Pros & Cons Week 1: Dodged a Bullet

A pleasant disclaimer: it was nice to win a meaningful game against a quality team. It was nice hitting the rack absent that mixed emotional state of frustration, anger and deadened expectations. Change is indeed in the air in Washington, DC. Maybe even hope!

But we dodged a bullet last night.

And so...some quicklook reactions:

Pros

- this looked like a more disciplined team; remarkably few penalities for first game. could it be? professionalism has returned to Skinsland?!!!

- pass blocking..while not there yet...was order of magnitudes better than the last few years

- we have a QB who knows how to maneuver in the pocket like the very best...that alone is going to make a big difference

- the play calling (more on this later) was less fixated on the dink and dunk patterns we have seen in the past; the middle of the field is in play and while the preseason pattern of not hooking up on deep passes continued...we're close

- the defense (more on this later.......) did hold the opposing team to 2 touchdowns...ok...one if it makes you feel better

- the CBs seemed in better position than the recent past to make plays on the ball

- Landry is a missile who comes to play

- Hall plays smart...who woulda thunk the gambler would move up a rung?

- the defense didn't surrender any huge, gamebreaking sorts of plays

- portis came to play

- AH has got to get his act together. It's good he wanted to stay in the game. Pouting along the sidelies on national TV is BS.

- Ganno looked good. keeper who won the game.

- Thomas looked good on kick returns






Cons

- IMO the down 3 on the d-lie are average to weak; you almost never hear their names called.....they don't create an up field push..they're simply not athletic enough; while Haynesworth is a pain-in-the-arse...and it was clearer last night why the coaching staff is upset with his mistakes in execution...you can still detect a difference in level of play by the line when he is in or out; Goldstein is not an answer - you gotta love having a guy with his attitude - but I have been watching him get pushed backward for years

- the tackling was bad; gang tackling was good....but individual tackling was not to pro levels

- conceding Romo was taking quick drops and passes...I still didn't see the sort of pressure the Boys 3-4 was applying. where's the pass rush? could it be the down 3 aren't good in this departmenmt as well?

- sorry...but I have been commenting for years that rabach is a liability in pass protection. he simply doesn't have the body size and strength to deal with strong nose tackles

- the running game was not there. Portis had some good gains toward the end of the game. I can't tell yet whether the problem lies with the O-line or the RBs. I do know LJ isn't suited to ths offense...he's like Betts was early on - looking and dancing rather than seeing and bursting.

- didn't like play calling or personnel packages in the Red Zone. Gimme a break coaching staff....put Thomas in down on the goal line. He's the only big wideout option you have morons. Those two plays to Armstrong were wasted efforts on nice passes. don't put a dang midget in there. I'm more sensitive in this area cuz to me this sort of personnel package sniffs of ego - punishing a player like Thomas to the detriment of the team.

- get rid of Bidwell. He is a disaster waiting to happen. He's gonna suffer a couple blocked kicks this year and his distance stinks. why the got rid the last guy without so much as any competition is beyond me. stupid moive.

- why put Banks on the roster if you aren't going to use him?

- Doughty always seems two steps behind the play

- we gotta play smarter on sideline tackling; too many out of control tackles (Landry!) that are going to bite us one day in a close game

we got lucky last night. good game we would have lost last year - coaching does make a difference.... ... but make no mistake - Dallas lost that game. we didn't win it.

With a couple expeptions, no real disagreement until the last two sentences. That just sounds argumentative to me.

Stats don't always tell the story...Washington more than held their own last night, made plenty of plays, and let several opportunites to win it "cleaner" slip through their fingers, leading to a more dramatic finish than it needed to be.

Dallas made plenty of mistakes, but so did Washington. Difference is, Dallas is supposed to be a contender, Washington is a 4-12 team with a whole new look.

The new kid on the block made the plays when they had to be made, and the neighborhood bully didn't have enough answers.

Om said:

With a couple expeptions, no real disagreement until the last two sentences. That just sounds argumentative to me.

Stats don't always tell the story...Washington more than held their own last night, made plenty of plays, and let several opportunites to win it "cleaner" slip through their fingers, leading to a more dramatic finish than it needed to be.

Dallas made plenty of mistakes, but so did Washington. Difference is, Dallas is supposed to be a contender, Washington is a 4-12 team with a whole new look.

The new kid on the block made the plays when they had to be made, and the neighborhood bully didn't have enough answers.

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LOVE the last sentence. It sure as heck makes a difference when you just feel this team is gonna get better as opposed to having no freaking clue if we'll even have a snowball's chance to win next week.

We might not beat Houston but I firmly believe we'll play them better than the Colts did. That's saying something.

You know who's name it's nice NOT to hear?

Trent Williams.

It's not like Dal ass is lacking pass rushers, and he held up very well in his first NFL game.

fansince62 said:

Dallas lost that game. we didn't win it.

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Disagree totally. We deserved to win that game. Our D held them to one score and scored a TD. We made enough special teams plays to make a difference. Our offense did just enough to finish the game off. I've never expected us to hit our stride until mid- to late-season, but to pull off this win to start the season, against all expectations, couldn't be more glorious.

Sarge said:

You know who's name it's nice NOT to hear?

Trent Williams.

It's not like Dal ass is lacking pass rushers, and he held up very well in his first NFL game.

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The kid had one of the roughest assignments to start a career and he did a damn good job. Yes, he's a rookie and made some rookie mistakes, but I can tell already that barring injury, we have the left tackle position locked up for years to come. If we can get at least a decade out of him like Samuels, that would be awesome!

We seem to be lucky in that regard. Jacoby, Lachey, Samuals, now Williams..........

The way we played in all 3 phases to me looked like we were playing to win. With Zorn we would have played not to lose. We didn't put up a lot of points, but give some credit to Dallas D for playing hard.

Last night the Redskins wanted to win more and did.

MikeSr619 said:

I just loved that we blitzed every single play the last drive for dallass. showed we werent gonig to go "prevent" and hope they didnt score. we were trying to knock them around and almost did it a few times.

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It left one question REALLY nagging at me...........is Brian Orakpo that good or is Alex Barron that bad?

I share the same observations as you guys but thought of a few others. Wr's were getting seperation and Mcnabb was pretty accurate...but our wr's had a case of the butterfingers last night and couldn't catch a cold.
Romo was very careless with his throws and we left a few ints on the field. All in all I'm very pleased. I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. Ecspecially against a division opponent at home.
I think we all know what it feels like to be on the otherside of the win column and what agony the cowboys and thier fans will have to endure all week with the talking heads in the media.
That being said we should share a moment of silence and condolence to the cowboy team and its fans...OK! Now that's over "HOW'D THAT TASTE YOU MISERABLE BUNCH OF LOUD MOUTH FRONT RUNNERS?" LOL HTTR

anyone who is not concerned about a first team offense that has done nothing since the Buf preseason game needs to rethink things. I also expect things to improve...but right now a few things are obvious:

- the lineblocking and running are not in synch...we do not have a running game and that undercuts a lot of other things Shanahan is trying to do

- the offense did not score a single TD last night...not a good sign

- the receiving corps..at this point...is a liability. you can't have two guys carrying the load (Cooley, Moss). way too many dropped passes...a disturbing pattern from previous seasons

Not that I care what P King says, but we're 13

13. Washington (1-0). Any team that plays defense the way the Redskins did will be in most of their games this year, no matter how long it takes the offense to be competent.

The fact is, we beat a team many mediots were predicting would win our division and play a home game in the Super Bowl.

Did this game leave us all asking a lot of questions? Absolutely. But isn't that better than having a stack of questions answered by getting trounced?

Being 1-0 and beating your archrival, who happens to be in your division, is a great place to be, especially after going 0-6 in the division last year. As far as I'm concerned, getting my questions answered can go right ahead and take all season....so long as the result is the same.

man.......what a bunch of delusional types. step back from the bottle. it was a great and satisfying victory. and then there is what has been happening since game 2 of preseason. the offense isn't there...not by a long shot. can't handle that message?

TOO BAD!!!!

break...break. Mike...fix whatever's broken in the running game and find some receivers who are reliable. then we can take advantage of a super QB.

MikeSr619 said:

I didnt realize it was comedy hour in BGO.

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why..are you the butt of someone's joke?

but I am sharing your amusement. every Skins' fan I spoke to today was elated with the victory...and worried about the offense. that is different from saying the offense is hopeless.