A (Relatively) Kool-Aid Free Appraisal of Monday Night

[radagast5]

Before I start to qualify that victory on Monday night, let's get this out of the way...

In the NFL, the bottom line is really all that matters. The Redskins won and more importantly they beat a division opponent on the road. The first big step towards being competitive is beating division foes and to do it on the road is even more impressive.

Pulling the rug out from under 65,000 Cowboy fans, 53 Cowboy players, and one damned good Tuna, sure as hell was a feel-good moment for Redskin Nation, but that is all gravy. Eh, it *may* be a significant psychological boost for the coaches and the players, but I'm not really banking on that.

All right, with that out of the way, here are my concerns:

1. Defense. These guys are exemplary tacklers, and they play smart football *all* the time, which is how they manage to be successful with only moderate overall talent. My concern is the lack of pass rush and lack of turnovers. They generated almost zero pass rush on Monday night even when they did blitz. The Cowboys were partly responsible for that with some good O-line play and a passing game designed to get the ball out of Bledsoe's hands fast, but eventually our inability to generate a pass rush (especially without blitzing) is going to haunt us.

This defense also does not create turnovers---and don't whine to me about the very iffy non-call on Taylor's obliteration of Crayton. At some point, you have to create turnovers, especially when your offense is turning the ball over far too much itself.

Having said all that, the defense is so smart and so disciplined that they make important plays (several huge third & fourth down stops attest to that) and simply don't allow long drives. You can go places with this defense and I love Gregg Williams and co., but this defense is not good enough to carry a bad offense like Baltimore 2000, or Tampa 1999-2001.

2. Offense. So much has been made about the QB controversy (and Wilbon got it right: it's a quarterback "dilemma" not a controversy), that the real problem keeps getting overlooked. Our offensive line is just a shade above awful. I will give Samuels credit for making everyone say "Demarcus who?" but on the whole, these guys are vastly underperforming. They got no push against a fairly lightweight Dallas line, and did an awful job of protecting Brunell. (If that's Ramsey back there, they have 10 sacks on Monday.)

I have a hard time believing that Joe Bugel forgot how to teach mechanics, so I'm chalking this up to the OL talent level being nowhere near as high as most 'Skins fans think it is.

This is the key to the offensive troubles. They open up bigger holes, Portis will get us 100/game. If they protect Brunell, the WRs have more time to get open, and Brunell has shown he can make the throws this year. This all dovetails into good offense feeding itself.

3. Brunell. Let's get this straight, this guy's arm strength is fine. The three big passes he threw to Moss were so perfectly placed that you could not possibly improve upon them if you'd walked the ball down to Santana, and the last one was 60 yards in the air. Brunell is being handicapped by the line, plain and simple. The OL play improves, the offense improves, probably by leaps and bounds.

If the OL does not improve, a 2-0 start is quickly going to spin into 6-10 or worse.

[Saqs]

I agree with you somewhat but i'm not so sure the OL is as weak as you think. They showed up and played awesome in the 2nd half against a good Bears D in week 1 and looked great all preseason so they have shown that they can perform.

Let's also not discount Jansens thumb injuries. Yeah he's still playing but he's not 100% out there.

[herrmag]

The one thing you're forgetting from MNF is that Brunell and Santana have established that there is a deep threat. They've used it sparingly (understatement) so far this season. However, I think Moss opened up some eyes (as well as Brunell for that matter). I think Portis said it best during Moss's interview: "No more 8 in the box!". Now, this is all predicated on the fact that Gibbs opens up the offense a bit. I'll bet my last dollar that he does.

[Guest jdogg]

I was thinking the same thing herrmag. Even assuming that Brunell doesn't have many more perfect throws like that second TD, I think Santana Moss can do just enough with his speed and talent to make up for some of Brunell's weaknesses and keep defenses honest. Recognizing that our defense has shown over the past year and two games they can overcome turnovers, three and outs, and being on the field for most of the game, why not open it up, take some shots down the field, some risks, and see if we can't open it up a bit more for Portis.

[PlayAction]

Defense: Coach Williams blitzed far less than he has since he's been here. But, you are right the Defense would be a lot better if we could get more pressure just from the front 4. Chris Clemons should able to play again so that might help. Of course, they could have used Arrington to fill Clemons role last year. Cowboys had a really big OL.

Offense: I'm sure that those pass plays to Moss gave Seattle a lot to think about. But, Skins need to take those shots more frequently and connect on them for opponents to really honor the threat. While I didn't want an early bye week it will give Brunell the opportunity to get his timing down with Moss, Patten and Jacobs.

[budski]

radagast,

The cowboys definitely planned on max protecting bledsoe and it worked.

Im sure Bledsoe knowing Williams defense helped alot in the preparations for

the blitzs. It also seemed the defense played a little sitting back waiting, there were

blitzs, but not as many as I have seen before (could be mistaken).

The offensive line to also did not seem to be getting to much push either. Whether

it was good defense or bad plays dont know. It also seemed we were passing too much and not trying hard enough to establish the run. I also think for the most part we relied on the defense alot and played a conservative game much like the cowboys.

Remember too that Parcells has got Gibbs number on most of the games along with Parcells teams are pretty tough to begin with and maybe both their defenses and offensive game plans cancelled each other out for the most part.