Redskins Video Rewind

With all due respect to Ron Jaworski -- and I mean that sincerely -- it's not the wide receivers.

Let's not pretend for one moment that I know one-tenth of what the former Eagles quarterback does about football.  Jaws is flat-out the best X's-and-O's commentator in the business and brings to bear decades of experience when he's analyzing a game.  I wouldn't be disagreeing with him if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes.

But he's wrong about the receivers.

The Eagles don't have anyone on the roster now who is as good as Terrell Owens.  That's obvious.  But you simply can't lay the blame for the Monday night loss at their feet.  They were good enough.  McNabb wasn't.

In re-watching the game, it's clear the Eagles have a number of issues.  Todd Herremans and Jamaal Jackson aren't playing up to last year's standard.  Brian Dawkins is still recovering from his injury and has lost a step.  And if you think McNabb looks slow out there, try watching L.J. Smith run a route.  I still can't figure out why he's on the field.

It's certainly true that there were some plays where the receivers didn't get open.  No one, least of all Kevin Curtis, seemed able to break open on anything deep down the sideline.  But on most of the plays that didn't work, the problem was with McNabb.  He missed a number of open receivers throughout the game, checking down a few times when he had someone open deep.  He completed 60 percent of his passes, but the ones he missed were not good.  Reggie Brown is lucky he's still alive after some of the balls he tried to go get.  I was also wrong in my initial read on this play:

Consider that one pass McNabb rifled to Reggie last game on either a slant or post down by the end zone.  It was a Nolan Ryan fastball and Reggie couldn't hold on to it...  What I think actually happened is that McNabb got off the timing in his progression of reads.  Because he was a little late recognizing it, he tried to make up for it by gunning the ball in there. 

Bzzzt.  Wrong.  Reggie ran a great route, he was wide open, McNabb saw him all the way ... and he just missed the throw. 

In case there are any Redskins' readers still around, let me preface my next remark by saying I don't think the officiating was the difference in the game.  But do you realize that the officials only called seven penalties all game?  And only one of those was a judgment call?

It's true, there was one holding call, one offsides, one delay of game and four false starts.  That was it.  And let me tell you, all the credit in the world for the Redskins cornerbacks playing good physical coverage in that game, but there was plenty of contact happening downfield that didn't get called.  Reggie Brown was clearly held coming out of his break on one third-down play without a call.  On a number of sideline routes, it appeared the Washington cornerbacks had their hands all over the Eagles receivers well past the five-yard limit, but nothing was called. 

I'm still not convinced about Kevin Curtis' top-end speed, but on the other hand it's tough to beat a guy when he's using his left arm to come along for the ride. 

But the bottom line is that for most of the game, guys were open.  McNabb just didn't play very well. 

On the defensive side of the ball, I wanted to better understand what was going on with the defensive line.  Was Juqua really outplaying Kearse?  What happened to the pass rush?  Should the rotation be mixed up a bit?

What I saw was in some ways encouraging, some ways not.  The most important takeaway from last week is that if an NFL offensive coordinator wants to neutralize a pass rush, he can do it.  The Redskins did a fantastic job game-planning for the Eagles.  When Campbell was in the pocket, everything was coming out right as he hit the top of his drop.  There was no waiting around -- just one or two reads and go.  They also did a great job moving him around, with some play action that also took some of the edge off the pass rush. 

With the exception of a few plays, not even Reggie White was going to be getting to Campbell on Monday night.

This was actually a disconcerting thing to re-watch.  It's the same thing the Saints did to the Eagles last year with Brees.  They went about it a little differently, but all the reads were quick, Brees didn't sit in the pocket and the Eagles' pass rush was effectively neutralized. 

If Lito Sheppard and Brian Dawkins are healthy, I'm not sure how much of a problem this will be.  But with Lito out and Dawk not at full-strength, the Eagles had some issues in coverage.  You also have to hand it to Campbell.  The guy played a really nice game.

I do want to point out one particular play that I think is interesting.  On the second play of the game, the Redskins ran play action right at Jevon Kearse.  He seemed completely lost, spent most of the play jumping up and down, and never got to Campbell, who unleashed a perfect throw down the sideline that was miraculously dropped by Chris Cooley. 

In the second quarter, the Redskins ran the exact same play, but this time Juqua Thomas was in the game.  JT dropped Campbell for a two-yard loss.  I think that says something.

JT was also the guy most responsible for forcing that Campbell interception.  Jaws was jumping all over the young quarterback for not throwing that ball on time, but on the replay it was clear that JT had jumped right at the point when Campbell wanted to throw the ball.  He had to wait for him to come down and by the time that happened, William James had jumped the route.

Monday night also provided a couple of excellent arguments against the people who argue that Jim Johnson's blitz scheme no longer works.  For example, at 3:36 in the first quarter, Campbell came out in the shotgun on third-and-two.  Johnson left his starting tackles in because the down-and-distance favored a running play.  On the snap, Bunkley and Patterson ran a stunt, with Bunkley slanting hard left and Patterson zipping behind him.  Two beats later, Omar Gaither crashed the gap between the two stunting linemen on a delayed blitz.  The center and left guard had figured they had perfectly picked up the stunt and were in the clear.  They never saw Gaither coming.  Omar flew through the gap and forced a bad throw.  It was excellent play design and just another example of how Johnson's scheme frees guys for unblocked runs at the quarterback.  (As an aside, Gaither looks like a guy with good blitzing instincts.)

The run defense looks so much better than last season that it's hard to criticize the mistakes that were made.  But you can run at Trent Cole, and I expect more teams to do so as the year goes along.  He did a poor job keeping contain and also got blown off the line a few times. 

As painful as it was to re-watch this game, I'm actually a lot more positive about the upcoming matchup against Detroit than I was before.  In the Friday game preview, I'll explain why.   

Comments

[Dan]

Jaworski is too close to the Eagles to provide an objective assessment of the team.

He's pulling his punches. He socializes frequently with them. Those social occasions would be made too uncomfortable were Jaworski to properly dissect the performance of # 5, and # 5's head coach, Andy Reid.

You're right to finally cast a gimlet eye on the well-used and well-worn excuse of McNabb's receiving corps. McNabb's performance in The Super Bowl was JUST AS ERRATIC when he had Owens out there throwing in a game for the ages.

The receivers provide the required fig leaf to ward off any objective criticism of the cause. And that's what # 5 has become. A cause.

It isn't about the cause.

It's about the game, it's about the team, it's about finally winning a Super Bowl.

Many in this area have apparently lost track of what the team is striving for, and it's not the accomplishment of some social goal, which was long ago achieved by the way, and is thus perfectly irrelevant. It's the accomplishment of a Super Bowl victory.

Too many commentators speak as if Doug Williams hadn't already won a Super Bowl for the Washington Redskins. Effectively, THEY'RE MINIMIZING his ACTUAL accomplishments all for the purpose of propping up and hyping McNabb, who hasn't done spit.

And we can say he hasn't done spit because he won NFC East division championships in an era when the NFC East was NEVER so weak, and he got to NFC Championship games in an era when the overall NFC was again, NEVER so weak.

McNabb enjoyed weak conference opponents that few quarterbacks ever enjoyed.

And now that window of opportunity, that period, that era of weakness and decline is finally coming to an end.

And McNabb is left to whine at press conferences about issues not relevant to his performance on the gridiron.

I've lost all patience with him.