my complete game breakdown

[redman100]

I know others have posted their observations on the game and offered lots of thought to what went wrong and a few that went right. I'm going to go through what I saw and see if anyone else has something to offer. Most of what I will post here is about the offense and others can add observations as they see fit.

First possesion:

Ball on the 22

The first play is a toss by Brunell to the flat good for 6 yards. This play seemed entirely designed as a flat route, it happened quickly, and there was no checkdown involved.

The thing that struck me most was that not a single player was in motion. The movement from the first few series of game one was non-existent. It was as if Saunders had a talk with Joe and they decided to go back to Joe ball. It seemed to set the stage for the play calling all night. There were hardly any fancy shifts or motion plays.

Betts was stopped on the next play for 0 yards bringing up third and four.

The next play seemed like a designed screen and I thought Mark put the ball in the right spot, on the outside shoulder like you're supposed to, but Betts turned to look for the ball inside and before he could adjust the ball was over his outstretched arms.

At this point I didn't think there was any playcalling to try and go deep. And I also wondered if Al had no confidence in the run game so he was making up for it by calling dinks to get short yardage.

Second series. Again, no shifting or motion.

They bring Betts right and he bangs out 6 yards on first down. Second down, Betts another run, this time to the left for three, bringing up third and short.

Now, here's what puzzles me. Third and less than one yard and they do not bring in TJ Duckett. Single back. The right side of the line doesn't even get a push and Betts is dropped for a loss of half a yard.

Punt.

Two series. Saunders has not called for anything deep, and contrary to what he had said earlier about testing Dallas deep, he never pulled the trigger for a deep route. The third down play might have been a great time for it. The run was almost an attempt to show Joe that the running game was non-existent. I thought the third down play, to get something going was a great time for Duckett, but alas, he was not used.

Third series.

Brunell hits Sellers with a little out pass to the flats. I'm not sure if Mark looked downfield first, or this was just designed to get a good 1st down yardage. At any rate, they got a first down for 15 yards. Next play, the little screen to Moss. Obviously designed to get the ball in Moss' hands, good for 7 yards.

At this point the running game has produced 9 yards, and failed to make a first down on third and one. Can anyone say, 'I don't think they can run the ball'.

The next play Cooley caught holding. Instead of 2nd and 3 it's now 2nd and eight. Still time to run the ball if we think we can. Instead, Mark is pressured and throws a poor pass, but is lambasted for a 15 yard personal foul.

1st and 10, Mark hits a short pass for 6, but another penalty moves us to the Dallas 27. I thought Mark was looking down field, but the TV never let me know who might have been in the pattern.

But, we are now 1st and 10 at the Dallas 27.

Again, I have not seen any motion in the back field that resembled the first game, and I wondered where Al's playbook was hiding. Maybe someone pinched it off his desk while he wasn't looking.

Mark's next pass is incomplete to Cooley. It wasn't well thrown, but there was pressure. Second down, a guy gets by the left side like no one was there, and down goes Mark.

At this point, I believe Al has no confidence in the running game, and pass protection is not looking much better. I stop watched, and saw 2 seconds is all Mark had before he had to move. If you can't get the guy at least three seconds to find a receiver, then you're doomed. The only thing you can do is toss to the safety valve.

Mark hits Betts in the flat for 14 yards. Short by 4 yards for the first down.

I've noticed they called zero running plays this series. Maybe they wanted something deep, but inside the thirty you need slants and outs. I didn't see those.

Field goal.

fourth series.

Duckett for two yards, and he had to bull for those.

Second and eight. Compare this to Dallas' first series.

Bledsoe threw short, the same passes Mark used, for 4, 13, 6 yards.

They also ran for 9, 13, and 3 yards in the first series.

The play calling wasn't much different, except the ran the ball for big first downs to take heat off the pass rush.

Fifth series. This is where it starts to get ugly. The pass protection and run blocking are horrible. Duckett gets two yards on first down. It was really 1 and 1/4, but then we miss two short passes and punt.

At this point our longest run from scrimmage is 6 yards. We are getting no push from the line and there is no downfield blocking.

I thought Mark looked like he knew nobody was going to stop the rush and in order to get more time, backpeddeled. I suppose you could make the case to stand in the pocket and get lambasted, but Madden criticized him for releasing too soon. Perhaps he did as the game went on. The first few series there was not much downfield and I'm not sure they even called those types of plays.

I noticed in the second half they showed a shot of Moss irritated because he had his man beat for a step when Mark was sacked. It really think the Offensive line thinks its the quarterbacks job to make his own time. Unfortunately, the were not even sufficient in opening holes for the running backs.

All in all, I was surprised that the play calling was so lackluster. There were no planned rollouts that Mark does so well, no misdirection plays save one reverse to Moss

(it think.).

My suspicions are that if the coaches really wanted to go deep, they must know that the fastest guy on the planet runs the forty-yard dash in 4.5 seconds. Given that, a wideout is only going to get downfield 20 yards in 3 seconds, and that is not enough time to get a long strike going. My take was that there was constant pressure as the night went along, Mark may have been rattled, but it's hard to find someone when you're on the move. The game is not designed that way.

At this point, being a Brunell supporter and Redskins fan, I wonder if Mark cant' make the long throw.

Surely, the coaches would see this in practice sessions.

My guess is that this week, there is going to be an awful lot of long passes called during practice, to evaluate Mark's arm strength. If that is not the problem, they have to find out what it is.

Right now, the play calling seems as out of sync as the whole offense, and maybe that is part of the problem.

[NoCalMike]

I was at the game, Moss and Lloyd were open deep on some occassions, but the offensive line broke down too soon, and Brunell had to check down for a dumpoff.