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Just Got Home From The Game: Observations.


NoCalMike

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I will try to break my observations down into categories.

 

Pre-game:   This game was nearly sold out, parking full & rocking, nothing like the game in 2010. For all the awful rep Raider's fans had, I had basically ZERO heckling thrown my way.  For the most part everyone was too consumed with their own parties/tailgates.  This is my 2nd Redskins game in Oakland, and thus far I have had zero "issues"  I also ran into some old-school extremeskins members from back in the day, Mark who went by Chewbaca(sp?) and Kevin B.  Haven't seen them since the game in Arizona in 2005. Was great to get to say Hello.

 

Offense: it started out much of the same, out of sync and kinda "huh"-ish.  The running game did nothing off the bat, and I was afraid it would be RGIII running for his life sooner than later.

 

RGIII: What jumped out the most to me seeing him in person was how much more he seems to be using his legs to buy time to make throws rather then get to the outside and turn up field.   I am not sure how this comes across on TV because of the limited camera angle on any given play, but there were a few times that I was sure RGIII would take the easy 10 yards the defense had given him, but instead he took a few steps forward and then fired a pass off. I am not sure if this has more to do with RGIII still not quite ready to take off whenever it presents itself, or if this is more the design all along and he is seeing the field better and learning to bait the defense to breaking off their coverage.

 

Niles Paul: He looked like a viable TE for the first time.....ever? The only letdown was on the pass he caught at the 10ish yard line, because if he doesn't stumble making the move upfield he goes into the endzone easily, because there was no one around him until his falling down allowed defenders to close in.

 

Logan Paulson: Couple big plays but I just KNEW on his fumble that it was coming. Was screaming for him to get down and then it happened.

 

Morris: Did he get injured because it looked like right when he started going, I didn't see him anymore.

 

Helu: He finally is showing he can work in this system. He found cutback lanes and displayed strength to break tackles and force his way into the endzone on the TD run.  That one was scored right in front of me and it was one hell of an effort.

 

Random offense:  That deep bomb to Moss was close to being complete, he was running right into the corner I was sitting, he was open, and I really thought it was going to be a completion.

 

The O-line is still not good at pass blocking. Too many times RGIII would drop back and have to immediately run towards the sideline, which leads me to, RGIII needs to learn to throw the ball away instead of holding onto it all the way until he gets to the sideline.  He is just asking to get blasted by a defender.

 

Defense: Tackling still sucks. Amerson, great job on the pick 6!  I think some halftime adjustments were made because the pass rush was wreaking havoc in the 2nd half, Flynn was shaky and never could get comfortable.

 

Random:  At 0-14, I pretty much had my head in my hands, and was thinking "Here we go again" The punt block TD, was just uuuuuuugh, and then for the Raiders to get another score so quickly, I thought an embarrassment was coming.  The Redskins showed heart and fight.  It's not like the game immediately turned in their favor, they needed a few drives to get field position back, it was 10-14 for awhile before the offense finally got a TD.  Once it became 17-14, I was still nervous, but the Raiders fan almost seemed to know it was over because of Flynn.

 

 

More Random:  For as rowdy as Raiders are in the parking lot/tailgaiting time, their "Get loud" max effort was garbage.  It got loud, but nothing near the level I expected for a sold out crowd.

 

 

Anyways, if anyone has any questions lemme know....

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RGIII: What jumped out the most to me seeing him in person was how much more he seems to be using his legs to buy time to make throws rather then get to the outside and turn up field.   I am not sure how this comes across on TV because of the limited camera angle on any given play, but there were a few times that I was sure RGIII would take the easy 10 yards the defense had given him, but instead he took a few steps forward and then fired a pass off. I am not sure if this has more to do with RGIII still not quite ready to take off whenever it presents itself, or if this is more the design all along and he is seeing the field better and learning to bait the defense to breaking off their coverage.

 

I will say I noticed him sliding more in the pocket today. There were times last year where, instead of sliding, he would scramble out of the pocket and then make a throw. Today, especially I saw him, as you stated, using his feet to evade within the pocket, which I think is a great thing to see. It's an important trait for a QB and it's good to see him developing those habits. I guess only time will tell if it's more hesitance or if it's a good habit forming for him.

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The Oline didn't play poorly. The Raiders were blitzing like crazy because they didn't respect our ability to pass on them, especially deep. They brought one extra guy on pretty much every down.

 

The good news is, we punished them for it in the 4th quarter. It took forever, but we did. Thank God, because it was really embarrassing for a while. 

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re:crowd noise,  Maybe RGIII was speaking specifically of all those drives that started within their own 20, when they were close to the "black hole" that is easily the loudest section of the stadium, and the Raiders LBers were often doing the "get loud" arm waiving to help pump them up.

 

It seemed like so many of those early drives started inside their own 20.

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The Oline didn't play poorly. The Raiders were blitzing like crazy because they didn't respect our ability to pass on them, especially deep. They brought one extra guy on pretty much every down.

The good news is, we punished them for it in the 4th quarter. It took forever, but we did. Thank God, because it was really embarrassing for a while.

I don't think it was a lack of respect I think that is their style. We blitzed Detroit like crazy, not because we didn't respect their weapons but because that's our style.

Also, the Raiders defense are no slouches either. Our run game was having serious trouble against them.

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I don't think it was a lack of respect I think that is their style. We blitzed Detroit like crazy, not because we didn't respect their weapons but because that's our style.

Also, the Raiders defense are no slouches either. Our run game was having serious trouble against them.

 

I don't know... you might be right, but until we see their stats from other games in comparison to their stats against us with respect to how much they blitzed I don't think we'd know that really. 

 

But, I was really frustrated at how they had their entire defense on the LOS with just the Safeties backed off a little while bringing more guys than we could block on pretty much every play. They were essentially banking on Robert being unable to hit a guy intermediate to deep in the passing game and it was successful for almost the entire game until we hit Logan on the pass where he fumbled.    

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Meh, the fans were Ok, I was on the opposite side from you based on your description of the Moss play. It's be embarrassed if I was a Raiders fan though. You DO NOT boo your backup qb when you are winning the damn game. No, he's no Kirk cousins, but damn dude wtf. Also agree that the loudest that crowd got was pretty weak.

The tackling..... my son's hs team does this, they let the other team block them while they try to read the play, and then they are out of position for the tackle. With the kids I just attribute it to being sophomores and the game is still too fast for them, with these guys I don't get it.

Griffin.... Also agree on the sliding and scrambling, almost like he's finally gotten it that he has to learn to be a passer first, and for the time being he's playing like he's ONLY a passer. Like he's trying to force himself to learn it.

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I will say I noticed him sliding more in the pocket today. There were times last year where, instead of sliding, he would scramble out of the pocket and then make a throw. Today, especially I saw him, as you stated, using his feet to evade within the pocket, which I think is a great thing to see. It's an important trait for a QB and it's good to see him developing those habits. I guess only time will tell if it's more hesitance or if it's a good habit forming for him.

I see him using his feet to extend plays to throw more to run as well and I think in the big picture that's a good thing. What I don't see much of yet and I think will come in time his him 'climbing the pocket' rather than bailing out side ways. There were two or three times yesterday when I thought he took off a little early and could have stepped up inside the rush and bought time that way.

Overall it was an uneven performance from the whole offense - the book is out that you slow us down by stacking the box and sending pressure since we struggle to pick up that blitz and RGIII is not the threat he was last year to hurt you with his legs right now. Until we show we can beat that look consistently get used to seeing a lot of pressure.

That said I liked the hurry up we did to change momentum and RGIII made some clutch throws. Hankerson separated himself from Morgan as the number 2 WR for me as well but we need more from receivers not called Garçon! Hopefully Morris will be OK and we get Reed and Davis back 100% after the bye.

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Regarding the Paulsen fumble, I watched it a few times on my DVR, and you can see Logan was poked in the eye by the corner #21. On the next possession AlMo poked that same corner in the eye on a stiff arm. I'm convinced it was payback.  Honestly, that made me smile a little because it showed me the team was looking out for one another.

 

It is just a small thing I noticed, but I think it speaks to the way the game went overall.  It was kind of a nasty affair, but the team stuck together and gutted it out.  I was glad to see the fight we showed in the face of adversity. 

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Regarding the Paulsen fumble, I watched it a few times on my DVR, and you can see Logan was poked in the eye by the corner #21. On the next possession AlMo poked that same corner in the eye on a stiff arm. I'm convinced it was payback.  Honestly, that made me smile a little because it showed me the team was looking out for one another.

 

It is just a small thing I noticed, but I think it speaks to the way the game went overall.  It was kind of a nasty affair, but the team stuck together and gutted it out.  I was glad to see the fight we showed in the face of adversity.

That corner was Mike Jenkins ex of Dallas ....

I don't think Almo did poke him deliberately though, he was just stiff arming him.

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Here's what I noticed...London Fletcher had better be the most cerebral MLB in the game, because he is starting to decline very noticeably on the field.

 

I saw him miss tackles on at least three occasions...another one where he wrapped up and got dragged for five yards, another time where he was the proverbial last man on the pile.  The guy may always know where to be, and how to put others in the right position, but it doesn't help to be in the right spot if you get run over.

 

I'm praising the man for his effort and longevity, but the time is drawing nigh.

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