Stud
PK Graham Gano. His kickoffs have been good all season and he had four touchbacks Sunday. He also drilled a career-best 50-yarder and added a 26-yarder later. For the season, Gano has made nine of 12 field goals and has 16 touchbacks on 23 kickoffs. Not bad. So he’s off to a good start (75 percent is OK, but he needs to be over 80, but the kickoffs have been excellent). Keep in mind that he made 11 of his first 14 field goals in 2010.
Duds
QB Rex Grossman. Sort of an easy call, no? I’ll cut Grossman slack on the third interception (and the second one in Fred Davis’ direction). It appeared he and Davis weren’t in synch on that one, with Grossman expecting Davis to cut in front of the safety. Even if Davis plans on sitting down where he was, he needs to close his shoulders more. Because he didn’t, the safety came right through him for the easy pick. But on the other three? All Grossman. He tried to make a play on the first one and, considering they were at the Eagles’ 38-yard line, it was almost like a great punt because it gave Philly the ball at its own 2-yard line. OK. But the bottom line is he put Davis in a position to make an incredibly athletic play; Davis could have made a better attempt but this ball was a major gamble. And I could forgive that one if the other two didn’t happen. And if two others weren’t dropped. Others have said this, but I agree: after three picks, why on Earth did Grossman take a chance on that last one? You’re anticipating something that isn’t happening; your instincts have been off all day. The other problem I had with Grossman was his penchant, again, for eyeing receivers. On the play in which Chris Cooley was injured, Grossman looked at him the entire time. Eagles corner Nnamdi Asomugha easily read the play. Had Grossman froze Asomugha by looking downfield, maybe Cooley has a chance to break a tackle and make the first down. Later, he eyed Roy Helu the entire way and he was drilled by Kurt Coleman (helmet to helmet hit, drawing a penalty). Didn’t like how he lolligagged a throw to Gaffney after spinning away from the rush. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie dropped the easy pick. Grossman had a guy in his face, throw it away. But Grossman threw a pretty pass to Jabar Gaffney off the flea flicker. Grossman is capable of much better games, just not consistently.
RT Jammal Brown. I’ll start with the good stuff because in the fourth quarter Brown played well, particularly on the final drive. Kept his man away from the QB. His guy hit John Beck in the fourth quarter, but that came after nearly five seconds. Not Brown’s fault. But with issues on the left side of the line, Brown needed a stronger game all the way through. On the second play of the second quarter, he allowed too much penetration by the end, causing Roy Helu to cut back nearly four yards deep (and just in front of the end zone). He allowed pressure on a spin move by Trevor Laws at the end of the half (did not get the sack, however). Brown also surrendered quick penetration by Mike Patterson, running to his right, on a Ryan Torain run inside the 10. And Brown again forced Torain to cut back too soon on the last drive of the third quarter, on a first and 10 carry for no gain. Just got moved back by Juqua Parker. Later, in the fourth, Brown was called for a hands to the face (the end stayed rather low on this play).
WR Donte Stallworth. This is for one play and one play only, but it’s a play he needed to make given the situation. The Redskins’ offense needed a quick strike and this would have provided one. With 5 minutes, 36 seconds left in the game, John Beck scrambled to his right and threw long to Stallworth, who was looking to the outside then turned inside at the last second as the ball arrived. He dropped it on the Eagles’ 20-yard line. He was bailed out when Philly was flagged for a defensive hold elsewhere. But it would take the Redskins another two minutes just to reach the Eagles’ 34-yard line. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, but it could have given the Redskins’ defense another minute or two to get the ball back. Considering they never got the ball back, that lost time was valuable. Plays that weren’t made loomed large in this game. When the quarterbacks put the ball in your hands, you’ve got to make the play.
Notes
…It was hard to judge the line because there were so many moving parts. Will Montgomery deserves a pass considering he hasn’t played guard since the end of last season. Sean Locklear hasn’t played in more than a month and Erik Cook has never played. So what did you expect? Well, that’s what you got.
…Locklear got beat a couple times inside, but with the Eagles ends lining up wide much of the time, the tackle likely expects some inside help and that’s what he received. Locklear didn’t get much movement on a few run blocks, including one on the linebacker. On the screen to Roy Helu, he tried to block Kurt Coleman and barely slowed him; a better block results in a few more yards. But, again, the guy hasn’t played in a month and this is not his best position. He did get downfield on a screen to Santana Moss and threw a good block. I was not impressed by him this summer; didn’t like his footwork. The Redskins will miss Trent Williams regardless of who takes over left tackle.
…At 6-foot-6, Cook will become the NFL’s tallest starting center. That’s not necessarily what you want and it was evident this summer as well as Sunday. Cook understands that he needs to get low and you can see him trying. But too often he has to bend at the waist to get low quick, as you need to do at this position. When you bend at the waist, you lose your power. And that leads to him getting pushed back, which happened several times Sunday.
…Here’s the breakdown on the height off starting centers in the NFL (basing it off depth charts on NFL.com):
6-foot-5: 2
6-foot-4: 11
6-foot-3: 11
6-foot-2: 5
6-foot-1: 2
…Should Grossman continue starting? If he does that says a lot about John Beck. Grossman has 49 interceptions in 46 games; he’s 6-10 as a starter since the start of the 2007 season (4-4 in Washington); he’s turned it over 18 times in his eight starts in Washington. He’s becoming a hard sell. But he does have the support of the locker room.
…The problem is, Beck had his moments Sunday, but he, too, had an issue with ball security. He fumbled on one scramble Sunday (he had seven fumbles in four starts with Miami in 2007), but fortunately for him he recovered. And his decision making at the end of the preseason is why he didn’t win the competition in the first place. Is that going to be different now? Because we haven’t seen him in practice it’s tough to say yes or no. Just don’t know.
…As for his performance Sunday: At times he clearly showed little rhythm with the receivers, missing Jabar Gaffney on two plays. With more time would those have been completed? Perhaps; impossible to know because Beck has been inconsistent throwing downfield since camp opened. On the first one, Beck stepped up into the pocket and almost tried to aim the ball into Gaffney instead of letting it rip.
But there were a couple times when he stepped up strong into the pocket and delivered a good fastball. He seemed to put more body into his throw than Grossman, but that’s often dependent on having a good pocket. And there was one time where Beck couldn’t step into his throw because his arm hit guard Chris Chester (shoved back) as he started to come forward. This happened on the missed deep ball to Gaffney.
…I liked that on his fumble, he fled the pocket at the right time as Darryl Tapp had just beatenLocklear. But Beck still needs to take better care of the ball. And there were a couple times when his feet appeared a bit too choppy. Settle down. I didn’t come away thinking: Star waiting to happen. And it almost seems as if in this situation, the starting job will be lost and not won. You stick with Grossman because Beck just hasn’t shown he’s better; you turn to Beck because Grossman turns it over.
… Finally, two plays showed the subtlety of his athleticism. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Beck was pressured by Tapp on a bootleg to the left. Davis had tried to cut Tapp but failed and ended up on the ground. As Tapp hurried toward Beck, Davis bounced up. Meantime, Beck patiently backpedaled and lofted a catchable ball to Davis. Not exactly John Elway material, but a good play nonetheless and a difference between he and Grossman. The second one , on a swing pass left to Helu, the Eagles blitzed through the A gap. Will Montgomery gave Beck time by picking up the linebacker, but that left a tackle coming free. Beck threw a perfect pass to Helu while being pushed to the ground.
…The Redskins receivers were targeted 20 times; they caught eight passes. Gaffney and Santana Moss were targeted a combined 16 times; they caught four. The Eagles only rushed four much of the game, allowing them to keep seven in coverage and that helped. But the Eagles corners clearly match up well vs. Washington’s wideouts.
…The Eagles’ linebackers lined up typically three yards off the ball on almost every play. Occasionally one would be four yards off. In previous games they typically were four yards off the ball. They clearly played the run and let the secondary take care of the pass defense. They used their speed to beat blockers to spots and it worked. For example, on the third play of the game, right guard Chris Chester went to block the middle linebacker, but the ‘backer, Jamar Cheney, was so far up in the hole already that Chester couldn’t do anything. Ryan Torain still gained four yards, but if Cheney weren’t so far up, Chester’s block could have made a big difference.
…They didn’t show a good replay of the Kory Lichtensteiger injury. But when Kurt Coleman intercepted the ball you could see Lichtensteiger in the background, basically unengaged and stopped. Darryl Tapp was several yards away. Next thing you know, Lichtensteiger is on the ground. I could see if Coleman had gotten up and started to run, but that was not the case. Don’t blame Williams for doing what he did.
…Did you notice how the Eagles stopped the big bootleg throwback pass to Fred Davis? It’s rare to see that play stopped, but they succeeded in part because they had all three of their linebackers drop into zone coverage. This play beats man to man all the time. It also didn’t work because the Redskins were trailing by two touchdowns midway through the fourth quarter. Why fall for a run fake? But the weakside backer dropped and covered Davis. However, Ryan Torain was still open and Beck failed to hit him, instead throwing the ball between Davis and Torain and falling short.
…Wasn’t impressed by Torain, but the blocking gave him no chance. However, on a second and four run in the second quarter he did not make the best decision. Not sure what he saw, but there was a good cutback lane to his right. Torain started left, then cut back but he ran right into the back of Montgomery, missing a chance for a big run. Torain also dropped a pass in which he might have been in the wrong area. Stallworth raised his arms as if to say, ‘What’s going on?’ He was a couple yards behind Torain.
… I debated putting Davis as a stud, but his one bad play led to a costly interception. He needs to either run better routes (square the shoulders when you turn, preventing the safety from coming through your outside) or flatten the route. I don’t blame him on the first interception; it’s a lot to ask even an athletic tight end to make a leaping catch while running downfield and being double covered. But he had one-third of the Redskins total yards Sunday, with 95 yards on six catches. And the attention paid to Davis helped open up two other completions, including the 32-yarder to Terrence Austin, who made a diving catch. The Redskins sent three receivers out on the right side, against the Eagles zone. While the safety cheated towards Davis, nobody covered Austin. And on the fourth and nine toss to Stallworth, two players went at Davis and nobody covered Stallworth, who was five yards in front of him. Easy play for Stallworth. But one play put Stallworth as a Dud; one play kept Davis from being a Stud.
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