From the Redskins 9-7 loss… oops, we meant win, over St. Louis.
Studs
DT Cornelius Griffin. Two things have helped him. He’s healthier than in a few years; his shoulder that bothered him last year is strengthened. And playing next to Albert Haynesworth has limited the double teams. Griffin is having an excellent start and made numerous big plays Sunday. He’s showing his strength. Nearly intercepted a pass, but in typical linemen fashion he tried to catch it with his body and not his hands. Still, excellent effort — four tackles, one sack, a tackle for a loss and a quarterback hurry.
K Shaun Suisham. You know, just because. The way this season is going he should post big numbers because he’ll only be attempting field goals of 30 yards or less.
LB Rocky McIntosh. He’s playing physical and flying to the ball. He looks healthy and it shows. He caused a fumble that the Rams recovered and another one that Washington recovered was wiped out by a penalty (on Kedric Golston, a slap to the face of Marc Bulger).
SS Chris Horton. He blew the tackle on the 58-yard Steven Jackson run. But he caused the pivotal fumble with an excellent hit and he defended the Rams’ last pass to Donnie Avery. He had good position and played the ball well in the air.
TE Chris Cooley. Cooley moves the chains. It’s hard to be an explosive offense when the tight end catches so many passes. But he gives them a chance to get to the red zone. He did miss a block on Leonard Little on one red zone play, causing Clinton Portis to get stuffed. But the catches made up for it and he had some other decent blocks in the red zone.
RG Will Montgomery. Listen, the kid was not great. But he’s worked at guard for two weeks — two weeks! — and wasn’t horrible. He missed on some blocks where he had to block down. It could have been worse. Montgomery is a center, so any mistakes he would have made would be on those putting the team together who could not find a suitable backup at this spot.
*Note: See below
Duds
RT Stephon Heyer. This is a problem area and will continue to be so, especially on the ground. Too many times Heyer did not get any movement out of his run blocking and a couple times he didn’t even engage his guy it seemed. That happened on a draw in the red zone in which Leonard Little was never engaged by Heyer. And that occured in pass protection as well. He still needs to get stronger. He does not help clear cutback lanes and, on the option pass by Clinton Portis, he and Montgomery needed to do a better job selling a run. They did not.
C Casey Rabach. Facing big tackles over him Rabach too often got stoned at the point of attack or driven back into the backfield. On two red zone plays in the second quarter he got driven back into the backfield about two yards. Not his best showing.
Jim Zorn. More playcalling issues. The halfback option is a good play; yes. But in that situation, on third and goal from the 5, the Rams weren’t fooled. Maybe on second down it would have worked, an element of surprise. On third down, though, the Rams knew a pass ws coming. And, really, the playcalling between the 20s was fine. They did gain 362 yards of offense. It couldn’t have been all bad. The play to Sellers was good, but he dropped the ball. And, in fairness to Zorn, the offensive ilne has not done its job in the red zone. Makes it tough for a playcaller. But we did figure out that when Mike Sellers went in motion to fullback, they almost always ran the ball (except for once).
CB DeAngelo Hall. He slipped on the fade route in the end zone, giving up a touchdown. It’s one play, but it was a big one.
TE Fred Davis. Really, I don’t know that he was bad or good. But I do know that on the fourth and 1 run, he got moved back a couple feet by the safety, causing Clinton Portis to have to run a bit wider. And Davis has not been a threat at all in the passing game.
WR Devin Thomas. One kickoff return that produced little. Not much of a factor in the passing game. Yes, the ball in the end zone would have been a tough catch so I won’t knock him much for that. But it would be nice to see him run past a defensive back. The Redskins really need something from him.
*I’d love to have put Jason Campbell in the stud category because he did a nice job executing the offense, making good decisions etc. However, the missed deep ball to Malcolm Kelly and the lack of a touchdown (yes, two drops, we know) prevent that from being the case. Hard to put many offensive guys on the list when a team scores nine points against a bad defense. This is no longer about his progress; it’s about his results.
