Studs
TE Chris Cooley » His run blocking in the second half was much better, after he missed a few blocks in the first. Still needs work, but in this game, for the final two quarters, he helped. But his ability to slide to the open area on the fourth down play kept alive a touchdown drive. The play was designed to hit Santana Moss, who was covered by half of Tampa’s defense. Cooley then caught a touchdown pass.
SS Reed Doughty » His recognition of plays is outstanding as is, for the most part, his open-field tackling. He provides energy for the defense when he’s on the field. He finished tied for the team-high in tackles with nine.
CB Justin Tryon » An excellent job in the slot. His blitzes worked well, too. He’s a good one to blitz because of his quickness – he’s the Redskins’ quickest corner. That’s why it helps to have him cover in the slot. The blitzes were well-designed, too, with the end and tackle on his side running stunts to occupy the tackle. It freed up Tryon.
CB DeAngelo Hall » His interception helped turn the game around. Just a nice read. Josh Johnson gave away his intentions early and Hall pounced. That’s a confident playmaker. He never hesitated when he made the read. It would be nice to see him stop shoulder tackling downfield, but that’s another matter.
RB Clinton Portis » You can argue that he should have, or could have, had more. I would agree. Portis does not threaten defenses beyond 10-yard runs anymore. However, he had to fight hard for his 98 yards Sunday. A couple times the holes weren’t big and he still managed four or five yards. It helped.
WR Santana Moss » Caught just two passes and wasn’t open much of the game. But he ran an excellent double move to fool not only the corner, but the safety. Again, the lone explosive player on the offense.
DC Greg Blache » Nice to see some aggressiveness. Nice to see them fool a young quarterback, too. They ran a number of stunts, used three-man lines with Brian Orakpo rushing as a standup linebacker in those situations and they had linemen dropping into zones.
QB Jason Campbell (third quarter only) » He made plays with his legs and had good vision on the fourth-down pass to Cooley. Also made a nice throw to Cooley for the score and to Santana Moss for the touchdown. His runs helped produce first downs. He played less mechanical in the third.
Duds
TE Todd Yoder » Doesn’t play much anymore, but he did a poor job in extra point protection, allowing Ronde Barber to get wide and block the kick. Yoder needed to make an effort to at least bump him off stride.
TE Fred Davis » His run blocking remains suspect. On one play, he kept his head down and the end tossed him aside and made a tackle for a loss.
QB Jason Campbell (every other quarter) » Love how he responded but man he really struggled. He made bad decisions, stared down receivers and made tough throws. He’s lucky the Redskins were even in a position where he could rally them in the second half. Even in the second half he made some ugly throws (the INT on the pass to Moss). He gutted out the win, which is nice. But he put the Redskins in a hole with his play. They’re fortunate it was the Bucs and not a good team they were playing.
WR Malcolm Kelly » Aqib Talib had great position on the throw to him and Campbell should have led him more and put the ball more to the outside. Still, Kelly just wasn’t getting open. The Bucs did a good job jamming him at the line.
CB Carlos Rogers » He made some nice plays and made an excellent read on the dropped interception. But he has to make that play. If the Redskins had lost the game (if Mike Nugent could make field goals), then Rogers’ drop would have been a bigger deal this week, an example of another missed opportunity.
WR Antwaan Randle El » Just never got open. Credit the Bucs with taking away a lot of what he does, but he only had one pass thrown his way.
DT Albert Haynesworth » Maybe he was hurting because of his hip, glute or whatever. Maybe he shouldn’t have been playing. If that’s the case, we give him a lot of credit. But he had a minor impact. Though he applied a little pressure at times, we also saw him not give a ton of effort on other plays.
LT Chris Samuels » We grade him on a different standard and he did not play to a Pro Bowl level Sunday. Got pushed back too much. How much is the knee bothering him? Did he lose too much weight in the offseason? Gotta wonder after Sunday. He’s played better this year. We expect bad games from Stephon Heyer (who played better after the first two series) and inconsistent ones from Derrick Dockery (which is what he delivered Sunday). But Samuels has to be stronger for this offense to produce.
