Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[B]3rd Down Offense[/B] It was at an all-time low tonight. Converting 3rd downs is like getting offensive boards in basketball. It's underrated but leads to second chances, which is arguably the ultimate key to winning.

[B]Jim Zorn[/B] Look, you're doing great and your a rebel,contrarian, etc. with your run off 4 WR sets, pass in heavy jumbo. But sometimes you just gotta line up and physically beat the opponent. Know when to be creative and know when to just force it down their throat.

[B]Carlos Rogers[/B] You have to catch those INTs that fall in your lap. Shawn Springs doesn't drop those, Champ Bailey doesn't drop those, Ronde Barber doesn't drop those. You want to be recognized among the best, you don't drop those either.

[B]Jon Jansen[/B] Thank you...and good-bye. Your done, finished, finito. You've given us nearly a decade of great service on and off the field and have been a valuable member of this organization. But you have no more value at all to this team on the field. Do us a favor, fake an injury, and call it a season, and then a career. You're threatening to a lot more careers on our team if you don't get off the field sooner than later.

[B]Gameday Threads[/B] Look, I'm not caling anyone fairweather and this isn't going to be another kool-aid drinkers vs "realists" thread. But the gameday threads are being overrun by depression. It's like the far right taking over the Republican party. Where's the team spirit? Where's the rallying support when we're "only" up by two field goals? I don't know, maybe because it's just my style to let things play out a little deeper into the game that I don't understand the "passion" of others.

[B]Quitters[/B] 6-3 at the bye, with two road wins against division opponents, plus 3 conference wins. That's not bad. And a loss today to a legit Super Bowl contender should be no indication that we're headed for a downward spiral

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Shiiiiit, you're going to get carpel tunnel syndrome before you complete the list of everything that went wrong tonight.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

In all seriousness, Rogers dropping that INT (and probable pick six) was the turning point in the game.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=BleedBurgundy;497475]In all seriousness, Rogers dropping that INT (and probable pick six) was the turning point in the game.[/quote]

Similar to when both Fletcher and Landry dropped INTs against the Rams.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

To add to the rogers criticism:
As soon as he dropped that ball, He lost it. It clearly got into his head. He has been our best corner but today, he was the week link of the defense.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Nail on the head SS...all great points.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=SmootSmack;497469]

[B]Quitters[/B] 6-3 at the bye, with two road wins against division opponents, plus 3 conference wins. That's not bad. And a loss today to a legit Super Bowl contender should be no indication that we're headed for a downward spiral[/quote]

I pretty much agree with all your other points but I also want to bring this up. We may have beat some pretty good teams on the road this season (Philly, Dallas) but this game was so reminiscent of the Patriots beatdown last year (minus the high scoring) that it brought back all too familiar bad memories. And the reason I have been hesitant to get too optimistic is because 6-2 in the first half of the season guarantees nothing. I remember a Lions team starting 6-2 last year, with a pretty decent offense and a 'bout average defense, but finishing 7-9. The second half of the season is when things get more important and tonights game was a bad start.

I'm not one of those, "oh no we're down 16-6, season over" type people but I am one of those people that starts to get concerned when we get our asses beat thorougly on national t.v. by a Super Bowl contender. Now by no means do I think the season is over, and in the long run it's better to lose to an AFC team because in terms of tiebreakers and things like that it's not that bad, but we're in a really tight division race right now and we failed to get it done, let alone put out a decent offensive performance.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

very poor qb play has cost us loses back to back---campbell is going backwards

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[B]The fans[/B]. I can look past the poor performance of the O-line. I can forgive Los' dropped INT. I can let go of the fact that we racked up a whopping 100 yards of offense through 3 quarters. What I can't let go of is how about 25,000 Redskins "fans" gave up their seats to a MNF game when "their" team was 6-2. Unless your kids are in the hospital, you are seriously ill, or you crashed your car on the way to the game, make it to the show or give your tickets to a Redskins fan. You are a pathetic excuse for a fan.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

They simply dominated us.. However not everyone played bad, Horton continues to play like a beast.. Evans, he had a great game tonight; 2.5 sacks and 7 tackles.. Beside we would have a chance to win the game if Big Ben didn't get hurt, that is only if and when offense put up some points..


**this is just something I have been wondering lately, why we haven't heard much about Landry lately?

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

If only Carlos Rogers had the hands of Cornelius Griffin.............

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=skins6;497484]very poor qb play has cost us loses back to back---campbell is going backwards[/quote]

Huh? Cost us "loses" back to back? We won last week.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=mooby;497482]I pretty much agree with all your other points but I also want to bring this up. We may have beat some pretty good teams on the road this season (Philly, Dallas) but this game was so reminiscent of the Patriots beatdown last year (minus the high scoring) that it brought back all too familiar bad memories. And the reason I have been hesitant to get too optimistic is because 6-2 in the first half of the season guarantees nothing. I remember a Lions team starting 6-2 last year, with a pretty decent offense and a 'bout average defense, but finishing 7-9. The second half of the season is when things get more important and tonights game was a bad start.

I'm not one of those, "oh no we're down 16-6, season over" type people but I am one of those people that starts to get concerned when we get our asses beat thorougly on national t.v. by a Super Bowl contender. Now by no means do I think the season is over, and in the long run it's better to lose to an AFC team because in terms of tiebreakers and things like that it's not that bad, but we're in a really tight division race right now and we failed to get it done, let alone put out a decent offensive performance.[/quote]

I'll confess I've been one of those pissed off fans tonite. However, we keep seeing the same problems in wins and losses. Offensive line struggles, WRs not open down the field/only check down passes, DBs dropping game changing INTs, lack of points when we have high stats and/or getting big breaks (which happened a lot tonite, I dunno how much in previous games).

We keep thinking that things are going to be alright, but unless a number of these things don't change; we may win a few games down the road and possibly even make the playoffs. But we will lose winable games or important games due to the same flaws that we see in wins and losses.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=skins6;497484]very poor qb play has cost us loses back to back---campbell is going backwards[/quote]

please replace "qb" with "offensive line" and you have a correct statement.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

I really like the tags in this thread.

I posted this verbatim in the game thread, and then on my blog, but it's just going to get covered in that thread so I'll repost it here. If you read it already, you've been warned as not to waste time reading this post again.

--------------------------------------

Late byes are a much bigger disadvantage than anyone realizes. You spend all of October and November playing teams that are coming off byes, or have recently had their bye. With that said, this team went 2-2 against teams that already had their bye, and that's pretty good.

We got our asses crushed tonight. Once that homefield advantage wore off in the first quarter, they killed us on both sides of the ball. Blache called an awful game, but with the way the offensive line played, it probably doesn't matter.

We got outplayed and outcoached, but it is what it is. The game doesn't mean anything in terms of tiebreakers, and if we go out and kill Dallas, everyone forgets this one. It's going to be well in the past by the next time we play.

The only thing we have to fix is on the offensive line, and it's the same issues we had in the last four games. Totally unblocked guys coming through on the quarterback are completely unacceptable for an offense as strong as us. Jon Jansen can't play tackle in the NFL anymore. We have to stop pretending like he can. He's a utility lineman at this point. Stephon Heyer should start at RT. Casey Rabach probably shouldn't be playing in the NFL because he can't read blitz packages at all. I feel bad for poor Randy Thomas, stuck between those two against the pass, theres just no winning.

Samuels, I feel, didn't play all that bad. The holding calls were likely a direct result of his lack of mobility, but when you start talking about weak links, Samuels is about 7th on the list for the offense tonight. We have two gaping holes on the offensive line.

And like pretty much every QB, Campbell is inaccurate when he gets rattled.

Also: Steelers are way better with Leftwich at QB than Roethlisberger. That's no mistake. Ben takes sacks, Byron throws the football. That's the difference. If they can protect Ben, he's great, but this Steelers team is better with Leftwich, who was amazing tonight.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Some More Smack:
[B]REDSKINS FANS:[/B]
Everyone that complains about rankings and articles critical of the redskins needs to STFU and let the team earn their rankings by going out and kicking ass.

Also, Shame on the redskins season ticket holders who sell their tickets. It's a shame we can't have a true homefield advantage in a game like this.
I'm not trying to single anyone out, What bothers me is the large percentage of tickets on the market compared to other teams.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=SmootSmack;497469][B]3rd Down Offense[/B] It was at an all-time low tonight. Converting 3rd downs is like getting offensive boards in basketball. It's underrated but leads to second chances, which is arguably the ultimate key to winning.

[B]Jim Zorn[/B] Look, you're doing great and your a rebel,contrarian, etc. with your run off 4 WR sets, pass in heavy jumbo. But sometimes you just gotta line up and physically beat the opponent. Know when to be creative and know when to just force it down their throat.

[B]Carlos Rogers[/B] You have to catch those INTs that fall in your lap. Shawn Springs doesn't drop those, Champ Bailey doesn't drop those, Ronde Barber doesn't drop those. You want to be recognized among the best, you don't drop those either.

[B]Jon Jansen[/B] Thank you...and good-bye. Your done, finished, finito. You've given us nearly a decade of great service on and off the field and have been a valuable member of this organization. But you have no more value at all to this team on the field. Do us a favor, fake an injury, and call it a season, and then a career. You're threatening to a lot more careers on our team if you don't get off the field sooner than later.

[B]Gameday Threads[/B] Look, I'm not caling anyone fairweather and this isn't going to be another kool-aid drinkers vs "realists" thread. But the gameday threads are being overrun by depression. It's like the far right taking over the Republican party. Where's the team spirit? Where's the rallying support when we're "only" up by two field goals? I don't know, maybe because it's just my style to let things play out a little deeper into the game that I don't understand the "passion" of others.

[B]Quitters[/B] 6-3 at the bye, with two road wins against division opponents, plus 3 conference wins. That's not bad. And a loss today to a legit Super Bowl contender should be no indication that we're headed for a downward spiral[/quote]

All good points SS. I see Zorn's playcalling a little differently though: he wasn't near aggressive enough. Sure, call the game like we need to hit them in the mouth, but to not take deep shots until the game is basically over. I know I'm gonna get crapped on but... this felt like Gibbs football all over again.

On to Rogers - he ain't Springs and not even in the same solar system as Bailey. Rogers cannot be our #1 corner beyond this year or we'll never be a contender.

Totally agree on Jansen but the FO bet the farm w/ him this year so we're stuck w/ a gaping hole at RT. We didn't draft shit for the OL and this is the result. (Heyer must not be healthy yet which tells me he's less and less looking like a long term Skin and Rhinehardt has yet to wear a jersey).

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

we will prove ourselves over theses next 4 or so games.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

i blame this on not playing to the level of the d-packages and blitzs they ran more than half the time. play calling a bit suspect ... but i firmly bleeve in this team bouncing back against the girls next- next week

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Giving up that blocked punt really hurt us too. It gave the Steelers a TD right before the half and gave them the lead.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

This team lives and dies by the play of the OL. Just look at when the line let us down we lost and when it was great we won. Right now, Samuels is hurting with that knee, I'm sure Jansen is sucking wind after having missed 2 consecutive years and getting old. Hopefully the bye week will revitalize this team. The good thing after the bye is that we get Springs and hopefully Taylor and Betts. I think that Zorn will have to get Thomas and Kelly (or whoever replaces him if he goes in IR) more involved. Our lack of WR depth is showing, especially, tonite.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Well now that my anger is somewhat gone, I'll say this...

I would like to believe that our team can pull itself up and fair better after the bye but many things need to happen.

Offense: We need points, we need to take advantage of the short field, and we need to protect our QB. Our offense needs to come through against weaker teams, and play smart against strong teams. We have a good running play and that should allow a number of deep balls. Our receivers need to get open and when JC has time, he should be able to go deep to Moss.

Defense: Our defense is good, but not great. They can keep the team in the game, but the offense has to come through when the defense gets a turn over or causes the opposing teams to go 3 and outs. We are getting to the QB, but now we need to step it up to the next level. Our DBs cannot let INTs to slip through their hands, and we need to cause fumbles (esp. when we sack the QB).

Health: Our team has been a constant injury list, and the bye week should help with that. We need our top players to play and stay healthy. I know that's hard to control, but we need to catch a few breaks with our stars. Hopefully this has been the reason for the deficiencies in offense and defense.

Goals: I'd be happy with getting a wild card, but the team needs to focus on higher seeding in the playoffs and possibly taking the division. We have a favorable schedule ahead, with a number of home games, our team needs to learn to show up for all games. Getting another 6th seed in the playoffs will be almost like a failure (of course, unless our team can show up during the playoffs and pull a NY Giants).

These are the same issues fans and the sports media has brought up over and over again, in both wins and losses this seasons. And this is the frustation that fans get when we lose games like this one. We're in a hyper competitive division, and barely winning will eventualy turn to barely losing, and eventually it will cause us barely losing a big game (i.e. playoffs).

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Tonight's loss does not bother me so much. The Steelers are an elite team--the Skins are not.

What is troubling is that the past 4 weeks the Skins have looked more mediocre than good. Two wins where the Skins eeked out against suspect teams and two losses at home (one an upset).

Rest and regroup the next two weeks Skins. After the bye their task is to go 2-1 at home against NFC East foes and .500 on the road...

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

The only thing I enjoy about losses like this is being able to lurk over at ES and watch all the FREAK OUT threads, but in all seriousness I would like to see the team attempt to throw it downfield more often especially with Cooley. At least send him on a post or a corner, you know something that would work on Madden (jk about Madden). I sware all I saw tonight where curls and it annoyed the hell out of me.

Times like this make me wish the team drafted Jordy with that pick instead of Thomas. I know Thomas needs more time and I hope he makes me eat this post sometime in the future (Crabtree or Heyward-Bey in 08 baby :D), then again whats to expect when you have a coach that seems to take pages away from the playbook each week? We know Zorn is better then this remember the third down (I think it was against the Saints) in the fourth quarter when we were ahead and Zorn called a play action bootleg that led to a huge first down from Cooley. Where is that Jim Zorn?

Instead now it's short pass, run, to short of a pass or to much pressure on third and long. Of course thats assuming we don't get a penalty. This team frustrates me so much because I know they're better then this. Still the season is not over and we have twice as many wins as we do losses including two huge wins against divisional foes and we're poised to make a playoff run with a healthy Jason Taylor not to mention the fact that Evans is turning into a beast. Anyway Hail to the Redskins.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Campbell had guys way too much in his face. Samuels did not play well and committed several holds, etc.. Jansen showed why Heyer took his spot at the beginning of the year..

We did great breaking up passes to start off the game but couldn't get the ball going (literally) after that. The first attempt to Moss in the end zone looked like a great play, just didn't work out, and we basically deserted our attempts at going long again, maybe Campbell wouldn't have even gotten it to the guy the way some of his throws were coming off though.

Can anybody tell me why we left the press coverage and started going huge buffer zone? When the Steelers were on the 8, we had Rogers standing ON the goal line, he had been doing pretty well, other than the easy INT drop but hell, he stopped that play. It seemed like when we left the man coverage, we started letting everything through, very reminiscient of the 2006 season and some of last year where we let anything 5-15 yards through "bend but don't break" style. Was there something that I missed?

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=The Goat;497501]All good points SS. I see Zorn's playcalling a little differently though: he wasn't near aggressive enough. Sure, call the game like we need to hit them in the mouth, but to not take deep shots until the game is basically over. I know I'm gonna get crapped on but... this felt like Gibbs football all over again.

On to Rogers - he ain't Springs and not even in the same solar system as Bailey. Rogers cannot be our #1 corner beyond this year or we'll never be a contender.

Totally agree on Jansen but the FO bet the farm w/ him this year so we're stuck w/ a gaping hole at RT. We didn't draft shit for the OL and this is the result. (Heyer must not be healthy yet which tells me he's less and less looking like a long term Skin and Rhinehardt has yet to wear a jersey).[/quote]

Other than the butterfingers I'm not sure why people knock Rogers, he's having a hell of a year and when playing man to man, which a large physical corner should, he's been absolutely shutdown. Please explain yourself.

[quote=steveo395]Giving up that blocked punt really hurt us too. It gave the Steelers a TD right before the half and gave them the lead.[/quote]

Man, to that point every single punt in the game was a step or less away from being blocked, on both sides. That was ridiculous. I called that there would be a blocked punt before the half and then it happened :(

[quote=Dirtbag359]Instead now it's short pass, run, to short of a pass or to much pressure on third and long. Of course thats assuming we don't get a penalty. This team frustrates me so much because I know they're better then this. [/quote]

Yeah, Campbell may be taking the "open man" scenario a bit too textbook, sometimes you have to chance it and open a drive. I think that they said that with our 3rd downs, the average yards we needed to gain was 8.8, that's absolutely pathetic. I was glad to see some more passing on first down, but it seemed that we just ran the same plays all night, something I'll have to review later. And you're right, Evans did have a great game.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

I don't know the stats, but I felt like we took shots all through the game, starting with the 2nd series after the INT. We just could not convert any, and then their D just started pounding us.
The loss took the luster off, but its the 3rd quarter of the season, lots of games left.

HAIL REDSKINS!!!

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

As much as this game sucks I think I'm really just chalking it up to Pittsburgh being really good. Their defense is nasty, physical and tough. Their offense isn't spectacular, but they get the job done and clearly have depth at QB.

Sure, we screwed up and had our missed opportunities. On offense I think a lot of that is because of who we were playing. JC was under immense pressure all night from a blitz crazy defense that has gotten to a lot of other QBs.

I think most of the problems last night center around the offense not being able to get it together, but is that surprising?


[B]Consider:[/B][LIST][*]Pittsburgh allows an average of about 230 yds per game - we got something like 221.[*]They allow an average of of 164 passing yards, we got a little over 200.[*]They allow an average of 64 rushing yards per game, we got almost exactly that.[*]They lead the league in sacks, we got sacked all night long.[*]They average about 1 INT per game, they picked us off twice.[/LIST]
If you look at the Pittsburgh defense throughout the first half of the season, they did to us almost exactly what they've done on average to everyone else. Is that shocking? Did we really expect to have the #1 ranked defense come in here and we'd put up 35 on them and air it out all night? Did anyone think CP was going to rack up another 150 on these guys?

On the other side of the ball our defense really did quite well:

[B]Consider:[/B][LIST][*]We held them to 179 yards passing and 1 INT.[*]Held Parker to 70 yards on 21 carries (3.3 YPC)[*]Racked up 5 sacks (really spectacular for us given our complete lack of sacks).[/LIST]
If you handed anyone the defensive stats I just listed the universal response would be "sounds like the defense played a really good game."

The difference in this game I don't think was that we just killed ourselves or we're horrible or the season is over or the Redskins suck - we just got outplayed by a really good team. They put up the points when it really mattered like a good team should - we're just not THAT good team right now.

Moral of the story: this wasn't like losing to the Rams.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=Sheriff Gonna Getcha;497486][B]The fans[/B]. I can look past the poor performance of the O-line. I can forgive Los' dropped INT. I can let go of the fact that we racked up a whopping 100 yards of offense through 3 quarters. What I can't let go of is how about 25,000 Redskins "fans" gave up their seats to a MNF game when "their" team was 6-2. Unless your kids are in the hospital, you are seriously ill, or you crashed your car on the way to the game, make it to the show or give your tickets to a Redskins fan. You are a pathetic excuse for a fan.[/quote]
IMO, this is the only truly disgusting part of the game. The "fans" on many levels were pathetic.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Right on Mheisig. Would anyone be surprised to see the Steelers in the Super Bowl?

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Everything went wrong last night, no sense in singling out players to me.

An all around embarrassing night for the team and for the board. Some of the behavior on here was just pathetic.

Back to the game, that's one of those games you quickly sweep under the rug and move on from.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

While we're at it imagine if Shawn Springs did'nt have a vagina, No one scores on us then.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Once again like after the rams game our D have now move up to #4 overall and we lost. The offense has got to help damnit.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

How about having to sell out on 6+ blitzes in order to generate pressure? The defense played well (and got no help from the offense), but the inability to pressure QBs with the front four left them vunerable on the back end on key plays. It would be nice if Jason Taylor could play like he was in the first part of the Carolina preseason game prior to injury and you could actually get Taylor, Carter, and Evans all on the field at the same time. Let's hope Taylor can somehow get right over the bye.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

i agree with all of these problems, but i think the biggest one was that we gave up on the run very quickly, even in the first half when we were leading or at least in the game. if you keep pounding the ball eventually something good will happen. nothing good happened in the passing game. at least now we have a bye to rest and recuperate for dallas

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

GAMEDAY THREAD: I'm the one who called the fans on the thread last night fairweather. Sorry that I offended people. Maybe that was a poor choice of words but its discouraging to hear REDSKIN fans scream that we suck. When at the games sometimes when things are not in our favor, I hear the fans yelling such awful things about us! Maybe fairweather is not the word to use but I can say that they are not very supportive when things are down. 6-3 is not a bad start and I do not understand why so many of our fans are writing us off.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Jim Zorn: No game plan for LB blitzes? No misdirection? No originality.

JC: 2 primetime games and 2 bad performances

Carlos Rogers: Is there anything else to say, catch the ball.

Chris Horton: He can play, we've got something there.

Offensive Unit: I won't say the Q word, but it seemed close to not caring too much.

Fed Ex: The most embarrassed I've been as a Skins Fan in a while. At home for MNF, 2 good teams and Steelers fans make up 25-30k in the house.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

Gotta agree with all of that. I thought the D played really well, though. 'Los dropped an int but had a good game considering how much he was thrown at.

Our D couldn't get off the field to save their lives and gave the offense several opportunities to make something happen. Pass protection was our biggest shortcoming. Big adjustments need to be made there.

If it weren't for a blocked punt and a BS PI call the game really wouldve taken on a more favorable landscape. We had to abandon the run and they teed off on Campbell all night. I'm just glad he's not hurt.

Also casey rabach should be sodomized with a pinecone for every committed penalty. He's killing us as bad as Jansens piss poor pass protection.

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

[quote=jamf;497479]To add to the rogers criticism:
As soon as he dropped that ball, He lost it. It clearly got into his head. He has been our best corner but today, he was the week link of the defense.[/quote]

The dropped pick was a momentum killer. It could have been a legitimate knockout punch if he returns it and Washington is up 13-3 at the half. However, I disagree that Rogers was the weak link. The interference call was due to a poorly thrown pass, and I have to believe the ridiculous cushions were due to Blache's poor play calls.

Oh, and it wasn't Rogers that got torched for 50 yards by the third wide receiver...

Re: Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs Steelers)
 

You do want to have this game right before the bye week, because it gives your staff plenty of times to get things corrected.

The Steelers' front seven is unbelievable. I've never seen a group that is so good at getting pressure on the QB AND can stay in it's run gaps.