Hanging On in Quiet Desperation

With the courtesy reacharound

Takeaway drill: Clinton Portis unbound; Shaun Suisham has a long leg; a terrible looking great performance by the Redskins defense; winning ugly and winning barely are still winning; Kellen Clemens and Thomas Jones are excellent building blocks for the Jets.

=====

Monday walkthrough: The Redskins win, another nailbiter 23-20 in overtime against the Jets. The Jets did not play like a 1-7 team and their new starting quarterback second year man Kellen Clemens played like he wanted the job, in fact he reminded me a little of Tony Romo or Vince Young.

The first quarter started terribly with the Redskins completely blowing kickoff coverage and allowing Leon Washington to run the ball 86 yards for a touchdown. The Redskins responded with a lot of running and a field goal then on the next drive with the Jets in 3rd and nine Kellen threw an incomplete pass that would have stopped the drive but LaRon Landry launched himself at the QB and earned a helmet to helmet roughing the passer penalty that ultimtely led to a Jets field goal. The quarter ended Jets up 10-3.

The Redskins started the second quarter with a punt and on the ensuing Jets drive London Fletcher was uncharacteristically called for a late hit on a scrambling and sliding Kellen Clemens, ultimately leading to a Jets touchdown. The Redskins responded with more running and a field goal then oh my stars and garters the Redskins did a surprise onside kick! More running and a field goal later the team had partially made up for the awful special teams gaffe to start the game. The Jets had one more chance in the half and drove down to the Redskins 36 but Mike Nugent aka Ted Nugent's 54 yard kick was short and Sean Taylor, who had been practicing kickoff returns before the game, caught it in the end zone and ran it 22 yards before fumbling where it was recovered by LaRon. The half ended 17-9 Jets.

The Redskins got the ball to start the third quarter and abandoned the run to go downfield for a 40 yard field goal. The Jets punted on the next possession and then Jason Campbell threw his one and only interception of the day. The Jets ensuing drive went 61 yards before the quarter ended 17-12 Jets, the Redskins were hanging on with Shaun Suisham's leg.

The fourth quarter started with the end of that Jets drive, Jerricho Cotchery caught a seven yard pass on the right side from Kellen Clemens and was just drilled by Shawn Springs and Pierson Prioleau, giving up the ball which LaRon recovered. One passing play and five running plays later the Redskins scored the go ahead touchdown and got the two point conversion to get up by a field goal. The next two possessions ended in punts then the Redskins defense sagged like old man ass and let the Jets move 64 yards in five minutes to tie the game on a 30 yard field goal. Regulation ended in a 20-20 tie.

The Jets won the overtime toss and promptly went 42 yards on two plays before stalling and punting. The Redskins then marched 60 yards on ten plays, eight runs, two passes setting up Shaun Suisham's 46 yard field goal, it's up and good, game over Redskins win 23-20.

=====

Soapbox: after starting terribly with the kickoff TD the Redskins settled in and played a game. A surpise onside kick? Who is coaching this team and what have you done with Joe Gibbs?

SHAUN SUISHAM IS TEH BALLS MANG!!!

The Redskins played against form with Clinton, Ladell Betts and Jason Campbell all getting significant run yards, the story is supposed to be that the team's offensive line is weak and dying and couldn't run block for a Mack truck much less a tailback trying to show he still has the moves.

So after losing their second half mojo against the Giants, Cardinals and Packers the Redskins actually rediscovered the dark art of second half adjustments, despite moving the ball 177 yards in the second half and overtime the Jets only managed one more score, a field goal to tie it up at the end of regulation. But man that bend don't break defense where you allow a team to move the ball in short chunks and stiffen up as the field gets shorter, man it's hard to watch sometimes.

It is unlikely the team has unlocked the secret of power running with no passing game, no receivers and a patchwork offensive line, this game was about holding the line and winning a game you were supposed to win now move on and get ready for two division games in a row.

=====

Chattering class: Mike Wise at the Washington Post, trying to recover from a ridiculous piece Friday, has the rah-rah piece on Clinton Portis. Keep it up CP, you just spiked your numbers.

Michael Wilbon at the same paper bloviates endlessly, blahblah blahblah yada yada yada. We get it, the Redskins have a bad memory this week, the Patriots game is already forgotten.

Once again the liberal media give front page A1 treatment to a for profit sports team, it is clear the A section editors have gotten addicted to this on Mondays. This week's piece by Les Carpenter is stuck between stories on Pakistan suspending their constitution and oil traders pushing the barrel of oil over 100 dollars.

=====

Omnibus: Brandon Lloyd did not make the trip. It looks like Brandon did not read reader Tab's guest post suggesting Gary Clark might be able to help Brandon keep his head in the game. Last season Brandon did not play in game 15 and was inactive for game 16 with 'bronchitis.' Joe Gibbs may finally have had enough of the B-Lloyd Blues.

The blitz is back.

As expected Marcus Washington sat out another game with the hamstring and Cornelius Griffin was not in the game much with back spasms (both op. cit.). Marcus' outage was felt as Thomas Jones ran right a bunch, right into Randall Godfrey who does not have Marcus' quick first step and without Cornelius packing the middle TJ racked a 4.8 ypc between the tackles. Lorenzo Alexander aka Scarface played mostly in Cornelius' place.

Jerricho Cotchery's fumble in the fourth quarter easily could have been overturned back to the Jets, although he clearly caught the ball with both hands and touched down with both feet before getting drilled by Pierson Prioleau and Shawn Springs he did not make the quote unquote football move that is en vogue right now. Possession is generally now determined not only to be control inbounds it also involves making a football move.

After that fumble the Redskins quickly drove downfield on mostly runs including two plays when Lorenzo Alexander aka Scarface reported eligible as a tight end, one of those two plays was a 32 yard run by Clinton.

Redskins receivers tallied one catch in the first half and five overall. No pass went to any player but Mike Sellers, Chris Cooley, Santana Moss or Antwaan Randle El.

Reche Caldwell was inactive again, with only two receivers catching balls in this game is there any way to get him on the field?

There were no major injuries reported out of this game.

=====

Area 51: LaRon came out of the graveyard for this game. Gregg Williams called on him to blitz at least three times, one of which resulted in a roughing the passer call on LaRon, one was a beautiful collar sack of Kellen Clemens and the third was an all out safety jailbreak with Sean and LaRon coming in unblocked from the sides where you could just see Kellen going GAHH HERE THEY BOTH COME, he got it off but I am pretty sure it was incomplete.

LaRon also recovered Sean's fumbled field goal return at the end of the first half and he grabbed Jerricho Cotchery's fumble after Shawn Springs and Pierson Prioleau stood him up in the fourth quarter.

As for Sean he was hopelessly behind the play that started the game, helplessly chasing Leon Washington but played well other than than that. I am pretty sure Brad Smith dropped at least one pass near the end of the game because he thought he heard Sean's footsteps, it was actually Shawn Springs whose tackles no man fears, that is the effect Sean has on players, looking over their shoulders.

Freddie Your Cruise Director: Fred Smoot figured prominently in this game, he was opposite Shawn Springs all game and had a couple of good run ins with Brad Smith, they played to a standstill (see image above).


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


Other recaps: Hogs Haven, The Redskin Report, Greg at Hog Heaven, Redskins AOL Fanhouse, Covering the Redskins, The Fun Bunch, Tandler's Redskins Blog.


Up next: the Eagles come to play at Redskins Stadium on Sunday, they got shellacked by the Cowboys last night, Wilbert Montgomery and I will be in attendance, it will be our 17th of the past 18 Eagles-Redskins games regardless of venue and my 15th straight.



Fred Smoot er seizing an opportunity with Brad Smith: screencap from Fox's TV coverage by me. Donovan McNabb being sacked on his first play from scrimmage: Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News from here.