallas team starting a quarterback coming back from a throwing hand injury wearing a cast) the Redskins were pushed around up front, on both sides of the ball, and never really seemed a threat to win the game. Those four points might as well have been 14.

So…now we know. The 2008 Redskins are the quintessential middle-class team—good enough to take down the lambs, not good enough to run with the bulls.

In my view there are two basic ways NFL teams can bridge that chasm.

The first is to land a Brett Favre, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Allow me to point out that the Redskins don’t have one. Jason Campbell could still become one, but at this point, like me, you probably aren’t betting your hard-earned dollars on it (at least not in a West Coast offense). And rookie Colt Brennan, as intriguing as he might be, at this point is just a live lottery ticket.

Unfortunately, landing that franchise quarterbacks is a bit like actually hitting the lottery—a whole lot more luck than skill. A franchise can either, 1) be awful enough for long enough, like the Indianapolis Colts, to happen to hold the number one draft pick in a year a Peyton Manning comes out, or 2) luck into one, like New England did in taking a flier on a project named Tom Brady with their second sixth-round pick (No. 199 overall) in 2000.

Of the two options, the second is preferable. Mainly because your team doesn’t have to be awful enough sit at the top of the draft waiting around for a Peyton Manning. And because luck does in fact happen:

The 49ers got Joe Montana in the third round. Green Bay ended up with Brett Favre only after Atlanta decided it didn’t see anything special there and let him walk. The Dallas Cowboys seem to have gotten a boatload of it when they signed some kid named Romo as an undrafted free agent and sat him on the bench for four years to ripen.

Who knows, maybe the Redskins already have The Man on their roster. Maybe the proverbial light will click on for Jason Campbell one of these weeks and he’ll soar, taking the team with him. Or maybe they lucked into Him in taking a flier on Colt Brennan in last April’s draft.

But they don’t have one today, and unless something magical happens between now and then, they won’t have one on the field against another elite team—defensively, anyway—this coming Sunday night in Baltimore.

Which brings us to the other way to build an elite team.

Control the line of scrimmage. On offense, run well enough make the defense respect it, and protect your quarterback well enough to allow him threaten them down the field. And on defense, contain the run and get after the other quarterback enough to force from his comfort zone. Simple in theory, a bitch in practice.

The Redskins can do it against average teams. They can’t against the elite.

Which is where the clarity thing finally comes in. For the rest of this year I’ll be watching this Redskins team on two distinct levels.

First, I have not forgetten that they are 7-5 and very much alive in the playoff hunt. One doesn’t have to look back far to find under-the-radar wildcard teams getting hot in the playoffs and making serious January noise. If you’re reading this, you don’t need me to point them out.

Which means I’ll absolutely be riding the rollercoaster the rest of the way, play-by-play, series-by-series, game-by-game. Clarity or not, when this team is on the field I’m living and dying with it.

But I’ll also be watching with one dispassionate, critical eye toward the future.

I’ll be watching for signs that Jason Campbell is progressing as Coach Zorn says he is, and as my intellect, if not my gut, still believes.

I’ll be watching for signs that the receiving corps can threaten defenses with anything other than a double-covered Santana Moss downfield and Chris Cooley underneath.

I’ll be watching for signs that Zorn has answers to the answers that other teams have come up with for his offense.

I’ll be watching for signs that defensive coordinator Greg Blache can squeeze blood from a stone and get a hit on the opposing quarterback once in a while.

And, agonizingly, I’ll be watching the Redskins linemen, on both sides of the ball, continue to get pushed around against the NFL’s big boys.

That last part, in my view, is easily the Redskins biggest problem going forward.

If the quarterback were to somehow explode and start lighting it up, the offensive line could still get the job done this year, and at least make the transition to next a far less pressing concern. But as of right now, with zero credible downfield passing threat, they cannot consistently move seven- and eight-man fronts off the ball in the run game, nor keep teams fielding NFL-caliber pass rushers off their quarterback.

Defensively, things are even less comfortable. This Redskins team simply cannot generate consistent pressure on the quarterback. They can’t do it with the down linemen alone, and they can’t seem to do it with scheme either, as game after game we watch Blache send the house on key downs, only to see every rusher stick to a blocker, and the QB find time and a clear lane to throw to an uncovered receiver.

That is what has me most concerned long-term. I’m convinced we’ll get adequate QB play in the next year or two. Campbell, Brennan or someone not even on the radar today will solidify that position; at least enough to make the offense competitive. Functional West Coast quarterbacks are out there, and if a team is solid at the line of scrimmage, you can win with one. See Tampa Bay, 2008.

But the lines are another matter. For so many years I’ve lost count, fans and media have questioned the Redskins philosophy of focusing on skill position players in the draft and free agency, relegating the line of scrimmage to later-round picks and free agent fill-ins.

Personally, I’d like to see them devote allof their early-round 2009 and 2010 draft picks, and any priority free agent targets, to assembling a class of athletic, relentless, slightly sociopathic (between the lines anyway) big men. The kind teams like the Giants, Cowboys, Steelers and Ravens have and will throw at the Redskins, making their lines look old, slow and overmatched by comparison.

I just don’t have a lot of confidence that's going to happen. I don’t recall if he has actually come out and said or just intimated it, but my clear sense is that personnel honcho Vinny Cerrato’s philosophy is that big men are easier to pick up in the later rounds and secondary free agent market than great skill players.

For the record…Vinny Cerrato is an NFL personnel man. I am guy who writes about NFL personnel men from the comfort of a desk chair. I understand I’m not “qualified” to pass judgment on Cerrato.

But I have eyes...and what I see a team with a nice complement of skill players. A team that can generally beat bad and average teams. But a team that gets physically overwhelmed at the line of scrimmage against the NFL’s best.

A precious few teams reach that level by having great quarterbacks who elevate everyone around them, masking other deficiencies. Other teams, those not fortunate enough to land The Man, follow the old standard philosophy that football, even in this highlight-driven age, is still a fundamental game won and lost in the trenches.

Own the line of scrimmage, you win. Get pushed around, you lose.

Unless the Redskins develop or find The Man behind center, my strong sense is that they have hit a plateau. They’re pretty good—and they’re going to get better as they learn Zorn’s passing game. But they’re not going to be great. Not without a serious infusion of youth, size, hunger and power in the trenches.

Watch closely Sunday night. The story of the game—and ultimately, I suspect, the season—won’t be told by guys wearing numbers in the teens, 20’s, and 80’s. As it almost always is when December rolls around and the league gets nasty, in a game not involving one of the small handful of superstar quarterbacks, it will be decided by guys wearing numbers in the 60’s, 70’s, and 90’s.

I’d like to think Messrs. Cerrato and Dan Snyder will be watching as well...though as the years go by, I’m less and less hopeful of that. If I was a pessimist, I’d probably suggest that means I will writing this same column again at this time next year.

Fortunately, I’m an optimist, so I’ll leave you with this:

Scenario 1. Jason Campbell, Colt Brennan, or someone not on the radar today will walk onto the field one of these days, clad in burgundy and gold, and become an elite quarterback, removing any doubt still lingering out there about exactly what that means in today’s NFL.

Scenario 2. Between now and next September, there will be at least a half-dozen new large, powerful and borderline crazy young behemoths in burgundy and gold putting their hands in the dirt looking to kick someone’s ass.

Scenario 3. Both of the above will happen, and you and I will spend the next ten years being completely insufferable to fans of merely mortal teams.

Hail.

Addendum

In the event you’ve come this far and your eyes aren’t bleeding already…

On the Redskins recent record of drafting linemen, my comments were not just idle speculation. History does not lie. Since drafting Chris Samuels No. 3 overall in 2000, the Redskins have drafted one (as in 1) lineman higher than the fifth round—tackle Chad Rinehart with their third-round pick (No. 96 overall) in ’08, and tackle Derrick Dockery with their third-rounder (No. 81) in 2003.

Beyond that, of the 49 total picks they have made in the eight drafts since grabbing Samuels in 2000, a total of ten have been for linemen—two 5ths, four 6ths and three 7ths.

There’s a reason the Redskins get pushed around up front.

And I haven’t forgotten free agency. The Redskins did pick up Cornelius Griffin, Andre Carter and Jason Taylor. As I’m sure you recall, none were highly sought-after by the rest of the league. As solid a run-stuffer and good guy as Griffin has been, and despite the brief sack-flash in 2007 from Carter…turns out there was a reason for that.

"Sean's Gone"

Mark Steven — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:52:56 -0500

This was written the day Sean Taylor died.

For the past few days I have searched for the right words to say one year later ... and found none. The raw immediacy may have passed, but the emotional echoes remain.

Rather than grasping for new words, then, removed as they must be from the truth of the moment, I humbly offer here the words that poured out, almost unbidden, on that cold, rainy day.

***

It is not a long drive to my son’s high school, maybe 15 minutes.

Most mornings, we share sleepy wise cracks—which of us looks worse, whose day projects out the bigger pain, the lameness of a certain radio commercial.

Sometimes we talk daily routine—remembering to turn in an order form, calling if he needs to be picked up, the logistics of an upcoming outing with friends.

Sometimes we talk a little sports—Redskins, mostly.

Once in a while, as events dictate, we talk real life. There will be other girls, they just discovered an Earth-like planet 20 light-years away, it is junior year partner, these grades count.

Tuesday morning, we rode in silence.

He had a strange look on his face as he came down the hall from the living room, where the morning news was playing, when we readied to leave the house. His voice had a flatness to it when he spoke.

“Sean’s gone.”

I was not fully awake—I didn't understand. Then I saw the look in his eyes, the awful news story I had fallen asleep thinking about came flooding back and I understood only too well. I do not remember now if it was raining as we headed out into the dark, but it always will be in my memory.

As we were pulling out into the road a minute later, a voice on the car radio confirmed the reality.

“Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died this morning from a gunshot wound suffered in his home …”

We drove in silence, staring straight ahead.

I don't really know if the time it took to get to the school took forever, or if it flashed by in an instant. Time has a strange quality to it in times of stress. What I do recall is the unsettling jumble of disjointed thoughts, feelings and impressions.

I remember thinking I should “say something.” My boy’s favorite athlete—in his eyes one of those larger-than-life figures we all hold up to the light, that help form our young selves—had just been senselessly shot down in the prime of his life. I should be a rock. Paternal. Wise.

I thought I should not let him see me cry. A father teaches his son that men are steady in a storm. And then I thought I absolutely should let him see me cry. A father should teach his son there is not shame, but honor, in sharing his humanity.

I felt the onset of fury, the urge to say something—do something—about this insanity. About yet another needless violent death, about yet another fatherless child.

I felt the wearying, familiar heaviness in my chest, as just the latest in an endless parade of man’s-inhumanity-to-man headlines unfolded around me. They say one grows colder, harder inside as one gets older. That has not been my experience.

I thought about the burgundy “21” jersey hanging in my son’s closet … and how when we watch the games together, we always exchange—exchanged—knowing grins when a Redskin flashes into the screen to blow up an opposing runner, or an opposing receiver inexplicably short-arms a promising ball.

“Taylor.”

I tried to push away thoughts about the on-field impact this would have on my favorite football team, and wished I was the kind of man who didn't have to remind himself there will be a time for that, and this was not it.

I sensed the displacement one gets when events transpire that shatter the perceived normalcy of modern daily life. How emotions ebb and flow of their own volition. How linear thinking gives way to something less structured, more organic. How one can feel utterly in the moment, yet oddly removed at the same time.

Perhaps that is what life is like for those who have lived, and still live, in circumstances not yet “civilized," as we like to think ours are, spending their days scratching out sustenance, standing watch over loved ones through uncertain nights, wondering if the coming day might be the last.

Yes, people die tragically every day. And it is true that ours would be a better world if we did not largely grow numb to that reality in our daily lives. But the truth is, it is often only when someone who has touched our own lives is lost, that the numbness disappears.

Tuesday was such a day. The reality of it was brought home through my own eyes and, more powerfully, reflected in the eyes of someone I love, someone to whom personal loss has not yet become a familiar aspect of life, someone whose shock and pain I could not shield.

My son’s experience that morning was both like and unlike mine. At his tender age, the tears were of shock, outrage, incomprehension—an unfamiliar and frightening ripping at his gut over the loss of a man he looked up to and admired.

At my not-quite-so-tender age, the tears were for all of those things, but also for the flood of unwelcome emotions the event had reached down into my soul and dragged to the surface, about the dark underbelly of the human condition.

My son never met Sean Taylor. The closest he ever got was standing outside the ropes, watching him practice with the team. Neither did I. The closest I ever got was watching Sean from across a crowded locker room after a game or having him walk past me after practice on his way to the showers.

But he was most certainly part of our lives.

We marveled at his once-in-a-generation athletic gift. We thrilled at the highlight-reel plays he made look routine. We took pride in the fearsome on-field reputation he earned as a member of our Redskins.

We watched hopefully, almost gleefully, as the birth of his first child brought a stability and maturity to his life that had sometimes seemed wanting before, which in turn brought with it the prospect of watching this unique and somewhat mysterious young man evolve into an all-time great wearing our colors.

Instead, in an instant, Sean Taylor was gone.

And so we found ourselves under the lights in the high school parking lot, my son and I, having not said a word. I think it was still raining.

It was all I could do to say what I finally managed, and I don't believe I did well trying to steady my voice. “There are no magic words.”

He looked at me, nodded. “I know.”

We usually fist-bump before he gets out of the car. This time, we found ourselves clasping hands, soul-brother style, for a long moment. Then he was opening the door and starting to climb out.

I heard myself say, “Sometimes life just doesn’t make sense.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It’s going to be a depressing day.”

All the things I have ever wanted to tell him—and my wife, two daughters, parents, brother and sister, extended family, friends, colleagues and fellow human beings who have lived and died since our species began—all the things that are always there but tend to surface only when events dictate, were on the tip of my tongue ...

Love, loss, beauty, fear, joy, pain, perspective, regret, longing, empathy, hope, and so much more.

It becomes increasingly more difficult, as one gets older and the children grow from kids into young adults, to say the truly important things in a way that conveys meaning without preaching. But you do the best you can, while you can, in a way you hope does not embarrass them, and hope they might carry with them when you are gone.

So as my own flesh and blood made to walk away into what cold reality had once again proven an uncertain, often dark world, I said the only thing I could. I told him I loved him, and didn't try to hide the tears.

You will be remembered, Sean Taylor.

Godspeed.

Redskins-Seahawks: Not Just Another Sunday Drive

Mark Steven — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:53:33 -0500

The Washington Redskins have faced two “must win” games in 2008.

The first came early, in Week Two against New Orleans. A loss would have left them 0-2, facing a tough stretch that included back-to-back road division games in the hyper-competitive NFC East.

They were peering over the edge of a cliff, one that a team with a rookie head coach and endless list of question marks might never have recovered from.

A late offensive surge, keyed by Jason Campbell’s fourth-quarter touchdown bomb to Santana Moss, averted that potential disaster and propelled the team to a 6-2 first half—a start that caught the football world by surprise and dramatically raised expectations for 2008.

The second must-win game came Sunday in Seattle, appropriately enough the very place Washington’s two most recent playoff teams have seen their January dreams snuffed out.

For the second time this year, the Redskins came through. And for the second time, with everything on the line, it was their much-maligned offense that rose to the occasion.

The early returns certainly didn’t point that direction. Against the NFL’s 29th-ranked defense, the Redskins first four possessions gave little reason to believe they’d snap out of the steady downward slide they had been on for several weeks:

3 plays, 2 yards, Punt
6 plays, 16 yards, Punt
9 plays, 53 yards, Missed FG
9 plays, 31 yards, Punt

Starting at 10:14 of the second quarter, however, Seattle’s defense either found their true level, or the Redskins offense re-established theirs. I suspect, as is usually the case, it was some combination of both.

Discounting the last possession before the half, when they got the ball at their own 32 with 29 seconds to play and ended up taking a knee, the rest of the Redskins’ offensive possessions on the day played out like this:

11 plays, 62 yards, TD
11 plays, 49 yards, FG
3 plays, 35 yards, TD
10 plays, 64 yards, FG
11 plays, 74 yards, Fumble

The overall trend is clear; they controlled the ball, avoided mistakes, converted third downs, and, most importantly, scored points. The last two possessions in particular are the ones that really stood out.

The Redskins took over on their own 31 with 13:19 remaining in the game. Seattle had just scored to tie it up, 17-17, swinging momentum their way and igniting their famously disruptive “12th man” crowd.

The Redskins answered. A methodical 10-play drive, 64-yard drive, burning four minutes, culminated in a chip-shot field goal to reclaim the lead and quiet the crowd.

They had a golden chance to score seven there, but were unable to convert on 3rd-and-inches at the Seattle five. Campbell’s short roll-out pass to Mike Sellers bounced off the fullback’s hands and fell incomplete. I would have loved to see a simple QB sneak behind Randy Thomas there (less room for error), but that’s with the benefit of hindsight. Bottom line, the Redskins offense rose to the occasion and reestablished control of the game.

The last drive, though, is the one that had, and has, me smiling.

After the short FG put them up 20-17, the Redskins defense held and forced a Seattle punt. Seahawks punter Jon Ryan executed a perfect lob wedge that was downed at the Redskins four-yard line, where the offense took over with 7:05 to go.

As I suspect was the case with many of you, at that point I was thinking three line plunges and punting right back. With the Redskins backed up in their own end and the 12th man raining madness around them, I was thinking best case was probably a punt that would set Seattle up at midfield. From there, a tying field goal might have seemed a good outcome...and a dagger of a touchdown a distinct possibility.

So what happened?

The Redskins answered. Again.

Other than Campbell’s bomb to Santana Moss to save the game—and arguably the young season—against the Saints in week two, what happened next was the most important and potentially resonant contribution the offense has made all year.

Portis for 9
Portis for 11
Portis for 20

First down, WAS 44. Time remaining, 5:15.

Loudest crowd in pro football? Reduced to a dull roar.

Betts for 3
Betts for 1
Campbell to Moss for 13

First down, SEA 39. Time remaining, 3:11.

12th man? Sitting, grumbling

Me? Standing, clenching fists.

Campbell for 8 (!)
Portis for 1
Portis for 6

First down, SEA 24. Time remaining, 1:46.

Game over.

Except, of course, it wasn’t.

Betts for one...and tell me you’re kidding.

I could write an entire column on that play, but I won’t. Shawn Springs’ interception off a bad decision by Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck on the next play rendered it moot.

Point is, but for a flukey brain-lapse (it was a fluke, right Mr. Betts?) the game would have been over. Two safe line plunges or kneel-downs would have left them with two solid fourth-down options:

One, a makeable (around 40 yard) FG attempt for a six-point lead with less than 30 ticks left, or two, another line plunge, to bleed more precious seconds off the clock and leave Seattle around their own 30 with no timeouts, a wing, and a prayer.

From their own goal line, facing a defense primed to stop the run and buoyed by an ear-splitting din, the Redskins calmly drove the ball down Seattle's proverbial throat.

The numbers—11 plays, 74 yards, 5:37 time of possession—don’t begin to tell the story. That wasn’t just another Sunday drive. It was clutch. It was big time. And it may prove dividends down the road we cannot begin to quantify today.

It doesn’t necessarily mean Washington is ready to run the ball down New York and Baltimore's throats the next two weeks. Even with the madness of their crowd behind them, Seattle’s defense is not in the same class as the Giants and Ravens. And it won’t necessarily propel the Redskins on a second-half playoff run.

But the kind of drive—the kind of drives—the Redskins put together, when they absolutely had to have them, are the kinds of building blocks contenders are made of. Those blocks don’t come easy, and they don’t come often.

You earn them, in the toughest circumstances, when things seem to be slipping away.

The Redskins aren't done building—perennial contenders are not quick in the making—but Sunday they added one damn fine block of granite to the foundation.

There is still plenty to be concerned about...

NFL teams pay attention—they’ll be attacking the edges of the Redskins run defense. The defensive line still generates dangerously little pass rush up the middle. Offensively the passing game is still hit-and-miss, with a quarterback learning on the fly and a line better suited to run than pass blocking.

And oh yeah, the head coach is still a rookie.

But those problems also existed when the Redskins were 4-1 and 6-2—they simply overcame them. Sunday on the west coast, they overcame them again, and for the second time this year, it was their work-in-progress offense that stepped up and took over a game the team simply had to have.

Sure, it could be the two seize-the-moment drives were a tease...as much a function of an opponents’ defensive shortcomings as a re-emergence of the Redskins offense...but it didn’t feel like on Sunday night. And today, with a few days to digest the whole thing, it still doesn’t.

Pushed to the brink in a fiercely hostile environment, with a game and arguably realistic playoff hopes on the line, the Redskins dug deep and went toe-to-toe with failure.

They’re still standing.

Never underestimate that. The next time this team finds itself staring into the abyss, when they absolutely have to dig in their heels to make a stand, they’ll find the footing that much firmer.

Hail.

2008 Washington Redskins: A Dream Deferred

Mark Steven — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:10:11 -0500

Dallas 14, Washington 10

I wasn't much fun to be around Sunday night.

I went into the Dallas rematch with the mindset that this game, bottom line, would finally tell me what kind of team we have in the 2008 Redskins. Were they closer to the team we saw watched thump the Cowboys and Eagles early in the year, or the team we’ve since watched slowly grind to an offensive halt?

The answer was both clear and gut-wrenching.

Oh, I know the Redskins could still bounce back and make a late playoff run. The early success certainly showed they’re capable of excellent football. But having had some fundamental shortcomings exposed the past few weeks, I’d not put money on it.

Doesn’t mean I’m not bullish on Jim Zorn and the future—I am. But, with apologies to George Allen, it doesn’t look like that future is now.

The game itself was death by paper cut. No single error or mistake defined it, it was an accumulation of mistakes and missed opportunities that, taken together, were enough to do the Redskins in.

I won’t rub too much salt into the wound, but for illustration …

• After scoring on their first drive to grab a 7-0 lead, the Redskins get a turnover on DeAngelo Hall’s interception. Huge play—golden chance to capitalize and take control. Crowd going nuts. Three plays later, Antwaan Randle El can’t handle a short third-down conversion pass, and the Redskins go three and out.

• Two possessions later, still up 7-0, after another interception the Redskins put together a nice drive, moving from their own 20 to the Dallas 36. It’s 3rd-and-6. They’re on a roll. Five yards puts them in good field range range for 10-0; a first down puts them in good position to look for more. Instead, they get flagged for an illegal substitution. Then burn a timeout trying to sort it out. On 3rd-and-11, Dallas looses the hounds and Campbell gets sacked back to the 49.

• On the subsequent punt, Rock Cartwright almost pulls off a huge special teams play downing the ball at the Dallas one. Rather than leave it be (it appeared to have stopped on its own) or just tap the ball back toward the field of play with a hand, he dives on it, with 50 yards of full-tilt momentum behind him. Not surprisingly, the play doesn’t get made. Touchback. Ball comes out to the 20.

How many of you turned to whoever you were watching the game with at that moment and said, “Watch—now Dallas drives 80 yards for seven.”

I did.

• Cartwright almost pulls off a monster play on the ensuing kickoff, breaking it up the right sideline, but gets run out of bounds at the Dallas 37. Big, but not monster. Monster would have been seven points on the scoreboard, a total momentum swing and FedEx Field lifting off its moorings. The 'Skins get one first down, bog down and settle for three.

• Washington opens the second half with a crisp drive, going from their own 13 to the Dallas 35, where they face 3rd-and-2. From the shotgun, Campbell throws low and hot to a blanketed Santana Moss at the sideline—a tough chance even if he's uncovered. He's not. Somehow, Dallas CB Terence Newman picks it off. It's the kind of play that makes toes curl and bowels tighten. Another scoring opportunity gone.

Another paper cut.

I could go on, of course, but by now you’re as bummed as I am. The short version is that the entire second half was a continuing accumulation of “almost,” “what the--" and “oh shit” moments. Missed blocks. Missed passes. Blue tidal waves rolling over Campbell. Offensive play calling that surprised no one. Defensive blitzes that were telegraphed, didn’t get there anyway and left people uncovered downfield.

By the end of the third quarter, I knew. There would be no fourth-quarter heroics. No surge. No finish, as I wrote so proudly about this team just five weeks ago. And I hate to admit it, but right about then is when, with a deep sigh, I toggled the switch in my mind from “2008 Contender” to “Just Another Team.”

A two-play sequence in the fourth quarter defined the game, and the current state of the team, in a microcosm.

Washington leads 10-7, with 11:29 to go. Dallas has a 3rd-and-7 at the Redskins' 33. With a defensive stop, Dallas is looking at a 50-yarder to tie. Tony Romo drops to pass. The Redskins apply pressure from edges, but nothing up the middle. Romo steps up into the gap, and at the last possible instant, flips a Favresque little shovel pass toward Miles Austin, who gathers it in and falls forward for the first down at the 25.

How many of you turned to whoever you were watching the game with at that moment and said, “Watch—now they’ll go end zone.”

I did.

And they did.

On the next play, Romo stands comfortably in the pocket, and throws a seam pass to someone named Martellus Bennett at the goal line over rookie safety Chris Horton, who is all but wearing Bennett's jersey (Miles Austin? Martellus Bennett? I remember when we used to lose to guys named Staubach, Pearson, Aikman and Irvin). Touchdown.

14-10.

Why were those two plays a microcosm? Because today's Redskins wouldn't have made either play.

For one, Jason Campbell doesn’t have the ball-handling skills to pull off the kind of helter-skelter, ad-lib third-down play Romo (even with a pinky cast) did. We saw the shovel pass from Campbell once earlier this year, I believe against Philly, and it wasn’t pretty.

Faced with the collapsing pocket on third down, today’s Campbell would have either faded back from the pressure, tried to run up the middle or forced a last-second overhand pass. And none of those would have resulted in a first down—not the way things have been going.

And on the touchdown play … the Redskins passing game is so out of whack, and its trigger man clearly thinking too hard instead of just playing, that that pass would never have been thrown. Because the receiver wasn’t open. He was blanketed, not just by Horton, but by a rapidly closing Laron Landry.

There was every bit as much chance that ball gets batted around and even picked off than there was some rookie backup making a great catch in traffic. That play was high-risk, high-reward defined, and the Redskins simply aren’t in that market right now. Zorn and Campbell, for all the promise and synergy they showed early, over the past few weeks have produced a passing game so conservative Governor Palin wouldn’t vote for it.

Pa-rump-um.

You’ll notice I’ve said little about the defense. I could pick nits with the fourth-quarter collapse against the run, but I won’t. They were never going to be the ’85 Bears or ‘00 Ravens—units you could count on to hold teams to 10 or less every week. They’re just not built that way. They're not big or young enough up front.

As it was, they surrendered 14 points, despite almost no support from their own offense. Ten NFL teams gave up more than 14 points this week, and won. No team won scoring 10 or less.

I will note that the defense—while coming up with two turnovers—recorded its 21st consecutive game without a touchdown (London Fletcher INT vs AZ, Week Six, 2007). Not sure how that stacks up against other teams, but I suspects it’s at or near the bottom of the league.

So where does all this leave us?

Depends how you look at it.

At 6-4, the Redskins are smack dab in the middle of the playoff hunt. Having dropped two in a row and three out of four at home, however, and having stagnated offensively, any last remnants of the early-season momentum and confidence are gone.

And some of the problems—an utterly ineffective offensive line, gritty but not difference-making quarterback, and pass rush challenged defense—don’t appear likely to quickly resolve themselves in 2008.

Who knows, maybe they’ll right the ship, beat Seattle in their house and come home frisky and ready for another shot at the defending champions. As cold a dose of reality as the two consecutive losses have been, two consecutive wins now would certainly re-light the fires. But the benefit of the doubt has definitely shifted.

As I said before, I’m still bullish on the long-term future of the Jim Zorn, Jason Campbell Redskins. And depending on what happens over the next two weeks maybe I’ll feel differently again.

But for now, in the cold light of day, they’ve become a dream deferred.

Redskins Crowdgate: Butt Out

Mark Steven — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:34:43 -0500

Have we really fallen so far, Redskins Nation? There’s one word to describe the now two-week-long hysteria over Crowdgate:

Embarrassing.

* FedEx Field is the largest stadium in the NFL. More seats equals more butts. Ours and theirs. Get used to it.

* Washington DC remains a city of transplants. There are always going to be fans of other teams putting their butts in our seats. Get used to it.

* Ever been to a game at FedEx Field? If you have, you know getting your butt in and out of there is a pain in it. Now put that game on a Monday night. Figure the game ends around midnight. Know what time your butt is getting home? Neither do I, and that’s the point. But count on being the only car moving in your neighborhood except maybe Johnny Law doing his rounds.

* Checked your 401K lately? If you work for a living you feel like you’ve spent the last couple months retrieving soap in a prison shower. If your alarm is going to go off at oh-dark-thirty Tuesday morning, and some anonymous on-line schmuck is willing to pay you three times face for your two tickets, there’s a decent chance you’re not going to check the color of his NFL underoos.

But enough wasting time on the peripheral reasons.

Know why Steelers fans on Monday night were a factor? Because the Redskins played butt-awful offensive football. And because the entire team spent the first half looking gift horses in the mouth, extending a gilded invitation to the visitors to take control of the damn game.

This isn’t complicated.

If Jason Campbell hits a wide open Santana Moss at the goal line on the second offensive possession, and the Redskins go up 10-0, know what you would have heard at FedEx?

This.

If Carlos Rogers doesn’t drop the Redskins weekly “thanks, but no thanks” pick-six opportunity, and they go up 13-3, playing as well defensively as they have since Richie Petitbone and his various compilations (anyone?) waddled the RFK sidelines, know what you would have heard at FedEx?

This.

And if the Redskins had been the butt-kickers instead of the butt-kickees all night, know what you would have heard and seen from the “loyal opposition?”

This.

Okay, so the Steelers fans were irritating. But please, put it in perspective. If the game on the field rated an “eight” on the Redskin Fan’s Great Scale of Irritations given enough missed opportunities to choke a horse, a bunch of visiting fans waving cute little canary-yellow towels rated maybe a "three."

The one substantive complaint might be that the Redskins had to use a silent count on offense a few times. Obviously, you’d rather not have to do that on your home field. But on the other hand...

1) It’s the NFL—you start working on silent counts in May.

2) The Redskins brought the problem on themselves by screwing up several golden opportunities to take a chokehold on the game early and make opposing fans mute. And moot.

Oh and before I forget … now that as a fan base we've spent so much time publicly wringing our hands over crowd noise, be assured the always classy contingent of Dallas fans planning to show up this weekend, as they do whenever their team has a winning record, will take it as encouragement and a challenge to try to one-up the Pittsburghers.

As ye reap...you know?

So, want this all to go away Sunday night? Me too. More than I can say in polite company. Then here’s what has to happen:

First and foremost, the Redskins have to play like they did earlier this season against Dallas—with a nasty disposition and butt-kicking attitude. By playing physical and smart football. And most importantly, by converting on the opportunities that will come up.

As for the fans, you already know what to do; the only thing fans can do to actually impact a game. I’ll say it anyway just in case anyone’s forgotten. Be loud. Be loud at the right times. And if the Redskins should happen to be losing at some point, or even stumbling around shooting off toes like they did two weeks ago, don’t boo, you don’t sit on your hands whining about the other teams’ fans, rally and scream for your team even louder.

You know, help them.

Don’t go thuging on fans wearing the wrong colors, either. We all know NFL cities where they seem to think that’s how one compensates for inadequate manhood—but that’s never been us. I’d like to think that being above that was something Redskins fans were proud of, not looking to imitate.

Forget the fans in blue Sunday night. If their team is smacking the Redskins around at some point, they’re going to be loud—just like Redskins fans are loud for their team on the road.

And if the Redskins are doing the smacking, count on the Cowboy fans in attendance to be inconsequential drops in a 90,000-strong sea of fans wearing the right colors.

The Steelers fans got into the Redskins heads on the field, as evidenced by all the commentary in the days after the game. They got into the Redskins fans heads too, as evidenced by the last two embarrassing weeks of talking about it (which I now find myself grudgingly contributing to).

Kick them the hell out. I’m begging you.

Here’s a guarantee: When the Redskins become consistent winners again—which they appear well on their way to doing—opposing fans at FedEx, even those of good teams with passionate and mobile fan bases, will sit there quietly and take their medicine. The burgundy-and-gold tidal wave around them will allow zero room for interpretation as to whose house it is.

Forget the other sideshows. Be loud. Be consistent.

Be Redskins fans.

And as for the Redskins themselves...fellas, just win. Do that, and this kind of ridiculous, embarrassing sideshow will up and vanish like the proverbial fart in the wind.

Hail.

***

Redskins-Cowboys: WWJD

Mark Steven — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:37:07 -0500

The old NFL saw that says every NFL game counts the same in the standings is true, but it’s also true that not every game counts the same in determining the arc of a season.

One could make the case, for instance, that the only measurable impact of the Washington Redskins game against the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night will be determining whether they head into the 2008 season's stretch run at 6-4 or 7-3. But that would be tunnel vision.

The Redskins aren’t going to play just another game this weekend. They aren’t going to play just another division game. They’re not even going to play just another division game against their fiercest rival. Way I see it, they’re going to play the 2008 season’s defining game.

Overstating the case? You decide.

The Redskins recovered quickly from their season-opening clunker against the NY Giants, sprinting to a 4-1 start. They earned solid consecutive road wins over two favored division opponents along the way, and in doing so, reset the expectations bar for head coach Jim Zorn’s debut season.

Back in August, the idea of a start like that would have slapped a goofy grin on even the dourest Redskins fan's mug. After Washington dispatched Philadelphia on the road to go 4-1, with three “beatable opponents” in a row upcoming on their schedule, any lid there might have been on 2008 expectations blew off.

With the winless St. Louis Rams coming to town, all was right in the Redskins universe, and while fans didn’t do it openly (much), I suspect more than a few found themselves entertaining January dreams.

However...

A slow return to earth began that next week, with the self-immolation home loss to the Rams in which the Redskins quite literally let a game they dominated slip through their fingers. Then came two, shall we say, less-than-artful wins over Cleveland and Detroit. The Redskins won behind solid defense and just enough offense, but neither was the kind of game likely to end up in your permanent DVD library.

And then, at 6-2 and facing their first Big Stage game since the opener, they slipped on a black and yellow banana peel on Monday Night Football. The thud you heard was Redskins Nation’s 2008 expectation level...re-adjusting. Remember the feeling right after the Philadelphia game, as surprise turned to elation turned to brimming, exuberant confidence? I won’t say it’s gone...but it can see gone from here.

The Redskins had an opportunity on the national stage last Monday night to announce their arrival to themselves and to the world. To prove they were a contender this season, despite all the odds arrayed against it. Instead, agonizingly, they wilted under the bright lights and pressure of the big stage. They could not summon that one last ounce of energy, or that one last bit of focus, that inevitably spell the difference in big games.

Defensively they were stellar...until they weren’t, when it mattered most. They dropped another potential game-changing interception; one that had touchdown and a 13-3 second quarter lead written all over it.

And, in an ironic twist of fate, they knocked Steelers starting QB Ben Roethlisberger out of the game, only to see his backup, DC’s own Byron Leftwich, come out firing with a “nothing to lose, let it fly” mentality...and couldn’t stop him.

Offensively, the Redskins were bested mentally and physically all night. We’ll never know how much of that was attributable to their own poor play, or how much was Pittsburgh simply playing lights out, but the result were the same. Washington was unable to sustain drives, nor make the “big play”—the kind of play that instantly changes the complexion of a game.

And so they lost. Convincingly. And suddenly the 6-3 record, given the heightened expectations just a month ago, looks a whole lot better in print than it feels in the gut.

Which brings us to Dallas. At home. Once again under the bright national lights.

My instinct is telling me that how they come out of this one will set the tone for the rest of the season.

If the Redskins lose, it will confirm what I’m sure many, like me, are quietly fearing; that the 6-2 start was misleading. That while it showed the team has the personnel to be a contender, the early success gave a false impression they could sustain that level in 2008.

And I think it would portend a weekly scratch and claw battle just to qualify for the playoffs as low-seed wild card.

Not bad considering preseason expectations, but a definite letdown given the early power play.

If the Redskins play well and beat the Cowboys, however, and show signs of coming out of the offensive shell (funk?) they have settled into the last few weeks, at 7-3 and having finally cleared the “big game” hurdle, they’re right smack dab back in the middle of things. Re-energized. Walking tall. Looking good. And, barring a total collapse, right on the Giants’ heels, fighting for the NFC East title until the snow flies.

Okay, so maybe I've convinced you it's a big game. Duh, right? What matters now is how are they are going to win it.

WWJD.

I wrote last week that for the Redskins to beat Pittsburgh, Jason Campbell was going to have to raise his game. He did not. Surprisingly, he regressed, playing his worst football since opening night.

And it wasn’t just about the pass rush, either. Sure Pittsburgh pressed him—it’s what they do, and they’re good at it. Thing is, Dallas tried that back in week four, too. Only in that game Campbell made the Cowboys pay for it, stepping up, avoiding pressure and hitting passes downfield until he forced them to back off.

Against the Steelers, Jason had opportunities to beat the pressure as well, he just didn’t make the plays. Most glaringly, he badly under threw an open Santana Moss at the goal line on the Redskins' second possession, after Cornelius Griffin’s interception set them up at the Cowboys 30-yard line, already holding 3-0 lead.

Had he been on target, the Redskins would have been up 10-0, with all the confidence and momentum in the world, and we might be talking about a very different game this week. And it wasn’t just that play, either. Jason simply had a bad night, mentally and physically.

Well, he has a chance Sunday night to show it was an anomaly. Because like he was against Pittsburgh, Jason Campbell is again the Redskins key to winning.

Particularly so given that Clinton Portis, if he plays at all, will be at less than full speed.

Particularly so because the same seeds of doubt about how good this 2008 really is that many fans are feeling right now are probably finding purchase in the locker room as well.

This is what big time quarterbacks do—they’re at the best in the biggest games, when their team needs them most.

So what will Jason do? The answer to that question will determine what we're talking about Monday morning.

I don’t think the Redskins can go into this game planning to pound Dallas with the run—not with a gimpy Portis, Ladell Betts seeing his first action in a month and an off-the-street Shawn Alexander being, well...not a hammer.

Much of the Redskins early success this year, including their two “quality wins” over Dallas and Philadelphia, came because the defense was stingy and the offense was unpredictable and aggressive. The last few weeks, however, offensively they have started to look like a unit that believes it can simply line up, run the ball, drive methodically down the field and score touchdowns. They aren’t. Not yet.

Nine games have not been long enough to ramp up Zorn’s modified “west coast” passing game. And that’s not an indictment—it was unrealistic to expect it before the season started, and it’s unrealistic to expect it today. What would be an indictment is if they were unwilling to adjust to changed circumstances at midstream.

To beat Dallas, and be a factor in late December, the Redskins will need Jason Campbell to play like the loose, confident player we saw earlier this year, not the overthinking, tight player we saw against Pittsburgh. They’re going to have to force the Dallas defense to react to them, as opposed to the other way around as we saw last Monday night.

We don’t know what caused the change. One the one hand, it could have been Campbell simply having a bad night, tightening up under the bright lights and in the face of a superior Pittsburgh defensive effort. On the other hand, it could have been he was trying too hard to do what he thought Coach Zorn wanted, and as a result too careful with the ball, unable to pull the trigger.

You might get away with that against average defenses—not against the best.

Maybe Zorn has seen something different on film, but from where I sit, it’s a no-brainer how the Redskins should approach Sunday night offensively. Forget “balance” early—I’d come out firing.

I’d put Campbell in the shotgun right from the start, with an unequivocal green light to attack downfield.

I’d make damn sure Dallas is aware of Santana Moss.

I’d target Chris Cooley early.

I’d even send the rookies, Devin Thomas and the Malcolm “Rumor” Kelly, up the sidelines deep a couple of times. I don’t even really care if they’re open. If they get single coverage, throw it up and let them try to make a play. If not, throw it five yards over their heads. I’d just like to see, and more importantly have the opposition see, that the Redskins are willing to test them.

I don’t expect Dallas to come out playing the Redskins honest Sunday night. I expect them to drop one or both safeties, crowd the line of scrimmage with everyone else and (can’t believe we’re here again) force Washington to show they can stretch the field vertically. Or are at least willing to try.

If the Redskins can’t, or won’t, and instead continue to compress their offense into a 15-yard window beyond the line of scrimmage, I fully expect to see more and more blitzes coming after Campbell as the game progresses, looking to force him into the same kind of mistakes he made against the Steelers.

The defense has given no reason to doubt they’ll play well and, at worst, keep Washington in the game. Until they show me otherwise, they've earned the benefit of the doubt.

And the odds are increasingly in their favor as the weeks go by that at some point they’ll hold on to a ball and if not score themselves, at least give Campbell and the offense a short field to work with.

It’s up to Jim Zorn to put Campbell in the right situations and allow or encourage him—depending on which is necessary—to trust his reads and his arm. But, ultimately, inasmuch as any can come down to the performance of any one player...as goes Jason Campbell Sunday night, so will go the Redskins.

Come Monday morning, we’ll know a lot more about the 2008 version of Jason Campbell. And unless my crystal ball is totally messing with me, we'll have a much clearer sense of how the rest of the 2008 season will play out for the burgundy and gold.

Hey, it’s Redskins-Cowboys.

It’s supposed to be big.

Washington Redskins: Three Keys to Beating the Steelers on Monday Night

Mark Steven — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:35:57 -0500

I originally had a longer list working, but in the end I distilled it down to three keys. Well...four, actually. Couldn't help myself.

See if you don't agree.

1. Jason Campbell

Campbell will need to take another step up. His overall play this year has been above reproach—his zero interceptions reflect excellent decision-making with the ball. But that care has not come without a cost.

The kind of quick-strike touchdowns that can break close, defensive games open rarely come from conservative decisions; they more often than not come from bold downfield forays to receivers that are, by conservative standards, “covered.”

I’ve been watching Campbell closely for signs of finding enough of a comfort level in the new passing scheme—and in Jim Zorn’s trust factor—to start taking some chances downfield...and my instinct is telling me the Redskins will need him to take the risk tonight. Ball control and field goals won’t be enough.

2. Avoid the Slow Start

The Redskins have developed a troubling habit of winning the yardage and time of possession battles early, but failing to turn them into points. That won’t cut it tonight either. Falling behind by more than a score against a pass-rush-happy team like Pittsburgh, particularly with a slowed or absent Chris Samuels on Jason Campbell’s blind side, could be too much to overcome.

Here’s hoping the Redskins come out swinging from the opening whistle and are the ones to set the early tone—not the other way around, as has been the case since the Philadelphia game in week four.

3. Catch the Damn Ball

There will be opportunities for Redskins defenders to pick off Ben Roethlisberger tonight—off deflections at the line of scrimmage, and on the kind of attacking passes mentioned above. Roethlisberger is not shy about taking risks with the ball or forcing it into coverage.

In what shapes up as a classic defensive slugfest (now watch this one end 38-35), turnovers and field position will almost certainly be the difference. Washington simply cannot continue to let those opportunities slip through their fingers—not tonight.

And one to grow on:

4. Smack ‘Em in the Mouth

Pittsburgh is one of the few teams in the league that comes into a game with a reputation that can have a tangible impact on the result. Baltimore and Philadelphia have earned it with their defense over the past decade. The Raiders used to have it before a decade of Al Davis’s ridiculous excesses frittered it away.

And the Pittsburgh Steelers most definitely have it, having managed to keep it alive for 30 years since crafting it during their magical run in the '70s.

Tonight, on their home field, under the bright lights of Monday Night Football’s national stage, the Redskins must match the intensity and physicality you can be sure Pittsburgh will bring to the table. And they need to do it right from the start.

What holds true for the schoolyard bully holds true at the highest level of sport—the way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him and make it clear you’re not backing down. And if that’s not enough, you smack him in the mouth and let him know you’re going to be there all day.

***

Tonight’s game is a great opportunity for the Redskins to take the next step; to go from “surprising first half story” to “team to be reckoned with" down the stretch.

Losing to the Steelers wouldn’t be a disaster—at 6-3, Washington would still be in prime position to make a playoff run. But it would be a huge missed opportunity to announce to the league—and more importantly, themselves—that they are now one of those teams you’d better have your chinstrap locked down tight against from the opening gun.

Nike had it right, Redskins.

Just do it.