At least I found someone to root for
Redskins beat Titans, 14-6 in preseason game number one. Look at it this way. The Redskins held their first opponent to 6 points, bookend field goals, and forced the Titans to punt on eight of 13 possessions. Stop there and you will have a great Monday.
Read on and you will get unhappy. Until you get to the bottom where we start talking about the end of the game then you will get happy again.
The starters played a full half. The first team offense was pretty weak. Two big miscues, one by Stephon Heyer, starting for Chris Samuels, one by Jon Jansen, led to two Jason Campbell sack-fumbles in the first ten minutes of the game. They have to protect him. Jason wound up with 104 yards passing on six of ten completions, and a couple of them were over 15 yards putting him outside Known Brunell Space. And Todd Wade had problems with Albert Haynesworth, but that probly was not as much to do with Todd's stuggle to move from left tackle to left guard, but rather that Todd was probly in fear of Albert stomping him in the face. Bottom line: the pass blocking and passing game clearly both need a lot of work.
There was basically no ground game. With Clinton Portis out and not making the trip, Ladell had a whopping six yards and the bulk of the first half work went to Rock Cartwright. Maybe Al Saunders was keeping the running game under wraps, but Rock is not a viable regular ball carrier. I don't know if it's the wide body or if his step through the hole is not quick enough, but he has to make his place on this team somewhere else. Hard to see what I learned here.
Defensively, it is hard to evaluate since Vince Young was benched for the game for violating an unspecified team rule (op. cit.), which we later learned was for breaking curfew by staying at home and not at the team hotel. That seems kind of silly to me that he wound not get that rule. Kerry Collins completed ten passes for 79 yards and looked every bit like Kerry Collins. But the numbers were decent, on their six first half drives, the Titans punted on four, got a field goal and missed a field goal (that they would get in a real game since it was the number two kicker that was out there and he may already have been cut).
So in sum, the first half, the important half, was not good, and as every Post writer wrote, shades of 2006.
In the second half, it got good. Mark Brunell had a couple of good passes but it was Todd Collins and Marcus Mason coming in with 4:20 left in the fourth and moving downfield. Todd connected with Burl Ives Toler, then a busted run Marcus reversed into a four yard gain, then a completion to Eric Edwards, then another to Eric then a deep center completion to Edwards then a tough run by Marcus.
Curly R aside: I am now officially a Marcus Mason guy. He is the longshot I'm adopting for this camp. The Redskins should get rid of Derrick Blaylock and keep Clinton, Ladell and Marcus as the running backs depth chart. Marcus looks good, has a quick first step and it's good to bring along an inexpensive position player.
That drive continued with a completion to Pete Schmitt then a one-yard touchdown run for Marcus. No incomplete passes or negative runs on that drive. Maybe it doesn't mean anything because Todd can never crack the starting position, but a heck of a lot of fun to watch a 75 yard scoring drive taking up 3:02 to take the lead.
And of course the glorious turnover and head's up play by DE Justin Hickman and CB Byron Westbrook to first knock Tim Rattay off the low snap and then to fall on it in the end zone.
No injuries in the game to speak of, except Jamaal Green jamming the shit out of his neck. Next up, Steelers at Redskins Stadium on 18 August.
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It's amazing to me that just last week, Mike Wise was telling me
Look, I understand how badly fans want to see this team win, but there is a bit of Cubness to the Redskins legions, whereby every turned ankle becomes the beginning to that inexorable march to another losing season.
But it's not time for that. It's only Day Six. The Redskins scrimmage against the Ravens on Saturday. The preseason is still nine days away. Hold off the neurosis for at least another month.
And today he tells me
It's clear Gibbs wants Campbell to feel a rhythm and connection with his line and his receiving corps that will put the 25-year-old at ease in a month.
But is that possible with a Band-Aid offensive line? If this protection problem isn't remedied soon, the larger issue is whether the Redskins are in danger of messing with Campbell's confidence more than building it up.
Chicken Little indeed.
Tom Boswell takes the opposite approach, that this game will set a tone and give the Redskins something to work toward: general improvement. It's hard not to be encouraged by a need to improve everything. Just look around and there's something to work on!
Note to George Solomon: no established big money starter likes preseason games. Clinton is getting the spa treatment this year, plain and simple. Even NFL (Network) color announcer Marshall Faulk was like, yeah it's tendinitis, you deal with it, it's pain not an injury.
Washington Post box. NFL box, full play by play.
Next up, the Pittsburgh Steelers come into town for preseason game two, rookie head coach Mike Tomlin is pushing his players hard in camp this year, expect the Steelers to go harder longer than the Redskins.
Marcus Mason going into the end zone with 1:17 left in the fourth quarter: Washington Post / uncredited photo from here. Mike Tomlin: Peter Diana / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from here.
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