Attack of the One Armed Quarterback

I smell an ADA lawsuit coming

Takeaway drill: again the defense rescued the offense; the Redskins tried to give this game away a bunch of different ways; winning ugly is still winning.

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Monday walkthrough: despite being outgained in total offense by more than 200 yards the Redskins manage to hang on and win a critical home game against the St. Louis Phoenix Arizona Cardinals, 21-19, a game they tried to give away. Twice at the end of the halves the Redskins allowed the Cardinals to come down and score a TD and a tie in regulation was only avoided by bad playcalling and game management by the Cardinals. The Redskins had no big plays on offense and the offense owes the defense some beers and an apology.

In the first quarter the Cardinals came out passing, and stuck with this strategy all day and the teams traded punts until Sean Taylor got up under an overthrown Kurt Warner pass and picked it off taking it back 48 yards to the Arizona 25. Eight plays later Clinton Portis scored from two yards out on a sweep left. The Cardinals could not answer and the quarter ended 7-0 Redskins.

The second quarter got off to a punterrific start with both teams giving it up twice then London Fletcher picked off Kurt Warner and rumbled into the end zone for a touchdown. The tableau was grim for Kurt as he tried valiantly to stop the TD and was bowled over at the goal line, gimp arm and all. On the next drive the Cardinals moved to midfield and then got an attack of Redskinsitis, deciding to go for it on 4th and two but sending Anquan Boldin on a one yard route. The Cardinals turned it over on downs and then on the very next play a bad playcall caused a screen to Clinton to be intercepted (see Soapbox below for more detail). The Cardinals marched 21 yards to the Redskins two yard line before going for it on 4th down...again, this time scoring with no time left on the clock. A bad snap and hold led to a PAT block by Kedric Golston and Carlos Rogers made the mistake of touching Cardinals kicker Neil Rackers and before we knew it Carlos and Neil were wrasslin by facemask. The half ended on offsetting personal fouls with the Redskins leading 14-6.

Rock Cartwright opened the third quarter with an 80 yard kickoff return but it was wasted as the Redskins game up a sack and then Shaun Suisham's 41 yard kick was wide left. On their next possession the Redskins went 59 yards for a Clinton Portis one yard TD on a drive that featured the only catch by a receiver not named Santana or Antwaan. On the final drive of the quarter the Redskins gave the Cardinals lots of help with a personal foul on LaRon Landry for roughing Larry Fitzgerald and a taunting penalty on London for having too much fun near the Cardinals bench. The quarter ended 21-6 Redskins...

...which was cut to 21-13 Redskins two plays into the fourth quarter when Kurt found Anquan Boldin again from 10 yards out. The defense kept doing its best to close out the game with Andre Carter sacking Kurt and causing a fumble recovered by Phillip Daniels, the Redskins three and outed on the resulting possession. Then with 2:37 left in regulation and trailing by eight the Cardinals mounted their last drive and moved 70 yards mainly on receptions of 22, 11 and 29 yards finally scoring a one yard pass from Tim Rattay who came in to replace Kurt. The Cardinals then imploded on a horrible playcall for the two point conversion to tie the game at 21 with Tim Rattay lined up at receiver and Anquan Boldin taking the direct snap student body right looking for a receiving option. His shortarm pass was easily picked off by LaRon.

The fireworks were not over as the Cardinals then easily recovered the onside kick and mounted their real last drive which netted 22 yards before Neil Rackers brought the chip on his shoulder out onto the field and missed a 55 yard field goal barely wide left, game over Redskins hang on 22-19.

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Soapbox: well at least there were no serious injuries, Rock Cartwright pulled up lame with a hamstring after an 80 yard kick return but he is fine.

Damn right you should be embarrassed about this win, but how hilarious is it that the Redskins lose a game they should have won last week and win a game they should have lost last week, that's why they play the games.

The team's ability to move the ball is collapsing inward from the offensive line, like a black hole opening up in space. The replacements are doing their darndest but Mike Pucillo, Jason Fabini and Todd Wade aka Big Head Todd aka 8 Ball simply are not of the same quality as Casey Rabach aka Casey Nutsach, Randy Thomas and Jon Jansen. The offensive line was the bright point last season, no players missing a start until game 14 (when the Redskins were well out of playoff contention) while blocking for 2216 rush yards and a gaudy 4.5 ypc average. The rest of the way out it is all about hanging on for these kinds of wins.

London Fletcher is a beast, easily the game MVP and it is refreshing to see a Redskin acquired in free agency and be able to say with confidence that he so far has been worth every penny.

Al Saunders' fatigue seems to be setting in everywhere. Latest example, the playcall that led to the Cardinals interception of Jason Campbell. A playaction pass on 1st and ten at midfield after the Cardinals had turned it over on downs. Jason fakes the handoff and Clinton runs through the hole untouched whereupon he turns around to look for the pass which is batted and intercepted. So the play was to fake it to Clinton and then throw it to Clinton right where he would have been if he had taken the handoff. Quit being cute and overthinking this stuff and just run a smart play. Either hand it to Clinton or playaction to another receiver.

Poor Kurt Warner, he did everything he had to do to win and played in a lot of pain. Sadly for him the lasting image of this game is Kurt vainly trying to stop London Fletcher and his escorts Demetric Evans and Shawn Springs from rolling over the goal line on his second quarter interception as seen at the top of this post and captured from every angle at the game. The dude can't move his left arm enough to hand the ball off and he is in there trying to tackle on an INT return.

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Chattering class: Rick Snider at the Washington Examiner thinks Jason Campbell is on track and a banged up offensive line is what it is. His problem is with the playcalling and the receivers. I tend to agree with criticism of Al Saunders and if the receivers are hurt (Antwaan Randle El and Santana Moss that is) the coaches should be playing the others, I mean where is Reche Caldwell? Inactive yesterday. Rick is also piling on the Clinton Portis is done argument.

Mike Wise at the Washington Post has the Redskins walking a razor's edge, in some strange place where they could just as easily be 6-0 as 1-5, now with 40% more tortured golf analogies by Pete Kendall.

Tom Boswell at the same publication makes the same point my neighbor did last night: yesterday was the Redskins beating the Redskins, last week was the Redskins losing to the Redskins, as was the loss to the Giants and Tom manages to slip in a reference to the Sam Huff-Neil Olkewicz-London Fletcher continuum.

For the third time this year the Redskins get front page A1 treatment in the Washington Post, this time it's Les Carpenter sandwiched between stories on deadly Kurdish raids into Turkey and the US government employing surveillance lessons learned from the casino industry. Sometimes the real world intrudes on our little football escapism.

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Omnibus: Kurt Warner's left arm was so tender and so limited in that big brace that he was forced to hand off on his right with his right hand, it was very awkward looking and color commentator Tim Ryan noted several times that by backhanding with the near arm rather than forehanding with the opposite that the first thing the tailback hits is the back of your hand not the ball. I saw at least one early play where Kurt tried to hand off with the left but all he could manage was a little alligator arm, forcing the tailback to brush right up against his body.

I did not recall that Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt played for the Redskins, in 1990. He was a tight end, he caught no passes in two games which is not a surprise since the old Joe Gibbs did not use the tight end the way it is used now, Don Warren was the principle TE and he was in there to block.

Gregg Williams had planned to keep Shawn Springs in reserve and limited to fewer plays after being out all week with his ailing father Ron but Fred Smoot's hamstring injury in the first half pressed Shawn into fulltime duty.

The Redskins offensively were worse at everything this week.

Chris Samuels claims Arizona defensive end Antonio Smith, with whom Chris was locked all game, spit on him in the third quarter. Maybe he should ask Sean Taylor about the Mind of the Spitter.

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Area 51: Sean Taylor continues to be the man, hauling in his fifth interception of the season (op. cit.). Quarterbacks are nervous about throwing out there because wherever Sean is when the ball is released is not where Sean will be when the ball arrives. LaRon hauled in the interception of Anquan Boldin's weak effort at an option pass at the end of the game but sadly LaRon's greatest contribution to the game was helping the Cardinals score with a third quarter personal foul on Larry Fitzgerald.


Freddie Your Cruise Director: Loveboat Freddie got the start for Shawn Springs but shared time in this game when he hurt his wittle hammy. And for someone so loquacious and comfortable with an audience, Loveboat Freddie needs to be aware of what he is saying, just like making war analogies in football went out of favor in 1991 with the first Gulf War so are references to killing dogs now frowned upon (op. cit.):

"Once you got the dog down you got to kill it," Smoot said.

Not a great analogy. Update Monday 2pm: dwagner at Riggo's Rag also picked up on this quote by Loveboat Freddie, add your own Smoot aphorism here.


Washington Post recap, box score, play by play. NFL recap, box score, full play by play, Gamebook (PDF), photos.

Other recaps: Hogs Haven express recap, The Redskin Report, Hog Heaven #1 Anthony Brown, #2 Greg Trippiedi, Redskins AOL Fanhouse (with bonus cheerleader cleavage), Covering the Redskins, Rich Tandler's game blog, Running Redskins.


Up next, on the road against the New England Patriots and baby daddy Tom Brady, the Patriots have covered every game do far this season. Last time these teams played was in 2003, the Redskins won and it was the last game the Patriots lost on the way to Super Bowl 38.



London Fletcher and his leatherboys rolling into the end zone over Kurt Warner: Win McNamee / Getty Images from here. Tom Brady and Bridget Moynihan from here.