Landry leads the D

Sometimes you try to come up with a fancy lead to describe a player’s big day. You want to make it stand out. You want to make it sing.

But why bother with this for LaRon Landry.

So, here goes: He’s a stud.

That’s my lead on him and it’s darned appropriate. Landry is playing as fast and aggressive as almost any Redskin defender in some time. It’s the way LaVar Arrington was before his injuries and the way Sean Taylor was before he died.

“He’s a great player, man,” teammate Brian Orakpo said. “He’s playing at a very high level, a Pro Bowl type level. He’ll continue to make a lot of plays for us. This defense fits him to a T. I hate for him to get so much scrutiny throughout the years, but this year look out for 30 because he’ll continue to make plays.”

Yes, he will. This isn’t just a good start for Landry; it’s a trend. He makes plays; he set up the game-winning field goal with an interception. That play sort of typifies his growth. Landry, coaches say, has become more of a student of the game.

“We saw that pass concept run the whole game,” he said. “But they never threw it. When they finally threw it, I just made a great read on the ball…. I let the receiver cross my face, either he would have caught the ball and I would have hit him or I would have made an interception.”

It helped that Jeremy Jarmon was in Aaron Rodgers’ face and forced a bad pass. But it also helped that Landry was exactly where he needed to be.

Earlier in the game – second play in fact – Landry forced a fumble with a crunching hit of tight end Donald Lee. Kareem Moore recovered.

Landry is so important because his speed enables him to play deep or start shallow and disguise coverages. It’s the same way Gregg Williams used to use Taylor (albeit at free safety). Take advantage of the speed to cause a little hesitation by the quarterback.

And Landry is strong enough to beat bigger blockers when he blitzes.

“He amazes me, to be honest with you,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “I’ve been around a lot of players in my career and to watch a guy play that hard and that consistent week after week … He’s fast, he’s a hitter and he loves to play. It’s a pleasure to watch him and he’s that way every snap.”

Landry is playing with a hunger that you really couldn’t see the past couple years when he played free safety, as much out of necessity as anything. He’s not perfect and is prone to miss tackles on occasion, but he really hasn’t taken that many bad angles to the ball as he had in the past.

Landry has to do it for a whole season. But through five games it’s safe to say that he’s been the Redskins best defensive player. Heck, has anyone on the roster been more consistent?

And when they needed a play, he made a couple.

As Orakpo said, “That’s what playmakers do.”