It Was Over When

Mike Sellers got on the wrong page

Now this is not to say it's the fault of Todd Collins or Mike Sellers, the way the Redskins lost in the playoffs to the Seahawks. It was a team loss, the defense played well but let the Seahawks move the ball and the offense was dreadful most every time they were needed.

It was this play above that was the start of the downward spiral. Not only did they not score again, the team completely fell apart except for LaRon Landry.

The Redskins had been shut out through three quarters and had scored on the first play of the fourth to move to 13-7. LaRon Landry intercepted Matt Hasselbeck on the next drive and Todd tossed a 30 yard TD pass to Santana Moss, the Redskins suddenly were winning 14-13.

Just when things could not get any better Josh Wilson and Nate Burleson both missed Shaun Suisham's kickoff deep and Anthony Mix was there to scoop it up, basically a long onsides kick. The Redskins had the ball on the Seattle 14 yard line up by one with 12:36 left in the game. A touchdown would make it an eight point Redskins lead.

Chris Cooley dropped a pass he should have caught but it was a tough play. On the next play Mike Sellers got out of position and Todd and Clinton Portis tried to get him into position, they could not and Todd called timeout. Mike said said something and Todd wheeled around and got up in Mike's face (see above). Patrick Kerney came over the left side on the next play and hit Todd as he threw and the ball wobbled to the ground. With a chance to extend their lead to four Shaun Suisham missed a 30 yard field goal.

It got no better after that. After LaRon intercepted Matt for the second time in the quarter Chris Samuels got the next drive off in the hole with a false start. Shawn Springs gave up another long pass on the next drive before Matt found DJ Hackett wide open for a TD, they got the two and were up by seven.

Mike Sellers committed a block in the back penalty that trimmed ten yards off a 55 yard Rock Cartwright return then Todd was intercepted on the next play when Santana gave up on the route. Marcus Trufant took it back for a score, Stephon Heyer was hurt on this play but came back. The Redskins could not move far with the ball, Todd was sacked for an eight yard loss, Clinton Portis was hurt and the Redskins turned it over on downs. The Redskins used up their timeouts to get the ball back then on the final drive Todd bobbled a shotgun snap and wasted a down two plays before shortarming it to Antwaan Randle El when Jordan Babineaux intercepted it and ran it back for seven more to push Seattle margin of victory to 21.

For 19 quarters the Redskins held it together and were never down more than 13 points. Then in one 12 minute spasm it all unraveled.



Play by play detail here.

Screencap of NBC broadcast of Todd Collins and Mike Sellers getting into it in the fourth quarter by me.