Missing Man Formation

In which the game goes on but no one moves on

Takeaway drill: an enormous wake; subdued Redskins; Chris Cooley and Santana Moss on fire; ice cold in the red zone; more mistakes by Jason Campbell; defensive collapse at the end; a fundamental mistake by someone that should not be making fundamental mistakes.

=====

Monday walkthrough: Redskins lose an emotional game to the Bills 17-16, fall to 5-7, eliminated from the playoffs in all ways but the mathematical. Once again the Redskins lose a game they were winning at halftime. Once again there was mismanagement and once again Jason Campbell turned the ball over, more than once.

The first quarter started with the Redskins getting the ball and looking good, a great Rock Cartwright return and then a 14 play 63 yard drive featuring hard running, great passing and QB scrambling. At the five yard line the offense once again stalled. Joe Gibbs, still trying to make good on all the poor red zone performances this season, opted to go for it on 4th and less than one from the Bills' five but crowd noise (the fans went wild when the offense lined back up to go for it) caused a false start by Chris Samuels and Pete Kendall and the team kicked a 27 yard field goal.

After the kickoff the Redskins lined up in the rumored ten man formation to honor Sean Taylor, with LaRon Landry lining up deep. The Bills did run as rumored but Fred Jackson did not simply run into the pile. He swept left for 22 yards and it was LaRon playing Sean Taylor that saved a touchdown.

The Bills punted on that drive and then the Redskins held the ball until the end of the quarter which ended on a Jason Campbell sack on the Bills three yard line with the Redskins leading 3-0.

The second quarter opened where the first left off with Jason Campbell getting sacked at the Bills' five, two sacks in a row against the red zone offense. Shaun Suisham lined and kicked a 28 yard field goal. On the next drive the Bills went 42 yards but punted, pinning the Redskins offense on their own eight. After Clinton Portis ran for negative yards on 2nd down Bills linebacker Angelo Crowell (Wahoowa!) chased Jason around the end zone and sacked him for a safety. Buffalo took the free kick and just when it looked as though the Bills would get at least a field goal out of the free possession former Redskin Robert Royal was hit by defensive end Phillip Daniels and fumbled, recovered by Phillip. Jason Campbell then rode Chris Cooley, four catches on the drive when Jason looked for him six times, into the Bills red zone but could not move it past the 15, Shaun Suisham kicked a 33 yard field goal. The Bills ran it twice to end the half, Redskins ahead 9-2.

It started to get interesting in the third quarter, Bills quarterback Trent Edwards moved the Bills 49 yards for a 38 yard field goal. The Redskins answered with a terrific Rock Cartwright return then mostly passing going 57 yards for a Clinton Portis touchdown. After scoring Clinton lifted his jersey to reveal a t-shirt underneath with Clinton's tribute to Sean Taylor. The Bills three and outed and punted and then on the next drive Jason Campbell was hit by Bills defensive tackle Larry Triplett as he threw. Jason fumbled and the ball was recovered by linebacker Angelo Crowell (Wahoowa!).

With great field position the Bills could only manage a 43 yard field goal. On the the third play of the next drive, which saw a 23 yard Rock Cartwright return go back 17 yards for holding, Jason Campbell's pass was tipped at the line and DT larry Triplett picked it out of the air for Jason's 13th turnover in the past six games (see below). The quarter ended with the Redskins still winning, 16-8.

The Bills kept taking what the Redskins were giving them in the fourth quarter, scoring a 24 yard field goal set up by the Jason Campbell interception. The Redskins then punted, even after a 24 yard pass interference call on Buffalo. On the Bills' next drive tailback Fred Jackson took a short Trent Edwards pass over the middle and ran it for a 54 yard gain right through the center of the defense. Still, the Redskins red zone defense held and the Bills could only manage a 33 yard field goal to cut the Redskins' lead to two. In conservative test of wills both teams then three and outed and when Washington got the ball back with 3:42 left in regulation and leading by two they ran ran ran, with Buffalo strategically calling timeouts to ensure the Bills would get the ball back.

Finally the Redskins ran their way into a punt, giving Buffalo the ball back on their 22 with no timeouts and 56 seconds left on the clock. After two short passes, one of which ended in an out of bounds play to stop the clock, Trent Edwards moved around in the pocket to avoid pressure from his right side and found receiver Josh Reed open 30 yards downfield. Trent spiked the ball with eight seconds left. The Bills lined up for a 51 yard field goal in the chill rain. Joe Gibbs called a timeout at the right moment, the ball was snapped and kicker Rian Lindell kicked it up and through the uprights but timeout had been called.

As the Bills lined up for a second try Joe Gibbs inexplicably called another timeout. Consecutive timeouts are only legal in case of an injury and when done to ice a kicker are elevated to unsportsmanlike conduct, 15 yards, reducing a 51 yarder in the rain to 36 yards. The kick was good and the Bills pulled ahead.

With four seconds on the clock Jason Campbell got the ball back, Clinton Portis fumbled the catch but Washington recovered and Buffalo DT Larry Triplett was called for roughing the passer. The game cannot end on a defensive penalty so the Redskins had one more shot from their own 43. Jason tossed it long but the wet ball slipped or something, the pass fell well short of the end zone, game over, Bills win 17-16.

=====

Soapbox: no one expected the Redskins to light it up today, a coworker got killed earlier in the week. That said the red zone offense was horrible again and Jason Campbell now has 13 turnovers in the past six games.

The defense gave up a 30 yard pass when the opponent was losing, there was under a minute left and they had no timeouts. In football terms this is what missing Sean Taylor means. Anecdotally the secondary has played well the past two games, they just rolled over and Trent Edwards made a good throw.

And if that was not bad enough, the timeout rule? Even I knew that. Joe Gibbs must have been caught up in the moment because he must know this rule. In case he does not someone please point him to The Redskin Report.

Players are taking up for him which is good. It looks an awful lot though like another game management error in season of them. The original Redskins fan named Ben Folsom thinks Joe Gibbs has just checked out, he's just not in there anymore. With all respect due the moment and the circumstance there will be a new stream of criticism that as great as it is to have old Joe back that the Washington Redskins Football Club needs new leadership.

The ground game is sucking. This notion that you cannot be a run first team in today's NFL is bullshit, just look at last season. The offensive line is playing with two full time replacements and the team needs to get some younger players coming in to replace the aging veterans. Letting the offensive line go to pot takes yeeeears to recover from.

=====

Chattering class: Tom Boswell at the Washington Post does a good job of describing the ambiance at the game, including an interesting tidbit about the Redskins Band playing Hail to the Redskins as a dirge before the game, then cutting it off unexpectedly at the end, just as Sean's life was cut off unexpectedly. He also says

...the Redskins handled an eight-minute pregame tribute with restrained yet powerful confidence, helping the crowd and team come together in their mourning. A team that has often been criticized for crass over-production on game day somehow found the perfect tone when it mattered most.

Good for Dan Snyder, it sounds like he did not sell a sponsorship for the Sean Taylor just died game.

Les Carpenter has the obligatory and now appropriate front page A1 piece on the game and the aftermath of Sean Taylor's massive wake:

Yesterday the sun never shined at FedEx. A damp cold filled the air as many fans pulled Taylor jerseys over heavy sweatshirts and jackets. The crowd seemed to arrive early, a constant mass gathering in front of a Taylor shrine near the team's store, staring at the collection of photographs, homemade signs and flowers spread under a makeshift tent. Then quietly it moved inside the stadium. Most of the stands were filled 20 minutes before kickoff when the scoreboard asked for silence and the Redskins band played "Goin' Home" a spiritual adapted from Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9.

Some fans dabbed at tears. A few cheered when a clip appeared of Taylor saying the best part of life in the National Football League was "playing home," in front of the fans in Washington. But mostly people were subdued. A banner that read "Forever on the Field. RIP Sean Taylor" fluttered from the upper deck. Among the many signs scattered through the stands were ones that said "God needed a safety" and "Heaven got one hell of a safety."

Mike Wise at the same paper writes that Joe Gibbs was having brain lock at the end when he committed a Chris Webber (nice reference Mike). That said he joins the chorus of pundits, writers, fans and bloggers wondering aloud and or rhetorically when enough is enough, when the team will reconcile its ability to lose hard and often.

Thom Loverro at the Washington Time says simply,

This might wind up the worst year ever for Redskins fans.

David Elfin at the same paper has a Q&A that takes a dim view of the ten man formation. I disagree with David, I think everybody knew what was going on but would be prevented from talking about it due to collusion rules.

=====

Omnibus: I wish I could have been at this game. There were tributes to Sean everywhere. Fans are feeling a real loss. Here are a few things fans had to say about Sean.

While the Redskins were playing in Landover thousands of people were filing through Sean Taylor's childhood church to pay their respects. He will have a public funeral today at the 5000 seat Florida International University arena. The entire Redskins team will be there.

Jason Campbell is coming along well, he looked good particularly in the first half. That said he needs to take better care of the ball. With a fumble and an interception yesterday his total turnovers come to 13 in the past six games and 19 over the season. Jason has fumbled 12 times this year and eight of those have been lost.

Chris Cooley had a terrific game and Santana Moss had a great first half. Chris has become Jason Campbell's best target and Santana seems to be feeling better.

Rock Cartwright has found himself a home. He can return kickoffs as long as he wants, he was awesome with returns of 27, 38, 23 (nullified by penalty), 21 and 32 yards. He is a threat to break it open every time.

Antwaan Randle El missed the first game of his career, his consecutive starts streak is snapped at 91 games, let's hope Antwaan heals up and gets another 91 game streak started next season. James Thrash missed his third game with a high ankle sprain.

The Mark Maske piece in the WaPo indicates the ten men defensive formation (op. cit.) was all Gregg Williams' idea, that Joe Gibbs knew nothing about it and that the Bills knew nothing about it either. In the flurry of coverage I cannot recall where I read it (I think a commenter on Redskins Insider) but I read this rumor earlier in the week accompanied by the notion that the Bills 'knew' about it and would honor the tribute by running the ball. They did and got a big gain.

=====

Area 51: this feature will continue in honor of fallen Redskin Sean Taylor and will chronicle the performance of new safety combo LaRon Landry and Reed Doughty. They seemed to play well given the number of long plays Buffalo was able to execute. LaRon had at least one jarring hit on a receiver (need to check tape to see whom) and Reed seemed to be more comfortable in the position. The new safety configuration for the Redskins unfortunately now plays reaction rather than proaction when Sean was backing up LaRon.

Freddie Your Cruise Director: Fred Smoot had a terrific game, expecially in the second half. He really wanted to win it and I have not seen him that involved in the pass defense in a while. Typically he is giving a large cushion and stopping plays from going long but is not involved in blanket man to man coverage. Yesterday he led the team with eight tackles and I saw at least one brilliant pass defensed, tight coverage and a clean play. Great job to Loveboat Freddie and the image of him crying for the loss and the loss of Sean Taylor was moving.


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

Special photo galleries: NFL photos of the game featuring tributes to Sean Taylor; NFL special Sean Taylor gallery; Washington Post game gallery.

Other recaps: Hogs Haven, The Redskin Report, Hog Heaven, Redskins AOL Fanhouse, Covering the Redskins, Riggo's Rag, Redskins Gab, Rich Tandler's quarterly liveblogs pregame+first, second, third, fourth and Rich's recap,


Next up (op. cit.), Sean Taylor will be buried today in Miami and the Redskins then face a game in three days, a Thursday home game against the Chicago Bears, a team that led the Giants all day before giving it up at the end.



Chief Zee mourning Sean Taylor at the 2 December 2007 game at Redskins Stadium against the Buffalo Bills: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images from here. Devin Hester from here.