Breakdown: Redskins-Eagles

[GTripp0012]

I didn't want to go back and review this game, but I eventually did, and I did notice some trends. I broke down every play into successful and unsuccessful, under the same definitions of last week:

• First down plays must gain 45% of the yards to go.
• Second down plays must gain 60% of the yards to go.
• Third down and Fourth down plays must net a first down or touchdown.
• The mark to achieve seems to be around 50% varied for the quality of the offense.

The overall offensive news is all good this week. 72 offensive plays run, 39 plays were successful. That's an impressive 54%. Prior to the Westbrook screen pass TD to put the Skins in a hole, the offense was 38/62 in converting successful plays, a whopping 61% percent success rate.

The two times we were stopped in the red zone, the blocking was to blame. On Sellers' "dive" play, it's clear from reviewing the tape that we just got owned on that play up front. The Eagles, predicting what play we would call, created a pile and the only place Sellers could go was over. Lorenzo Alexander just whiffed on his block from the TE position (this was a reoccurring event).

On the controversial goal line stand by the Eagles, Samuels failed to keep his man out of the play on both the 1st and 2nd down plays. On the first down, it was excusable. He drove his man back to the goal line, but couldn't hold it and his man it Portis short of the endzone nearly causing a fumble. The very next play, Samuels lazily tries to cut Darren Howard, who is unphased and runs down the line to make the hot on Portis. The 3rd down draw call might have worked, but Todd Wade got lost at the 2nd level (another reoccurring theme), and just decided to help Kendall on his man, leaving two unblocked people for Portis to shake at the 4.

The Redskins really broke down once the lead went away. It wasn't any one players' fault, but Todd Wade was the only player to screw up on the drive more than once. Outside of Wade's terrible play, Campbell just didn't overcome the adversity at the end. I still believe that he had his best day as a pro.

Run Game

32 running plays called. Out of those 32, 16 were charted as successful, exactly 50%. A good day running the football, especially considering how many more people the Eagles had in the box each play than the Jets did. Dawkins and Mikell were never more than 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage until Campbell went no huddle and started getting hot. The coverage schemes were similar to the Jets last week, but they always defended us with one more player in the box than NY did last week. We saw some 9 man fronts against our Heavy package.

The cutback lanes were there all day for Portis who ran really hard. Betts' one carry involved a beautiful cut, and of course a fumble on the back end. I would have liked to see Betts carry more times in this game.

Passing game

40 passing plays called, including QB scrambles. 23 of them were successful, 57.5% success rate. No interceptions, two forced fumbles on the QB. The intermediate passing game was working all day, the protection was generally very good, and Campbell laid some absolutely perfect balls into tight spaces. All but three times, the receivers caught what Campbell was cooking. The no huddle stuff was virtually unstoppable. If we are going to consistently use the 4 WR gun, we really have to go no huddle. If the opposition gets the chance to dial up blitzes, we won't have the personnel to pick it up.

We don't have very good pass blocking backs. Neither Sellers nor Portis really does anything more than deter the free blitzer. The fundamentals there aren't pretty.

Those who are thinking that Randy Thomas will come in and fix all the offensive line problems, here's how I would rank our offensive lineman's abilities based on the two games I reviewed every play in.

1. Samuels
2. Fabini
3. Kendall
4. Wade
5. Rabach

Rabach ends up getting driven back into the backfield, missing blocks, questionable holding, and not always accounting for all the rushers coming. He's the big problem up front. Kendall is inconsistent, and Wade is untalented. That's what led me to conclude that Fabini is the second best lineman we have right now. He misses plays every once in awhile, but in general his body of work is pretty impressive.

If Thomas replaces Fabini on the line, it won't fix the problems with Wade and Rabach. On the whole though, this unit is much improved. Everyone is playing better than they were back just 2-3 weeks ago. The run blocking has been pretty damn good, I think. It's just that in crucial man on man situations, someone always finds a way to make it more difficult. Lorenzo Alexander is a big body, but he's not a good blocker.

The other really interesting observation I made had to do with Sellers' role in the offense. We our miles and miles beyond our own offensive efficiency when we play from the single back. That doesn't mean Sellers is useless. When he lines up at TE, or as the back in the single back, we have enjoyed a lot of success. When we run from the I, or the offset I, there are usually too many men in the box, and Portis has no place to run, even when Sellers gets his block, which is never a sure thing. Our best play with Sellers in is a PA pass. Running from the I just tends to be something Portis struggles at.

Overall, things are looking straight up offensively. We will not play a defense better than Dallas the rest of the season, so this week will be a great measuring stick as to where we are.

A few defensive observations:

• The QB running is killing us. McNabb beat us with his legs almost every time we rushed too far upfield. Normally, Carter was to blame for this, but on the biggest run of the day, it was actually Demetric Evans who took himself out of the play. Kedric Golston also vacated his lane on the play, but he did so because he thought he read screen, and probably saved a big checkdown play to Westbrook by doing so. The point is, we should never, EVER rush 6 guys (Prioleau and Godfrey came also as the blitz-contain guys) and allow a QB scramble.
• Two illegal contact penalties made the defensive effort look a lot worse than it was. These things had nothing to do with the plays, and will not be repeated going down the stretch.
• Brian Westbrook may very well be god. We could have done a better job picking him up at times, but he's just a very good player on a very good offensive team, and he beat us on Sunday.
• L.J. Smith had a big day. We have had trouble defending TE's this season.
• The defensive issues are few and far between, but just schematic and strategic holes that the better offensive teams are exploiting, while the worse offensive teams are missing.