On Sunday karma did us a solid

[ZRagone]

Watching the game this weekend was kind of surreal. I was at the stadium with a friend watching it live. And starting at the end of the first half going forward, I kept making comments of how much it felt like I was watching our beloved Redskins, only flipped. I told her that if Karma was in anyway fair we’d win this game; thankfully Karma wasn’t a **** Sunday.

What do I mean about watching the Redskins flipped? It was that Tampa was continually doing, suffering, or experiencing things that I feel like I’ve witnessed waaaaay too many times with this team.

Management/Execution in and out of Halves

Let’s start at the end of the first half. Tampa B ay gets the ball on the 24 with 1:20 left and three timeouts. Up to this point they had racked up 209 yards on us, 24 points, and had 70+ yard drives in 3 of their last 4. They were easily moving the ball on us. They proceed to go run, run, run, very short pass that stupidly gets a penalty, run.

The drive was gutless; simply a gutless, weak, momentum killing white flag at the end of the half. It’s the type of thing I’ve seen us scream about so many times on this forum with the Redskins. And it was the first real sign to me that we could steal this thing, because that was not the sign of a strong team that will close a game out.

Then we come to the start of the third quarter. Overturned play, false start penalty, fumble, penalty. An ABYSMAL start to one half after an abysmal end of the other half; so Redskins, but it wasn’t us this time.

Time Outs

When Tampa called their first time out of the half at 11:38 left in the 3rd, that’s when I first made my comment aloud that if Karma is kind this would come back to haunt them. They use a timeout WAY too early in the half, and coming out of it they give up a 38 yard 3rd down pass play along with a penalty.

When they then use their second time out at 6:06 left in the third, I was even more flabbergasted and confident. This one worked better for them, as they hit a deep pass to Evans, but left them with only 1 going into the fourth.

That one time out ended up being used (again, to good advantage admittedly) with nearly 5 minutes left to go in the 4th. At this point it’s a close game, momentum is on our side, and it looks like it’s coming down to the wire. I was actually cheering for that time out being taken, as it seemingly would cripple any comeback attempts Tampa may try IF we actually could take the lead.

And sure enough, it did. They got the ball back with 24 seconds left on the 20. With only the sidelines to worry about the Redskins were able to put a TON of players on Mike Evans (after he got his first 16 yard catch) and cut off any real chance to move into field goal range. Had they had even one time out left it would’ve opened up the field significantly for them.

Again, it was so wonderful to watch this kind of mismanagement happen to the other team this time.

Blown Opportunities and Penalties

The amount of 15 yard penalty or defensive holding calls were just ridiculous on the part of Tampa Bay. I believe they ended up with over 150 penalized yards against them. And the backbreaker for them were many of those came at key spots, either when the Skins were building momentum or set to lose it. The sign of a bad team, killing themselves with poor discipline.

Then you have the badly dropped potential interceptions that could be game changing. They had one go off a guys hands in the first, very early, that could’ve changed the mindset of the team. But the big one was on the second to last play of the game. The ball hits their cornerback squarely in the hands within the endzone; catch that and it’s ball game. Instead, he Carlos Rodger’s it and on the very next play Touchdown Jordan Reed, HTTR!

A misstep which ultimately wouldn’t have even come up as an issue if they hadn’t blown it when they had 1st and goal at the 5. Mike Evans had been killing us all game and our best CB was on the sideline after making a game saving tackle. Yet the Buc’s decide to run the ball three straight times from the 5 yard line instead of going to their big red zone thread. And the play out of this series that just screamed “omg, I could see the skins of old doing it” was on a 3rd and 1 at the goal…they go for a Toss. As soon as I saw it I started laughing and commented to my friend how I absolutely hate the 1 yard goal line toss play. Pound it up inside, stretch it to the edge, but don’t toss. Hell, you have a 6’4” 227 pound QB; Sneak that thing. But nope, toss. Sure enough, Simms is tackled for -2 yards and what should’ve been a TD for an insurmountable lead instead because a FG with a chance for the hometown boys to win the game.

And thus a 24 point lead becomes a 1 point loss and a miserable plane ride back home. I’d feel sorry for Tampa if it wasn’t such a familiar feeling.

I’m not going to make any proclamations of us “turning the corner” as a franchise or any such ridiculousness of taking one game and making a mountain out of a molehill. What I will say is that it was wonderful to see a lot of the telltale signs of a bad team showing up on the other side Sunday.

So Karma, for at least one week, thanks for being a very nice lady.

[hail2skins]

Think the penalties were the biggest factor that killed Tampa.  Even though a few of the "roughing the QB" calls were questionable, some of the 15 yarders for unsportsmanlike early on were just boneheaded. The offensive PI on Evans late in the 3rd that nullified a TD was huge as well.

 

End of the first half was tricky. Seems like teams are so noncomittal on what they want to do and are very reactive to what the other side is doing. It was 24-7 at that point and you got the sense that the Skins were getting a little momentum and Lovie probably just wanted to maintain the lead.  I think Gruden's timeout after the initial 8 yard run was smart on our part.

 

Speaking of timeouts, I was pretty surprised when we didn't start using ours immediately after the Bucs long run to get them down to the 5.  And I agree with you on why teams don't do the QB sneak more.  Brady does and seems to make it 100 times out of 100.

[SWFLSkins]

I agree, even commenting that it looked like Tampa and Skins had switched uniforms, we were getting the calls and the lucky breaks, the onsides kick, that is so not Skins like. 

[LaRonDontLikeUgly]

Everything that happened yesterday seemed like a gift from the skies above....

 

- I managed to get 50 yard line tickets (14 rows back) for me and my girl for under 100 each. 

- the weather was insane. 

- free parking pass in the lot my friends always tailgate in. 

- my buddies I drove with found tickets 4 rows behind me in the same section. 

- Grudes/McVay opened the playbook and finally did some interesting things on offense.

- We got stoned with stadium security then came back from 24 point deficit. 

 

So yeah, I'm still wearing my jersey and that was one of the best days of my life.

 

HTTR

[SWFLSkins]

 

whoops wrong thread but speaking of karma...

 

Doug Farrar ‏@SI_DougFarrar  2m

2 minutes ago

Doug Farrar Retweeted John Gonzalez

That's @JennyVrentas, and safe to say, she speaks for many.

Doug Farrar added,

0:10

John Gonzalez @gonzoCSN

Watch the reporter's face in the background while Jerry Jones calls Greg Hardy a "real leader"

[Wildbunny]

I agree, even commenting that it looked like Tampa and Skins had switched uniforms, we were getting the calls and the lucky breaks, the onsides kick, that is so not Skins like. 

 

Yeah I said it in the game thread, the Bucs were Redskinning during the game, bonehead penalties, (a few tough calls, but Evans got away with quite a few OPI as well), crappy special teams (Onside?), great first half, and lousy second half...

 

Talk about Buccaneers - Redskins links with Gruden, Allen, and so on... It went deeper than we expected!

 

Regarding the TO in the second half, can't remember if it was after the first of second one, believe it's the first, Winston looked completly loss with our D. He didn't know where to go and what to expect.

[fearlessNelms]

Several weeks back there was a thread on here asking if Gruden was the worst coach in the NFL? My post at the time was that it was a close call between him and Lovie Smith. After yesterday, I think Lovie solidified his spot as worse than Gruden and definitely one of the, if not the worst, HC's in the NFL. I hate to say that too, because Lovie just seems like a real cool dude that you'd love to play a round of golf with or go fishing with. 

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

While I never thought we would come back, I was taking solace in the fact that they scored so quickly and that they are a bad team. Bad teams don't play 4 quarters so I figured we'd make it interesting.