[skinsguy]

My thoughts on this game, after having a night to sleep on it, are as follows:

I think it's so ironic that a game in which the Shanahans were trying to protect RGIII the most is when he gets knocked out of the game with a concussion. However, that was all on RGIII. If he had just thrown the ball away, lived to played another series, the 'skins probably would have had a great chance to have beaten the Falcons. I mean, who knows? I have so much confidence in RGIII, that I never think the 'skins are out of a ballgame until the time reads 00:00.

I appreciate the fact the Mike & Kyle were calling an offense to protect their QB more. I just hate the fact that Griffin's receivers weren't helping him a lot with dropped passes and so forth, but there's only so much one man can do! But, besides that, it seems to me that the more you call a "safe" game in terms of protecting RGIII, the less potent the offense seems, and it also seems to take away a dimension of RGIII's game. But nevertheless, you do have to protect your investment.

In the near future, RGIII will learn how to protect himself better, while being a danger with his legs. Hopefully that will come sooner than the next hit that could be a season ender. Anyways, there HAS to be a happy medium, because we're going to need the offense to utilize every skill RGIII has if this season's version of the Redskins are going to end at or above .500.

The defense played very well, Haslett had them ready. They did pretty much everything they needed to do to help this team beat the Falcons. Unfortunately, the offense took a bad time to have a scoring drought, but you do kind of expect a harder time scoring against a well polished team like the Atlanta Falcons. Still, if the offense was scoring like they did in previous games, the Redskins could have very easily beat the Falcons, because the 'skins defense was playing pretty solid.

HOWEVER, the defense couldn't pressure Matt Ryan enough, and eventually the defense couldn't hold up for all four quarters. Couple that with RGIII getting knocked out of the game, and I figured the team was done for at that point.

So, moving forward, I think Mike & Kyle will continue to keep RGIII safe, but that might be at an expense of a few games. After five games, I'm thinking this roster is young and definitely talented in a few areas, but still just not quite good enough. We have great players in RGIII and Alfred Morris on offense, and guys like London Fletcher, Ryan Kerrigan, and Perry Riley on defense. But, I don't think it's going to be quite enough. Still, plenty of games ahead of us, but I now see how huge it was to lose Brian Orakpo, and even Adam Carriker. If the defensive line isn't getting to the QB early and often, then the 'skins only option is to win in shoot out games - and you can't do that if RGIII is on the sidelines.

I just hope for the Shanahan's sake that they can get this thing figured out in two more seasons, because everybody's (including my) evaluation starts this season, and this team HAS to start figuring it out on the field.