Studs
RB Evan Royster. He gained 96 of his 132 yards after contact. That’s not to say he was getting it all on his own. He had excellent cutback lanes and some of the contact came from a defender trying to make an arm tackle. On his 28-yard run, Royster wasn’t hit for the first 15 yards. And on a 10-yard run later, he wasn’t hit for the first eight. But Royster did an excellent job of continuing to move fast – and of moving forward – while he cut. And he always ran to daylight. There was little hesitation, if any. Royster could have gained more had he kept his balance on several runs. One of his better cuts came on a five-yard gain in the first quarter. Royster took a handoff and started through what appeared to be a huge hole. But two Vikings shed blocks to close it. As Royster gained his first yard, both were in his way, with Brian Robison closing from the right and linebacker Chad Greenway in front of him. Royster had maybe 2 yards to work with. But he quickly cut to his left to pick up four extra yards. Greenway tripped him up. Royster did a good job in protection, whether it was helping with Jared Allen (nine times) or in blitz pickup. He also had one good block downfield. Don’t want to go crazy over one good game and he did receive excellent blocking, enough to give him room to cut. But Royster did a nice job.
WR Jabar Gaffney. He continues to separate from Santana Moss as the Redskins primary target. He’s not going to hurt teams after the catch, but Gaffney does catch a high percentage of the passes thrown his way. Gaffney was targeted eight times Saturday, catching six of those passes for 77 yards and a touchdown. His TD was a highlight reel grab as the slant was covered – and credit QB Rex Grossman for recognizing that as well. But Gaffney continued inside the corner and to the back of the end zone for a one-handed grab with his right hand. He even had the nice catch-and-spin along the sidelines in which he gained 16 more yards. He rarely gets more than two or three yards after the catch. The thing about Gaffney is that he sometimes makes it look a little too easy. So you end up saying, “Easy pitch and catch.” But it’s also that way because Gaffney just gets open. He’s not a game-breaker but he’s turned into the Redskins most consistent offensive performer.
Offensive line. I’m going to start by saying this: There were a lot of bad plays and each guy had his share of mistakes. Individually? Not very great at times. Collectively? Well, they were solid against a defense that entered ranked in the top 10 in yards per carry allowed and they deserve credit. Yes, Royster got a lot of yards after first contact. But it’s not like the contact was always a dead-on hit. And he did have lanes to choose. Besides, this line has now produced two 100-yard rushers in the last three weeks (and four in five games). Raise your hand if you thought that would happen minus LT Trent Williams. Mine is rather high. There were only two times in which the running back was touched behind the line of scrimmage. That has to be the best showing of the year. And in both cases the back still gained positive yards (both were touched about a yard behind the line). Yes, there were three sacks – LT Willie Smith allowed one, RG Chris Chester allowed one and Mike Sellers allowed one when he failed to pick up a rusher. But for the most part Rex Grossman had time to throw. C Will Montgomery played a solid game, though like the others he had mishaps: a false start and a miscommunication that led him to snap early. But he also opened lanes in the middle. TE Logan Paulsen was solid, though he was called for a hold. He also drove his man back on a run to the outside, first getting the end and then the linebacker. It was only a 4-yard gain, but not because of him. The play-calling has put the line in position to be successful. But despite facing numerous six-man fronts, the best runs came vs. seven-man fronts. On Royster’s 19 carries, the Redskins faced a seven-man front nine times and gained 88 yards. Their last five runs, all vs. seven-man fronts, gained 64 yards.
Duds
FB Darrel Young. His first mistake occurred on special teams when he jumped offsides on fourth and four, giving Minnesota a first down on an eventual touchdown drive. Then Young was called for holding on Jared Allen during Brandon Banks’ 59-yard reverse for a touchdown. The call was questionable, no doubt. I saw Jammal Brown get away with one or two holds in that game; saw a Vikings linemen get away with a couple jersey grabs that were worse. Regardless, it was called a penalty. Young’s first problem was the fact that he stumbled to the hole. Had he maintained his balance, he would have easily prevented Allen from a tackle. Heck, Allen really had no chance at Banks anyway. Maybe it was all about perception. Young is falling to the ground and his left arm is slightly bent; when Allen trips, the ref will think it’s a no-brainer even if it wasn’t. Just bad luck for Young. It’s sort of hard to put a guy on here for a play in which you think the penalty didn’t need to be called. But the bottom line is that it was called and he could have blocked it better. And he did jump offsides. I give Young a lot of credit for talking to the media afterward, when he initially did not want to. It’s not easy and Young passed this test well. His blocking was solid. He also caught two passes for 33 yards, breaking tackles along the way.
FB Mike Sellers. Another player I’m reluctant to put on this list, if only because his blocking was solid on almost every other snap he played. In fact, on Royster’s 28-yard run Sellers took out two players, including Jared Allen. But I think you know by now one tough play – especially ones that change games — can overshadow an otherwise decent game and land you on this list. And his worst play cost the Redskins points as it resulted in the Grossman fumble, which led to a Vikings field goal. Grossman executed a play-fake, turned around and was stripped of the ball in 2.17 seconds — Grossman did not even turn around for 1.45 seconds because of the fake. Sellers went in motion from right to left and when the ball was snapped he came back down the line. But for some reason there was a moment’s hesitation and he took a flat angle at Robison. That’s all Robinson needed.
Notes
…The Redskins used their three-receiver, fullback set more this week, which is why of Royster’s 19 runs, nine came when the Vikings only had six defenders in the box. He gained 43 yards on those carries. He faced one eight-man box and was held to a yard on that play. Give the Redskins game plan credit for putting the Vikings in six-man fronts more than they would prefer. But because of how bad their secondary is, I don’t blame the Vikings for rarely using eight-man fronts.
…The line deserves credit for being able to re-establish the line of scrimmage more than anticipated. On the 28-yard run, every O-lineman was in front of the line of scrimmage. Same thing on Royster’s 16-yard run. Individuals were moved back at times, but the Vikings were never able to get multiple defenders behind the line.
…There were only two times in which a Redskins runner was clearly hit behind the line of scrimmage and in both cases it was less than a yard deep. And in neither case did the Redskins lose yardage. Royster gained at least four yards on 12 of his 19 runs.
…The Redskins ran to the right side on only eight of the 22 runs. Royster ran to that side on six of his 19 runs.
…OK, I did this research before the Redskins cut Ryan Torain. So file this under: “I have the info and therefore will use it.” But one reason for his lack of success, especially on Saturday? He was slow to the hole. And those tenths of a second mean the difference between an attempted arm tackle by a defender or a player who can now wrap up – with help. Evan Royster was typically a couple tenths of a second faster to the hole and he was in position to break tackles. Torain almost needed to run over guys because the extra time enabled them to fill a gap.
Torain had four carries and it took at least 1.12 seconds for him to hit reach the line after taking the ball. That means nothing without context, so here goes. He took two inside tosses to the left and needed 1.30 and 1.34 seconds to reach the line, respectively.
Royster, in comparison, took three inside tosses and got back to the line on two of them in 1.11 and 1.23 seconds, respectively. The third took 1.31 seconds (and gained eight yards, so go figure).
Torain had one toss that took him around right end and he needed 2.29 seconds to get back to the line. It was not well-blocked so that didn’t help. Royster ran four tosses around the end on four occasions. The longest it took him was 2.01 seconds and the quickest was 1.35 (big hole, decisive cut).
Finally, Torain had one handoff that took him through left guard in 1.12 seconds. Royster had six such runs through guard. He got there in less than .98 seconds every time and four times needed .87 seconds or less to get there.
I’ll reiterate that it’s not all his fault. On a one-yard run inside the 10, for example, Torain was slow to the hole (1.12 seconds on a handoff in which he cut back to the middle). But Mike Sellers failed to take care of end Brian Robison on a cut block. And Jammal Brown doubled tackle Kevin Williams with Chris Chester. But Brown stopped once Chester had him and looked for someone else to seal inside. Problem was, linebacker Chad Greenway was standing right in the hole, and just to the right of Brown. But Brown went back at Williams and Greenway stood right in the hole. Torain made a weak cut (caused him to lose speed) and tried to spin off Greenway. But he did so right into Robison.
…How did this compare to Torain’s effort against, say, St. Louis? Well, he was faster to the hole then and was running with more confidence. On his 20-yard TD run vs. the Rams, he got to left end in 1.70 seconds – he also lined up a yard closer to the line of scrimmage (seven yards as opposed to nearly eight this past week). He had another run in which he hit left end in 1.40 seconds. Again, seven yards as opposed to eight (the depth can depend on the play). Regardless, he’s not running with that sort of confidence or speed now.
…For what it’s worth, Torain gained three yards after contact Saturday, twice gaining no yards. He also wasn’t a threat in the passing game. The one time he did catch a screen it seemed to take him forever to turn and get going. Add it up and his future here was bleak; hence the reason he was cut Tuesday.
…On Royster’s 16-yard run, the Redskins capitalized on an overzealous linebackers corps with their inside toss. Royster took the quick toss running to his left and the middle linebacker, E.J. Henderson, sprinted six steps to his right. There were six Vikings defenders on the other side of the left hashmark as Royster started with the ball. That enabled him to cut back to his right for a nine-yard gain.
…Rex Grossman had his usual up and down game. The interception was terrible considering the situation and the fact that Santana Moss was wide open. Grossman could not fully stride into the throw with pocket being pushed back. I liked Grossman’s patience on the TD pass to Gaffney. The slant wasn’t there, so he looked left, stayed poised and came back to the middle and threw a nice pass over the top. I thought he misfired on a slant pass to Donte Stallworth that would have resulted in a touchdown. The pass was behind him. But after watching again a Viking defender had dropped into coverage. Had Grossman led Stallworth it could have been picked.
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