Vision Quest: It’s A Good Start

As many of you know I do not have the good fortune of living in the DC area. I can only justify one trip to see my beloved Redskins live every season. And I am all too aware of how lucky I am to be able to do so. I know many out of town fans can go a whole lifetime without seeing their teams play live. So I have cherished each of the last 5 years trips, even when we lost.
This year was pretty special for me though as I was going on opening day. I had never been to an opening day game and the excitement in the air was amazing. Each of the last 5 years I have gone to a game where the Redskins were already having a mediocre or losing season. Even in 2005 when we made the playoffs I had the unfortunate experience of going to the Oakland game which brought our record to a paltry 5-5.

But this year the sense of hope in the air of the season opener was electric. Only in the NFL does every team have a reasonable hope of success in the upcoming year. The parity in the league is why it is so popular. On opening day you can actually have dreams of the Super Bowl if everything goes your way. Add to that the hR tailgate, the opening of the 75th Anniversary season, beautiful weather, and a thrilling overtime win and you have the recipe for a great day.
As the wave of euphoria over the win started to pass I could finally start to figure out what this game means in the big picture. And what I finally came to was simply this:

It was a good start.

I am not sure how much we can get out of the game yesterday that will let us spy into the future with this team. For every positive there was a hint of worry. For every negative there were silver linings.

In short we just don’t know what kind of team we have yet.

I do think we are on a whole a better team then at this point last year. The offense seems to have picked up where it left off at the end of last year. At least the rushing offense did. And with Clinton Portis back on the field it is even clearer then before we are going to be a very good running team.

However JC took a step back this game. He was not very accurate and also had two interceptions. He also failed to produce a passing TD in the first time in his career. His receivers did not help him with dropped passes either.

On defense we seem to actually stop the run for the first time in recent memory. Also for the first time someone other then a defensive back led the team in tackles. Rocky McIntosh and London Fletcher are huge upgrades on defense and they will make or break the run defense all season long.

However the pass defense was pitiful. If it wasn’t for a case of the dropsy’s by the Miami Dolphins it would have been even worse. Fred Smoot was abused more then Michael Vick’s dogs. Despite one Andre Carter sack the front four still could not create reasonable pressure on its own and the cover 2 broke down repeatedly.

The Coaches seem to understand their players better then they did last year. The decisions to lift Montgomery and Randle_El to the starting lineups at DT and WR respectively were very wise decisions. Randle El exploded for his best game as A Redskin and Montgomery clogged the middle on the run defense. And the two back rotation of Portis and Betts worked to perfection most of the day.

Yet for most of the third quarter Saunders abandoned the run in favor of the passing game. After promising a more aggressive defense with a variety of blitz packages, and showing that in the pre-season, Williams went conservative laying back in a cover 2 and hoping not to get beat.
And in what can only be described as a Lindseyesque move someone made the decision to relegate Sean Springs to the third cornerback position. Springs quite simply is the best defensive back on the Redskins and should be starting. No one is buying Williams explanation that he was in a rotation scheme since Fred “Toast” Smoot was playing 2 times the number of snaps Springs did.

One thing I will not fault Coach Gibbs for though is the decision to kick the FG on first down in overtime. At the time of the kick I thought it was odd, and I would have much preferred at least 2 runs up the middle. But the probability of a holding penalty or false start was just too high. Samuels was playing his first action in months, Kendall his first start as a Redskin, Heyer was playing out of position. Anything could have happened and Suisham definitely did not need the 5 yards. With Campbell having accuracy problems it was too risky to take a shot into the end zone or pass down the field.

Kicking the ball was the right choice and at the end of the day a successful choice. You can’t fault the coaching staff for that.

So at the end of one game in the regular season the Redskins showed moderate offensive ability against an aging but thought to be superior defense and showed moderate defensive ability against what is thought to be a horrible offense. Definitely an improvement over 2006, but is it enough for a playoff run in 2007? Only time will tell if this good start is good enough.
But we can always hope.

5 Things we know now

Well it is time now for the return of the “What We know or don’t know Now” feature. For those of you who don’t remember after each Redskin win I list 5 things we know now and after a loss 5 things we don’t know anymore. I much prefer writing the former and it did not happen enough last season. So here we go:

Antwaan Randle_El was not a mistake to sign. Many who questioned the Lloyd signing of two years ago did so because we already had Randle_el on the sideline. I thought at the time Randle_El was the perfect slot receiver and may not work as a #2. I was wrong and I learned that for certain on Sunday> Randle_el has great chemistry withCampbell and more performances like Sunday will open up Santana Moss downfield.

Sean Suisham has ice water in his veins. For those of us who wondered why the Redskins never brought in competition for Suisham in the off season, we just found out why. 3-3 on FGs is one thing. But he hit each one under pressure. The first one was to give us the first score of the game. The second to go ahead in the fourth quarter and then of course the last the game winner after two timeouts with the game on the line. Ladies and Gents we have a kicker in DC.

The Dynamic Duo of running backs is a force to reckon with. Many pundits and analysts surmised that there weren’t enough carries for both Portis and Betts. They said that it would never work. They said Portis took too much time off. They said Betts won’t be happy as a backup. They were wrong. These guys are everything they were billed to be so far.

Rocky McIntosh should have been playing all along. 9 tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble. McIntosh did more in one game then Warrick Holdman could ever dream of doing. The fact that he was benched for so long last year should be a crime worthy of sterilization. He is quite simply a stud and for the first time in the Gibbs II era there are no question marks in the LBer unit.

The Real Derrick Frost has arrived. No one was more critical of Frost then this writer. But his punts all pre-season and yesterday have made me a believer. When punting with his back against the end zone in a crucial moment in the third quarter the old Derrick Frost would have shanked it out of bounds. This new improved Frost gave us a 63 yard punt and when you tack on the penalty it was a field changing event. If he remains consistent this kid has a real good leg and can be a big time player in this league.

Looking ahead

The Redskins take on the Eagles on Monday night. The Eagles will be chomping at the bit to avenge their opening day loss to Green Bay. However their secondary will be hurt with the recent news of Lito Shepard’s absence. Campbell will need to improve on his accuracy and the receivers need to hold onto the ball to take advantage of this.

Defensively this will be the first real test of the defense. McNabb may not be the pro-bowl McNabb of the past but he is still mobile with an accurate arm. Westbrook is the most underrated running back in the NFL this year as he continues to produce. Gregg Williams needs to bring his full playbook to Philadelphia next week and resist playing the Un-cover 2 that he played last week.

As Always Hail To The Redskins!!!!