Spence's Game Analysis

[Spence]

THE TRIUMPH OF MARTYBALL

QB: Patrick Ramsey was very sharp in the first half. He didn't let the pressure bother him, was very mobile inside the pocket, and extremely accurate with his passes. Decisionmaking in the first half was much better than last year. In the second half, the pass rush bothered Ramsey more and he made two bad passes, his only two of the night. He looked much more comfortable last night than he did last year.

TB: Betts ran very hard and displayed more shiftiness than last year. He's still basically a fast and strong straight-ahead runner. He's an ideal chain-mover, the type of tailback most coaches love. Spurrier prefers home run hitters, but he seems to be learning the value of a back who gets you a reliable gain on most every play. That's what Betts is. Ladell also pass-blocked pretty well.

TB: Canidate ran nicely, but wasn't a factor in the passing game as he should have been. The Redskins ignored their running backs as receivers last night. They shouldn't do that. Canidate is a horrible blocker, however. One of the worst I've ever seen. He let pass rushers through unmolested twice and that's terrible. Quarterbacks [Steve Young, for example] get their seasons or careers ended by tailbacks who miss blocking assignments. Canidate cannot be used much longer if he's going to block as he did last night because Ramsey won't last long.

FB: Bryan Johnson blocked very well again. He's just an excellent all-around blocker. The team ran the ball best when it ran behind Johnson. He also hit all his pass blocks, which made him unique last night.

FB: Rock Cartwright is athletic, but what are we to make of a fullback who cannot block? He has never been a run-blocker and his pass-blocking last night was almost as bad as Canidate's. People overlook blocking by running backs until it is too late and their quarterback has to go on injured reserve. This is a very serious issue. Hue Jackson has got to get Canidate and Cartwright to start blocking someone.

OL: All the starters blocked very well for the run. Holes were opened and the Jets DL was often pushed away from the line of scrimmage. Running behind Jon Jansen and Randy Thomas was particularly effective. Everyone had a tough night passblocking. The Jets have two excellent defensive ends [Ellis and Abraham], but it was still shocking to see Samuels and Jansen abused in the passing game that way. The only time the Skins got any time to throw was when the running game was going very well, forcing the Jets DL to slow their pass rush. The Thomas, Fiore, and Moore dominated the Jets defensive tackles all night. Jets DT Dewayne Robertson didn't look ready for prime time.

WR: Laveranues Coles was magnificent in the first half. He disappeared in the second half, but I think that had more to do with Ramsey's lack of comfort against the pass rush than anything Coles was doing wrong. The Jets didn't have anyone who could cover Coles. Spurrier did a good job designing plays to free Coles up from the double-team. One way to do that is to run your wideout over the middle and Coles has a willingness to run in there that few sprinters have. It makes him much more dangerous to a defense and useful to an offense. If he stays healthy, Coles should have a monster year. He's the best wideout the Skins have had since Henry Ellard in 1994.

WR: Quiet night for Rod Gardner. I thought he got open a few times, but Ramsey was looking more towards Coles.

WR: Darnerian McCants had one nice play where he got open in the back of the end zone. I guess that makes up for being AWOL the rest of the night.

TE: Robert Royal is good. He might be very good one day. Good enough to force Spurrier to keep the tight end in mind more often. It wasn't just the nice catches Royal made. He blocked last night, especially in the running game. I was very surprised by that. This is quite a challenge for Zeron Flemister, who does not block on any occasion.

[Spence]

GAME ANALYSIS, part two

DL: There was no pass rush. I mean--none. This is going to drive us all crazy all year long so perhaps we should just get used to it. The lack of a pass rush is going to be a problem, though. Teams that don't rush the passer don't force turnovers. That means the offense has to be perfect in order to avoid a negative turnover ratio. The Skins were -2 last night and still won. Good to win a game like that, but we'll lose most times we are -2 in the turnover ratio. Somehow, the team must put more pressure on the QB.

The tackles did a nice job stuffing the run. Basically, their job last night was to occupy blockers so the Redskins' linebackers could make plays. I thought the Jets got very little push against the Redskins defensive line, especially up the middle. The defensive ends played the run pretty well, but, aside from one play, never got near Testaverde.

The DL ran stunts all night long, in a vain attempt to get pressure on Testaverde. It left gaping holes in the defense that a mobile quarterback could have used to run for 150 yards last night. Fortunately for the Redskins, Testaverde was never even tempted to run with the ball.

LB: These guys were the stars of the game. My only criticism is that MLB Jeremiah Trotter is vulnerable to passes over the middle. He frequently seems to be out of position to break up those short passes over the middle and I don't know why that is. He played screen passes well, though, and was superb against the run. This was Trotter's best game as a Redskin.

No Redskin plays the run better or more consistently than Jessie Armstead. I was very impressed with him last night; clearly, there is plenty left in his tank. He looked just as quick as he did last year and made several nice plays at or behind the line of scrimmage. He only missed one bad tackle that I could see.

Lavar Arrington gambles a lot [by design] and some times those gambles will hurt the defense. Not last night, though. I don't think I've ever seen a linebacker with more closing speed than Arrington. The only Redskin who pursues and attacks players with more quickness than Arrington is Champ Bailey and he's a cornerback. Arrington plays sideline to sideline with a savage ferocity rarely seen in the Redskins. It's almost unbelievable the sort of plays Arrington can make. If he played tight end Arrington would score 20 TDs a year.

DB: The cornerbacks were good last night, especially Champ. Smoot got beaten a few times, including a very bad play when the Jets converted a 3rd and 15 play right in front of Smoot. All in all, though, Smoot played better than he usually did last year. Champ was smothering. The Jets did nothing against him and he supported the run very well. He even made an excellent special teams tackle. If those witless boos during the player introductions bothered Champ at all, he didn't show it. This guy just keeps getting better and better. If he has a flaw in his game I sure as hell cannot find it.

Ohalete made a few nice plays in the passing game and did a very good job when matched up against Jets tight ends. He missed one or two passes, but was solid in the run defense. That personal foul was really stupid, though. Use your head, Iffy. Matt Bowen is pretty fly for a white guy. He's got good quickness and plays very aggressively. He gets a lot of attention for his tough hits, but I'm more impressed with the amount of ground he covers and his closing speed.

RS: Chad Morton was fine tonight. He didn't hurt the team and made a few nice runs, but nothing special. Most importantly, he didn't drop the ball. This position was a liability for the Redskins last year so Morton's fairly average performance last night represented a huge upgrade.

KC: The kick coverage teams were shaky again. There were stupid penalties and a long return allowed. This is getting to be very old. All in all, though, things went much better than they did last year. That's not saying much, however. There is no good reason for our coverage teams to be this awful.

K: John Hall was very, very good on field goals. The 50-yarder was nice, but what he really needs to do [what every kicker really needs to do] is hit all those easier kicks in crunch time. He won the game with his third field goal last night. 'Nuff said.

P: Didn't I see enough of this crap last year from Bryan Barker. I knew we couldn't trust this guy. After seeing off two competitors with his great punting in the preseason, Barker laid a huge egg last night. The Redskins defense wouldn't let it hurt the team, but we cannot count on that every time. I'm sick of this act.

COACH: George Edwards called a very good game last night. The stunts on the defensive line didn't work, but you have to consider the talent he is working with there. His linebackers and defensive backs were splendid and using those fat and slow DTs to occupy blockers was a good decision. The linebackers will make all the plays necessary if the defensive line can just keep the big offensive line away from them.

Spurrier called the right game tonight, partially by necessity. The team's inability to battle the Jets' pass rush forced Spurrier to run a lot, but it seems he intended to do that anyway. Marty Schottenheimer and George Allen would have been proud to have coached this game. Spurrier never lost patience with the running game and correctly diagnosed the only solution to our passblocking problems. It wasn't flashy, but Spurrier hasn't coached a game this well since the Orange Bowl two years ago. The team still makes too many dumb mistakes, however, and that reflects poorly on him.

SUMMARY: This was a nice win, but the Redskins should have won this game. Losing it would have been sickening. The Skins were playing at home against a team without its starting quarterback. This was a must-win. The utter lack of a pass rush is predictable, but very troubling. Patrick Ramsey looks like a different player this year and that's a good thing. Passblocking by the offensive line and running backs must improve. The kicking game appears to be in safer hands [or feet] this year.

[higgybaby]

Excellent job, Spence. I agree with most of what you said, except I thought that our field position of of recieving kickoffs and punts was pretty good.

[RichardBradley]

Good Job Spence.........

[kelly]

~ ~ very good post.
congrats on your win.
we ( the jets ) have alot of work to do. :banghead:

:beer:

[IowaSkinsFan]

Spence,

You hit the nail right on the head with Canidate. One play in particular exemplifies Trungs poor blocking skills. On the long pass play that Ramsey had to duck under the blitzing LB, Trung whiffed on the block. Coles cleanly beat the CB on the pattern and the safety was out of position. If Ramsey could have stepped up in the pocket and laid it out there for Coles to go get, that play would have been a touchdown. We would have had an extra 4 points and maybe we wouldn't have needed Ramsey's heroics at the end of the game.

That is not a block you can affored to miss. We may not be so lucky next time. If it happens again, we may be talking about how Rob Johnson played cause Canidate got Ramsey killed.

[hamptonskinsfan]

have to agree 100% just would like to add that Bowen really impressed me with his coverage skills, especially on the touchdown break up and the screen pass where he shot past would be blockers to make the play in the backfield.

[Skins57]

I believe Betts should be the starter but I can see both Trung and Ladell in there, as SS went out on a limb to get Trung

[hamptonskinsfan]

I really dont mind this one- two punch at RB. then again i dont have either on my FF team so i guess it doesnt matter much. IMO this keeps defense's guessing as to what our RB's will do, they have to plan against two completely different styles of RB's. Remember a few years ago, Defenses were having a hard time planning against Barber and Dayne because of there different styles.

[SkinsKY]

I think that Betts should start, but I also believe that Trung should still get 25% of the carries because he brings a good change of pace. I don't think Trung is an every down back, but I'd like to see him get in there more on pasing downs in place of Morton. I tdidn't think Morton looked that good coming out of the backfield. He didn't look terrible, but I think Trung would do better.