Redskins Video Rewind (II)

As some point this spring, Andy Reid is going to sit down with Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner to talk about what his team needs to get over the hump next season.  There's a good chance Reid will mention the defensive line, which has shown marked improvement this year but could still use a couple of extra pieces.  Reid might even say something about "throwing fastballs at the offense." 

At which point Joe and Jeff should tell Andy that if little Jimmy isn't going to use the toys he already has, they're not buying him any new ones.

You remember how last year went, don't you?  Johnson spent all of training camp talking about how he wanted to rotate a ton of guys along the front four to keep them all fresh.  It worked great for a couple of games -- until Kearse got hurt and Johnson responded by playing all the backups less (except for Trent Cole, since someone had to start). 

Johnson made a New Year's resolution that this season would be different.  Once again the Eagles brought in a few veteran bodies to round out a young starting group and give Johnson and his staff the chance to mix and match depending upon the situations they faced. 

Sure stuck with that one...

In response to a reader request, I did a snap count for the Redskins game.  Since I did the same thing for the Lions game earlier, let's compare the two:

First of all, the defense was on the field for about the same number of snaps in the two games.  Secondly, might want to think about hedging that Trent Cole stock.

I just don't get this.  Patterson is playing out of his mind this year, so as long as he holds up, I guess we want him out there (oops), but Trent Cole played every single defensive snap in this game.  The guy's only 270 pounds, we couldn't get him a blow even for a series?

And it wasn't like Cole had much of an impact on this game.  He had three solos and three assists, but no sacks and not much in the way of pressure on Campbell.  As the same reader pointed out, if we're going to use Kearse as a $7 million situational pass rusher, maybe he could -- you know -- play some on the right side.  If it worked against Mike Vick, it would probably work against John Beck. 

The other point about Cole is -- contra Hugh Douglas -- it's not the double-blocks stopping him from getting to the quarterback (at least not this week).  He did get double-blocked occasionally, and Washington did a couple tricky things to keep him off-balance, but for the most part Chris Samuels handled him without incident.  This continues a disturbing trend for Trent.  He's a monster against the mediocre, but good tackles like Samuels and Flozell Adams don't seem to have much trouble against him. 

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Staying with the defensive line theme for a minute, here's something truly bizarre about that last game.  Patterson actually played one snap at left defensive end.  It came on the 4th-and-13 play on Washington's second-to-last drive.  The Eagles kept four linemen in the game, but used JT in the joker position, sliding Patterson outside to take his spot at end.

That's not the weird part.

Patterson played one snap at end.  Four guys split the other 73 plays. 

Guess who got the game's only sack from that position? 

Yep.  Patterson.   

The big fellow lined up at end and just went upfield, right around right tackle Todd Wade, who must not have believed a defensive tackle could move that fast.  He crushed Campbell, forcing the fumble that allowed the Eagles to score the walk-in Westbrook touchdown. 

Someone please explain to me how it is that the only guy who can rush the quarterback from the left defensive end spot happens to be our starting left defensive tackle.

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One last point on the rotation.  It wasn't always easy to get a good view of the uniform numbers with the camera angle for this game, but if my eyesight is any good, the Eagles did something weird at that LDE spot.  Victor Abiamiri started the game, but after one play he was immediately replaced by Juqua Thomas.  VA didn't get back in until midway through the second drive.

Now that's kind of weird.  Why start the rookie then immediately yank him, especially since the first play went away from him and it's not like he did anything wrong?

My bet: The Eagles didn't want to deal with a week's worth of questions as to whether or not JT was the new starting left end.  Since he didn't even start last week, how could he be...

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Tough day for Jevon Kearse.  We all know how little he played, but there was one specific play that indicates where he stands these days.  First-and-10 after the McNabb fumble that gave the Redskins a chance to put the game away.  Redskins run right, Kearse gets pancaked to such an extent that I swear the Hogs were dumping syrup on him. 

Next play, VA took his place.

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Dear God, the special teams are abysmal.

On that first return -- the tricky reverse to Baskett -- the Eagles actually came close to breaking a big play.  But Stewart Bradley wasn't able to block the one guy who could shoestring Baskett before he hit the sideline.  The only other guy back there was the kicker.

They need to hang onto JR Reed.  He made a great play in kickoff coverage in the first quarter.  He also did a great job avoiding two tacklers on his second return of the day.  Unfortunately, the blocking was so bad there were two more guys ready to fill the breach.

Why is it that the Eagles receivers are so good at blocking in the run game, but so not-that-good in blocking on special teams? 

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The Eagles lined Baskett up at tight end twice in two TE sets.  We're used to seeing him in tight to the line, using his big body to screen rushers and block for Westbrook, but I don't remember seeing him put his hand on the ground before this game. 

I didn't make a point of watching them, but both LJ and Schobel looked solid run blocking in the plays I noticed them.

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McNabb audibled to that shovel pass the Eagles used to score their first touchdown.  He saw something in the defense, changed the formation and the play, and the Eagles had an easy touchdown.

I'll tell you, though, I watched the pre-snap on that play 20 times and couldn't for the life of me figure out what he saw.  The Redskins looked like they were in great shape to defend that play.  They weren't spread out and there was a linebacker standing right where Westbrook would need to go.  A mystery.

But it worked like a charm though.  Both the defensive end and linebacker on that side ran upfield to attack Tapeh, who swept right as if he were run blocking.  There was literally no one in the hole for Herremans to block when he pulled in front of Westbrook.

Call it a cheap touchdown pass if you want, but the veteran QB made it happen.

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I'd feel wrong doing one of these without mentioning Gocong, so let's just say the guy's made a nice progression from "looking lost" to "somewhat inconsistent."  He made a great play crashing down the line on one run play in the backfield, but there were also a couple of times he seemed to misread what was happening and the play went past him. 

For a guy who sits out a lot of snaps, he's not that far behind Gaither in the tackle stats.  He should finish the season with similar numbers to last year's Dhani Jones, despite playing many fewer snaps.

That's a left-handed compliment, for sure.

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I've been nervous about Brodrick Bunkley ever since I read this FO piece linked to by Monsieur le Hoagie (do a page search for Bunk's name).  Don't get me wrong, I'm still glad he's out there instead of Darwin Walker, but I've kind of been waiting for a couple of those moments of sheer dominance we all remember seeing when he played against the scrubs in last year's preseason.  Hasn't really happened yet.

A couple of times it looked like Bunkley wasn't really holding his ground the way he has been so far this season.  At one point, he actually tried a spin move on a running play, leading Goose to say something along the lines of: "You don't ... really want to be spinning around on the line there."

Bunk had a truly awful play on the big Campbell scramble (heh) that set up the first (ouch) Thrash touchdown.  Washington ran play action to the right and Bunkley chased the play like a bat out of hell.  Unfortunately, Campbell noticed his absence and scrambled right through his gap for 11 yards. 

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Speaking of goal line play action moments, that defensive holding call on Jevon Kearse was one of the worst flags I think I've ever seen.  It came on the drive where he got pancaked, after he came back in for VA.  The Redskins ran play action left (away from Kearse) and it appeared the tight end he was standing over was attempting to block him.  Kearse spent the play trying to get past him. 

Two things.  One, how do you call holding on a guy who's just trying to get upfield?  Two, it's not a great sign when the other guy is pretending to block you and you still don't get past him.

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After the game, Sheldon Brown made a comment about how Jim Johnson had made a change in the secondary and from that point forward that took care of Thrash.

It's worth mentioning that Sheldon was in coverage on the second Thrash touchdown (although he should have had inside help from Mikell, who jumped the covered tight end instead) and was also the one who got beaten by Thrash later down by the end zone and had to hold him up to stay with him.

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Since we're on the topic of malfeasance in the secondary, just a quick flashback to something I wrote after the first Washington game:

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.

So yeah, maybe those illegal contact penalties were a bit cheap.  They owed us.

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Also, the Eagles ran another one of those sideline routes to Curtis this game where if you didn't know that a) the Eagles were on offense and b) white cornerbacks are extinct, you'd think McNabb was actually throwing to the defender who was beating Curtis down the field.

He's not only just as fast as Stallworth, he jumps as high as Randy Moss and inspires more man-love than Wes Welker.  That's our Kevin Curtis.

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According to the official play-by-play, the refs enforced a six-yard penalty for illegal substitution against the Redskins on the play before The Westbrook Screen Pass.

Check it out for yourself:

2-8-PHI 37	(3:36) (Shotgun) 5-D.McNabb pass short right to 84-H.Baskett pushed ob at PHI 42 for 5 yards (24-S.Springs). PENALTY on WAS, Illegal Substitution, 6 yards, enforced at PHI 37 - No Play.
2-2-PHI 43	(3:29) 5-D.McNabb pass short middle to 36-B.Westbrook for 57 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Take 43 minus 37 and Westbrook got screwed out of a receiving yard for his official stats.

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I watched the offense as well, but not as much interesting happened there.  One fun play happened on the big 16-yard up-the-gut scramble where Donovan briefly looked like the spry speedster we used to know and love.

As the play happened, I couldn't figure out why Hank Baskett was blocking downfield before McNabb left the pocket.  Surely we weren't calling a QB draw on second-and-two from midfield?  But how could Baskett have known he was running when he had his head forward the whole time?

Mystery solved on second viewing.  The play was supposed to be a screen pass left to Westbrook.  The Redskins were all over it and rather than hang around and figure out what to do next, McNabb just took off. 

The ironic thing about this whole story is that Baskett actually did a pretty crummy job blocking his man.  He held him up for a count or two, but I guess he figured it was backside and wouldn't matter that much anyway. 

Then McNabb ran past him and was forced to slide.

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Given how much McNabb relies on LJ down by the goal line, I have no idea how Don missed him standing all by himself in the center of the end zone right in front of his quarterback on that final two-point conversion attempt. 

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Last point.  I watched that fourth-quarter Keenan McCardell (incorrectly identified as Randle El in my initial game recap) sideline non-catch a bunch of times with the high-def TiVo, trying to see if he actually did catch that ball.

Fox only gave us one angle, which was too bad, because I'd really like to know.  I can say for sure that he did secure the ball after the initial bobble and got two feet down before falling out of bounds.  However, it's impossible to tell from the broadcast angle whether or not one of those two feet was touching the chalk when it came down. 

It was awfully close.