Rams Skins GT review -- Offense

[GTripp0012]

Once again, the Redskins were unable to sustain drives on third down. It’s really ashame too, because Campbell and co. played their best game of the season on first and second downs, and usually stayed out of third down altogether. Turnovers, sacks, and penalties were the other stories of the game.

When we break the game down into individual performances, it’s easy to lose track of the fact that the Redskins did not win this game. There is no logical reason for the loss. The Redskins didn’t overlook the Rams, and in many cases, they made them look as feeble as they were supposed to.
The Redskins were a pathetic 2 for 10 when they tried to throw for first downs on third. They committed as many penalties as the Rams did, and failed to protect Jason Campbell. The Redskins were unable/unwilling to throw the football in the second half: out of the ten passing playcalls in the second half, six were unsuccessful and Campbell was sacked three times. Of course, Campbell did make the biggest play of the day, converting a 3rd and 14 into a 29 yard pass down to the 2 yard line. The Redskins OL was dominated by the Rams DL in the passing game. The Running game was an entirely different animal. Clinton Portis continued his magical season, as he continues to average more than 5.2 yards per carry. Portis only touched the ball 22 times, but got over 130 yards on those plays, averaging nearly 8 yards a carry. The Redskins’ offensive dominance in this game on first and second downs should not be understated, nor should the effect of the three turnovers, all of which killed drives in Rams’ territory. Ultimately, the game when as expected, except an inspired defensive pass rush forced turnovers and kept the game closer than it would have been otherwise, giving the Rams a chance at the end. Sometimes, in football, you just get beat.

Jim Zorn 63 plays called

34 passes (54%)
31 runs (46%)
2 screens (3%)

Personnel Selection:

Shotgun = 5 (8%)
Sellers = 18 (29%)
2 TE = 7 (11%)
3+ WR = 36 (57%)
4+ WR = 6 (10%)

Zorn is more confident in his 3 WR sets than anything, but the lack of a third target is hurting the Redskins. Moss, Randle El, Cooley, and Portis have all been great in the receiving game this year, but no one else really has. This week James Thrash carried the mantle, but he performed only about as expected.

Pass Offense

Campbell got out of sorts at the end of the game, he took some sacks he maybe shouldn’t have taken and stopped relying on his excellent pocket presence as much as he simply just got the ball in the hands of his backs and receivers and just hoped for the best.

Offensive Line

The biggest issues in pass protection were that Jon Jansen could not handle Leonard Little, and against the blitz, the Redskins were unable to slide protection to the right side. Often, Casey Rabach wasn’t blocking anybody when the blitzer came on either side of Jansen free to Campbell. At one point, my remote did hit the TV. None of this is to take away anything the Rams accomplished in this one, because they really came hard on the pass rush all day look. They did not look like an 0-4 team, at least on defense.

Receivers

(Targets, Receptions, YPA, SR)
Santana Moss 4, 2, 5.5, 50%
Antwaan Randle El 7, 5, 11.7, 57%
Chris Cooley 5, 4, 10.6, 80%
James Thrash 3, 2, 6.3, 33%
Ladell Betts 2, 2, 9.0, 0%
Clinton Portis 1, 1, 14.0, 100%

Moss should have gotten the ball more often, but here’s the interesting thing: before I said that the Redskins only attempted 10 passes in the second half. The crazy thing is that neither Moss nor Cooley was targeted once in the second half, outside of a single screen pass to Cooley. The 10 passes broke down like this: 4 Randle El targets, 3 sacks, 1 successful screen, 1 thrown away screen, and 1 James Thrash target. When the Redskins went to half, I was not worried about the outcome of the game at all, but after the Redskins squandered all their third quarter drives, I realized that the game was officially closer than we thought it would be.

Passing SR = 45%


Rush offense

Clinton Portis continues his best professional football season.

Portis: 22 carries, 130 yards, 5.9 yards per carry, 13 successful plays (59%)

Betts: 6 carries, 30 yards, 5.0 per carry, 3 successful plays (50%)

Betts had to leave with a knee injury on the final drive and will miss 2-4 weeks.

Cartwright: 1 carry, 1 yard, 0 successful plays

Rushing SR: 55%

Overall Offense

Vital Statistics
Adj Total Yards = 369
Yards Per Play = 5.86
Sucess Rate = 49%
Turnovers = 3 (all fumbles)

The consistency factor was there throughout the game, they just simply put the ball on the ground far too often. There’s no reason that the offense won’t rebound next week against Cleveland.

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It's going to be a bit longer for the defensive review. Sorry about that.

[GTripp0012]

The bold face type... I don't know whats' going on there. I can't fix it.

[SmootSmack]

What parts do you want bold and which do you want unbolded?

[MTK]

I fixed the bold.

Skins just beat themselves. Good breakdown.

[GTripp0012]

That's great Matty, thanks guys.

[GMScud]

Great breakdown as usual GT. Pass protection is really bothering me right now.

[53Fan]

Great job Tripp. I was so happy we were getting our o-line back this year after all the injuries. So far, I'm a little disappointed. Maybe getting Heyer back will help. I like his attitude and he's an upgrade in pass protection. Hopefully the line will pick up their play as the season goes on, like last year. I think we need to seriously start addressing our lines in the draft. I still go by that old adage, " Games are won and lost in the trenches."

[redskinjim]

we have to rebound this week get some turnovers and win the game.We have to win these home games.losing to the rams at home was tough this week its going to get ruff i am scared of those dogs

[redskinjim]

cleveland looked good beating the giants turnovers will do that for ya

[GTripp0012]

Chris Long looked like a future superstar in this game for those of you following his career.

[GTripp0012]

Offensive valuation rankings:

1) Portis
2) Samuels
3) Cooley
4) Randle El
5) Kendall
6) Betts
7) Campbell
8) Moss
9) R. Thomas
10) Sellers
11) Jansen
12) Rabach
13) Thrash
14) Fred Davis
15) Todd Yoder
16) Devin Thomas
17) Jason Fabini
18) Rock Cartwright