Ex-Redskin safety Matt Bowen is one of the best at breaking down a game, whether it’s as a columnist for the National Football Post or for anyone with a pen or recorder. He always provides insight.
On if it’s hard playing in games like this: “Yes it is. I always use an example of the 2003 season when we played Philly and Donovan McNabb in that Week 17 game at FedEx. It was [31-7] but it could have been 60. We had guys that checked out by halftime. That’s the problem in the late-season games. If you don’t start fast as a team, it just comes apart at the seams. You play hard. You always play hard to avoid injuries. But the mental prep is what gets you. Do you watch enough tape during the week? Are you studying the game or are you thinking about your offseason home? If you don’t play hard you’ll blow a knee out, but instead of knowing what a certain formation will tell you before the snap you’re just out there playing street ball.”
On whether or not players care about a strong finish: “I hope young guys do. For young guys it’s very important. The last couple weeks of the season, those pro personnel guys who study film for a living, they want to see who’s still executing, who’s busting an assignment and whose technique is suffering. That’s one thing you’ll see, if the technique starts to go in the third quarter then they’ve checked out too. They’re not thinking about their footwork, their hands or their eyes. But young players are being evaluated. Gregg Williams said it best that every game is an interview. He used to say you’d better autograph your performance. Not only are the Redskins looking at this but 31 other teams are too.”
On what a strong finish means to the veterans: “It’s nice to finish the season with a couple wins. You feel better about yourself and when you’re back in that locker room you feel you got something accomplished. That ’03 season when we were cleaning out the locker rooms it was miserable. Guys just wanted to go home. There was no talk about the offseason. They just wanted out of there. You didn’t know if Spurrier would come back. But if you know Shanahan is coming back and you finish strong and you’re a veteran, you think I might be part of this again next year and maybe we can start to get something going, add a couple of pieces and maybe we’re competing with Philly and New York and Dallas next year for a title. And you should act like a pro. You’re getting paid a lot of money. Finish the season strong.”
On Adrian Peterson: “What scares you is when he gets to the second level if you’re a defensive back. That’s when he gets his pads square. He has a couple things. He has lateral ability. He has a stiff-arm and he can lower his pads and put a shot right on you. The hardest thing about him is tackling. If you don’t tackle against him – I’m talking about a good tackle, you can’t try to cut his legs out and throw your shoulders at him; that’s not good enough. You have to wrap up on this guy and it will hurt when you tackle him. It’s not gonna be fun. He’s the best running back in the league for a reason.”
On their offense: “Adrian will be featured; he’s the game plan every week. Christian Ponder is a lot better, but he still has way too many turnovers. For as many starts as he’s had you want to see the turnovers drop. They run base run plays that you see at the beginning of camp. It’s called Power O and you pull the backside guard and you [hit the end] with the fullback, you counter left and you pull the frontside guard and kick out the fullback to the weak side of the formation. They’ll run lead plays, they’ll run stretch. These aren’t exotic plays. This isn’t Denver’s offense. But when Adrian gets to that second level, he runs with such high knees that he’ll put it right in your chin. You have to come balanced and have your feet under you, wrap up and drive your hips. It sounds like Little League stuff, but this is a big back. This isn’t Chris Johnson or Dexter McCluster. This is a guy that can run right through you. You have to bring your big boy pads.”
On Christian Ponder: “I like him. I wasn’t very high on him when he was drafted that early. I thought that might have been a reach. But I know how desperate teams are for quarterbacks in the NFL. He’s very athletic and that gets him in trouble sometimes. He tries to get out of the pocket too fast. Young QBs do that. The first or second read is gone and it’s different than Ben Roethlisberger who will hang in the pocket and step up or like Tom Brady, who will slide his feet to create more room and create other options for receivers. Ponder will just take off and start running and when you’re playing at Florida State and facing N.C. State, you can probably run all over the place. But you can’t do that in the NFL. If he waited for routes to come open he’d be more productive. When he gets on the run, yes guys will convert routes and get upfield but that’s also when the picks happen.”
On Percy Harvin: “I don’t think they use him enough. They have to figure out a way to get him the ball more. It’s tough because he’s not a guy who will play outside the numbers. That’s not his game. He needs a two-way go so when you line up over a nickel corner you can release to both sides. If you’re outside the numbers you can’t release outside or you’ll run out of bounds. A corner knows that and he’ll force it that way and angle you off and try to push you off the route. But when you’re inside you’re talking about inside breaking routes or an option off the defender. He’s quick as hell. He’s very good after the catch but I’d like to see him do more. It’s tough to do when there’s Adrian Peterson but you can do creative things with him that eventually you will have to. Outside of Peterson he’s their top playmaker.
On if the Vikings’ problems in the secondary is talent or scheme: “It’s talent. They’re not a cover-2 team. The safety position, they need major upgrades. I know they have injuries and are playing guys off the street but they need upgrades. If you’re going to be a cover-2 defense you have to have two guys in the deep half plus a guy who can roll down and play cover 1. They don’t really have that. They make a lot of mistakes with their eyes back there. Look at Denver and Tim Tebow. He threw that touchdown against a cover-2 in the red zone because there was no one in the deep half. He jumped an inside-seam route. You have to be more disciplined and understand route concepts better. It sounds boring and high schoolish but they’re not very good back there. Rex could have a big game. They could have some big vertical gains.”
On Roy Helu: “He’s a nice back, but let’s be honest they need a bellcow back. You look at the rest of the division, LeSean McCoy, Jacobs and Bradshaw, Felix Jones and DeMarco Murray. Those are backs you can ride a little bit who have game-breaking talent. I’m sure they’ll look at quarterback for next year even though Rex has had some nice games but to make that offense go and win in the NFC East you have to run the ball a little bit.”
On what’s missing from Helu: “He’s got stopwatch speed, but does he have game-breaking speed on the field? That will come, you would expect, when you see the field better and understand the game better. But some of those backs come to the league ready with that and some backs just have those natural instincts to see the field better and cut back and know how to leverage the defender. He has work to do there. Same with Royster. He’s a complementary back. I just think in that Shanahan offense to make it go you need a legitimate running back that you can count on. Everyone says that you can just plug guys in about Davis, like he was trash. “
On the Redskins’ defense: “I was dead wrong. I thought the safeties would be real good this year. I know LaRon was hurt. If he’s hurt he’s hurt. Atogwe was hurt early and hasn’t been productive. I thought he’d get seven, eight nine picks. He patrols the middle of the field and takes great angles. But that hasn’t worked out and to play in Haslett’s defense you need to have safeties.”
On Vikings end Jared Allen: “No one talks about him because they only have two wins but if you’re talking Defensive Player of the Year you have to mention him. I mean, he’s still one of the top edge rushers in the game. That’s one of the reasons they can play cover-2. You have to have that guy. If you don’t have a defensive end in a cover-2, you can’t play it. Quarterbacks are too good. Given time there are ways to beat cover-2. There’s a list of things about him. He’s got speed, he’s got power. He’s got speed, he’s got power. He’s a motor guy on top of the talent. He doesn’t quit on plays. The thing I like best is he’s kind of nasty. That’s what you expect out of defensive linemen. They’re crazy. They’re supposed to be crazy. He takes it to another level. I’d love to play with the guy. He’d be fun to play with because you know going back there as a safety he’ll make the ball come out or he’ll put the quarterback down.”
I’ll have a little more from Bowen in next week’s email report.
