Monday, October 08, 2007

The Lions Sleep Tonight


Wherein everyone freaks out and everything is just fine

Takeaway drill: with no running game to help him the Redskins made Jon Kitna beat them through the air and he could not; Redskins defense was solid from the four man pass rush to the safeties and in between; Jason Campbell moved up a notch; the Redskins can only feature one receiver at a time; big plays were everywhere; Lions are 0-21 lifetime in Washington.

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Monday walkthrough: the Redskins beat down visiting Detroit 34-3, a Lions team with a hot hand was cooled down and their big numbers were made small. After a tight start, it was 14-0 Redskins at the half and 14-3 near the end of the third quarter, the Lions were trying to get back into it and it could have gone the way of the Giants game.

But it did not, the Redskins played tough defense made all their cuts on offense. Mr. High Flying Jon Kitna was laid low, sacked five times and netting 76 yards passing, that's a Mark Brunell line.

The first quarter was frustrating with the Redskins moving down the field, Clinton Portis limping out after a hit and then coming back in time to miss the playcall and muff a direct snap that took the team out of field goal range. Defensively the Redskins never let the Lions advance past midfield.

The Redskins continued to keep the ball away from the Lions in the second quarter, holding the ball for nine minutes. Chris Cooley caught another touchdown from Jason Campbell and Mike Sellers carried the whole Lions team into the end zone for the Redskins second score. The Lions could never get anything going, the half ended 14-0 Redskins.

In the third quarter the Redskins held Detroit in their territory on the first drive then Shaun Suisham missed his second field goal of the season and Detroit responded with a field goal. The Redskins showed signs of nervousness on the next drive with a bad possession ending in a Jason Campbell fumble on a quarterback sneak then Joe Gibbs wasted a challenge, he needs to get smart on challenges. The Redskins made lemonade of that crappy drive by pinning the Lions back with a 52 yard Derrick Frost punt and then the Lions pass protection broke down on second and 11 from the Detroit 7 and Andre Carter got to Jon Kitna for a safety. The quarter ended 16-3 Redskins.

Although the fourth quarter started inauspiciously with Clinton fumbling the nut away the Lions were unable to get out of their territory on the ensuing drive and punted. James Thrash looking every bit the youngster and not an 11 year veteran filled in for Antwaan on the return and ran it back 62 yards when it was punched out of his grasp from behind by linebacker Teddy Lehman, it bounced forward to the Detroit three where it was recovered by Rock Cartwright. On the next (non-penalty) play Mike Sellers caught an eight yard pass from Jason Campbell and the Redskins went for and got the two point conversion (to Chris Cooley) to make it 24-3 Redskins.

After that the Lions started to get desperate, the next drive ended in a Sean Taylor interception, the Redskins got another field goal and then day of days, Carlos Rogers jumped a Jon Kitna sideline route to Mike Furrey and got not only the interception but took it back 61 yards for the touchdown. The game was over less than a minute later, Redskins win 34-3.

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Soapbox: although there were a great number of minutes where the Redskins seemed to be in control but no points were being scored one could hardly argue with the way this game went. As I said yesterday the Lions offense is not a serious threat to an NFC Beast defense with no running game. No passing game can work for a whole season without a running game to complement it. This appears to be the critical weakness of Mike Martz' offensive scheme: if you need a Marshall Faulk to make a passing game work and you don't have a Marshall Faulk then the passing game doesn't work.

Damn Jason Campbell looked good though I must say it concerns me that there can be no more than one hot Redskins receiver on the field at a time. James Thrash, Keenan McCardell and Brandon Lloyd all got in on the action but this was only after Antwaan Randle El went down.

Again Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts teamed up for a good running game and Clinton had the better stats but this time add Mike Sellers for five carries, 24 yards and a touchdown. The boy is a hoss, 6-3 and 284, it was good to see him play a serious role in the offense because a guy that size can be special.

Was that the Redskins defensive line getting pressure and making sacks on Jon Kitna? Whatever happened to that supposedly weak, too old and too young line? Andre Carter is a beast, flying around with no helmet, he doesn't care.

What's up with the gadget plays? Three times the Redskins tried a direct snap to Clinton, twice with Jason Campbell lined up wide. If the intermediate high definition signal was not evidence enough Fox did not send the A team to cover this game then an NFL quarterback lining up wide not being caught by the cameras or announcers, twice, should have tipped you off.

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Chattering class: Mike Wise at the Washington Post breaks down Gregg Williams' strategy of relying on the front four for pass rush and using the defensive backs and linebackers to flood the zones and take away Jon Kitna's routes. It worked.

Tom Boswell praises Jason Campbell, he did have a career day, 23 for 29 or 79%, that's 27 percentage points higher than his career completion average, no mistakes.

Once again demonstrating how big the Redskins are in Washington DC Les Carpenter gets front page A1 treatment that's classic material: what could have been a 2-2 mess with consecutive losses and the attendant questions and hand wringing is now a great Monday in Washington.

Columnist Mike O'Hara at the Detroit News says it all in the headline: ROADSKINNED (hat tip to Master4Caster for finding that).

Ryan O'Halloran at the Washington Times says the team learned the bye week lesson, FINISH! Dan Daly at the same paper has an appreciation for Keenan McCardell, a 1991 Redskins 12th round draft pick. Thom Loverro loves on Mike Sellers' devastating hit of Kenoy Kennedy. 284 pounds is a lot coming right at you. Washington Times' grades for the Redskins.

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Omnibus: in his preview for this game Jason Campbell said that despite the Lions' weak passing defense the Redskins would still plan a run first attack and they did, 35 runs for 118 yards, a less than stellar 3.4 yards per carry but the main stats were Clinton averaging 4.0 yards and Mike Sellers getting into the end zone.

Tim Ryan, doing color on the Fox broadcast, gave us a great look at the Gregg Williams scheme for this game with a 'no cover' zone five yards from the line, four intermediate zones for the linebackers and cornerbacks and deep cover for the safeties. Basically the Redskins were trying to jam the Lions receivers physically at the line to get them off their timing and when they did not or could not the Redskins were giving the Lions anything they wanted under ten yards but nothing longer. That's how a 2-deep cover zone scheme is supposed to work. If I can get a photo of the TV screen with that scheme up I will post it here, it was very enlightening.

In the first half the Redskins appeared to have only one receiver, Antwaan Randle El, then he hurt his hamstring from overuse. Not to be slowed down Jason Campbell kept it going with Keenan McCardell, James Thrash and even our little buddy Brandon Lloyd caught a ball. Nobody can cover Antwaan.

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Area 51: whoa, our boys were everywhere. Signature play one: LaRon Landry jumping the route on a pass to Mike Furrey on third and nine at the end of the second quarter, batting the ball away to kill the Lions' drive. Signature play two: Sean Taylor laying the wood, just murdering Eric Frampton on special teams, a spring block for James Thrash.

Update Monday 11pm: in comments reader Chris linked up to a six photo sequence he took at the Redskins game of Sean Taylor leveling Eric Frampton in the fourth quarter. Thanks for sharing Chris!

Freddie Your Cruise Director:
Fred Smoot was in and out of this game mainly playing at the end of the halves and got dinged in a collision with Sean Taylor in the fourth quarter. Looking at the line there were at least four completions made on Loveboat Freddie but none over nine yards, this was part of Gregg Williams' strategy to give the Lions short routes and collapse on receptions and make sure they go nowhere.


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

Other gamewraps: Hogs Haven, Greg Trippiedi at Hog Heaven, Bram Weinstein at Covering the Redskins, Redskins AOL Fanhouse and as an added bonus check out Mike Sellers destroying Kenoy Kennedy, Rich Tandler's game blog,


Up next, the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, where the Packers lost last night to the Chicago Bears. They will be fired up for 5-1, not 4-2.



Sean Taylor and Gregg Williams: Win McNamee / Getty Images from here. Brett Favre from here.

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