ES Coverage

Atlanta GA-. Welcome to the Extremeskins coverage of the first preseason game and the beginning of the  season.  I'm Hap Haszard in the press box and Zoony will be covering the sidelines.  A few of the players are on the field warming up and stretching Falcons on one end and Redskins on the other.

Great view of the field from the press box, much better than Fedex or TampaBay which are the other stadiums I've been at.  You would have to pay good money for these seats.

A few warm-up pictures

Redskins are wearing white jerseys and gold pants, Falcons red jersey and white pants.

12 minutes until game time and the stands are flat empty.

And the Redskins are taking the field faint boos are heard, from the few Atlanta fans here.

Redskins first team moving the ball well.  Big run but holding penalty caused 1st and 20.

Redskins first series resulted in a 54 yard punt to Falcons 1.

Redskins D held Atlanta to 3 yards on 3 plays, Atlanta punts and McCoy is in for Washington's second series.

Second series, Redskins 41 yard FG by Hopkins.

Redskins kickoff resulted in a touchback, Atlanta's ball at the 25 yard line.

Atlanta's second possession was -1 yards, Defense is balling.

Washington starts 3rd series at the 28 yard line.  Run game still needs a lot of work, 3 and out for Washington

Atlanta's 3rd series 2 first downs. End of the first quarter.

Redskins 3 Atlanta 0

2nd quarter

47 yard pass to Washington 12

Run of 10 yards to Redskins 2 ylard line. False start 1st and goal from 7 now 3rd and goal from the 11.  Defensive penalty 5 yards to 6 yard line, incomplete pass, FG Atlanta. Tied at 3.

Washington's first series 2nd half - McCoy at  QB - 3rd down and 5 - McCoy runs for 8 to get a first down.  Washington's run game needs a lot of work.

False start on the Redskins, 2nd down 16, 3rd down and 11, 4th down and punt.  Huge pass by Atlanta 68 yards first down Washington 4, run to  foot line, TD Atlanta 10 -3

3 and out for Redskins after a nice return by Thorpe.

Atlanta is marching down the field against the Redskins D.  Cravens stopped a run in the backfield. He is having a good game. Despite penalties, Atlanta converts a 42 yard FG to make it 13 - 3 at the half.

Halftime

 The Redskins played decent defense during the first quarter, but really stunk it up in the 2nd quarter.  The offense really wasn't burning down the barn either.  I know its preseason and all but it looks from here like there is a lot of work that needs to be done.  Now its time for the guys who will be working at 7-11 in a month or so to show what they can do.

Third Quarter

And they just did kick return by Atlanta 101 yards its now 20-3, Hail.

I know this is preseason, and the first team was only in for a series so I'm not upset over the play but there is going to have to be some work on penalties. They are causing a lot of problems.

Sudfeld in at QB - first down for the Redskins. Run loss of 2, 2nd and 12. about a 40 yd pass dropped by Ross. 3rd and 12, incomplete 4th down. Punt time.

5 million yard punt actually 64 yards.

Atlanta's either 3rd or 4th string QB is in now.   Atlanta runs and Cravens stopped it in the back field for 5 yard loss.  Pass to Redskins 42, pass to Redskins 17, run for 1 yard stopped by Trail. 4th and 11. 36 yard field goal is good. 23-3 Atlanta.

Redskins are good running and passing to Atlanta 17. Run to 1. Flags everywhere on next play.  Offset penalties replay first down at 2 foot line. TD Redskins Kelly.  23-10

The game on both both teams is getting sloppy. Cravens is really having a decent game but he is in against 3rd and 4th string players now.  Redskins' roughing passer penalty gives Atlanta a first and 10. Atlanta has been going deep on the Redskins, this time it didn't work. 4th down. Delay of game by Atlanta.

The Atlanta crowd is amusing themselves by doing the wave. Its a bit hard to do with so few in the stadium.  Redskins punt out of bounds. Atlanta 1st at 30.

End of the 3rd Quarter Atlanta 23 Redskins 10

Fumble Redskins recover at Atlanta 34. Play being reviewed. Confirmed to be a fumble.

Redskins run for 3, run for first down, 3rd down incomplete pass. 4th down. Redskins going for it. Pass to Ross for 1st down. Zebra error, reset the play clock and try it again. Hey its preseason for them too. First down Redskins, Run gain of 5, Run gain of 2, Pass TD. Extra Point is good. 23-17

Things are getting so sloppy its not worth reporting on whats happening.  I'll report scores if any happen.

After a series of defensive penalties, Atlanta misses a field goal attempt. The Redskins take over and now the offense is producing their own penalties. 1 minute left in the game.  

Over all I would say the Redskins played a very sloppy game.  Same penalties on multiple plays so I'm sure they can be corrected.  I think I counted 5 lined up in the neutral zone by the D, that can be corrected.  What worries me is the running game, I did not see much there. The secondary gave up some really long plays, not a couple but several.

Check out ES's exclusive sideline photos from zoony HERE

Zoony threw this question out last night around the 3rd QTR in the Game thread. 

After their rain soaked performance last night against the Bucs, who do you Cut & who do you Keep? 

Think of it as the ES version of either F/M/K  or Highlander - There can only be one.

Below are their per game rushing stats:

Against Atlanta

Against NY Jets

Against Buffalo

Against Tampa Bay

Hello humanoids. @TK and I will be live from the Linc today.

This blog is meant to be an interactive experience. That means we need you... the people... This isn't going to JUST be an info thread. You'll get that, of course... but witty banter will be bandied about like chocolate in Willy Wonka's factory. So what does this mean? Post. What can you post? Anything. Ask questions. Ask about the food, the Wooly Mammoth (where the rally was, and as @superozman would "it was lit ???"), ask about Theismann's hair (he's not here but ask anyways, I'm sure it's wonderful)... Ask about a specific player... Ask about anything. Literally. I'll even tell you what I ate for breakfast.

Check back here for more...

Some tidbits: 

Scherff, according to a birdie, is likely to play.

Reed is likely to play.

Joe Barry had a sweet hoodie on last night at the hotel

TK couldn't get his crowbar through security (not sure why he wanted me to relay this info... weird, right?)

Philadelphia was a nightmare to drive in last night, but our Uber driver was badass. She had a Mike Tyson style tattoo and she drove with an aggressiveness that rivaled anyone. She bobbed and wove like Ali in his prime. Shout out to her.

Follow me on the Twitter @KDawg_ES

im not sure "in position" means what they think it means.

11:39 AM: Sundberg is warming up. We're wearing white on burgundy. Love that look.

11:42 AM: Inactives: Sudfield, Ross, Jones, Blackmon, Long, Lauvao, Lanier

Sullivan starting at C, Kouandjio starting at LG, Ihenacho starting for Blackmon at safety.

Noon: Way punting 55-60 yards from LOS in warm ups. Perfect spirals. WAY to Punt! Get it? Way to punt?

12:05 PM: 

TK found a ride while he takes pics. What's with the hoodie though, man?

12:22 PM: The referees mic is working. File that under, "things you didn't know you cared about..." but I know you do and I have your backs.

12:36 PM: Cousins needs just 356 yards to break the single season passing record that he owns. Has four games to do it. Needs around 1,200 for 5000. Would need to average ~300/game. Doable.

12:50 PM: 

its 10 minutes before kickoff. Where is everyone? Place looks like their trophy case.

First D drive: Linebackers are concerning me. Slow to fill on run, too deep on passes. Tells me they are nervous about getting beat behind them.

First O drive: second down draw an iffy ar best call. Probably had a tendency they were trying to bust and out thought ourselves. Crowder ran his route short of the chains.

2nd O Drive: Eagles watching Crowder like a hawk. Need Garçon to keep coming through.

End of the 1st quarter: Skins look sloppy and ill prepared. Eagles taking away Crowder and attacking Dunbar. Skins need to shore that up immediately.

Defensive issues: Inside backers struggling to expand on flat routes. OLB/DEs rushing means someone has to get to flat. Safeties being run off. That's also why our ILBs are so deep on passes and hesitant to fill on run. ILB is a large issue.

Touchdown Drive: Great job mixing it up and keeping the running game involved. Good play calling and execution there. Important. McCloughan, Santos et al should be proud of that one.

Norman anticipated a short pass and got beat deep on a 3rd down play. It's what you get with him. Important to note, Kerrigan played man to man on TE to flats on the second third down attempt on that drive. Good adjustment.

Halftime thoughts: Need to adjust coverage scheme. Part of the issue is cornerback being a barren wasteland of talent. We can't leave the flats open all game. LBs need to trust instincts and be more aggressive. Offense needs to keep Kelley involved and find Garcon. He is the x-factor for the O. They are more worried about Crowder and Jackson. He has to get targets. 

Jackson TD: They had been setting that up all game long. Great play. Desean's burst is a huge asset to this offense.

That TD to Garcon should have put Cousins over 4000 yards on the season.

The personal foul on Sproles was a personal foul by rule. But in no way was it dirty. Hard football play that timed out wrong for Everett.

Let's see what you guys think in the poll above & feel free to discuss in the comments below.

Game time.  

Fill in the blanks below & let's see who gets it right. The winner gets a cheerleader (wait, do we still even have those?)  out of petty cash. 

Alright. Ok then...

A~hem...

The winner will get a 1 on 1 Skype counseling call with @Jumbo. Wait. ****! He can barely type, there's no way he'll be able to figure out Skype.....  

I got it. 

Bragging rights. 

The winner will receive BRAGGING RIGHTS. 

What? That's not enough? Fine. I'll throw in a bonus. However, you're really gonna have to work for it.  

Call the entire Draft for the WFT before the Draft starts. Anything submitted after the start of the Draft will be disqualified.

*In the event of multiple correct predictions, the winner will be based on earliest time/date stamp.

Hello ES, 

It's your friendly neighborhood TSO here and I'll be providing ES press box Gameday coverage for the next two preseason home games. Now, now, let's stop with the applause and all calm down.  

So, I've re-watched the first preseason game against the Falcons numerous times and I came away with some performances I thought were more intriguing to follow than others, with an eye on how they respond in the following games. Will those who disappointed improve upon the issues they showed? Will those who impressed continue to do so? Will we see changes in the depth chart and playing time in the upcoming games based on their performances? 

Let's start with the disappointments. 

First up: 

Stephen Paea, 90. 

Interestingly enough, Gruden today was asked about Paea and some are interpreting his response as a negative towards Paea. I can see why. Frankly, Paea was a disappointment to watch after hearing about his improvements (namely, his health) all offseason. Though he wasn't necessarily a liability when he was in, he seemed to consistently be a non-factor, which is unfortunate considering most of the time he played was against the second and third-stringers of the Falcons.

Let's take a look at some of those snaps... 

The following (at LDE) shows what was pretty much his issue this game. His legs. Seems to be very tentative and stuck in molasses:

Here (at LDE), he gets pushed off the ball and is simply a non-factor:

Here, again at LDE, not getting any penetration on his rush:

Here, at RDE, same deal, a non-factor with his rush: 

Now, it wasn't all bad. Unfortunately, the good all came in the 2nd half against lesser players. Still, you can see the upper body strength everyone talks about when he gets his hands directly on a guy and is able to use his arms fully. Here (at RDE), he puts his guy on the ground with ease: 

Here (at RDE), he shows quick hands and is able to generate a solid rush. Unfortunately, he was a bit late and was actually flagged for hitting the QB (ticky tacky call, though). His speed just isn't where you want it to be, though: 

His best play of the game here. He's lined up (at RDE) directly in front of the Tackle (4 tech) and destroys him, causing the RB to lose yards:

Basically, his legs are an issue, his upper body strength isn't. Doesn't bode well for pass rushing, but this was his first game back after his turf toe injury and maybe he was hesitant versus just not having it. Still, it's disappointing because we've been hearing from him that he's "100 percent" for the last few months and the team seemed optimistic regarding his resurgence. 

Hopefully we see some improvement versus the Jets on Friday and/or moving forward. But, if we don't, not all is loss because his strength can still be an asset, especially in short yardage/goal line situations lined up at the zero, two, or four technique (directly in front of his guy) where he can just out-muscle them to disrupt gaps.

Next up: 

    Arie Kuandjio, 74.

Now, Kuandjio was a guy many fans hoped, all offseason, would compete for a starting job at LG. Had that not been the case, his game against the Falcons wouldn't have been a disappointment, just more of a standard preseason affair where nothing necessarily stood out and there are things to work on for a young prospect. Alas, high expectations often leads to disappointment if they aren't met immediately.

Let's take a look at some of the issues. 

Here, we see where that old scouting report (you know, phone booth Guard and all) on him comes in play. He gets out in space and just doesn't have the juice to get to his Linebacker: 

This ones a little funny, he lets his guy get under him quickly and gets some bad whiplash in the process, only to end up on the ground: 

Most of his tape was just "meh", not necessarily bad but nothing that stood out. This was about the only play where he did something impressive as he rides his guy right off the screen:

It'll certainly be interesting to see how Kuandjio responds the next few games, as he seemed to really have high expectations for himself this year and the first game didn't bear much fruit for him. 

Next up:

  Niles Paul, 84 

This might be a little unfair considering how fast he's come back from a devastating ankle injury, but we've been hearing how far along he is all offseason so a little bit more was expected. Unfortunately, the plays he was in to start the game were all pretty poor and the one catch he had ended up in a hyper-extended knee. 

Let's take a look.

Here he is at FB pretty much failing at his block. He gets his head way too low and thrusts too early, gaining no leverage and making it easy on the defender to avoid him, screwing Matt Jones over in the process: 

Here, he's lined up as the outside TE on the right. He does a good job initially getting to his block, but fails at holding it long enough and gets pushed back. His guy makes the tackle:

Here, again lined up at TE to the right side, he runs his route a bit tentatively and is in an awkward position to make the catch. Probably was unsure about sitting in the zone or continuing the route, but then to top it off he fails to make the catch:

Here, he's the FB and, again, does a good job getting to his block but his guy overpowers him with ease and lays a solid enough hit on Marshall to disrupt the play: 

So, yeah, not very good from Niles. Hopefully his knee is okay and he can take a step against the Jets. 

So now with the disappointments all out of the way, let's have some fun, shall we? We've heard about guys like Ziggy Hood, Su'a Cravens, and Ricky Jean-Francois having good games, but I wanted to focus on some who were a bit more unheralded who did. I'll be keeping an eye on these guys moving forward. 

First up: 

Kendall Reyes, 97

Reyes hasn't had much fanfare nor expectations placed on him. Most assumed he'd be solid depth or just an okay starter at best. Judging by his first preseason game, I think we may be in for a pleasant surprise. 

Let's see why. 

Here, Reyes (at RDE) gets a good jump on the ball and almost immediately penetrates into the backfield: 

Here, he's lined up as the Nose and gets a solid push initially, though he lets up a bit early because he assumes the QB is about to pass and wants to get his hands up. Should've continued, but a solid job nonetheless: 

Here, at RDE again, he gets an excellent bull rush and shows his strength: 

Here, he does everything right except make the tackle:

Here, again at RDE, he shows good awareness on the draw and still gets a decent angle on the ball carrier though the Center is focused solely on riding him out of the play: 

All in all, a very solid performance. All of his other snaps showed a guy who won't get moved off the ball easily, either. I'm looking forward to seeing how he looks against the Jets and if he can continue to build off of his performance.

Next up: 

Anthony Lanier, 72 

This guys tape was, by far, the most fun to watch. Though it was against the bottom of the barrel in terms of personnel for the Falcons, the guy was extremely disruptive on pretty much every play he was in. He played like a maniac, to say the least.

Let's take a look.

Here he's lined up as the RDE and is in on the tackle with Terrence Garvin (who actually deserves a spot here himself, Garvin played well), causing a fumble. The next clip after this one will show just how much he laid out for the hit:

Here, at RDE, penetration and tackle: 

Here, at RDE, he gets immediate penetration but then savagely rips off the RBs helmet. Ugly play on his part and, though you appreciate the effort, he's got to be better than that moving forward: 

Here, again, penetration and the tackle: 

Here, just runs down the play and combines for the tackle with Fields: 

Suffice to say, just a boatload of fun to watch. Can't wait to see what he does moving forward. 

Next up: 

Carlos Fields, 59

He's generated a little bit of buzz, but mostly written off as a likely cut, he showed up and was in on pretty much every play he was a part of. He was extremely physical and didn't hesitate to throw his body around against the Falcons, making some fun plays to watch in the process. 

Let's take a look. 

Here, you might think there's nothing special about this play, but he takes on a big FB who gained some steam while he was pretty much stationary and handles it extremely well. When you look at it at first glance, the FB should've laid him out but Fields physicality is displayed: 

Here, he and Garvin (see what I mean about Garvin?) combine for a nice tackle, but notice how Fields (right ILB) sifts through the traffic nicely (and listen to that pop from Garvin while you're at it): 

This was probably his best play, look at him hustle through the traffic to make the play (left ILB): 

This play was the same one already posted for Lanier, but pay attention to Fields here instead (middle):

Good stuff from the young man and it'll be interesting to see how he follows it up for sure. 

Welp, that does it. Aside from the more commonly known and intriguing players to follow the next few preseason games, I hope this added some onto your radar. Will Paea, Paul and Kuandjio improve? Will Reyes continue to show up? Are guys like Lanier, Fields, and Garvin moving up the depth chart? Stay tuned right here on the ES coverage blog to find out!       

Landover, MD -  Hello ES and welcome all to the Extremeskins Coverage of the third preseason game of the 2016 season. I'm TSO in the press box at FedEx Field along with Spaceman Spiff, here to provide you with the best damn coverage we possible can!

Last week I talked about the burden that undoubtedly weighs on every Redskins fan's mind... that fear that lingers knowing that, after every successful season in the last how many years, the team followed it up with utter failure. The paranoia that something terrible is right around the corner. The Redskins "curse", if you will. 

But then the very real hope that all of the signs - and there are many legitimate ones - point to it being different this time, right? They're steeped in rationale and logic, and we've seen the fruits of it already with an NFC East division title under our belts. That hope is forcing us to remove those fears, doubts and paranoid attitudes, leaving us to remain more curious than anything else. Wondering if this time, you guessed it... is it real?

Last week against the Jets we had an insightful, albeit "preseasonal" and therefore half-baked, tour into the answers we're seeking. We saw young, unheralded guys like Anthony Lanier II and Martrell Spaight continue to rise. We saw Colt McCoy continue to solidify why he's a great backup to have, one very few teams have the luxury of. We saw the Oline pick it up in the running game against the elite Defensive Line/Front of the Jets, with Matt Jones reeling off numerous runs that proved not only his improvement, but also why the team hasn't hesitated to trust him with the starting job. We saw the guys who no one talks about at WR, like Ryan Grant, Maurice Harris, and Rashad Ross, show why it's arguable we have the best and deepest WR corps in the NFL.

But that was week 2 of the preseason. Week 3 is an entirely different animal, as everyone knows it's considered the "dress rehearsal" for the season. This game also brings with it an extra layer of intrigue due to the surprise Coach Gruden laid on all of us, as well as the players, that many of the usual starters would be getting the night off last week, all the while acknowledging the importance these snaps tonight will have for everyone to prepare for the Steelers on Monday Night.     

So are we going to keep getting positive affirmations regarding the "is it real" question? Or are those fears and doubts going to be allowed to creep in? Stay tuned here on the Extremeskins Coverage Blog to find out with us!

 Some Pregame warm-up notes -

*Trent Williams is such a great leader (see video below, try to pay attention to how he roams the entire roster). He's involved with every position group, talking to them, getting them hyped, etc... Ihenacho caught a nice pass one-handed and Trent was right there like "yeaaaaaaaah". In the video, you can see Kendall Thompson engage him. It's fun to watch him simply being a Redskin through and through.

*Speaking of Olinemen, Leribeus just false started during a simple warm up routine.  

*TJ Thorpe can dance. 

*It's oddly very enjoyable watching Gruden and Scot McCloughan together. Somehow every smile, every laugh they have together warms the heart. It's incredibly lame.      

 Ziggy Hood starting for Baker. Dline gets nice pressure, Ziggy Hood cleaned up for sack. First drive solid pressure from Dline overall. Kerrigan hurt, though. Doesn't look good the way he's talking on the sidelines with other players. :/ 

First Redskins drive, Bills getting good interior pressure, Lichtensteiger with the hold as well. 

2nd drive for the Bills, after INT, no pressure from front and they were able to run on them. Not a good look, but secondary came through. Norman, blanket coverage in the redzone, fun to see him make a play in a Skins jersey for the first time. 

Reed, Grant and Garcon drops on Redskins 2nd drive, followed by a Hopkins miss. Team, outside of secondary and flashes from the Dline, in general seems off.

Norman with nice pass break up again on 3rd down of Bills 3rd drive. He's on fire. 

Redskins 3rd drive, Trent with a slight limp after first play. Continued to go backwards on running play, then screen to DJax, then it was just a penalty-fest. Pretty ugly.  

Bills 4th drive... Preston Smith beasting on 1st down run play with TFL of 5 yards. DHall with a terrible personal foul that gives the Bills a first down, nullifying the previous loss. Bills running the ball easily up the middle it seems, it's a problem.   

 Will Compton with a TFL as the Bills continue their 4th drive, he's had quite a few this preseason.  DHall follows up with a great tackle in the open field to bring the TE down, hurting him in the process. At least the D is holding the Bills to FGs. 

Redskins 1st drive of 2nd quarter, Lichtensteiger, Long and Trent Williams with great blocks on 2nd down, allowing Robert Kelly to get outside for 9 yards. 

Bills 2nd drive in 2nd quarter, 2nd down Ziggy Hood with excellent penetration and TFL of 4 yards. Trent Murphy almost gets home on 3rd down, nice speed pass rush. Once again, Norman with the blanket coverage. 

Redskins 2nd drive, Oline pass blocking well while run blocking is an issue, as usual. Lichtensteiger with another hold.

My man Ryan Grant with a sick cut for the TD run after an excellently timed pass by Cousins.

Bills 3rd drive, interestingly Paea and Ioannidis out there with some of the 1s. Ioannidis gets immediate pressure causing an incompletion on first down. Followed up by Ricky Jean Francois sack forcing the Bills into a 3rd and 17. Dline making some noise! 

Redskins 3rd drive, yet another hold on Lichtenstieger that cost Reed a nice catch and run. Ridiculous, that's 3 holds on him. Ryan Grant continues to be hot and cold, drops easy pass behind the LOS on 2nd and 10. After roughing the passer call, Lauvao with a great block on running play, opening a huge path for Robert Kelley. Run blocking has picked up in general, it seems. Good to see, but could be due to Bills bringing in lesser guys on their line.     

Bills 4th drive, Will Blackmon with the caused fumble... on the same play Trent Murphy actually had another nice rush almost getting home.

Coming off the turnover, Redskins score via Kirk to Garcon after seemingly being unable to get the snap off. Check out how it looked from the press box: 

Bills come back with a nice FG drive of their own, mainly off of an EJ Manuel run that should've been a sack in the backfield, though I missed who got the pressure on him and whiffed. Stay tuned for more analysis by the Extremeskins Coverage Blog! 

    So, some notable stats to start off. Cousins finished 12 of 23 for 188 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT for a QB Rating of 101.1. Not too shabby after a shaky start. Desean Jackson was 4 on 5 for 56 yards. Vernon Davis was 3 on 3 targets for 42 yards. J Reed was 2 on 4 targets for 28 yards and a TD. Garcon was 2 on 4 targets for 24 yards and a TD. Ryan Grant was 1 on 4 targets for 38 yards and a TD (as of the 1st half).  

Not much to talk about during the 2nd half, but here were some notes: 

 Redskins 1st drive of 3rd quarter, Ty Nsekhe with a great block to seal edge and allow Mack Brown a big gain. Second string Oline doing some solid work opening holes for Brown in general. Though they definitely seemed to lose something once Long went out with an ankle injury and Reiter came in. Long is a nice presence for the run game when he's under center. 

On Bills 2nd drive, Stephen Paea with nice penetration and a TFL. Ricky Jean Francois continues to consistently penetrate. Corey Crawford with a vicious thrown down of the RB after Ihenacho got a hold of him, then Crawford follows it up with a nice pass rush on 3rd down which caused Manuel to escape the pocket and throw an incompletion.   

Interestingly, it looks like Garvin has moved up the depth chart as he's playing next to Spaight with the backups.

Speaking of Garvin, on the 4th down play of the Bills 3rd drive, he showed a bit of his weakness in the running game as he was easily blocked on the second level by a Bills' Guard, allowing the run for the first.   

Redskins offense just isn't moving the ball after their first drive of the half (which still came away with no points). Backup Oline seems to be pass blocking well enough, but not many open options for McCoy, who seems a bit off himself. 

On the first down of Bills 4th drive, Garvin does a good job using his speed to get in position to tackle the RB, but he can't finish and allows the RB to get outside for a nice gain. My man Lanier finally showed up with a nice TFL on the Bills RB.

Redskins 4th drive of the half, Oline not getting much push for Mack Brown. Kouandjio with a holding penalty on top of it. This has been quite the utterly boring second half. 

Lanier with a deflected pass on the Bills final drive. Kendall Fuller follows with a big pass break up in the endzone, followed by another pass breakup by Mariel Cooper! 

Last two plays were fun, Wakefield with a sack followed by a Kendall Fuller INT to seal the deal, Redskins win! 

At least the final drive was a little bit exciting, pretty dull 2nd half overall. Going to head down to the locker room now, see you all in a bit. 

EXCLUSIVE ES AUDIO CONTENT 

VICTORY!!!

 Welcome everyone to your week 6 ExtremeSkins coverage, I'm TSO here in the pressbox with my man Spaceman Spiff (who will be covering the team on the sidelines) ready to provide you the best damn coverage on the planet!  

      This isn't your one year old baby brother's NFC Least now, is it?

    At 3-2, the Redskins find themselves holding third place in the division, looking up at the Eagles and Cowboys. The Cowboys have won 4 straight, starting with their win against the Skins in week 2. The Eagles had won 3 straight, only to fall to Detroit last week after coming off of their bye in a tight game. The Giants started off strong at 2-0, but have lost 3 straight starting with a Skins loss in week 3. Suffice to say, the first month and a half of the regular season has seen a division heavily lauded as the worst in the NFL last year suddenly look like the finest. 

     Going into the year, the Eagles looked to be rebuilding as they got rid of many players from the Chip Kelly era. They traded Bradford away, the safer bet at QB, and decided to get their rookie QB reps right away. And while many recognized they had a lot of solid pieces on defense, few expected them to play well in all three phases of the game. They've been disciplined, balanced and seemingly well-coached. And while it seemed like they were riding an easy schedule to start the season, they've got a big win against a dominant team in the Steelers showing this might not just be a fluke. 

     Meanwhile the Skins are winning games they shouldn't be winning. After a terrible start to the season that saw them humiliated against the Steelers and then dropping a game that included too many missed opportunities to the Cowboys, they've reeled off three straight wins to claw their way back into the picture. The wins have come in all shapes and sizes, with the only consistency between them being the resiliency of the team. 

    Today, they're going to need that.

    Many expected a loss in New York, as has been so often the case in recent history. The Skins just don't win there. But, they did.

    And while many thought it should be an easy win against the lowly Browns at home, there were equally as many saying it'd be "so Redskins" to lose that game. For almost the entire 2nd and 3rd quarters, it seemed that way, too. You could hear the collective "here we go, again" coming out of Redskin fan's mouths. But, again, they showed their resiliency and came out with the win.

   Going against the Ravens in Baltimore? Ahh, forget it! The Skins never win there! They'll run all over our porous defense and they'll be able to stifle our offense with their number one ranked defense. But... yup, the Skins pulled out yet another scrappy win, this time doing it unlike any other game this year; defensively. 

    So, three straight wins and yet it feels like they're supposed to lose this game. Why? We fans have been so battered we simply expect the worse at this point. When other teams win close games against us, it's because "...that's what winners do, they just find a way". When we do the same, welp, it's just luck. This team has continuously shown us that they're fighters. They won't lay down. Penalties? Missed Opportunities? Injuries? They overcome.          

    Now, they need to overcome the Eagles.

    Offensively, Carson Wentz is playing as well as anyone can expect a rookie QB to play. What's worse, he seems to favor attacking the intermediate middle of the field, which is arguably the area with our greatest deficiency personnel-wise. But that's not all... they're also an excellent rushing offense, which we all know has been our biggest weakness thus far. We're going to need great games from our ILB and Safety corps. In particular; Will Compton, Mason Foster, Blackmon and Ihenacho. With Su'a Cravens out, look for Terrence Garvin to play a significant role. Let's hope we see more of this: 

       Defensively, the Eagles are playing extremely well under their new coordinator Jim Schwartz. In reality, it all starts up front with the Eagles, specifically right in the middle with their DTs Fletcher Cox and Bennie Logan. Their outstanding play has made it easy on everyone else, furthermore, now that Chip Kelly's gone and their defense is playing a normal amount of snaps per game, everyone has benefited.

     If our Oline, particularly Long, Sherff and Lauvao can handle Cox and Logan, it'll go a long way in allowing our offense to excel. Matt Jones/Kelley/Thompson and Kirk Cousins having good games will be the key, but our WR corps should have more of a chance to shine now, as well. Losing Reed is big, but the depth at TE has been said to be excellent with Vernon Davis and Niles Paul backing him up, so we'll learn quite a bit regarding just how accurate that claim is today.  

    The Lions have put out some good stuff on tape to emulate against their defense, so hopefully we see things like this: 

       Suffice to say, this is a huge game. It's got season-long implications. Though fans should be satisfied with the three game-winning streak, as it's not often Redskin fans have been treated to such delights, the wins have been generally ugly and have allowed the doubts to remain. A win today will give fans something to really celebrate, will put the Redskins right up top of the division with the Cowboys, and everything in their hands moving forward. A loss? Well, this is a Redskin fan blog, I'd rather not discuss that.  

Stay tuned here for more updates and exclusive content, only on the ES Coverage Blog! 

Announcement of Inactives

The Redskins declared the following players as inactive:

o   No. 2 QB Nate Sudfeld

o   No. 18 WR Josh Doctson

o   No. 35 CB Dashaun Phillips

o   No. 36 S Su’a Cravens

o   No. 60 OL Vinston Painter

o   No. 72 DE Anthony Lanier II

o   No. 86 TE Jordan Reed

No. 85 Vernon Davis is expected to start in place of Reed at tight end.

The Eagles declared the following players as inactive:

o   No. 16 WR Bryce Treggs

o   No. 21 CB Leodis McKelvin

o   No. 37 CB C.J. Smith

o   No. 51 DE Steven Means

o   No. 68 C/G Josh Andrews

o   No. 69 G Dillon Gordon

o   No. 73 G Isaac Seumalo

Pregame Tweets

BATTLE OF THE TRENCHES

Decided to focus on the trenches since I know most of you will be watching the ball. Here's what I saw: 

Oline 1st Half

1st drive for the O. First snap, Logan (or Cox?) does a good job pushing Long back into Cousins forcing incompletion. Second snap, not much push from the Oline on the left side, Eagles stop Thompson for one yard gain. 3rd down, Oline does a great job pass blocking all around, Long getting pushed back a little bit but holds up enough to give Cousins space to complete pass for first down. 2nd snap after that, Nsekhe (we seem to be using him as a 3rd TE initially) does a good job holding the edge at first, but then loses his block, costing Matt Jones only a two yard gain.   

2nd drive. Morgan Moses holds on first snap, lost his block either way. Second snap, Oline does a good job pass blocking, Cousins probably could've held onto it longer. 3rd snap, Sherff loses his block against Cox, stopping a Thompson draw play. 

3rd drive. Excellent pass protection off of Play Action, big play to DJax. 2nd snap, Lauvao does an excellent job getting to 2nd level and shielding off LBer, 16 yard gain for Matt Jones. Great pass protection all around on ensuing snap, though Long and Lauvao got pushed back a little, TD to Crowder!  

4th drive. Eagles Dline does an excellent job moving inside right before the snap and stuffing Matt Jones. Next two plays, Oline does a great job pass blocking in general. Again, a little push on the inside with Lauvao, but still good. Excellent run blocking on the ensuing snap, huge gain for Ryan Kelley. Next snap, Long does a great job getting to the 2nd level, allowing Kelley another good gain. Next snap, Trent Williams with an absolute sick block pulling on the left edge for Thompson to get a big gain.  Snap after the next one, Eagles overload and stop the run, not necessarily the Oline's fault, though Long and Lauvao got pushed back. Next snap, Morgan Moses almost pushed back right into Cousins, but he got rid of it quickly for a TD to Vernon Davis! 

5th drive. 2nd snap, Lauvao does a great job one on one with Cox, holds his ground. 3rd down, Oline does a great job all around pass blocking. After the loss on the end around that shouldn't have been, Oline does another great job pass blocking, allows Kirk to extend the play for a first to Crowder. 

6th Drive. Left side of Trent and Lauvao do a good job run blocking, Matt Jones for a gain of 3. Next snap, another good job on the left side, especially Lauvao, helping Matt Jones to a gain of 22. Ensuing snap, Eagles are able to penetrate this time on the left side, but Kelley does a great job flipping the field and gains 5. Next play after 2 min warning, left side getting pushed back a little now, Thompson does a good job anyway for gain of 5. 3rd down, left side (Trent and Lauvao) both get shoved back into Cousins, who completes to Garcon for big conversion. Ensuing play, Oline does a good job pass blocking, Moses eventually loses his block. Final play of this drive, Oline (left side, once again, including Niles Paul) does a great job sealing the edge, Matt Jones walks in for a TD.

Oline 2nd Half

1st Drive. Long gets pushed back into Matt Jones, 4 yard loss. Ensuing snap, Oline does a good job pass blocking, Trent eventually gives up a pressure but Cousins throws it away. 3rd down, Sherff does a great job riding out his guy, Cousins steps up for big conversion to Garcon. Next play, Long does a great job getting out on screen, but doesn't finish well. Play after that, Long does a great job pulling on a toss to Thompson and holds his block long enough to allow Thompson to get outside. Play after the next snap, Oline does a good job run blocking again, Eagles have no answer except to cheat with LBers., Crowder gets an illegal block in the back. Ensuing play, Fletcher Cox beats Long (I think?) coming off a stunt, gets pressure on Cousins who completes to Garcon. Next snap, Long snaps it high, Sherff pulls and gets no push, ending in a no gainer. Play after the next, Sherff loses on a nice spin move, gives up a pressure, forcing us to settle for FG.     

2nd drive. 3rd snap, nice job run blocking on the right side by Long, Sherff and Moses. Ensuing play, Oline does a good job overall pass blocking, but Moses gets slightly beat by the edge rush, still, Cousins gets it off on time for a nice gain to Thompson.

 3rd drive. 1st snap, great job all around run blocking from the Oline, especially Long and Lauvao to open a hole for Matt Jones, who gets the first and more. Play after the next, Morgan Moses does an awesome job pulling and getting an edge block to spring Thompson on a toss, showed great speed for a big guy.  After a couple penalties, Oline does a great job run blocking but Matt Jones bounces outside unnecessarily. Play after the next snap, Long gives up immediate pressure, Cousins sees it and panics, throws early to Garcon on the outside, incomplete.  

4th drive. Left side doesn't get any push, Kelley for only one yard behind Lauvao and Trent. Next play, Sherff and Long pushed back into Cousins, but hold their blocks enough. 3rd down, Cox pushes Long back into Cousins, who escapes the pocket but can't find anyone. Tough three plays at a bad time, 3 and out.  

5th and final drive. Oline does a great job on 3rd down opening up a gaping hole for Matt, specifically Sherff and Moses. Way to finish a great game overall!! 

Dline 1st Half

1st drive against the D. RJF, Hood and Baker are the starting Dline. Hood at RDE. First snap, sack by Kerrigan and Blackmon! Second and third snaps, Eagles get to the edge too easily, Baker and Hood penetrate but straight up the field and give up gaps, been a problem in our one-gap defense for a long time, they need to recognize when Oline going horizontally. 4th snap right after that, RJF does a great job on the edge, forces RB to lose a yard. Another Kerrigan sack on the next snap! Nice start for the front.    

2nd drive. Baker does a great job after play action with immediate pressure, forcing Wentz to throw inaccurately. Next snap, Hood does a great job, as does Kerrigan, beating his man immediately and getting a TFL. 3rd down, Baker and Kerrigan stunting, do a great job getting pressure on Wentz who does well to get the ball off, but incomplete out of bounds. 

3rd Drive. Jenkins out there with Hood and RJF. First snap, RJF in the middle, lot of space there for Matthews, but Foster cleans up. Still, a 4 yard gain, Eagles won up front. 2nd snap, better penetration from the front, but they still gain 3 yards. Jenkins with the tackle. Trent Murphy with a terrible neutral zone infraction. Snap right after that, Kerrigan getting a ton of attention, both RG and RT went to block him. Snap after that, 4 yard run from Matthews... but Dline did a good job not getting pushed back. 3rd down, front gets very good pressure all around.   

4th drive. Ioannidis in the middle, does a good job, but run goes to the right for 5 yards. After the 2nd snap that went to Matthews for the 1st, Kerrigan talking a lot to the Dline right now during TV timeout. Next snap, bootleg, entire front got fooled. Kerrigan with immediate pressure, another snack on the ensuing snap. Just destroying their RT. 3rd down, Kerrigan stunts to the middle, gets pressure again. We're very exotic in terms of blitzing today, a bit surprising considering Wentz came into the game having some of the best numbers against the blitz in the league.  

Dline 2nd Half

1st drive. Baker, Hood and RJF come out to start again. Murphy out there with Kerrigan. 1st snap, RJF up the field quick and forces Sproles to cut, but he gets past LOS anyway for a 7 yard gain. Play after the next one, Kerrigan once again with the quick pressure, but Wentz gets it off for a big gain. Next play, Eagles Oline handles our front and convert a third and short. Next play, Chris Baker does a great job shielding off his block, finding the RB and making a tackle for no gain. 3rd down, they get great pressure on Wentz again who makes an awesome play... but it gets called back for illegal block in the back. 

2nd drive. Jenkins, Ioannidis and RJF out there to start. Preston Smith and Trent Murphy outside. Kerrigan getting a breather, hopefully the Eagles don't take advantage as he's been absolutely killing it. 1st snap, Dline does a decent job not getting pushed back, but no penetration either allowing a 5 yard gain. Next snap, Ioannidis gets double teamed and destroyed, Matthews gets the 1st. Next play, Ioannidis takes a bad angle to rush, gets washed out of the play easy. Not good back to back from Iaonnidis, who's had a good game thus far. Ensuing play, no one gets pressure, Wentz goes deep for huge play on 3rd and 20 to Matthews. Play after the next, Hood does a great job reading Wentz and deflecting the pass.   

3rd drive. Only two linemen, Jenkins and RJF out there. And, of course, 22 yard gain for Matthews. Ensuing play, they do a great job and make me eat my words  . Especially RJF, forcing Matthews back inside and Jenkins also generating a holding call. Next two plays, they're getting pressure but Wentz finding guys in the middle of defense. Next play, Dline does a good job penetrating but Sproles makes it to the edge for another first down. Ensuing play, not a good pass rush from Hood, Baker, Kerrigan and Smith, but Ertz drops the pass. Eagles settle for FG.    

4th drive. On 3rd play, Murphy does an awesome job spinning and getting to Wentz, forcing an inaccurate pass. Next play, Hood and Kerrigan do a good job winning their matchups and stopping the run. Huge 3rd down, Baker does a great job and gets quick pressure, but Wentz makes him miss and hits Matthews for a huge conversion. Next play, RJF gets held so embarrassingly bad and STILL sacks Wentz. Huge play, but what the refs? No call!?

Big 3rd down and 15. My man Preston Smith with the initial pressure and sack off an inside stunt! Murphy with the assist! Love to see our two young'ns finish the game that way! 

Post game Audio

Photos (by Spaceman Spiff)

 SEATTLE - Welcome everyone to your Week 9 of the Regular Season coverage on Extremeskins, it's TSO here up in the Century Link Press Box along with the top guy himself, @TK - who will be providing us wondrous pics of the action from the sidelines. We're both geared up and ready to provide you the best damn Skins' coverage on the planet! 

     "Next man up!" 

     "Injuries are just an excuse!"

     "Good coaches overcome injuries!" 

     Sounds contagiously valiant, doesn't it? The go to phrases for fan machismo, if you will. But I'm here to say screw that, yeah right, and whatever.

     When your unquestionably elite starting LT is hurt, and the backup who can fill in for him admirably is as well, you've got a problem. When the guy who's started next to him for years now is also hurt, the guy with which ample amounts of chemistry has been built through experience, that just adds to it exponentially. But wait, there's more! The Center is out, too! Oh, the stud RG you drafted 4th overall a couple years ago? Yup, he's hurting. And the guy next to him? Two ankles.

   Yeah. It'd be enough to damage any positional unit's ability to succeed when its two best players are hurt. But when all the above is happening AND you even got those backups filling in getting hurt during the game on top of it... it's friggin ridiculous, suffice to say.    

   When your stud rookie Dlineman - who you just picked in the first round to bolster what was an absolute terrible unit the previous season - is out with a Lisfranc, and then the guy who has emerged next to him as another stud while both turning the unit around so much so that it elevated the entire defense (as is the prerogative of a good Dline) also gets hurt with a broken hand, well, that's a problem. Again, the two best players on the unit HURT. 

   When you lose your elite starting CB for a few games, and then also have your next best one starting on his opposite side getting hurt enough to miss at least one game (notice the trend here?), while the rookie Safety who has emerged can't stay on the field an entire game, and the vet Safety you just signed is also struggling with injuries, and one of the backups to those Safeties ends up on IR, and some of the backups to the aforementioned DBs are getting hurt during games, and... well, you get a run on sentence. 

  When arguably your best pass catcher on the team, who happens to play at TE, is hurting all season (granted, to no one's surprise), but then your third TE also gets hurt, while your top two outside WRs are struggling, and you're relying on your slot WR who ALSO just got hurt and isn't going to play now... welp, yay for that.

  Season ending injuries. Nagging injuries that are significant enough for guys to miss games and/or playing time during games. Injuries guys can play on but are hampering their ability to perform at their best. Freak injuries. Injuries one can play on but might lead to significant future damage. It's all there. All the time. At every. Single. Unit. 

  It isn't just an excuse to justify poor performances anymore, by the coaches or players. It's turned into THE story of the season, and absolutely justifiably so. Those who are unwilling to point to that while being lenient to all those involved in terms of criticism simply lack a shred of empathy in my mind. Frighteningly so.    

  What's so frustrating about it is that this was the roster, going into the season, that was unquestionably the best one we've had in decades. This was the year we could've witnessed a significant leap, and did for a few glorious weeks. A scrappy win against a Rams team with a solid roster from top to bottom. A dominant win against a Raiders team that was as dominant themselves as any team in the league at that point, in prime time. Taking it to the Chiefs, who were arguably the best team in the league at that point, up to the last minute - also in prime time but at their place. Only to have one injury after another occur (we lost both Allen and Norman that game, with a litany of others to immediately follow as disgustingly described above) and destroy the momentum being built right before our very eyes. The bye week after did next to nothing to save us. 

  So this game against a Seahawks team, looking like a contender (per the norm) and at their place where they rarely lose, is in the books already, right? All is lost, no point in suiting up, go home with our tails between our legs and save ourselves some embarrassment. 

  But that's the beauty of it, isn't it? When human arrogance dares to call something contingent as necessary, it gets humbled real fast and often. When that same arrogance blinds one to the realism of hope, and they fool themselves into believing that being realistic excludes being hopeful, well... hope prevails much more often than they're willing to give it credit for, to put it nicely.  

  So that's what I'm holding on to right now. And desperately so, because all indications point to a beating here. There's so much going against the team and for the Seahawks, even with them having some key injuries like Earl Thomas, as well. It's just not remotely as bad overall for them. 

   But I'm hoping a team filled with guys who want to prove themselves - in what they surely know is likely an extremely small window of opportunity for them to do so - play their hearts out and shock the world. A team that has played hard for a good group of coaches more often than not. A team going through the struggle together and for each other. Those are the type that often surprise and, God willing, we get quite the pleasant, season-defining, one here today.  

  Stay tuned for more coverage throughout the day from @TK and I, and Hail To The Redskins!       

1st Half Notes: 

- Kelley and Perine out returning kicks. 

- Brian Quick out there consistently. 

- Doctson and Grant starting two WRs in base formation with Sprinkle and Davis as two TEs. 

- DHall starting at Safety. 

- Perine doesn't open up enough for handoff, paying too much attention to the blocking. Fumbles after a great pass from Kirk to Davis. 

- Lanier in on third down nickel defense. Provides a nice rush and hit on Wilson. 

- Arthur Jones playing mostly at LDE. 

- Defense keeping us in it big time. Dline started strong getting consistent pressure on Wilson, then Seahawks started running more with success. Hood playing better than last week early on, but regressed a bit in the 2nd quarter. Surprised to even see Hood rushing the passer well. Lanier has shown up in a big way. Pass rush after pass rush. Really impressive stuff. Holds and false starts on the Seahawks Line also a product of the front's play. 

- I have no idea how this offense is going to move the ball. No Oline to either run block well or pass block well. Kirk is freaking out. TEs can't run block as usual. RBs automatically have to make moves in the backfield.a Receivers not getting open against this secondary. It's just, ugh. That drive in the 2nd quarter featured some quicker throws to Davis and nice running. Seems like that's the only way at this point. 

- Seahawks are a 2nd half team. We've got to come out firing, as crazy as that sounds right now. Love the defensive performance, and the offense seemed to have found something there in the 2nd quarter, notwithstanding the final drive. Hopefully they can maintain. 

2nd Half Notes: 

- Lanier continues his solid play with another good pass rush on the first drive and hasn't stopped since. Just relentless. He's caused a bunch of bad throws from Wilson single-handedly. It's been super impressive. 

- Seahawks clearly going back to what they were successful with in the first half, rushing the ball. Our pass rush has been unstoppable though. 

- As usual, just nothing you can do about Wilson scrambling and finding receivers outside of the play. Otherwise, constant pressure on him has forced errant throws. 

- Started bootlegging Cousins more. Some limited success there. 

- Cousins definitely had some bad throws this game, but he is also facing consistent pressure and going against one of the best secondaries in the game. Guys are just not getting open down the field. One clear poor throw to Davis on a wheel route in the third quarter.

- Kendall Fuller displayed his closing speed a few times. One was a TD saving pass break up. 

- Another bad snap from Roullier in the shotgun formation, this time high. Last week he had one low. 

- They didn't score, but that 2 point conversion with Norman and Swearinger playing catch was fun to watch. So close, yet so far away. 

- We had too many first downs that were losing yards, be it due to sacks, bad snaps, or TFLs. Can't recover against this defense like that. Was worried the Seahawks would take away the quick game that worked on that one drive in the first half and we wouldn't have an answer. We don't. People can claim injuries aren't an excuse, but they make you one dimensional as a play caller. It's not easy to be dynamic when your options are limited personnel-wise, and you've got guys who aren't in tune with every aspect of the offense on the field. 

- It's okay to allow your defense to win you a game. It's actually allowed, last time I heard. Especially when you're in an environment like Seattle, against a team that plays consistently great defense, with an Oline ravaged by injuries. It's. OH. KAY. That won't stop many from making this some kind of treatise on Kirk or Jay, I know. Nothing will. But it needs to be said.  

- Defense played valiantly. Can't complain about them, even with the final drive from the Seahawks. Seahawks only scored twice on the day, with an offense that had only one drive for a TD, and tough field position throughout. The pressure they applied on Wilson was amazing, suffice to say. 

- Overall, I know this'll be an opportunity for people to pile on Jay and Kirk. But I'm not going to and I don't think anyone should. Kirk didn't play well. Yes. As is the case with so many QBs going up against this defense in their place. But that last drive was glorious. Two absolute strikes to Quick and Doctson with the Seahawks playing super aggressive. So many use phrases like "he's not a gamer" and "he's not clutch", yet, that's EXACTLY what he proved he is there.  

- Huge opportunity for Dunbar to finish the game with an INT on Seahawks final drive. McClain does it for him with a huge sack on Wilson. Game over. HOPE IS ALIVE, THANK GOD!!!! 

DEFEAT

Cowboys 27 - 23 Redskins

The word of the day is; "URGENT."

Hello everybody, JimmiJo here and I am joined by Spaceman Spiff. And our mission is to bring you the sites, sounds, and smells of today's Washington Redskins - Dallas Cowboys game.

The Washington Redskins used a prime time Monday Night opportunity to lay a spectacular egg. They were beating in most every significant area and suffered yet another national embarrassment.

Ok, so that one's over. 

But while I am usually all for the 24-hour rule; the one where you celebrate a win or bemoan a loss for 24-hours and then move on either way - today's game must be viewed in the context of last week's loss:

- The Redskins were horrible running the ball last week. All eyes are watching to see if the rush attack exists, let alone improves.
- The run defense was very poor. Dallas is known for having a poor line. They have a rookie is Ezekiel Elliot who wants to prove he merited the low draft pick (5th overall). Then there's this guy named Alfred Morris who would love to show Washington what they let get away.
- Is our best guy gonna cover their best guy? Yea, I heard all the rationalization how both Redskins corners are good and they have this scheme-thing they do...Sounded like a bunch of crapola to me. We paid a mountain of money for Josh Norman. Time for him to show us why they did.
- 0-2 at home to start the season could be really, really bad. The teeth of the schedule is later this year. You cannot give away two home games. Yes, this is must win.

Let me say that again; YES, this is MUST-WIN.

The difference between 1-1 and 0-2 is profound. Dallas features a quarterback starting just his second game in the league. This is one of the marquee rivalries in the NFL. If the Redskins can't use all of the above as motivation to go out and start whoopin' monkey ass, I'm not sure what they can use.

Prediction: They better win.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF INACTIVES

LANDOVER, Md. – The Washington Redskins have announced the following inactives and lineup changes for today’s game against the Dallas Cowboys:

The Redskins declared the following players as inactive:

o   No. 2 QB Nate Sudfeld

o   No. 19 WR Rashad Ross

o   No. 38 CB Kendall Fuller

o   No. 50 LB Martrell Spaight

o   No. 72 DE Anthony Lanier II

o   No. 74 G Arie Kouandjio

o   No. 97 DE Kendall Reyes

The Cowboys declared the following players as inactive:

o   No. 9 QB Tony Romo

o   No. 34 RB Darius Jackson

o   No. 35 S Kavon Frazier

o   No. 53 LB Mark Nzeocha

o   No. 65 G Ronald Leary

o   No. 75 DE Ryan Davis

o   No. 99 DE Charles Tapper

 Keys to Victory

- Run the (freaking) ball
- Pressure the youngster
- BE BOLD (play-to-win)!

Check me out in-game on Twitter @skinscast

 BTW

Way too many Dallas fans here today. Way more than Steelers' fans last week. Please send these chuckle-heads home butthurt.

 Half

Dumpster-fire to start on defense. Kirk Cousins is apparently allergic to throwing touchdowns. And Joe Barry finally started switching Norman back and forth.

 Audio May be found here 2016 Week 2 Cowboys at Redskins Post Game

 Photo Album - 2016 Week 2: Cowboys at Redskins

 JimmiJo

It is hard to articulate my frustrations with this team. On the one hand it is maddening the extent of missed opportunities. On the other, it is more than just that.

Here's the bottom-line: the better team lost. But they lost because they did not take advantage of opportunities. They lost because they let a rookie quarterback outplay them. They lost because of the stubbornness of head coaches and coordinators who place system ahead of staff capability. 

But this is more than just missed chances and dumb-luck. As of right now this team is profoundly worse than the team that won the division last season. I plan to do a more-extensive article, but here are three areas that are killing this team right now:

1. Third Down Offense - This is an area Washington excelled in last year. In fact, it was one of the areas where they were most improved from the season prior. The Redskins ended the 2015 regular season ranked 5th overall in 3rd down conversions. This year? They currently rank 25th. Today they went 5-for-12 for 42%*.

2. Third Down Defense - This is another area where a profound drop in production has occurred. The Redskins finished last year ranked 8th in this stat. They currently rest at a dismal 27th*. Washington's drop in effectiveness in this area was noticeable week 1 versus Pittsburgh, and the trend continued against Dallas. They cannot seem to get off the field on third down, especially on third-and-long; where most teams succeed. 

3. Quarterback - Kirk Cousins is having problems. In his case, it's all in his head. Cousins finished 2015 with an overall QB rating of 101.6, 10th among quarterbacks. Following two games in 2016 Cousins is rocking a 72.7 and 32nd in the league. Beyond the numbers, his accuracy is way off. On Sunday he overthrew two wide open receivers, both of whom would have run into the end zone untouched. He also tried to force a throw into the end zone to a receiver covered by multiple defenders. The result was an interception. The subsequent Dallas drive resulted in the game-winning touchdown run from Alfred Morris.

If the Redskins would have fixed two of these today they would have won.

Unfortunately, the real list of problems are longer than the above. There is an ineffectual rushing attack. Poor personnel groupings on key plays.Poor defensive scheme, especially in the secondary, and of course; penalties.

This team has a lot if issues. And now they get to travel to New York and play the Giants. Anyone remember what happened last year when they went?

Can you say 0-and-3? 

I wonder if succession planning has already begun. A loss next week and I have to believe it will begin.

* According to teamrankings.com 
 

Last year the Redskins home opener was 57,013 which was roughly 20,000 empty seats. And the Redskins had a 1-0 record

Two years ago, home opener attendance was announced as 78,658. 

This Sunday, the Redskins have their home opener in a Week 2 Divisional matchup against the 1-0 Dallas Cowboys. 

Cast your vote now & feel free to discuss below. 

Poll closes at Kickoff.

VICTORY!!

Redskins 29 - Giants 27

 Well ladies and gents, here we are.  Coming into New York (except not, because it's New Jersey, but who wants to admit they're in New Jersey on purpose?), we sitting here 0-2, last in the division, while the Giants are sitting pretty (pretty ugly) at 2-0 with a division win.  My my how things turn so quickly, and that's the goal today.

With a win today, we're right back in this.  That'll put us at .500 in the division and put some wind at our backs when we come home to face the Browns.

So far, it's been a hell of a time up here.  Going to the Redskins Rally with @TK, we walked past Trent Williams in the lobby.  Keep in mind, I'm not one to get opportunities to see players, so I pretty much was "NBD" on the outside but "OMG!!!!!" on the inside.  Rinse and repeat as I met Cooley, Doc, Bruce, and Larry Michaels.  Yeah, it was a good time.

Just finished up breakfast and I got to rinse and repeat walking by Sonny and meeting Doug Williams.  I'm 32 years old and feel like I'm a quarter of that age (probably still the same height).  The Rally was a really good time, but now I'm sitting here in the press box waiting for the game to start.

Warm ups look like warm ups, but for all of our Fashion Police, we're in white tops and burgundy bottoms.  I usually don't care too much about that stuff, but it helped our run in 2005, so why the hell not?  Not much interesting going on right now, but we're 80 minutes from turning this season around.

I'll update throughout the game, probably at the quarters.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF INACTIVES

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Washington Redskins have announced the following inactives and lineup changes for today’s game against the New York Giants:

The Redskins declared the following players as inactive: 

o   No. 2 QB Nate Sudfeld

o   No. 18 WR Josh Doctson

o   No. 38 CB Kendall Fuller

o   No. 50 LB Martrell Spaight

o   No. 72 DE Anthony Lanier II

o   No. 74 G Arie Kouandjio

o   No. 97 DE Kendall Reyes

The Giants declared the following players as inactive: 

o   No. 8  QB Josh Johnson

o   No. 23 RB Rashad Jennings

o   No. 27 S Darian Thompson

o   No. 73 T Marshall Newhouse

o   No. 82 WR Roger Lewis, Jr.

o   No. 97 DT Montori Hughes

o   No. 99 DT Robert Thomas

Well seven minutes before kickoff the stands are not that full, maybe 2/3, especially on the 50.

With 6:00 left in the first, down 14-3.

Breeland is out for the game with an ankle injury.  Did not look good from up here. 

With 25 seconds left in the first, it's 14-6.  Cousins looking better but still not good enough.  Can't trade touchdowns for field goals.

 END OF FIRST QUARTER - Not looking happy.  Bashaud out, and that muffed punt seems like it popped the balloon before it even inflated.  Really need to turn this around on this third and 8 to begin the second quarter.

Not sure how many more happy moments we'll have, but that :32 drive was beautiful by Cousins.  Need to see more of that if we want to win, today or ever.

 END OF FIRST HALF - Story of the day is still the same.  Cousins looking like a shell of 2015 except for three great throws.  Unfortunately, those great throws for him are expected for QB's getting $19.95M.  He's not getting it done, but somehow it's still a one-score game.

Tendencies so far are frustration on defense and frustration with number 8.  We're also doing our usual when it comes to the penalties.  Not really sure why it's going this way this year, but we're being consistent.  Injuries haven't been our friend with some of the guys in the box calling this another bodybag game.  Breeland, Hall, Jackson, who's next?

And then by my count are 35 drive-killing penalty yards.  Not sure how this keeps happening either, but at least we're beating the Giants in that department.

Despite how this game may be feeling, we're still in this and we get the ball at the half.  Hail.

Note: Last Redskin to get reception and interception in same game, Christmas Eve, 2000 was Champ Bailey

Halfway through the fourth and we've got ourselves a ball game.  Really need to start taking advantage of the opportunities that we're getting.  Seven for us on this drive would make a lot of people feel a lot better.

 FINAL UPDATE: Well I went a little silent after basically eight thousand things happened in a row, and then the game ended.  This team has a scrap to them, ladies and gentlemen, and boy did it come out when it mattered.  We finished with 29 points off of seven scoring drives, and that's nothing to sneeze at.  Going forward, we sure want to see those 29 become 49, but it seems that maybe we're wrong about this team. 

Having a more public platform to state this from, I'll take advantage.  Too often here do we have members cheer against the team in order to say "I told you so."  Man, being wrong is absolutely fantastic.  After we traded two touchdowns for a field goal in the first quarter, I thought that we were going to lose. I didn't say it in the Game Day Thread or in this blog, but I thought we were done.  We were 0-2 at the Meadowlands where we never win with an offense that was oozing incompetence and players were dropping like flies.  And you know what?  I was wrong.  Our backups came in, the team got some motivation and some insane plays from Reed, Way, Crowder, and Dunbar, and now I sit here listening to Giants fans being unhappy because we beat them in their house for the first time since 2011.  It sounds like Heaven.

We overcame adversity and instead of floundering in our losses, we went out there and done won the damned thing!  Our defense was porous and allowed six scoring drives for the Giants, but they also came up with huge turnovers to give our offense a shot.  Speaking with Josh Norman after the game, he told me that watching new unheralded guys was just amazing, like he's been there.  Specifically Dunbar and Cravens, Josh was beaming like a new father.

Not sure if it picked up on the audio, but Trent Williams said he was "stunned" when he got the call to shift over to left guard.  Maybe it was because he was standing next to him, but he was very happy with how Ty did taking over.  I missed the beginning of Gruden's conference because in the press box getting down to the players/coaches is like trying to get a new XBOX on Christmas Eve.  Both Gruden and Cousins were very happy with the team's resilience, but something I did like with Gruden is that when he was asked about what the hell happened before the half, his smile instantly disappeared.  He was very unhappy with how that was handled, and you couldn't even tell that he had just won the game.  It's good to see that the team takes the same approach to fixing mistakes win or lose.

A couple of random facts that I may be the only one finds interesting:

1)  The Giants had a player ejected after breaking a rule put in place due to Beckham's behavior against Norman last year.

2)  Quinton Dunbar now has two interceptions in the Giants' endzone.

3)  Quinton Dunbar's interception was an Odell Beckham-like one-handed grab.

4)  Giants fans.  I mean, just look at 'em.

 Got some audio up in the downloads section and trying to get some more up later.  In case you watch Norman's press conference, I'm the guy awkwardly asking the second-to-last question because why not?

Hopefully today is the start of something fantastic and we can keep it going next week at home versus Cleveland.

Hell of a first win, guys.  Now let's just get 16 more.

HAIL!

It's been well documented all over the web this week that the Redskins Front Office does not want to be caught dead, much less alive, wearing the gold on gold Color Rush uniform. Last week through this past Tuesday, ESPN 980's & former Redskin Tight End, Chris Cooley had been saying the team would buck the system & wear their all white look for Prime Time in Dallas. On Wednesday, he changed his report to it being the burgundy on burgundy look at this time. Most likely because it was being reported that Dallas will be wearing their white on white look. At this time, nothing has been revealed as being the final look the Redskins will be wearing for Thursday Night Football. 

Take a look at the three options for the team to wear, then vote in the poll above for the one you'd prefer to see them wear.

In the past, the white on white look is probably mostly associated with the Gibbs 2.0 era & the "5 In A Row" runs to make the Playoffs.

The burgundy on burgundy look while seeming like a good thing on paper, when the team finally debuted it, it was instantly associated with being awful. Mainly because I don't think they ever won a game wearing it & were embarrassed by the Steelers the first time they wore it.

The Color Rush gold on gold look so far has only been seen either in promo pictures from Nike or digital skins in EA's Madden.

POLL:  Will the Redskins first Offensive snap be a run or pass play?

The Redskins have opened their 2019 season with two losses. Both against Divisional foes. Now they get to close out Week 3 at home on Monday Night against the visiting 1-1 Chicago Bears. The Bears don't have much of an offense but seem to have what may be an elite defense.

On the flip side, the Redskins have a developing passing attack and a disastrous defense. The Redskins haven't had a Defense this vanilla since Mike Nolan received his ice cream. Oh, and the Redskins already have more guys on IR then any other team this season. 

Will the Redskins finally put one in the win column? 

As usual, poll closes at kickoff. Go vote!

The 2nd half started with Moses being downgraded to out with an ankle injury as the Skins Offense managed to make it to mid field before stalling out. Oh & Dak came back throwing garbage to start their 3 & out drive. Dallas would go on to feature Alfred Morris on their next drive. Evidently since Dak couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, they started to just hand it off. The Third Quarter ended just like the First one did. No one scored.

However the Fourth started with a Dak to Dez TD from their 15 yard line. This put the Skins down 24-7. With the recent Cousins comparisons to Brees, this was the time for him to turn it on & takeover the game. Cousins took the Offense 87 yards to the endzone on their next drive. This put them down 24-14. Dallas played ball/clock control on the following drive where the Skins Defense managed to get called for having12 men on the field. A few plays later & Dallas was in the end zone. Again. They went 75 yards & used up over 6 & a half minutes. Skin down 31-14 with 4:55 to go. 

Down 17, the Redskins start to display a gripe I’ve had with them all season, no hurry up. Guys are taking their time getting to the line of scrimmage. Kirk ends up throwing the INT. And to add insult to injury they’re called for personal foul, half the distance to the goal. They punched it in to go up 38-14 which also ended Cousins night & gave the last few minutes to Colt McCoy to run the clock out.

The Redskins have now fallen to 5-7 & been swept by both the Eagles & the Cowboys this season.  

Yeah....

Landover, MD - Welcome all to the Extremeskins coverage of the second preseason game. I'm TSO in the Press box providing you with the best damn coverage I and Spaceman Spiff, who will be providing coverage from the sidelines, possibly can! 

1999 Redskins go 10-6 and win the NFC East. The following season? Failure. 

2005 Redskins go 10-6 and nab a wildcard spot. The following season? Disaster.

2007 Redskins go 9-7 and sneak into the playoffs. The following season? Zorn. 

2012 Redskins go 10-6, win the NFC East with their shiny new franchise QB. The following season? Epic collapse. 

So now, here we are. The Redskins are coming off a season that saw a seismic shift occur within the Front Office, where a legitimate talent-evaluating GM was hired to take control of the scouting department and personnel. Gruden got the help he desperately needed and asked for from the Front Office. The Redskins went 9-7 and miraculously won the NFC East on the heels of a young group of draft picks and a ton of personnel hits in general.

So, the following season? 

We're going to find out if this is real. 

Is it? Is our newly and properly structured Front Office as organized and professional as it seems? Is it real?

Is our energetic and smart coaching staff as good for player development as they were last season? Is it real?

Is Kirk Cousins the franchise QB we've been so desperately lacking? Is he for real?

Are the young players truly developing into a core of consistent championship potential?  Are they for real?

It might just be the preseason, but these games play a role (albeit a small one) in teaching us who will rise to the occasion and who won't. Who will solidify their spot on the team and who will continue to remain a question. Who will be a part of the new reality we all hope is happening right before our eyes, a hope we continue to question is real?

The hope that we're witnessing the rise of the Redskins as a perennial contender. 

Let's start to find out together here on Extremeskins Gameday Coverage!  

 1st Quarter Analysis

Stay tuned for more after the half!   

 2nd Quarter Analysis

Stay tuned for more!     

  3rd Quarter Analysis

DEFEAT!!!

Giants 19 - 10 Redskins

Redskins Out of Playoffs

Welcome my friend to Extremeskins coverage of the Washington Redskins versus the New York Giants. My name is JimmiJo and I am joined by my partner; Spaceman Spiff.

The most reasonable thing a football fan can expect and hope for is for your team to be playing meaningful games at the end of the season. Sure, there are times when you run away with the division, ala Dallas this year, but at a minimum you want to see the games late in the year have a larger significance than just the football on the day.

My friends, you can't ask for much more than we have in front us day today.

Win and you're in (barring a freak-of-nature tie between Detroit & Green Bay). That's more than than you can ask. For the second-year running the Washington Redskins can go to the playoffs (1st time in 25-years). By virtue of the tie in London the Redskins are already assured a winning season (first time since 1993).

So what can we expect from the team today? I expect a win. For one, Washington has everything to play for while New York are already in the playoffs and cannot help themselves with a win. History also appears to be on Washington's side. According to Rick Snider of Washington Post Express; the Redskins are 9-2 in win-and-in games since 1974.

There is also the fact they are playing at home against a division rival. Then too, the rumor is the Giants will yank their starters early.

Finally, it is not Monday Night Football.

So what are your thoughts? Are you feeling good about today's game?

Stand by for inactives...

Inactives

The Redskins declared the following players as inactive:

o   No. 2 QB Nate Sudfeld

o   No. 31 RB Matt Jones

o   No. 36 S Su’a Cravens

o   No. 45 S Josh Evans

o   No. 47 CB Quinton Dunbar

o   No. 60 OL Vinston Painter

o   No. 78 C Kory Lichtensteiger

The Giants declared the following players as inactive:

o   No. 29 S Nat Berhe

o   No. 30 CB Coty Sensabaugh

o   No. 44 RB George Winn

o   No. 68 G/T Bobby Hart

o   No. 89 TE Jerell Adams

o   No. 90 DE Jason Pierre-Paul

o   No. 97 LB Ishaq Williams

No. 73 Marshall Newhouse is expected to start in place of Hart at right tackle.

Keys to Victory

The Washington Redskins have every excuse to win and very little to lose. They have enough offense and motivation to wrap this up and then get ready for the post-season. That said, a quick punch in the mouth from the New York Giants and the expectations for the game and playoffs could change dramatically. 

To that end, the Redskins should jump out quickly to establish momentum. They also need to be extremely physical. Washington needs to paint the specter of potential injuries so that the Giants will pull starters.

Talk at the half...

Half

I will make this quick and direct; this team was not ready to play in the biggest game of the year. And I am starting to see a trend with this current squad. I tweeted something to the effect that you cannot coach things like injuries, calls by the refs, and weather. But you can sure get your team ready to play. 

Gruden didn't. And it is not the first time.

On the biggest stage Gruden tends to either fail to get the team ready or, is flat out coached.

This team coming out as flat as they have been in inexcusable. You thought Carolina was an aberration. Perhaps not.

Gruden is an offensive coach and the offense looks like crap. If my name is Daniel Snyder, Gruden has 30-minutes to prove hie deserves to keep his job.

Photos

Audio

JimmiJo

Some losses hurt more than others. Then too, some seasons hurt worse than others. For me, this is true of both tonight and this year. 

Following the success of last year my expectations were that the Washington Redskins would at a minimum be better. Instead they muddled through a season most memorable for the opportunities this team gave away.

Following the game and setting up my question for head coach Jay Gruden, I pointed out how this team has controlled their playoff-destiny many times this year and given it up. In fact, one could argue they were knocked out of the playoffs many times this year. Even back to the tie in London.

My question to Gruden was, knowing they controlled their fate multiple times, is it all the more frustrating to have lost tonight? Gruden gave me a great answer where he started listing all the areas where they struggled this year; red zone offense, rushing offense, third down defense, et al. His point being that while the offense racked up a lot of yards, there were areas where the team struggled so that missing the playoffs was not too much of a surprise.

Liz Clarke from the Washington Post asked the best question, and the one I really wanted to ask: did Gruden feel like he had the team prepared to play today?

His answer was based on the results, probably not. I couldn't agree more. In fact, it seems like in the biggest games, this team is not prepared. And this speaks directly to head coach.

I like Gruden quite a bit, but I feel like he lacks intensity sometimes. Check that. I think he possesses plenty. I think he lacks displaying intensity sometimes.

I was talking to another reporter after the game who has been around since the Joe Gibbs' era. And I remarked to him how Gibbs would handle a week like this; he would be darn-near unapproachable. Gibbs would be a ball of tension before big games. And whether some of that was an act I cannot say. But I do know a Gibbs team today would have been more than ready mentally.

As for the game itself; Washington came out flat. The run-game never got going. Kirk Cousins had a very flat performance. And the result was an anemic offense until late in the third quarter.

That said, I just knew they were going to win when the score became tied at 10. The Giants had by that time gone flat and the Redskins had all the momentum.

Sure enough, once Washington got the ball back after tying the game and then went three-and-out, New York did what they do; let Eli Manning march the offense down to win the game with a field goal.

Even then there was a chance with the Redskins marching. But then Cousins decided to try and force a ball that never should have been thrown. 

Gruden usually tries to cover for his quarterback, but even he admitted it was a poor decision to throw the ball.

And just like that, the season is over.

I am curious to see what changes come this offseason. Today was the type of game that cost head coaches their job, IF their job is in any way on the line. I do not think this is the case with Gruden. Sure, it is a direct reflection on the coach missing the playoffs. But with this defense they weren't going far.

And to that end I do expect a change at defensive coordinator (or perhaps just hope for it). There are some pretty good defensive coaches available right now so I hope this is what they do.

As for Cousins, I expect the franchise tag again. Based on his comments post-game it does not sound like he and the team are anywhere close. To be truthful I think throws like the one that cost the game is why the team is not fully sold, at least not enough to give him the fortune he wants. On the other hand, Kirk knows someone will him so he doesn't need to settle for less.

The only way I do not see Cousins here next year is if the team decides both he AND Gruden are not the answer. Otherwise, I expect both back.

Well, it has been another fantastic year. Thanks to ES for allowing me to pose as a reporter for another season. I am looking forward to next year to hopefully do it again.

Peace. 

It's been quite a trip so far up here in the Big (No Eli) Apple.  Google Maps decided to see how many U-turns I could make in a one-mile radius.  The waitress at the restaurant decided to see how long I would wait until my hangry came out (45 minutes for a grilled chicken sandwich?!).  Then the Ambien decided to see if I could function after taking it, I could not from what I remember.  Oh, and then I managed to pull a muscle in my neck either while I was saving kids from an orphanage on fire or while adjusting a shower head.  Let's just go with the former.

Oh yeah, we have a football game, too.  I know, I know, we're 4-2.  The Giants are 1-6.  So I'll say what we're all thinking:

Sitting here in the box, I'm looking down on a 1-6 team, both figuratively and literally.  Just before our game, they get rid of Eli Apple (wrong Eli) and Snacks.  We've got AP hitting on all cylinders and likely making history today, with 26 yards he'll be moving to 9th all-time in rushing yards, passing Tony Dorsett.  So that's a win no matter what since we'll be moving a Cowboy down the list.  Suddenly Kerrigan and Preston seem to be starting to remember that they're on the team, and the Giants have an offensive line that is underperforming.

However, it's the Redskins.  The Giants have won four games in the past two years, and two of them have been against us.  That's not a distinction that is something to brag about.  At the same time, Dak was 5-0 against us until a random penalty and an upright saved our win. To sandwich that point, we are the one win that the Colts have.  Another thing to not brag about.

If we want to win, then today we've got to not let it come down to lucky plays, yellow flags, and a regret about cutting Dan Bailey.  We play well with the lead, but there's not a lot to look to in order to have faith that we can come back from behind.  We're going to need to avoid looking at our record or theirs and getting some sort of ****iness, something that seems to haunt us after a win.  We will need to stay after Eli and get him to make mistakes.  With our depleted secondary, it's had to trust that we can cover Beckham, Shepard, and Engram.  Oh, and they have some running back who can catch the ball.  Man, just thinking about that, how the hell are they 1-6?

As of this writing (11:37), inactives have yet to be announced.  Expect Crowder to still be out in case you drafted him in fantasy.  Thompson is a game time decision in case you drafted him in fantasy.  I bet you can guess which Redskins I drafted.

As the game starts and things are announced, I'll update this.  In the meantime, HTTR.

And right before I post this, inactives are announced:

Quinton Dunbar

Samaje Perine

Kenny Ladler

Casey Dunn

Geron Christian, Sr.

Jamison Crowder

Brian Quick

Mo Harris is in for Crowder, and Moreau is in for Dunbar.

About an hour until kickoff and the Giants punter looks great.  Hopefully we see a lot of him today.

With 49 minutes to go, the stadium looks like people thought it was at Washington.  Basically nobody here.  We'll see what it looks like once we get underway.

During warm ups Richardson has looked very comfortable.  No noticeable holding back or wincing.  Same goes for Thompson.

With ten minutes to go, stadium is maybe half full?  Something like 90/10% Giants fans.  Crazy since they're 1-6 coming off of a 3-13 season.

FIRST QUARTER:

Not quite sure how to feel about this quarter.  It's great that we're up 7-0, but that'st he danger of this offense.  Control the clock methodically, but then it takes two seconds for the other team to throw a bomb and flip the field along with the momentum.

SECOND QUARTER:

I'm quite sure how I feel about this quarter.  Smith, man.  Smith.  Throws seem off target, happy feet, not keeping his eyes down the field.  I don't know what's up with this offensive line.  They're supposed to be amazing, but they're in their Halloween costume of Swiss Cheese lately.  It's nice to see Doctson playing well along with Reed.  I just can't be happy about this lead even though it's only halfway over.  Hopefully Jay adjusts at halftime (LOLOLOLOLOL), because this just isn't the team that we've seen.

THIRD QUARTER:

I feel like we can copy and paste this each week.  No adjustments, defense still plays well, and we don't score a touchdown.  Unfortunately Peterson has a very rare fumble that gets returned a mile, and we start the fourth quarter with the ball on the Redskins 41.  We seem to be winning on the field, but the scoreboard makes me very nervous.  Again.  Every damn time.

FINAL:

Well that fourth quarter was actually pretty fun to watch.  Peterson got a hell of a TD after being denied the whole game.  Our defense showed up, except for Norman not getting that pick, costing me like 12 points in fantasy (I was playing against Engram).  Somehow we are 5-2.  It doesn't feel like it, does it?  Somehow it feels like a struggle every time, but man, aren't we used to that struggle regardless?

The difference this year is that we are no longer snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, we're actually coming out on top.  I was just down in the locker room and at the press conferences (except for Smith, he was late, because he's Alex Smith), and there's a different feel.  These guys know they're not performing to their peak, but they know they're only going to get better.  It's a lack of satisfaction that I have been dying to see.  Jay's not happy with close endings or miscues on offense.  Adrian's not happy with how little he's seen the end zone (not in a selfish way; guy's the nicest person I've ever met).  DJ isn't happy with anything which is awesome.  The whole team won't be happy until, as DJ said, we're winning Super Bowls.  

DJ said today, and I'm paraphrasing very poorly, that today's victory is nothing.  The other four are nothing.  Channeling his inner Iverson but in a good way, he said that we haven't yet won the division, won a championship, won a Super Bowl.  We're 5-2 and have the Falcons to focus on.

Well, DJ, for the first time in a very long time, it feels like we're on the edge of our seats and on our way.

Hail.

This Sunday the Redskins open their season on the road in Filthadumpia. *

The Skins are on a streak of actually winning their last three road openers.

On the flip side, the Eagles have a four game win streak over the Skins.

Something's gonna give this Sunday. Who keeps their streak alive when it's all said & done. 

Cast your vote now. Poll closes at Kickoff. 

*Filthadelphia originally coined by @skins island connection

Journey to Fed Ex through the eyes of the Press (Matt Jones and Jordan Reed sighting at the end of first video!): 

 Welcome everyone to your week 4 of the regular season ExtremeSkins coverage, I'm TSO here in the pressbox with my man Murf (who will be covering the team on the sidelines) ready to provide you the best damn coverage we can! 

Oh, the entangled web the NFL can weave.

When some random guy named RG3 who no one really knows that well moved on this offseason and signed with the Browns, many around the NFL, let alone Redskins Nation, had this game circled on their calendar. What excitement! What thrill! What adventure lays in wonder with such an intriguing matchup?

Alas, it was not meant to be. As he is unfortunately wont to do, RG3 got hurt.

The Browns are a total mess at the QB position and so that part of the game has lost quite its luster. 

But, fear not! The battle of the QBs wasn't the only intertwining aspect these two teams have for us today. 

How about Hue Jackson and Jay Gruden? Two Cincinnati Bengals ex-offensive coordinators wanting to strut their stuff against each other. After Gruden accepted the Redskins head coaching gig and left the Bengals, Hue Jackson was elevated to offensive coordinator from his running backs' coach position to replace him. There was plenty of talk during that offseason about how Hue was going to take their offense to the next level, some of it fairly interpreted as being critical of Gruden. Yet, in the end, the Bengals offense regressed under Hue, going from 6th in points scored under Gruden in 2013 to 15th overall under Hue in 2014 as well as going from 10th in total yards to 15th.   

Oh, and that's not even getting into the Hue Jackson/Redskins connection, where he was the team's RBs coach under both Schottenheimer and Spurrier in 2001-2002. 

Coaching histories not doing it for you?

How about recent Redskin castoffs coming back for revenge? Both Stephen Paea and Austin Reiter were cut recently, the former before the season began, the latter after the first game of the year to make space for Cullen Jenkins. Both are starting for the Browns today and definitely looking to prove the team made a mistake in letting them go. If you've followed along here on the ES Coverage blog, you'd know Stephen Paea was a player we focused on during the preseason. The first game against Atlanta, he was subpar at best. But he seemed to improve as each game went on, albeit against lesser competition. It wasn't necessarily a surprise to see him released, but it was disappointing considering the offseason talk about him being fully healthy and ready to play at a high level. Were the improvements during the preseason enough, or was the team right to let him go?

As for Reiter, that one particularly stings because of the need the Redskins ended up having at Center with Kory Lichtensteiger out for the year. Reiter would've been backing up Long, either way, but they wouldn't have been forced to sign John Sullivan off the streets. That's certainly a set back in the Scot McCloughan era of trying to build through the draft, generating legit angst among the fanbase by losing a draft pick who seemed to be developing.

Still bored?

Alright, alright. How about  just plain old football talk? This matchup certainly entices, as the Browns come in with the league's 4th best rushing attack while the Redskins have the league's 9th worst rushing defense. 

Sounds horrifying, right? And it is, but then you factor in that the Redskins boast the league's second best passing attack and is going against the Browns' 9th worst passing defense.

So, in the end, I believe this game boils down to the Redskins stopping Isaiah Crowell on the ground more than anything else. I know many are focusing on the threat of Terrelle Pryor, but I really think it's all about the Browns rushing attack today. An X factor coming out of the backfield, as well, could be Duke Johnson, as we've seen pass-catching backs like Vereen have success against us already. If they can't stop those guys out of the backfield, they're going to struggle enough to where any offensive advantage they have will be washed out and it could end up in a terrible loss against a desperate 0-3 Browns. Let's hope Ricky Jean-Francois, Chris Baker, Ziggy Hood, Cullen Jenkins, Will Compton, Mason Foster and even David Bruton, Jr. put on their big boy pants on today because we're going to need some interior run-stuffing more than ever.         

Cool little nugget: For the first time in forever, with Arie Kouandjio starting, the Redskins now boast an Offensive Line entirely comprised of their own draft picks!

Stay tuned for more tweets, notes and general updates right here on the ES Coverage blog.... and let's go Skins, HTTR! 

Murf's Take

What could have been? Months ago, when the NFL released the 2016 schedule, the Washington Redskins vs. Cleveland Browns match-up had so much potential. It wasn't viewed as two perennial doormats trying to claw their way towards respectability or even a .500 record. No, it was the return of Robert Griffin III.

 

Had anyone with sense been calling the shots, this would have been the season opening matchup. Put two troubled franchises on primetime television and let the rest of the football loving world sit back and watch as the Heisman Trophy winner had a chance for redemption at the expense of the team who traded a bounty for him, watched him routinely get injured and, ultimately, allowed him to leave. America loves drama and that was as juicy of a storyline as either of these two teams is likely to be involved in all season long.

 

But alas, it was not meant to be. Griffin did what Griffin does (namely, put himself in harm's way when he didn't have to) and now he's on the shelf, so the 1-2 Redskins will host the 0-3 Browns in a game that no one outside of friends, loved ones and diehards will want to see a single snap from.

 

Without the appeal of RGIII vs. the Redskins, we're left with some pretty basic subplots for this afternoon's contest. Can Kirk Cousins and the passing attack finally work through their red zone struggles? Can Matt Jones finally show he's capable of being a workhorse back (and will the coaching staff stick with the ground game long enough to get him going)?

 

On defense, can anyone on the defensive line other than Chris Baker get to the quarterback? Can the linebackers -- specifically Ryan Kerrigan pass rushing and Will Compton in coverage -- become more involved (because neither did much to stand out last week in New York)? How will the secondary handle the rash of injuries?

 

In short, there are plenty of questions in need of answers as Jay Gruen's squad looks to build off of last week's victory over the Giants.

 

As always, I'll be down on the sidelines during the game -- capturing photos of all the action. Some of the names and faces I'll be paying attention to today include Jordan Reed (can he be the guy to help the Redskins score touchdowns, rather than settle for field goal attempts?), Kendall Fuller (does he make the most out of his opportunity) and Arie Kouandjio (or whoever steps into the offensive line).

 

- murf 

 

 

PRE-GAME TWEETS

So, last week I went through the Falcons game and came up with a few players I thought were intriguing to keep our eyes on as we moved forward through the preseason (with a ton of video to boot, probably too much as that page is/was a bummer to load ); either because they had disappointing outings and we hoped to see improvements from them, or because they looked surprisingly good and we hoped to see the continuation of that level of play. I intentionally focused on players who weren't being talked about a whole lot that week so as to avoid any media redundancy.   

The disappointments I honed in on against the Falcons were Stephen Paea, Arie Kuandjio and Niles Paul. The impressive performances came from Kendall Reyes, Anthony Lanier (before the rest of the world started noticing him), Carlos Fields, and a special guest appearance from Terrence Garvin.

So how did these guys do against the Jets? And were there any other performances to add to the current list of Extremeskins Coverage intrigue? Let's find out, shall we (with a little less video for the sake of our browsers, mmkay)?     

Stephen Paea, 90

Watching the game in the pressbox at FedEx field, I made it a point to focus in on Paea with my cheap Walmart-purchased binoculars (hey, it was last minute, Spaceman Spiff said I'd probably need them) when he came into the game. From what I saw, he was much improved, however, we must keep in mind that he came in about five minutes into the 2nd half, which means he was playing against lesser talent (and may further indicate a demotion on the depth chart). That being said, last week against the Falcons, he seemed to be moving in slow motion and the only positive he showed really was with his arm strength.

Against the Jets, however, it was a different story. He moved very well and was a lot more explosive off the snap, to say the least. Let's take a look at a couple of examples.

Here, he's lined up at RDE and you can see him move laterally well while penetrating, putting himself in the perfect position to make the tackle: 

Here, again at RDE, he shows good lateral quickness another time by cutting to his left to find the open lane to the QB, then he puts on the jets to get the sack:

Suffice to say, much better from Stephen Paea. 

    Arie Kuandjio, 74

Unfortunately, the same can't be said about Arie Kuandjio, who continued to disappoint. Most of his plays aren't necessarily a negative, but they're plays where he can't be considered as having had a positive impact. He often is either out of position or generally not involved when he otherwise should be. But then there's bad as well. 

Here, at LG, his guy gets underneath and is able to push him back, who then winds up making the tackle on Keith Marshall:

Here, again at LG, is the play I believe John Keim was talking about a couple days ago when he mentioned Kuandjio getting pushed to the ground: 

Yeah, let's hope we get a better showing from him against the Bills. 

  Niles Paul, 84 

Good news for Niles, though, he definitely looked better overall. He did whiff on his first play, but then seemed to make up for it with better blocking in general. Let's take a look.

Here, lined up at FB and motioned to the left, is the aforementioned whiff:  

Here, lined up on the outside to the left at TE, you'll see him get a solid block on #21 of the Jets and maintain it throughout the play:

Here, lined up as the outside TE on the right side, you'll see him execute a perfect block: 

Overall, a better showing from Niles Paul. 

Kendall Reyes, 97

Kendall Reyes continued to impress for the most part. Nothing spectacular, just solid, and I get the sense that we'll be hearing that a lot when it comes to his play throughout the season.

Here, at RDE, he gets some decent pressure on the QB and flushes him outside of the pocket:

Anthony Lanier II, 72 

By far, the most interesting aspect of Lanier's game was how much earlier he was put into the rotation than in the Falcons game, which may indicate he's moving up the depth chart a little. I asked him about it after the game and he seemed to agree. As for his performance, it wasn't as enjoyable to watch as the film against the Falcons (that's not to say he played poorly or regressed, just nothing splashy), but he certainly had his moments. Here are a few examples. 

 Here, at RDE, he gets quick interior penetration: 

Here, lined up at LDE, he gets a near sack after beating #64 of the Jets handedly (gotta love the way he lays out there):

Here, lined up at RDE, of course is his end of game sack. This one's all about his hustle and awareness: 

   Terrence Garvin, 52

All Garvin has done these past two games is make plays, so I'm putting him here instead of Fields. Last week against the Falcons, he was in on a bunch of plays along with Fields and Lanier, so I didn't give him his own spot and just mentioned his play secondarily. I don't know if it's the weaker competition or not, but he's really impressive out there. Let's take a look at some of the plays he made against the Jets. 

Here, lined up on the right side at ILB, you have to love his back pedal and then quick reaction to break up the pass: 

Here, again lined up on the right side at ILB, he shows his speed as he slices his way through to apply quick pressure on the QB, causing the incompletion: 

He was also in on a fumble recovery (right place, right time, so no need for a video really), but it just shows his hustle. He's really flying around out there and is fun to watch. 

Well, that does it for now. We'll see how these guys look on Friday against the Bills as well as their spots in the rotation. Will they improve, stay the same or regress? Will we see them higher on the depth chart, the same, or lower? I might do a part 2 of this if I have the time and add some others to the list. Hope you all enjoyed it, see you around on the board!