Akh's Thoughts Week 16

akhhorus · #1 12-23-2007, 11:33 PM

What we learned from the Redskins’ victory over the Vikings

Prologue: You gotta want it-Prop Joe

1-Why are we seeing heart only now? Why, under Gibbs, has this team only really shown heart when they’re against the wall or all but finished for the playoffs? Why can’t we see this in October and early November? Why can’t Gibbs use his “come together” speech before we’re 5-7?

1a-More than anything, this shows how there aren’t many leaders on this team. Either on the field or on the sidelines.

2-I was all ready to write a long passage on how good Williams’ game plan was-stacking the line and jamming the gaps to take advantage of Peterson’s style. HOWEVER, we saw the old crappy Gregg Williams in the 2nd half. Same soft coverages. Same lack of blitzes. Same bad results. What’s more depressing is how little I expect Gibbs to do anything about this.

3-Another great game by Portis, he’s really coming on when this team needed him. 130+ total yards and 2 total TDs. 1500 total yards for CP this year.

3a-Whether or not Portis will stay with the skins is a firmly closed debate. This team, barring a total offensive change, only goes as far as Portis takes them.

4-Todd Collins had a very solid game playing tonight, but I can’t get excited about beating up the worst pass defense in the NFL missing their top Cb. He’s still more a manager than a QB, and the team leans more on Portis than they did with Campbell.

4a-Despite his good games, Campbell still should be the starter if he’s healthy in the playoffs—if we make them.

5-Moss, Cooley and Randle El all played good stretches tonight, but we have yet to see anyone of them really take over a game from start to finish.

5a-Moss’ catch over McCauley was amazing, and Cooley’s TD catch was textbook on how to fake out a Safety.

6-The Oline played well against a good defense, Kendall played well against the Williams sisters. Samuels, outside of his false starts, was great again. I just can’t wait for the end of the Jason Fabini era in DC lol

7-I’m fairly sure that Al Michaels broadcasts alone in the booth, and what we know as John Madden is being controlled by the people behind the Lord of the Rings special effects. He doesn’t even look human anymore, its like some bad anime character, and they sample in his quotes from the video game.

8-Great game today by the DTs: Evans, Monty, Griff, Golston all played extremely well against a great interior Oline. Monty did a good job tying up Hutchinson all night.

9-Springs & Smoot both had good INTs tonight, but they also looked essentially useless in those zones Williams is obsessed with. The vikes basically have no one at WR with Rice out, and they made Williamson and Gage look competent out there. Why Gregg why do you play them in those zones?

10-Adrian Peterson should hold a telethon during the offseason for a new QB. “We have D. McNabb from Philly on the line…what would it take for you to play QB for me?!....No go…okay…we have Chad P from New York also calling in? Hang up on him.” If Adrian sings “You’ll never walk alone” to a cardboard cut out of Tom Brady while chewing on a lozenge(like Jerry Lewis does every year), I’m getting out my checkbook lmao.

Team grades
Offense:
X WR Santana Moss 8.65. Really solid game for Santana, but he also disappeared at times.
Z WR Antwaan Randle El 8.65. See above
LT Chris Samuels 8.5 A couple bad false starts, but otherwise was solid as always.
LG Pete Kendall 9.2. A really great game against a great set of DTs
OC Casey Rabach 7.25. He called a good game, but struggled blocking all night.
RG Jason Fabini 2. I really didn’t see him hold a block all night.
RT Stephon Heyer 8.9. Very good game, but struggled with the blitz pick ups.
TE Chris Cooley 7.7. Great TD catch, but disappear for the rest of the night.
QB Todd Collins 8. Solid game for the Vet.
FB Mike Sellers 7.5 Solid game, and probably got screwed out of a TD.
RB Clinton Portis 9. Didn’t have 100 yards, but controlled the game and drove the offense.
K Scott Suisham 8.5. The FG miss wasn’t his fault, solid kickoffs.
KR Rock Cartwright 6.5. Meh

Defense:
DE Andre Carter 6.2. I barely heard his name all night.
DT Anthony Montgomery 8.5. Great game giving Hutch a handful.
DT Cornie Griffin 8.25 Gave Birk another handful.
DE Philip Daniels 6. I had to double check that he played lol
SLB Marcus Washington 6.5 Meh. He’s been Mehing a lot.
MLB London Fletcher 8.25. Really solid game against the run, but struggled in pass coverage.
WLB Randall Godfrey 7.25. Solid job filling in for Rocky.
CB Shawn Springs 7.25. Good INT, but bad zone coverage.
CB Fred Smoot 7.7. Better INT, also struggled in the 2nd half.
FS LaRon Landry 8. Another solid game, he took away the middle of the field and the deep ball all night.
SS Reed Doughty 6.7. This is why I can’t get too excited about him. He made a couple plays, but generally wasn’t a factor when he was on the field.
P Derrick Frost 6.5. Muffed hold and was so-so in punting.
PR Antwaan Randle El 4. Non-factor.

Coaching:
Offense: B+/A-
Defense: First half A, Second half D+(and a kick to the groin)
Overall: B-

Next week: Officiating Fent's wedding, so probably no column lol.

CNYSkinFan · #2 12-23-2007, 11:37 PM

pretty much spot on. I also think JC should start if he gets healthy enough...Collins has done a good job, better then I ever expected, but we are extremely limited in our passing attack with him in the game IMO

GreenspanDan · #3 12-23-2007, 11:41 PM

jesus, we smash a team we're supposed to lose to, and you STILL can't help but criticize all our primary contributors. pathetic.

skinsfan36 · #4 12-23-2007, 11:43 PM

im tired of the cover 2 in the second half i dont want to see it the rest of the year!

shally · #5 12-23-2007, 11:45 PM

great stuff as usual..

but i dont think you are giving collins quite enough credit. he gets the ball off in time and throws a soft catchable ball. he made 2 stupid fumbles that could have seriously hurt the team, but i think overall he gives the team a far better chance of winning right now than cambell.. and that includes the playoffs.

you just have to think about the jags pulling garrard in favor of a recovering leftwich in the playoffs to see what would happen. even if JC is better, he will be rusty and his timing will be off. collins has handled 2 hostile road games in a row with little margin for error.. IMHO he gets to finish out the year..

as far as the second half defense, why would anyone expect williams to adapt to any team's change in offense ? his defensive schemes are set in stone with the cover 2 being the default setting.. he has to be the most fossilized adjuster inthe history of def coordinators

shally · #6 12-23-2007, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CNYSkinFan

pretty much spot on. I also think JC should start if he gets healthy enough...Collins has done a good job, better then I ever expected, but we are extremely limited in our passing attack with him in the game IMO

collins hasnt made very many mistakes in his throws.. our limited passing attack got us some points on the vikes and giants

GreenspanDan · #7 12-23-2007, 11:51 PM

and another thing - that vikings team had won 5 straight. that is tough to do against ANY five opponents in today's NFL. i think you are mistakaken to trivialize them. this was a GOOD team and we BEAT them handily. thatg says something.

FunBunch5 · #8 12-23-2007, 11:55 PM

I agree with most of your article accept for starting Campbell. IMO we would mess up the chemistry that we have right, and the offense has moved better with Collins.

shally · #9 12-23-2007, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenspanDan

and another thing - that vikings team had won 5 straight. that is tough to do against ANY five opponents in today's NFL. i think you are mistakaken to trivialize them. this was a GOOD team and we BEAT them handily. thatg says something.

what is says is that our team should have been giving dallas and green bay a run for the #1 and #2 seeds instead of struggling to make the playoffs at the very end.
where was this kind of effort in sept and october ?

CNYSkinFan · #10 12-23-2007, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FunBunch5

I agree with most of your article accept for starting Campbell. IMO we would mess up the chemistry that we have right, and the offense has moved better with Collins.

I dont see alot of players out there saying we have to ride with Todd...I give credit where credit is due, he kows the offense and has produced. However the BEars, Giants, and Vikings defenses have alot to be desired, and I dont want to see those floating COllins passes against Seattle if I dont have to

FightforoldDC · #11 12-24-2007, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenspanDan

and another thing - that vikings team had won 5 straight. that is tough to do against ANY five opponents in today's NFL. i think you are mistakaken to trivialize them. this was a GOOD team and we BEAT them handily. thatg says something.

Agreed. Second win, playing away against two very good teams. We are playing banged-up, with a back-up QB that has hardly taken any snaps. Top run team, top run defense. And we beat them on both counts. Again, we have a pretty bland QB, but at least he doesn't give it away.

LATrueRedskin · #12 12-24-2007, 12:02 AM

Fantastic game by Portis today. He's really showing the most fight on this team, and he absolutely refuses to lose.

FunBunch5 · #13 12-24-2007, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CNYSkinFan

I dont see alot of players out there saying we have to ride with Todd...I give credit where credit is due, he kows the offense and has produced. However the BEars, Giants, and Vikings defenses have alot to be desired, and I dont want to see those floating COllins passes against Seattle if I dont have to

I think it would throw off the teams timing if Jason was put back in there. IMO we should ride Todd out this year and turn it back over to Jason next summer.

shally · #14 12-24-2007, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CNYSkinFan

I dont see alot of players out there saying we have to ride with Todd...I give credit where credit is due, he kows the offense and has produced. However the BEars, Giants, and Vikings defenses have alot to be desired, and I dont want to see those floating COllins passes against Seattle if I dont have to

collins tonight: 22/29 254 yards 2 td's 0 int's

i would bet the qb rating is over 100

giant defense is suspect ? viking defense was good enough for them to win 5 straight before tonight... bears ? maybe their offense is suspect, but their defense is just fine and they totally throttled green bay for the second time this year !!

what do you want from collins ? if JC had turned in a game with stats like that everybody would be crowing how solid he was

you dont want to see collins floating passes against seattle ?? i will take floating passes that hit the receivers in stride instead of being behind them or tipping off their hands, any day.. c'mon.. where is the hatred coming from ? when is the last time we had a 3 game winning streak under JC ?

now, i am NOT saying that there should be an open competition for starter next year.. no way ! this is JC's team next year. but this year ? if we beat dallas with collins as qb, there is ZERO question who should be the qb in the playoffs..this team simply has a better chance of winning right now with a healthy collins than with an injured campbell. he will not be ready this year.

shally · #15 12-24-2007, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CNYSkinFan

I dont see alot of players out there saying we have to ride with Todd...I give credit where credit is due, he kows the offense and has produced. However the BEars, Giants, and Vikings defenses have alot to be desired, and I dont want to see those floating COllins passes against Seattle if I dont have to

players arent going to say anything about either qb... except that they can win with either.. that is poppycock