A different view...

[lifetimeskin]

Actually I am VERY concerned about our defense.....

After this preseason and last night's game, I got to thinking of how many teams where Saunders has been the OC actually have had a good defense (say top 10).

The reason I bring this up, is that our defense must go against our offense during practice.
Under Gibbs' offense, where we were a power running team, our defense saw alot of that during the week, and were very well prepared for it on weekends. With Saunder's offense, I have seen very little POWER running, and accordingly I would assume it is practiced very little. Hence our D is suffering from it.

By the way, I think it would be good info if someone could check to see what the defenses ranked on teams where Saunders was the OC.

--Just a thought

[Daseal]

Well, I think we have to expect our offense will definitely go down ranking wise if Saunders offense starts to take hold. Saunders scores and normally scores pretty quick. Defense will be tired at the end of a game.

[Southpaw]

I'm not sure why there is so much emphasis being put on the run defense. The analysts were making comments about Washington being run on last night, also. Yet, Chester Taylor only had 88 yards on 31 carries, or 2.83 yards per carry. The Vikings only had 86 yards as a team, so I don't think the run defense looked that bad at all.

[MTK]

The run D did it's job.

It was the lack of pressure on 3rd downs that killed us.

We just couldn't buy a stop.

[The Mayor]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

The run D did it's job.

It was the lack of pressure on 3rd downs that killed us.

We just couldn't buy a stop.

Yeah...that was my take on the D too. The stats support this.

Minnesota had 34 rushes for 86 yards, a 2.5 ypc average. That's quite good. True, their were a couple of missed tackles in there but remember that the Minnesota O-line is very good.

To me, it was Minnesota's 3rd down conversion ratio of 9 of 17 that was most concerning to me. It's true that our pass D has been hurt by the loss of Springs and then Prioleau on the opening kickoff, but I believe it was mostly the lack of consistent pressure on the QB that allowed the completions and consequently, the first downs. If you can presure the QB consistently, then you can get by with average talent in the backfield.

As for next week against the Cowboys, I'm somewhat optimistic. The Boys O-line isn't as good as Minnesota's and I think our offense will get better each week, especially as Portis becomes healthy. But we shall see. Win or lose, good or bad, I remain a die-hard Redskin fan.

The Mayor

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

I think Springs' return will shore up our pass D (our area of weakness) and we'll be fine.

[jbcjr14]

I think our inability to score in the redzone to put this game out of reach prior to 1/2 time was the key after thinking about this a little bit. If we score a TD before the 1/2 we are up 10 and can pin the ears back on defense in the second 1/2. I don't know if I am correct in my assumption but if we get the ball in the endzone only 1 more time in lieu of a field goal we win that game.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by jbcjr14

I think our inability to score in the redzone to put this game out of reach prior to 1/2 time was the key after thinking about this a little bit. If we score a TD before the 1/2 we are up 10 and can pin the ears back on defense in the second 1/2. I don't know if I am correct in my assumption but if we get the ball in the endzone only 1 more time in lieu of a field goal we win that game.

I agree. If we could have come away with just one TD instead of a FG it would have been a totally different ballgame.

We were so good in the redzone last year especially in the 2nd half of the season. I believe you can gauge the comfort level of an offense by how they execute in the redzone. We looked lost and out of sync inside the 20 last night. That will change once everyone gets on the same page offensively.

[steveo395]

our red-zone offense lost us the game, not the defense, not John Hall

[Kope]

The biggest issue w/ the team was 3rd down

- D was the 9/17 3rd down converson- that of course was aided by giving away 4 on penalties.

- O was 4/13 with 2 of those being by penalty.

We couldn't sustain a drive and we couldn't stop a drive.

If you watched the locker room interviews from redskins.com there was something very interesting in Marcus Washington's interview- he said (and I am paraphrasing) "we knew this officiating crew and we knew how they were going to call the hitting close" If they practiced for it there should have been no excuse for 2 facemasks at the end of the game.

That being said; penalties shouldn't have mattered if we could score TDs instead of Feild goals. We had more than enough opportunities to win ((even after the bull**** call on ST and the double bull**** no call when Lloyd (I think it was him) got clobbered on an uncatchable ball.))

I think these are the type of problems that get better game by game. It is much better than trying to figure out how to stop the run and stop cronic false starts- those issues mean we are in for a long season; as I am sure many of us remember from the not so distant past.

Bottom line is not a great game ...by not horrid either.

[724Skinsfan]

My thoughts:

1) It's been said already but I know I must have voiced the phrase "Damn, we need to put more pressure on Brad Johnson!" at least a dozen times. A veteran QB will find the open man given enough time.

2) Another was our special teams tackling. Did Frost actually lead our team in tackles?

3) Even though Hall shanked the potential game-tying kick, a 47 yarder is not automatic so I wasn't shocked when he missed it.

4) If Moss had been able to hold onto the ball in the endzone we'd be much happier today. Actually if just one more red zone opportunity had yielded a touchdown we'd be talking a different story today.

5) Kenny Wright, Mike Rumph and Adam Archuleta are all new members of our secondary, Carlos Rogers is in his second year. We just need more cohesion there to prevent the long third down conversions.

6) Funny, how I commented that it would be better for us to have the Vikings at 3rd and short rather than 3rd and long because our run D was playing so well.

7) I still don't believe the Vikings are all that great. They have good players but as a team they'll struggle. First game of the season isn't exactly a tell-tale indicator of how a team will finish. At least, I hope not for our sake.

8) I was actually pleased with the offense. I wish Brunell would find a happy medium between taking a chance and throwing it away on third downs but I guess that is better than a potential turnover.

[itvnetop]

red zone offense bit us in the arse... aside from being a fan, i actually heard sports media all over the radio this morning criticizing the personal fouls in the 4th quarter... i rewatched the replays on dvr last night and have to agree... even with the way our team played, those calls directly led to viking drives that were, in essence, over on 3rd down. while we couldn't have beaten the colts with the way we played last night, in hindsight it was good enough to scrape by the vikings.

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by 724Skinsfan

My thoughts:

5) Kenny Wright, Mike Rumph and Adam Archuleta are all new members of our secondary, Carlos Rogers is in his second year. We just need more cohesion there to prevent the long third down conversions.

Hmm, I HOPE that's all it will take. I suspect otherwise...

Wright, Rumph and Archuleta are all veterans too.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Where was our "Mike Sellers" red zone special last night?

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

Where was our "Mike Sellers" red zone special last night?

I'm wondering where Sellers, Cooley, Lloyd and others were. With as many good options as we have, I can't imagine that they were all covered. I honestly don't know if it was Mark, the playcalling, or what. That said, the only thing the offense really needed to improve on was the red-zone offense. Had the offense scored TDs on 3 of 4 of the long drives, which it should have done, we wouldn't be saying anything but good things about the O. It's a big problem not to score in the red-zone, but it could have been far worse. Anyone who doesn't believe me should just look at the preseason tapes or the tapes of the Spurrier years.