Game 1: Redskins (0-0) at Giants (0-0)

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Out of the box: The Washington Redskins travel to New Jersey to play the New York Giants in the season opening national game, 7pm ET, a full three days before the rest of the league opens. The defending Super Bowl winners will be receiving their championship rings and starting the season without defensive ends Michael Strahan which was planned and Osi Umenyiora which was not planned. The Redskins will be debuting a new coach, a new offense and trying to figure out if they were the team from the first half of preseason, the second half, both or neither.

Should be fun, don't know about you, I am ready for some football!

The week started with final cuts and establishing the depth chart, Jim Zorn thought Stephon Heyer would give the team better play at right tackle and demoted Jon Jansen to backup, Jon is in his tenth year and has been Washington's anchor on the right side, did not miss a game his first five years and has missed half of all games the past four, we may yet see Jon back in action at some point this season and defensive tackle Anthony Montgomery lost his starting spot to Kedric Golston who had lost it to Anthony the year before, both of these guys are good players.

But before this first game to put a win or loss into coach Jim Zorn's resume, let us step back and look at what is new on this Redskins team, it seems like a lot longer than eight months ago that Joe Gibbs retired for the second and final time from the Redskins and then the team doodled away 32 days before promoting a new hire with no experience two levels to become head coach.

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The story so far: It is Vinny Cerrato's team now, Dan Snyder promoted him in January after Joe Gibbs left, he is the top football dog, has his people in place and we can lay it all at his feet, the successes and failures and yet somehow he still manages not to piss people off and if it is true that Vinny's first serious task as top dog was to coordinate the hiring of Joe Gibbs' successor then Zorn manlove aside, it looked like a pretty inept effort, see also promoting a guy with no experience two levels.

New slash rookie head coach Jim Zorn calls his first real NFL game and thus becomes the latest member of the Mike Holmgren coaching family to become an NFL head coach. Can coach Zorn do for Jason Campbell in Washington what he did for Matt Hasselbeck in Seattle?

With Jim Zorn comes Sherman Smith, Jim's old tailback teammate from Seattle as offensive coordinator. Sherman is not a west coast offense disciple, he has had a learning curve the same as the players. Although Sherman will not call plays he is involved in designing the playbook and gameplan and manages the flow of games. Sherm has never been a coordinator, that's the top two offensive coaches with no experience at their positions.

Running backs coach Stump Mitchell, also a former NFL player, came with coach Zorn from Seattle and took Earnest Byner's job, Stump is a west coast practitioner.

The offense, another variation of the west coast offense, an offense based on timing and precision, quarterbacks throw to a spot and the receiver turns around and there it is, this flavor will continue to have power running allegedly, there can be no other way, you cannot live without it in the NFC Beast. Here is a primer for the west coast offense.

Defensive coordinator Greg Blache was here last year, and the three years before that working for Gregg Williams, that all ended when Gregg got shitcanned and Greg got the job, which he took before Gregg knew he was being fired despite supposably wanting no more of football and wanting to retire to go kill things. Greg Blache plays this experience a little differently, whatever the case, Gregg Williams and Greg Blache are no longer friends. Greg has the players' respect and experience as a defensive coordinator, the Bears were up and down while Greg was in charge.

Defensive end Jason Taylor becomes the only new player of note, the Redskins standing pat in the offseason and focusing on their own free agents over a splash in the market, ironic that the team still landed one of the biggest stars in the league when defensive ends Phillip Daniels and Alex Buzbee went down with season ending injuries on the first day of camp.

How will all this play out this season? Michael Wilbon thinks the Redskins will finish a solid fourth in the NFC Beast, a sentiment shared by the WaPo staff writers. Me, I look at it a different way.

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Curly R aside: if you will recall gentle reader this game was moved up on the schedule by 90 minutes in order for the NFL to honor their Republican overlords and accommodate senator John McCain's Republican National Convention nomination acceptance speech in St. Paul Minnesota. Although the defending Super Bowl champions always get this early season opening game, is it a surprise to anyone else that by scheduling the Redskins for this game the two biggest political markets in the nation will be focused away from what the good senator has to say? Readers will rate this amusing situation with copious smiley faces or an epic fail depending upon their political persuasion (Brian Hunter and Steve in Tennessee I expect you both to weigh in with a comment). In case the game tonight goes into overtime and cuts into the good senator's prime time TV coverage? According to the campaign overtime is their quote rain in Denver scenario unquote, how far has the political process in this country fallen when one of the two major party candidates is worried about how a football game will affect his campaign.

Curly R aside continues: I have nothing but sympathy for the tragedy that took place at Chris Samuels' house on Saturday (op. cit.), a family friend was riding an ATV, lost control, struck a tree and dies from her injuries on Sunday. This comes on the heels of the death of Dave Matthews Band saxophone player LeRoi Moore from injuries sustained in an ATV accident in June, for gods sake people if you are going to ride an ATV, get training and be safe!

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Gameplan: In terms of the game, who knows what to expect? The Redskins had their well documented ups and downs during the preseason, the Giants are a bit depleted, this for a team about whose Super Bowl win the conventional wisdom is that they were not dominant and merely played well at the right times (not that there's anything wrong with that...).

I generally agree with the WaPo's keys to the game: Jim Zorn's first game as head coach, Stephon Heyer's first game as a named starter, going up against Justin Tuck; the offense needs to get going quick and not settle into a comfy pattern of three and out; defensive line performance, Jason Taylor is hurt and his efficacy against the run was in question to begin with; lingering injuries, for the second season in a row hamstring injuries plagued the Redskins in camp, will they get better or hang around all season?

To this I would add the Redskins fundamentals, those parts of the game that have to succeed to win no matter who is the coach: solid running, quarterback protection and of the there pass catchers Santana Moss, Chris Cooley and Clinton Portis, two of them must have good receiving games. No one game doth not a career or season make, the first taste of a real story of this team starts tonight. Also have a look at our new feature Redskins Roundtable, a round robin take on issues of the week by Dillweed, Will Allensworth and yours truly.

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Oppo research: For the opponents, the Giants are not feeling the love of a Super Bowl champion, offensively Eli Manning (lol) gets to come back and and try to prove he really is a top drawer NFL quarterback and he will have to do it without Jeremy Shockey who was traded in July to the New Orleans Saints, the Redskins week two opponent, retired Giant Michael Strahan by the way had urged the Giants not to trade Jeremy, despite his being a total dickhead he has never caught fewer than 45 passes in a season and as many as 74, does anyone but a Giants fan think Kevin Boss is ready to assume that production?

Defensively the Giants may have lost defensive end Osi Umenyiora for the season to injury and a few key players to free agency or release, that does not mean they will be pushovers. When Michael Strahan retired that moved Justin Tuck, no slacker himself with ten sacks as a reserve last season, to defensive end opposite Osi, now New York has moved Mathias Kiwanuka from linebacker to defensive end, the position Mathias played in college, this could give the Redskins an opening, new player at end and a hole to fill at linebacker.

Bottom line, it's the Giants, division rivals, as a Redskins fan I know to take nothing for granted. For more on the Giants check out James Trotta's NFL-Giants and SBN's Big Blue View.

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Trainer's table: On the injury front cornerback Shawn Springs was kicked in the calf over the weekend and has a deep bruise, he is a game time decision, as is Jason Taylor with the knee he strained in the Carolina preseason game. Rookie safety Kareem Moore is likely out with his hamstring and rookie receiver Malcolm Kelly is out with his hammy and swelling in his knee, Malcolm had his knee scoped in training camp and he is having a hard time recovering. Erasmus James is still progressing, he was taken off the PUP list late in camp, he likely will not be able to go a whole game, we will see lots of Demetric Evans.

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My take in 60 words or less: don't no one know what is going to happen tonight, anyone tells you how Jason Campbell will play, how Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts, who hardly got any work in preseason, will play, anyone tell you how Jason Taylor and knee will play, how Stephon Heyer will play in his first named start and how the Giants will play, they don't know shit.

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The Washington Post published two incredible preview pieces yesterday, one on the Redskins and one on the league overall. Have fun with these, they are great. Molly at the WaPo also tipped me off earlier this week to the debut of The League, the WaPo's new NFL roundup site, it far exceeds anything the paper ever did outside Redskins specific coverage and you know I love me some Mark Maske.

Washington Post preview, Redskins Gameday (PDF), the Zorn Zone replaces Campbell's Corner from last season, coach Zorn thinks the Giants offense is quote flexible unquote, depth chart (PDF), New York Time preview, TV coverage map, this is a national game, you may have some fun looking at the coverage maps for the other games.

The NFL will be streaming the pregame concert and the game itself for free on NFL.com (h/t to the NFL guys that keep sending me this stuff).

Redskins roster, projected starters, Giants roster, projected starters, Redskins injury report, Malcolm Kelly is the only player listed OUT for sure, Giants injury report.

Other previews: Lee Gibbons at The Redskin Report has the ever invaluable FYI and 21 things to watch; Hogs Haven; Rich Tandler at Real Redskins early / late; David Wagner at Riggo's Rag previews: offensive / defensive; Brian Murphy at Homer McFanboy; Blogger Chris Cooley has his 29 hour countdown to the game; Greg Trippiedi at Hog Heaven has a preview and they also did a live blog.


Ah wisdom for children, it is true, Redskins fans endure.


This is a gameday open thread.