Starting 11: Redskins vs. Texans

1. We’ll start with the same as last week: Will Albert Haynesworth play? He’s listed as questionable because of an ankle injury, but he was able to practice Friday – though how much he actually worked is uncertain. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t play and I’d expect his snaps to be about the same as last week. He showed no reason vs. Dallas that he should play more in this scheme, plus he missed two days of work. One thing in his favor if he does play nose: Houston C Chris Myers struggles vs. bigger, more powerful nose tackles.

2.   Is Arian Foster for real? Have to say yes, he is. Though he spent a lot of time on the practice squad as an undrafted rookie in 2009, Foster has more than just one game to show that he’s a legit back. In his last two games of ’09, he rushed for a combined 216 yards. This summer, he averaged more than 6.0 yards a run and then he “managed” 231 yards vs. Indianapolis. OK, maybe the Colts are built to defend the pass and that’s what they figured they must do to beat Houston. The holes were rather large. But Foster does an excellent job pressing the hole on his cutbacks and has size (6-foot-1, 227 pounds).

3.   Can they stop the run with seven guys? They’ll have to. But the Redskins are better equipped to do that than Indy was for a couple reasons. One, they have a beefy nose tackle in Maake Kemoeatu; he must control Myers. If he doesn’t, watch out. And, two, having that extra linebacker the 3-4 allows gives them a better athlete to defend cutbacks. The inside backers must be very patient knowing the cutback is coming. Over-committing will be costly. Another factor: LaRon Landry’s speed and aggressiveness enables him to play a little further off the ball, yet still be a force vs. the run.

4.   What’s your fear? That Washington is not a good run-stopping defense yet. The Redskins had their issues vs. the run in the preseason, allowing big chunks thanks to defenders getting out of their gaps or missed tackles. Some of that is the natural learning curve of a new defense. Still, Dallas could have hurt Washington much more on the ground had Jason Garrett been paying attention.

5.   How about stopping Andre Johnson? Sort of crucial, isn’t it? That is, if you have success in stopping the run. Look at Indy; Johnson caught three passes for 33 yards. But it’s hard to imagine him having another game like that. After all, this is a guy who caught a combined 216 passes the past two years and averaged 95.9 yards from 2007-09. A big key will be limiting yards after the catch. Houston has done an excellent job with him in the past of finding him despite heavy attention. The good part for Washington is that CBs DeAngelo Hall and Carlos Rogers both have excellent speed. Rogers has the better size to match up against him, though even he is a couple inches shorter.

6.   How good is Matt Schaub? He’s good, but the Redskins did a good job against a talented quarterback last week in Tony Romo. This is a good defense, don’t forget. But Schaub does a nice job in this offense; he’s mobile so he can execute the bootlegs and rollouts favored by the Texans (sound familiar?). With Foster running well, it makes Schaub more dangerous on play-action throws. The question is, will Washington stay aggressive vs. him? The key isn’t so much the blitzing, it’s the ability to fool him with the four-man rush.

7.   What about the other Texan passing weapons? The Texans have a solid receiving corps behind Johnson, led by sure-handed Kevin Walter. Jacoby Jones is a tremendous athlete capable of big plays, having averaged 16.2 yards per catch with six touchdowns on 27 catches last season. And TE Owen Daniels is a former Pro Bowler, though he missed the final eight games with a knee injury last week and was limited to 40 plays in the opener. Still, he’s a threat. The Redskins really have to be wary of the deep ball; Reed Doughty is a bit slow to handle this sort of attack. It’ll be interesting to see how that develops.

8.   What will Houston do defensively? The Texans like to use a lot of eight-man fronts, which puts a lot of pressure on the secondary. However, the Texans did a good job in this alignment vs. Indy, until using more zone in the fourth quarter. And that allowed Peyton Manning to start going wild. He threw for 226 yards in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand. It’s probably best to ignore Manning’s numbers when evaluating this defense.

9.   Will Mario Williams disrupt the Redskins? He’s not as good as DeMarcus Ware and Trent Williams handled him – except for a couple plays. But Ware uses more strength then turns to his speed. Williams had a terrific game vs. Indy with three sacks, but the Colts tackle is nowhere near as good as Williams. So it was a mismatch. This one isn’t. But the key is that Williams flip-flops, so Jammal Brown will be tested as well. But Brown’s strength will serve him well.

10.   Will the running game get untracked? The Redskins say it can in part because of the 4-3 front Houston plays. They say it’s a better defense for the stretch zone runs to face because in the 3-4 the outside ‘backers can line up a bit wider and, with linebackers faster athletes, it removes another threat vs. cutback runs. Also, the more you cut a lineman, the more tired they get. The problem with Washington’s run game is that too many backside blocks are being missed. FB Mike Sellers is not exactly off to a great start as a lead blocker, but I really like Chris Cooley’s blocking; they use him as a lead blocker through holes and it’s been effective. One player to watch is Houston’s OLB Xavier Adibi. He’s filling in for Brian Cushing and will be tested.

11. Who will win? The Redskins are coming off a good opening win, but they played about the way we expected: struggling offensively, but strong defensively. A lot like the past two years. The difference between the 7-6 loss in Dallas last year and the 13-7 win last week is Hall’s fumble return. So until the offense is more familiar with the offense they’ll be inconsistent. Meanwhile, Houston dominated a team it must contend with for the division. The Texans have looked terrific offensively all summer. This is a good matchup because it’s a high-powered offense against a traditionally strong defense. But the Houston offense is playing at a higher level than Washington’s defense. We think. Texans 21, Redskins 17.