Redskins-Colts, Best and Worst

The worst for me at least the maddening inconsistency on offense and the odd play calling
The Best was how hard our D continues to hit everyone they see! (however I was nervous as hell for J Addai, dont like him as a player but it looked like he was going have a serious head or neck injury, was very happy to see him able to get up and walk off the field)

I would add a smackdown on Al. TWICE he mentioned the Larry Johnson/Willie Parker backfield. But that never was the story. The story of our backfield going back to the spring has been the emergence of Torain and Williams.

It bugged me that national sports people missed this story line all summer. But to bring up the wrong story line in October, TWICE? Lame Al, lame.

But that is part of the story. It's not just that Torain and Williams have emerged, it's that they surpassed two proven veterans to get there. Which is what Michaels basically said.

Best:
The fake toss to Banks and the TD throw
Run blocking for Torain
Torain breaking tackles, running hard
Being competitive w/ the team we fielded against Manning
Philip Buchanon played well

Worst:
Winning the turnover battle and not winning
Torain not running the correct play a few times

But that is part of the story. It's not just that Torain and Williams have emerged, it's that they surpassed two proven veterans to get there. Which is what Michaels basically said.

Yeah I didn't have a problem with that. They outlasted a couple of well known guys, that's worth pointing out.

Torain played with guts and showed he's capable of taking it to another level.
Our special teams stepped up and kept us in the game when it could have swung towards a blow out.

My criticism of McNabb was flamed upon in the game thread. But I stand behind my opinion that he just made some poor decisions that cost us. Sorry but I don't blame it all on play calling. After reading this thread I see some share in my sentiment.
I like McNabb and i believe we are where we are due to his leadership but sometimes he makes some throws that make you go hmmm

Without looking at all the other posts I sometimes like to write firs then see if my feelings were similarly posted.

I really don't want to get into all the negative stuff as in "worst" or "negatives" or anything like that. But I do want to point out some positive things...

1- For the last 12 yrs the Skins have been troubled to get over 20 points, and now they seem to be doing well at scoring over 20 pnts, or so it seems to me.

2- A friend of mine said the Skins actually look like an NFL team now, which follows Matty's ...the Skins are respectable now.

3- The last 2 yrs with 5 min. left in the game being down by 3 pts or 10 pts I would turn the channel knowing this team didn't have a chance, yet I find myself watching the whole game.

4- Believe it or not we are running with the big dogs. We kept the score close with Houston, beat the Eagles, pulled out a win against GB, and kept the game close against Indy. Oh did I mention we beat the SB bound Dallas Cowboys. lol.

5- The defense is not 100% perfect, but I find them more exciting now then they ever have been, well except for their SB yrs. I could care less about the stat yrds, the players look like they are having fun and they are really hitting people. Hopefully teams will be afraid to play us. The Skins are knocking out atleast 3-4 people per game. I'd rather teams be afraid to play against us vs. having the #4 ranked defense.

6- Hopefully the run game continues to get better.

I'm excited about this team. It's not that I'm expecting them to go to the SB cause I'm not, its just the fact that they are actually fun to watch.

The good:

They are resilient underdogs(like the Habs :D)
We played them close
Special teams playing big
Landry, Rak, Lorenzo. Heck, even Sellers got in some nice hits and also a good block on Freeney.
Peyton threw at least two near picks.

The bad: You may think it crazy, but we SHOULD HAVE won the game. Forget that it's Peyton Manning. Manning had an off day, we just didn't stick it to him for his near picks. He could have had 2-4 INTs on his stat line, but he didn't get a single one

Kyle still needs to learn the nuances of playcalling. You just don't deviate from what is working(runs up the gut) to something that will likely fail. A toss sweep against a bunch of speedsters? Yeah, that not the time for that.

McNabb. Come on, overthrowing every by a mile on 4th and 10? At least make it catchable for someone. Hell, even an INT would likely have given them worse field position.

Pass pro - Now, only Rabach is a holdover from the Vinnius era, but we've been reduced to using Rabach, Hicks, Lich because he refused to address the line except with UDFA.

Defense's ability to control the line of scrimmage - We made the Colts O-line look like the Hogs in pass pro and in run blocking. The Colts O-line are hardly THAT good. Once again, Thanks Vinny.

ALSO, Jim Haslett. Manning just OWNED YOU. OWNED YOU.

^ On a side note to your post SirClinton,

I felt we should have won the game also, not because Manning was having a bad day, because to say that would be saying the Skins are not that good and had it not been for Manning having a bad day we would not be close. I felt our defense kept us in this game again even though the Colts were putting up yrds on us. I like to think it was our defense that made Manning screw up.

How many holding calls did I see the Colts offense commit? Too many. When Orakpo gets completely around the OT and the OT has his jersey from behind..... I think thats a hold. No the OT was not pulling on the jersey but he was holding it and it was outside the shoulder pads. On the play when Orakpo stripped Payton of the ball the OT not only was holding but had Orakpo's facemask pulling and turning his head. No flag.

I'll agree with if a play is working keep using it, but the first 40 plays are scripted. They have planned and practiced them all week, and the first 40 plays will usually take you into the half. Which is why I think we look better after the half... because the Skins are making adjustments and using plays that they think will work at that point. I think Kyle is trying to keep Defenses guessing instead of saying "I'm going to keep running this play until you stop it."

McNabb should not be drastically over throwing players, and supprised he underthrew on the last play the Skins had.

The Skins definitly need to do something about the OL.

Worst:
linebackers in coverage - it seemed to me that manning was picking us apart with the underneath stuff, passing for 8-13 yards at ease to wide open guys. i dont know if this was a result of our linebackers doing a poor job of reading routes and dropping back or if blame should be placed elsewhere (haslett's scheme, ?)

Best:
special teams keep us in the game more than we deserved.


That goes back to what I was talking about in another thread. Good OC's scheme to take advantage of players playing out of position, or players playing in positions of unfamiliarity. Last night's game was a typical example, it even forced AC back into a position he's demonstrated time and time again he can't master.

Manning kind of owns everyone, sooooooooo...