Solid win! The Skins are not some polished, finished product, so it was nice to get a road win.
This to me is the most exciting bit.
Our D-line is young and relatively inexperienced. Allen got only a handle of games before going out last year. Payne is a rookie. Yet they bottled up one of the leagues best running backs.
Dunbar and co are a young secondary, and performed admirably. (Note: When I predicted the score in the Keys to the Game thread, I had assumed that we could bottle up Johnson, but figured that with our young secondary and with Larry Fitzgerald back there even Bradford would be able to do us some damage. I was wrong about that!)
This is the first ACTUAL game experience that Smith has had with Reed and CT... and they looked like they'd been doing this for years.
AP has only been with us for what... 3 weeks! And already he's making a huge difference on this offence.
AND... that's only game 1!
The potential is clearly there. If we can avoid key injuries these players should only get better as they get more comfortable with the NFL (for the rookies and Allen) and as the team gets to play more together.
Last night felt like we scratched the surface of our potential.
I am, as usual, very optimistic.