Om Field: A Defensive Parting Gift

A Defensive Parting Gift
Dec. 23, 2008

Tempting as it is to weigh in on the big picture—the front office, the quarterback position, Jim Zorn’s pass offense, part two of Breaking Down the Lines, etc.—the cold reality is there is only one game left in the Washington Redskins 2008 season.

Don’t know about you, but I’m feeling that.

So, for at least one more week I’m sticking with the immediate. Which works out well, because there is one particular stone I don’t want to leave unturned.

I have been trying to recall the last time a Redskins defense has worked harder, surprised me more or, when all is said done, made me prouder than Greg Blache’s undermanned unit has this season. And Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, they drove the point home in a way I believe will burn the the '08 defense in memory.

Yes the Eagles dropped some passes. So did the Redskins—it happens. Yes, Donovan McNabb may have beheaded a handful of worms. Given the way Redskins defenders swarmed to the ball and pounded green people all day, however, perhaps that wasn’t all just happenstance.

Lest we forget, the Eagles came in hot. All week long, this was a team the talking heads were solemnly pronouncing “the one team no one wants to face in the playoffs.”

Philadelphia had won three straight. They had just hung 30 on the Cleveland Browns, and dominated the defending champion Giants in New York the week before. In that game, against one of the best defenses in football, long-time Redskins-killer Brian Westbrook had rushed for 131 yards and caught a 40-yard TD pass from a resurgent Donovan McNabb.

It is easy to discount all that in retrospect, but heading into the game, I suspect most Redskins fans, and just about all neutral observers, expected something pretty similar.

I’ll admit it—I did ...

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Nice Read. The D was the bright spot of the season. The push back from 6 inches from the goal line says it all.

is that last game a teaser? or can they do it for a full season? our secondary was above average with out a pass rush. imagine them with a bon-a-fide stud getting after the qback. and i think we were the only defense in the league that didnt give up more then 24 points in any game.

I have to admit I had the Eagles picked all the way. And although the Eagles looked a little flat. The Skins D looked really good. They played as a unit and most important played till the end. Very consistant. Very refreshing to see!

With that said the Eagles dropped some game changers but basically as stated earlier that's football. Also if our O could have put up more points that wouldn't have mattered anyway.

I'm not getting excited yet as we've all bought into this type of tease far to often but am optimistic that with a good pass rusher added to our D we will be very solid next year.
By the way Hall played incredible!

Now what to do about offence?

is that last game a teaser? or can they do it for a full season? our secondary was above average with out a pass rush. imagine them with a bon-a-fide stud getting after the qback. and i think we were the only defense in the league that didnt give up more then 24 points in any game.

That's impressive. Imagine how great we'd be if Blache "cared" about sacking the QB?

That's impressive. Imagine how great we'd be if Blache "cared" about sacking the QB?

with that said I'm glad JT got a taste of what that feels like again. Hopefully this broke the ice for him as a Skin!

That's impressive. Imagine how great we'd be if Blache "cared" about sacking the QB?
I've been imagining how great this defense might have been since back in '04 when Greg Williams first took over and made this defense as effective as it has been. The back seven has been pretty much money for five years--all without benefit of a legit NFL pass rush up front.

My guess is if they gave Blache a monster DT to push the middle into the QB's face once in a while, and a DE who could actually command a double-team, you'd not hear him talking about sacks being overrated. I think he's just being a good soldier, to be honest.

If they end up wasting this young secondary for the next few years w/o out ever providing them a rush up front to force QB's to throw that one split second sooner than they want ... I'm going to blow a gasket.

with that said I'm glad JT got a taste of what that feels like again. Hopefully this broke the ice for him as a Skin!

Yes, it was good to see him at full speed finally. I'll feel even better about him remaining a Redskin next year if he can flatten Shaun Hill a few times this Sunday.

I've been imaging how great this defense might have been since back in '04 when Greg Williams first took over and made this defense as effective as it has been. The back seven has been pretty much money for five years--all without benefit of a legit NFL pass rush up front.

My guess is if they gave Blache a monster DT to push the middle into the QB's face once in a while, and a DE who could actually command a double-team, you'd not hear him talking about sacks being overrated. I think he's just being a good soldier, to be honest.

I've considered that, however he is pretty quick to call out the defense on it's shortcomings, and it's usually a very quotable, oddly eloquent statement that gets plenty of press around here. One day he's mocking the team for not being able to "sack groceries," and the next he doesn't think sacks are important.

So I'm not sure what he really thinks, but I agree that if we were beating up on QBs regularly, he wouldn't downplay the importance. I believe what he thinks is basically that we don't HAVE to get handfulls of sacks every game to still perform well defensively.

Agreed. Witness Exhibit A ... the NFL's 4th ranked defense overall, is 28th in sacks.

To be clear, I don't think its about sacks so much as it is pressure and hits on the QB. I don't care if we get 3 sacks a year. If we're rattling the QB's cage, and forcing him to throw on the move and off rhythm more often than not, we're going to generate turnovers and reduce 3rd down conversion percentage considerably. I think that's what Blache has been saying all along by saying sacks themselves shouldn't be the sole barometer.

Our problem has been we do neither.

But I'm sure Vinny knows that ...