He’d love to have the play back; he’d also like to have some words back as well. Two days after voicing his displeasure with a failed blitz on third and 21, Redskins corner DeAngelo Hall said he should have watched his words.
“I might have been a little overzealous,” he said. “You guys know me; passionate about football. I definitely thought that was a game we should have won. I was pretty frustrated.”
In the locker room after the Redskins 18-16 loss to Dallas on Monday, Hall dropped one expletive after another in describing the play. He said because the Redskins had run that same blitz a few times, “sooner or later somebody’s gonna [bleeping] figure it out. You don’t have to be a [bleeping] rocket scientist to figure it out after a while.”
Tuesday, though, he watched game film with coach Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Jim Haslett – and altered his tune, placing more blame on himself for the play, which resulted in a 30-yard completion to Dez Bryant.
“There were a couple mistakes a couple guys made on that particular play,” Hall said. “If we had a chance to do it all over again, I guaranteed we would hit him. Some guys who were supposed to keep rushing pulled off. Me in coverage, I took my eyes off coverage to see what was going on. Dez got behind me, great throw, great catch.
“After talking to [Haslett] I definitely understood where he was coming from. As opposed to sitting back and letting those guys pick us apart he wanted pressure. He didn’t feel we were getting there with four or five guys and not hitting [Tony] Romo like we wanted to. He wanted to get the ball out of his hand as quick as possible…. You know, if I’m on Madden I would have did the same thing.”
But Hall also said, “that’s probably not the call a lot of players would want to see played but if it’s called you have to play it.”
He also said his comments went against the culture they’re trying to establish in Washington – and one they said was changed with the loss of players such as Clinton Portis and Albert Haynesworth.
“As a captain you have to roll with the punches,” Hall said. “I was frustrated; that doesn’t excuse what I said, how I said it. It was in the heat of the battle. They were trying to get me to calm down and I was like, ‘Man I’m good.’ I didn’t feel I was that worked up.”
And Hall also said he had no problem addressing the media on this topic Wednesday. Hall is usually one of the more accessible players and has never shied from discussing controversial plays on his behalf.
“I’m a corner, that’s what we do,” he said. “You get burnt, you make plays. It’s just what it is, unless you’re Darrell Green – I can’t even say Champ [Bailey] at this stage – or Deion Sanders, any corner will get burnt. Nnamdi’s [Asomugha] out there getting burnt left and right just like I was. It just happens.”
Redskins safety Oshiomogho Atogwe said, “It’s not a word, but he’s one of the goodest guys I know. He plays this game with a passion and he plays this game with heart. A lot of times that allows him to be as great as he is. When you catch an individual like that after he suffered a tough loss sometimes things come out that you wouldn’t want to come out…. We all have moments of weakness.”
