Preseason Scrimmage: Redskins at Ravens

at


Finally there will be some action on the field, even if it is a preseason scrimmage. The Redskins and Ravens play today at 12 noon ET at Ravens Stadium in Baltimore, TV coverage on MASN.

There's not too much to anticipate as I expect the Redskins starters will mostly sit, maybe play a little in the individual and seven on seven drills. I guess I'm just hoping no one gets hurt and no one looks so bad that I have to write a separate piece on it.

Injury-wise for the Redskins, we know Chris Samuels is out with his knee and the outbreak of Pampered Athlete Syndrome has Clinton Portis (no damage just a lil tendinitis, imagine that) as well as Santana Moss (a 'hip' and a 'groin') and Brandon Lloyd (shin splints? what is this 10th grade?) sidelined.

And because kicker Shaun Suisham and punter Derrick Frost are both without competition, I don't expect to see much of the kicking game.

=====

I missed the beginning of the scrimmage and at about 1:15pm I looked up and saw number 23 of the Redskins carrying the ball through a hole on offense and said to myself I said self, what's Omar Stoutmire doing carrying the ball through a hole on offense? Well even though MASN showed his name on screen as Omar, it was really rookie free agent Marcus Mason from Youngstown State carrying the ball through a hole on offense. He looked good, very Brian Mitchell-like. Too bad he's behind Clinton Portis, Ladell Betts, Rock Cartwright and Derrick Blaylock in the depth chart.

Curly R aside: while looking for player numbers at the official site which I almost never go to but you can't sort NFL.com's team rosters in any way, they are alpha on player's last name, that's it so when I need to sort by jersey number or position I use the official site roster. Note to NFL.com: please fix this and I may never need to go to redskins.com again. Another thing, it annoys me that the team thinks they can cover team news. There is a piece on Marcus Mason at the official site here, all done up like a real news story, about how good he is but is going to get cut. But they're the ones that are going to cut him! It's like Elaine and the fur coat.

Mark Brunell looked bad. Maybe he didn't really but that just serves to reveal how unobjective I am about this guy. He's done here and should be moved on.

At 1:45 pm Carson Palmer's little brother number 3 Jordan Palmer threw a good looking touchdown to number 86 Burl Ives Toler.

At 1:58 pm Ravens backup quarterback Drew Olson was almost intercepted by Leigh Torrence who was doing his best Carlos Rogers impersonation and dropped it. Leigh is small.

It was interesting to see the coaches, Brian Billick and Joe Gibbs, on the field with whistles, standing right behind the play watching and coaching. I hope to see some more of that when I take my two five year old sons to training camp tomorrow in Ashburn. I'll take a bunch of pictures and have an incredibly opinionated take on it afterwards.

Didn't see Jason Campbell at all, maybe I missed him but did see a lot of Casey Bramlet and Jordan Palmer. I think they both look good. Jordan definitely has the body at 6-5 231 but Casey is listed at 6-4 220, so he's almost the same size. I guess Jordan fills up that uniform (no that is not a nut sack joke).

What with five quarterbacks on the roster, something has to give and the Redskins may step in with some cuts. Conventional wisdom says Todd Collins is still the on-field coach with the system know-how, Casey has some experience with the system and is a Redskins project and Jordan is raw but talented.

My thoughts on the quarterback situation maturing into a post as I speak so I will refrain from additional comment at this time. Needles to say, I am not at one with the conventional wisdom.

The Post is calling it a 'safe' play for the Redskins, not wanting to get anyone hurt, and hard-working Camille Powell reported the Ravens were upbeat. Mike Wise reminds us the Ravens were unheralded last season and won 13 games and the Redskins were talking Super Bowl and won five. That could easily happen again this year, or, this may be the year Brian Billick finally runs out of rabbits and gets fired, finally.

But all in all not a lot to talk about this scrimmage. Maybe this was by design, but it seems like I saw a lot of react defense, following the play into the Redskins secondary and not attacking at the line. Maybe that was intentional OR MAYVE MIkE WISE IS RIGHT AND I AM JUST FREAKING OUT OVER NOTHING I NEED TO STEP BAKC OFF THE LEDGE!!1!!!1!