1. Not a good day for corner DeAngelo Hall and he knew it. Hall messed up on the 49-yard catch and run by Rob Gronkowski by almost coming to a stop as Reed Doughty and DeJon Gomes attempted to wrap him up near the sidelines. Hall later said, “I thought he stepped out [of bounds].” But it’s clear the play was ongoing and with a guy like that you keep trying to bring him down. If nothing else go for a strip. Instead, nothing. It won’t look good on film at all. Players can say that the new rules have taken away some of their edge and leads to plays like this. But this was not good. Hall did come up hard enough but he has to help finish the play. Just a bad mistake.
2. Later, Hall was flagged for defensive holding on an incomplete pass. OK, it happens. But he then picked up the flag and threw it drawing another 15 yards. You want to know why teams get to 4-9? There you go. Hall considers himself a defensive leader, but you can’t lose your cool like this. Not in any game, but certainly not against a team that scores like New England. His tantrum turned it into a 20-yard gain on what turned out to be a touchdown drive. There’s a difference between playing with passion and emotion and losing your cool. Two weeks ago in Seattle the Redskins wanted to show the Seahawks they weren’t going to back down. In my mind they were becoming too mouthy and worrying about extra-curricular things that didn’t matter. And guess what? It cost them 15 yards in this game and has cost them in others. Behave that way long enough and it ALWAYS bites you in the end. Period. Scouts and analysts that I talk to consider Hall an undisciplined player. It leads to plays like this. Coaches like to talk about “winning plays”. This is an example of the opposite.
| Examiner Coverage |
|
|
3. Don’t know if the call on Santana Moss was legit or not. I do know you could see his arms extend and you could see the DB, Julian Edelman, take a couple steps back. Whether that was acting or not, I can’t say because the replays really weren’t that great on the play. But if an official sees the receiver’s arms extend at all and then space is created, he’ll probably throw the flag much of the time – fair or not. But I don’t want to hear that the Redskins had to play the Patriots and the refs. Good teams never need to say such things. I thought the London Fletcher call was questionable at best. But it didn’t hurt the Redskins as the Pats already were in field goal range and still settled for a field goal. Ex-Redskin Andre Carter was the recipient of what appeared to be a tough call as well, wiping out an interception and leading to a Redskins field goal.
4. Liked the strategy used by the Redskins’ offense for this game. The Patriots geared up to stop the outside stretch zone, which is why the Redskins ran a lot more inside than usual, with that quick toss and cut up by Roy Helu. Early on fullback Darrel Young missed a couple blocks, but thereafter that had to be his best game. He opened more than a few holes with his lead blocks. Receiver Jabar Gaffney even came through the middle a couple times and sealed the safety off. I Helu took advantage and probably had his easiest running game of the past three in terms of not needing to break as many tackles. Watching the game again could prove me wrong on that one. But overall the holes were solid. Running inside more also lessened the burden on the tackles to seal the ends. There were some issues with the line and you still don’t see a lot of cutback opportunities, but for what they were working with it ranked as a pretty good game. The line still doesn’t get much push in short-yardage situations.
5. Rex Grossman, after a rough start, posted good numbers and his desire to go downfield resulted in a lot of positive gains. They had six pass plays of 20 yards or more. Thing is, guys were wide open all day. I don’t know how New England is going to try and win a title with that defense. Yes, you have to stop that offense but the Patriots have flamed out in the postseason the past couple years. The Redskins offense had a terrific rhythm starting on its third drive. And the Pats could do little to stop them. They rushed three to play coverage; they sent five rushers. But they never really tried to send multiple defenders. They just don’t have the talent defensively to hold up for even a short time in man coverage. I know Bill Belichick is a genius and all, but he’s put together a lousy defense thanks to some poor personnel decisions. His D was completely fooled on the Brandon Banks reverse pass (for a guy who was a QB in high school, that sure was an ugly, albeit effective, sidearm throw). A nice play call, too.
6. But there has to be some internal clock in Grossman that tells him to unload the ball. He has almost too much trust in his line because on the sack/fumble, Grossman looked left, looked back right, hitched and stepped up. This is with Willie Smith getting his first action and going one-on-one with a guy who has nine sacks. Get the frickin ball out. But he didn’t. That’s not the first time this has happened with Grossman.
7. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Tom Brady: his competitiveness. There’s a steely-eyed nature to him. But it was also interesting to see him get into an argument with offensive coordinator Bill O’Reilly after his interception in the end zone. It’s unusual to see someone of his stature get into a heated disagreement. But give O’Reilly some kudos for telling his star he messed up. To which Brady could be seen saying, “No [expletive]!” Later, he said, “A long line of coaches and players are pretty pissed at me after that, but Billy got to me first so I deserved it. We’re both pretty emotional so that’s what I deserve you know? If you make bad plays, you are supposed to get yelled at by your coaches. This is not the first time and probably won’t be the last. It was just a stupid play by me.”
8. The one thing that surprised me about Brady on a couple throws was his poor footwork. He missed Rob Gronkowski in the end zone for another touchdown when he shifted his body – but not his feet – to throw in his direction. Had he shifted his feet, it’s an easy completion. The lazy way resulted in a pass that was behind him. Later, on the Wes Welker drop, Brady could have given him a better throw but did not in part because of his feet. Again, he turned his body but not his feet. Welker still should have made the catch on the pass that was behind him but very catchable. There were a couple times in which the Redskins showed certain looks – quarters coverage — only to play something else – cover 2 — and might have caused Brady to pause. Oh, and about the poor footwork, it certainly wasn’t evident on the TD pass to Wes Welker when Brady stepped up in the pocket to the right, planted, stepped back to his left and delivered a perfect toss.
9. Perry Riley did not have his best game, at least that’s the initial thought. He was beaten on the above play by Gronkowski, trailing him by several yards. And he looked lost from the get-go on Gronkowski’s 50-yard catch and run. Before the snap, Riley looked a little confused about where to line up – Brian Orakpo was almost right behind him. At the snap Riley stumbled a bit then it looked like he headed at a receiver running a crossing route. Then he realized he needed to be on Gronkowski and by then it was too late. By the way, Gronkowski was a mismatch all day. Your welcome for that insight. Ryan Kerrigan had decent coverage on him, but he had no help over the top and therefore no real chance. Did the Redskins play too aggressive at times, leaving Gronkowski in too many good situations? Probably, but they also wanted to pressure him. One last thought on Brady: His former receiver, Jabar Gaffney, said one thing Brady did well when he played with him was move the safeties. Well, that’s how Brady connected with Gronkowski, covered by rookie DeJon Gomes (with an 8-inch height disadvantage). Brady looked left, causing Doughty to slide that way along with London Fletcher. That created the opening Brady needed to hit Gronkowski down the right seam.
10. The players don’t believe in moral victories and neither do I. But considering what they had working against them offensively – no Trent Willams, no Fred Davis and losing Jammal Brown in warm-ups to a groin injury – it was clearly their best showing of the season. I don’t care that New England’s defense stinks. Look who we’re talking about here. Does it give you hope? Not sure why it does because most of the players out there Sunday might not be there next season, at least not as starters. But the offensive staff did call a nice game plan and they did execute it well. I’ll be curious to see how Willie Smith looked when I watch the game again, but there was a mixture of good and bad from what I saw. He had a couple nice pushes; got beat at times. But it wasn’t a disaster. Helu continues to be a nice story. Almost seemed like he left some yards out there Sunday, however. But he did something no other Redskins rookie back has done: rush for 100 yards in three straight games. And that was the best Evan Royster has looked as well. You can tell when he gets a rhythm going because his plants are much harder. He had some good holes, too.
