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2013 - Week 2 @ Green Bay Packers

Blognosticator - Hog Fever

Hello my Redskin brothers and sisters. It's time for another Blognostication from your pal Hog Fever.

First off, I’m only going to spend a couple of sentences reviewing last week’s performance. As we all know it was not good. More to the point the first half was about the worst half of professional football I have ever seen this team play. The second half was much better of course and that my friends is what we must focus on. Positivity! On a side note I don’t have the feeling of hopelessness that I’ve felt at certain points in our team’s recent history. There is a little anger and frustration but no rage….yet. This is still a good team and we’re going to win a lot of ball games this season. Keep saying that to yourself and I guarantee you’ll feel better. Now that we have that out of the way I can get to the more pressing issue of how we’re going to beat the Packers this weekend.

It’s hard to crutch on stats to make my case at this point of the season, but I’ll twist them the best I can. Most agree that the Packers’ passing offense is explosive and that our young secondary is going to be challenged against Rodgers and company. No argument from me there. I don’t think that’s where the story ends though. Aaron Rodgers is not going to move like Vick in the pocket and they don’t run any read option. We’ll be able to challenge the Packer offensive line which is suspect after losing Ryan Bulaga for the season. All signs point to Kerrigan being ready for action Sunday so I think this is a match-up that could favor us.

The wildcard in that equation for the Packers is RB Eddie Lacy. Will he be able to run the ball well enough to slow down our pass rush? Lacy’s stat line for last week was 14 carries for 41 yards and a TD. He caught 1 pass for 31 yards and had a fumble. Oddly enough this closely mirrors the stats Alfred Morris had last week. National perception (and mine) regarding Morris is that he had a crap game, yet I’ve read that some still feel that Lacy had a decent first game. Hmmmm. I guess expectation levels were a bit different.

Now let’s talk about the elephant in the room that everyone knows is the key to the Redskins’ long term success this year…..DT Chris Baker. He had an illness that kept him out of practice this week. Was it bad shellfish? A bug he caught from a relative? We don’t know. Word is he’ll be ready to go Sunday. Ok, ok, we all love Chris but the real question is of course RGIII.

Honestly I was a little uncomfortable with all the hype and media circus surrounding RGIIIs return. Am I glad he’s back? Of course. I just had a problem with certain aspects of how it was handled by all parties. We can’t focus on that though because it’s not going to help us against the Packers. We could all see that there were mechanical issues with RGIII last Monday night and less zip on his passes. Yes, his stats were decent but his play didn’t pass the eyeball test. The mechanical issues are troubling but correctable and I’m sure the coaches saw the same things we did. The issues with the knee getting back to where it should be will just take time. I saw enough to think that by the third or fourth game this season we should have an RGIII on the field that we all have come to know and love.

How does this help us this weekend? Well, maybe not much. The Packers’ defense is decent but not spectacular. If they have a weakness I’d say it was in the secondary as they got worked last weekend, but it’s a weakness we may not be ready to exploit unless RGIII gets some issues ironed out. Hell, I’m a caveman, I’d like to see Morris get the ball 35 times and just pound the packers to a bloody pulp all afternoon but the Packers have GOT to know that’s how we want to use Morris too. If I were the Packers I’d load up to stop the run and bring pressure up the middle in passing situations until RGIII proved he could move in the pocket and still get the ball down-field effectively. Can he? If not we're cooked.

Here's the bottom line: RGIII will be better than he was last week. Morris will be better than he was last week. Our defense will be better than it was last week. All of my positivity isn’t going to make us go 15-1 this season though. Vegas say the Packers are a touchdown favorite. I say that’s about right this week but you know that’s not how I’m going to call this one.


Packers – 24
Skins – 27


Forbath kicks the winner late. New safety Bacarri Rambo makes a late pick to seal it.
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As we enjoy today's conversations, let's remember our dear friends 'Docsandy', Sandy Zier-Teitler, and 'Posse Lover', Michael Huffman, who would dearly love to be here with us today! We love and miss you guys ❤

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