ES Coverage: 2010 Redskins vs Vikings (Final)

[NoLeafClover]

ES Coverage: 2010 Redskins vs Vikings

11/28/10

DEFEAT

Vikings 17 - Redskins 13

:helmet:

Hello everyone and welcome. I am your host, Joel, and I'm joined, as always, by murf.

For the third week in a row, the spotlight in this game is on the opposing quarterback. First, it was Michael Vick on prime time having a career day against the 'Skins. Then last week Vince Young threw a tantrum (and his uniform) after being benched. Now this week, with Brad Childress being fired, all eyes are on the man Childress spent the entire season publicly feuding with - Brett Favre.

While on the surface, playing a team the week after they fire their head coach seems fortuitous, the Cowboys have shown just how motivated a team with an interim head coach can be. Leslie Frazier and the Vikings players will be looking to show that Childress was the problem in an effort to save their own jobs. Further complicating things, it's more difficult to game plan for the Vikings not knowing what Frazier's offense and defense are going to do.

The Vikings are expected to stick to the running game as much as possible, but if the Redskins can shut down the run and put the game in Favre's hands, they should be successful today. If they can get an early lead and force the Vikings to throw the ball to catch up, they can force Favre to make bad passes, which should be good news for DeAngelo Hall and the other Redskins DBs.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Redskins are facing a lot of uncertainty this week. The offensive line is still banged up, Clinton Portis is out for the year and Ryan Torain is sidelined again this week. Keiland Williams gets the start this week, with Clemson standout James Davis backing him up. Also, the Redskins cut veteran receiver Joey Galloway this week, though it will be tough to notice he's gone (except in the red zone, where Galloway won't be around to not catch the ball).

It's set to be an interesting game. If the 'Skins offense can come together and the defense can force Favre to throw early and often, they should be successful today.

:helmet:

TODAY'S INACTIVES

Redskins:

Macho Harris

LaRon Landry

Andre Brown

Ryan Torain

Derrick Dockery

Anthony Bryant

Jeremy Jarmon

John Beck (third quarterback)

Vikings:

Chris Cook

Jamarca Sanford

Albert Young

Eric Frampton

Patrick Brown

Bernard Berrian

Fred Evans

Joe Webb (third quarterback)

:helmet:

11:58 PM - Attention fashionistas: The Redskins are rocking the gold pants/burgundy jerseys combo, while the Vikings are wearing white on white.

12:16 PM - Brett Favre is sick today, struggling with either pneumonia or a sinus infection. According to ESPN: "Favre took a steroid pack, had an injection Saturday and missed the first hour of meetings because he couldn't get out of bed."

12:36 PM - McNabb just hit Banks on a 50-yard pass during warm ups. Banks seems to be moving around fine today, despite the injury earlier in the week.

1:00 PM - Haynesworth has an illness and was announced as questionable, but he just walked out in uniform. (He didn't come out during the team introduction, he came out a few minutes later with a trainer next to him.)

1:07 PM - Direct snap to Brandon Banks in the Wildcat formation. It only got three yards, but it was definitely an interesting play call.

1:11 PM - Anthony Armstrong just got leveled by Chad Greenway. Making matters worse, he got flagged for spiking the ball, essentially negating the catch he hauled in while getting creamed.

1:12 PM - This is exactly how the Redskins needed to come out of the gate with this one. What an impressive drive. Donovan McNabb was eight of eight for 84 yards. Chris Cooley had three catches for 34 yards. The entire drive was 13 plays, 83 yards and took seven minutes and 53 seconds off the clock. The drive culminated with a 10 yard touchdown pass from McNabb to Fred Davis for a touchdown. 7-0

1:22 PM - The Vikings immediately respond. In seven plays (and just three minutes and 46 seconds), the Vikings drive 71 down the field. Adrian Peterson scores a touchdown on a five-yard run. (He had 18 yards rushing and 34 yards receiving on that drive.) 7-7

END OF FIRST QUARTER

7-7

1:43 PM - From Murf's Twitter: Can't remember last time I saw London Fletcher that far downfield in coverage. Nice play by the old guy.

1:56 PM - Adrian Peterson has an ankle injury; his return is probable. I think, just to be safe, they should hold him out as long as possible. Don't want to risk further injuring that ankle. Just let it rest.

2:04 PM - From Murf's Twitter: Andre Carter to me: "Tell them we need a little Whitesnake." Consider it done.

2:12 PM - Brandon Banks was a punter away from getting a touchdown. Chris Kluwe managed to knock him out of bounds ... otherwise, that would have been six points.

HALFTIME

7-7

2:35 PM - The Redskins come out flat after the half. The Vikings drive 74 yards in nine plays, taking five minutes and 12 seconds off the clock. On third-and-one, Toby Gerhart finds the end zone on a five yard run. 7-14

2:41 PM - Adrian Peterson has been downgraded to questionable.

2:44 PM - From Murf's Twitter: Jared Allen to teammates: "I smoked that *****." I guess he's not impressed w/ Redskins offensive line.

2:46 PM - Carlos Rogers has a hamstring injury; his return is questionable.

2:59 PM - A great play by Phillip Buchanon breaking up a pass to Sidney Rice.

3:00 PM - Followed up by a big hit on Favre by Andre Carter on third down.

3:05 PM - Santana Moss bounces a pass off his chest and tips it to Henderson. Despite the defense managing to back them up four yards on the first three plays, the Vikings capitalize with a 31 yard field goal to make it 7-17.

3:06 PM - A fistfight just broke out in the stands right in front of the press box. If anything important happened on the field during that time, I guarantee you won't read about it in the paper tomorrow because every single reporter in the press box was riveted by the fight.

3:07 PM - Brandon Banks with a huge punt return! He takes it 65 yards. I guess he's feeling okay.

END OF THIRD QUARTER

7-17

3:13 PM - The Redskins can only turn the excellent field position given to them by Banks into three points, not seven. Graham Gano connects on a 40-yard field goal in a drive that lasted just four plays and two minutes and 18 seconds and only netted them seven yards. 10-17

3:18 PM - The Redskins defense is playing inspired football right now.

3:22 PM - A 45-yard pass from McNabb to Anthony Armstrong. Great play, but if McNabb hadn't underthrown that ball, Armstrong would have had an easy touchdown.

3:22 PM - Graham Gano connects on a 42-yard field goal. The Redskins drive was five plays, 46 yards and lasted just one minute and 43 seconds. 13-17

3:29 PM - The announced attendance today is 83,602 and it is loud in here right now.

3:32 PM - An illegal block in the back call negates a Brandon Banks punt return for a touchdown. That hurts.

Speaking of "that hurts," Brett Favre just sealed the game with a QB keeper. Awesome. Just awesome.

:helmet:

PHOTOS

To see a slideshow of ExtremeSkins game photos click HERE

To see the complete set of ExtremeSkins game photos click HERE

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AUDIO

To listen to comments from Kevin Barnes click HERE

To listen to comments from Phillip Daniels click HERE

To listen to comments from Fred Davis click HERE

To listen to comments from James Davis click HERE

To listen to comments from Reed Doughty click HERE

To listen to comments from London Fletcher click HERE

To listen to comments from DeAngelo Hall click HERE

To listen to comments from Albert Haynesworth click HERE

To listen to comments from Trent Williams click HERE

:helmet:

THE NEW GUY'S TAKE

After the game, I asked Trent Williams what went wrong today. His answer: "A whole bunch of stuff."

It was simple, but to the point. A whole bunch of stuff went wrong today for the Washington Redskins.

The opening drive was beautiful. Donovan McNabb went 8-for-8 for 84 yards. Both tight end Chris Cooley and tight end Fred Davis were utilized in the drive - Cooley as McNabb's go-to target as he drove down the field and Davis as his target in the end zone for six points. The team drove down the field with authority, coming out strong and showing the Vikings they were ready to take it to them.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much it for the offense on this day. McNabb finished the day with just 187 net yards passing. Only 21 of his 35 passes were completed. Receivers dropped passes routinely, including a clearly catchable ball that bounced off of receiver Santana Moss and landed right in the waiting hands of Vikings linebacker Erin Henderson.

The running game was no better. In fact, they finished the day with more penalty yards than rushing yards (35 penalty, 29 rushing). Newly signed running back James Davis was the leading rusher - he finished the day with six attempts for a total of just 11 yards.

The defense also struggled. While they didn't let up any big plays, they did allow the Vikings to dink and dunk their way down the field all game long. They were unable to pressure Brett Favre into playing like Brett Favre (i.e. - making bad throws) and they simply had no answer for running backs Adrian Peterson or Toby Gerhart. Their inability to stop Brett Favre's run on third down at the end of the game sealed the team's fate.

The special teams also hurt the team today. Returner Brandon Banks had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown (which would have put the Redskins ahead 20-17) that was negated by a completely unnecessary block in the back by linebacker Perry Riley.

While the Redskins continue to play inconsistently, this game actually made it clear exactly who they are. They aren't a team that's going to make the playoffs this year. They also aren't a terrible team. Instead, they are a team rebuilding and adjusting to a new system that, both talent-wise and in their level of play, is somewhere in the middle of the pack in the NFL. Right now they are 5-6 and they very well might end up being 8-8 when the season is all said and done.

They aren't a great team, but they do show moments of greatness. So this may have been a lackluster game in a season that has basically slipped away from the team, but take solace in the fact that it's a necessary step in a growing process for the 'Skins.

:helmet:

MURF'S TAKE

It’s one thing to watch your favorite team get crushed on primetime television against a divisional opponent. It’s quite another to witness them lose to a dysfunctional 3-7 team that can barely stop in-fighting long enough to focus on an opponent.

And for that reason alone, the Washington Redskins’ 17-13 loss at home to the Minnesota Vikings hurts the most. When the Redskins get outmatched from the very first play against Philadelphia, you can chalk it up to “one of those days.”

When the Vikings show up to town with an under-the-weather 41-year-old quarterback who leads the league in interceptions thrown and an interim head coach making his debut, it goes to show just how far the Redskins have to go before they truly are anything more than average.

Coupled with humbling losses to the St. Louis Rams (5-6) and Detroit Lions (2-9), the Vikings loss proves once and for all that – regardless of what head coach Mike Shanahan said in his introductory press conference – this is a rebuilding year for Washington.

“It’s frustrating because this is the third bad team we’ve lost to,” said tight end Fred Davis. “It’s one of those games where we should have won it.”

That “win now” mentality might work when you’re selling tickets, but it’s not working with the group that is currently in place. The Redskins desperately need to stop trying to slap a band-aid on their systemic problem and admit that they’ve been doing it wrong for more than a decade.

Cutting receiver Joey Galloway is a start, but now’s the time to throw everyone under the age of 25 out there on the football field to see who can play and who needs to go. The competitive portion of the 2010 season is over. So throw everyone from Terrence Austin to Will Montgomery to Kevin Barnes into the fire and see what they’re made of.

What’s the worst that can happen? You lose more games. So what. That’s been going on for more than a decade. At least this way ‘Skins fans can take solace in the fact that brighter days might eventually be on the horizon.

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The day started about as perfectly as possible. The Redskins won the coin toss and promptly marched down the field with ease. An offense that has consistently struggled to score touchdowns suddenly looked to have figured it out, with quarterback Donovan McNabb completing all eight of his attempts for 84 yards.

The drive ended with Davis finally scoring his first touchdown of the season and, coupled with three catches for 32 yards by Chris Cooley on the drive, it appeared McNabb had finally figured out that he’s got possibly the best tight end combo in football waiting to be utilized.

Sadly, that was it for the Redskins offense.

They never found the red zone again and McNabb completed just 13 for 27 passes for 127 yards the rest of the game. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Washington’s leading rusher – rookie James Davis – finished with 11 yards on the ground.

What happened, you ask? It’s simple – the Redskins offensive line was completely overmatched. McNabb was sacked four times on the day, and pressured countless other times. When he did get rid of the ball before the next inevitable hit, his receivers too often dropped the ball.

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It’s no secret that the key to beating Minnesota involves pressuring Favre into making boneheaded decisions and capitalizing on those mistakes.

Prior to Sunday, Favre had thrown a league-high 17 interceptions and fumbled the ball three times. Quick math says that’s 20 turnovers in 10 games. In related news, the Vikings were 3-7.

The easiest way to lose to Minnesota would be to let running back Adrian Peterson – who rushed for more than 3,000 yards and 28 touchdowns from 2008-09 – get off to a fast start and watch as he embarrasses your defense.

Well, Peterson lasted just six carries before leaving the game with an ankle injury, and yet, the Redskins still couldn’t take advantage. Instead, a rookie named Toby Gerhart (who had never rushed for more than 24 yards in a game) took over and finished the day with 22 carries for 76 yards and his first-career touchdown.

There’s no easy way to put this – if you can’t find a way to beat the Vikings without Peterson, then you’ve got a long way to go to respectability.

Watching 41-year-old Favre “scramble” 10 yards on 3rd-and-8 to seal the game only reinforced how far the Redskins defense has fallen. Maybe things will get better once defensive coordinator Jim Haslett has a chance to get players better suited to play his 3-4 defense. But right now, they really are as bad as the stats say they are.

They took away the deep ball and didn’t really give up much in the way of big plays. But they couldn’t create turnovers and couldn’t get off the field when it mattered most. Instead, they watched helplessly as Favre dinked and dunked his way down the field and Gerhart picked up three or four yards a carry.

For the defense – and especially for Redskins fans – it was a slow and painful death.

“It’s always disappointing when you can’t get off the field down the stretch,” said defensive lineman Phillip Daniels. “You want to go out there and give your offense a chance to go down the field but we didn’t get it done.”

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Even though the offense was nonexistent and the defense couldn’t make a stop, the Redskins still almost found a way to win the game. In fact, they would have been victorious if not for rookie linebacker Perry Riley, who before yesterday was known simply as “the other 2010 draft pick who hasn’t been cut” along with offensive lineman Trent Williams.

Well, everyone knows Riley now after he felt compelled to block a Viking in the back negating a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown by returner Brandon Banks. It was Riley’s second infraction of the game and was completely unnecessary.

It happened so far away from the play that had Riley done nothing and just stood around, the touchdown would have stood and the Redskins would still have an outside chance at the postseason.

“It was a return to the left side of the field,” Riley said. “I was trying to get position on my man. Banks did a good job setting the dude up. I thought I hit him on his shoulder rather than his back. Apparently I hit him in the back and the call was made. Of course I feel bad about it but it was all in good spirit. I was thinking positive on the play. It turned out bad on my part but it’s something I will fix. I feel terrible for the situation.”

Um … what? You were thinking positive on the play? I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make Redskins fans feel better right about now, but at least you felt good on that long car ride home.

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Seriously, the Redskins lost because Favre – a guy two years older than Joey Galloway – outran them. I still can’t get over it.

“We had run the ball fairly effectively throughout the game,” Favre said. “I thought some of our bootlegs were effective. Did I expect to run for a first down? I haven’t expected to run for a first down for quite a while. I really thought when I faked it, I had brought [Vikings receiver] Percy [Harvin] down in a short motion, I thought he would be wide open in a corner rout, and they actually covered it so I had to. It was 10 yards? It felt like 50. We needed that win. I think all wins are important, but sometimes what seems so insignificant for other people seems so big for the person or team involved. That was the case today.”

That’s what the Redskins are here for – to help make other teams feel better about themselves.

[themurf]

One nugget: I've talked to a handful of people this morning and everyone continues to say that Brandon Banks could barely walk earlier this week. With Terrence Austin up today, it'll be interesting to see which guy gets more snaps on offense and on special teams.

[NewCliche21]

One nugget: I've talked to a handful of people this morning and everyone continues to say that Brandon Banks could barely walk earlier this week. With Terrence Austin up today, it'll be interesting to see which guy gets more snaps on offense and on special teams.

That's extraordinarily disturbing. I hope that we sit him unless we need a really big return (e.g. Green in Chicago or Moss against Detroit a few years back).

Thanks for the awesome coverage, as always!

[HapHaszard]

One nugget: I've talked to a handful of people this morning and everyone continues to say that Brandon Banks could barely walk earlier this week. With Terrence Austin up today, it'll be interesting to see which guy gets more snaps on offense and on special teams.

Thanks Murf, always good to know we have an "in guy" for info.

[HapHaszard]

Any word on Haynesworth? Heard he went in with a Trainer and looked to be walking very slowly.

[NoLeafClover]

Any word on Haynesworth? Heard he went in with a Trainer and looked to be walking very slowly.

Haven't heard anything official about Haynesworth yet. We'll keep you posted.

[NoLeafClover]

Any word on Haynesworth? Heard he went in with a Trainer and looked to be walking very slowly.

Albert Haynesworth has an illness. He's questionable.

[redskin faithful]

I hope Santana Moss (knee) is ready to go and can stay in the whole game. We're going to need him today.

[MWCREDSKINS]

Feel for Perry Riley, that pic says it all