You were right on the money about the FGs. That was kinda creepy.
Not really creepy, Henry, I was looking for ways the Titans could be beaten depending on the game situation. When the Steelers beat them the Steelers only had one TD-in the 1st quarter just like the Skins. They kept putting themselves in FG position-again just like the Skins, or, more accurately we did it like
they did it. McNabb's 30-50 376 yards passing filled another requirement: out-pass them. I had serious doubts about the team having any chance at this one until Collins went down in the Miami game. A healthy Young with Collins as backup is a QB combo few teams are lucky enough ever to have. When Young got hurt the dropoff by bringing in Collins was one of the shallowest in the league. When Collins went down in the Miami game that took the Titan's safety net away from them and with both knee and ankle injuries affecting Young-they are struggling right now-we caught them at a vulnerable moment and took advantage of it.
A couple more things the Redskins did I had listed on the "to-do" list of ways to win the game.
1.) Keep their 3rd down percentage below 31%. They were at 27% for the game.
3.) Win the turnover battle. The Redskins were +1 for the game.
We also did a couple of things that were pleasant surprises.
Our 3rd down conversion rate was at 50% (!). 8-16.
We kept CJ out of the end zone and preoccupied Young enough for him to pretty much ignore Randy Moss as a target.
The "Right place at the right time award" goes to Philip Buchanon and his INT.
One quick note-about my earlier statement concerning the fact that the team has improved. After the meltdown of the second half of the 2008 season and the near-complete implosion of last season the Redskins, at least in my view, lost something. The will to win. Last season the team just seemed to stop trying, stop fighting, stop believing in themselves as a football team. That was the most depressing thing to me about last season.
This season they're different. Mike and Kyle Shanahan and Jim Haslett have made some mistakes, some pretty bad ones. But, giving credit where credit is due,
the most improtant thing I think they have done for the Redskins is to restore their belief in themselves. This team
tries to win. Out-manned, out-gunned, even out-coached this season's Redskin team doesn't curl up and go into hiding when things get bad. After getting their clocks cleaned by the Eagles they picked themselves up, brushed off the mud and grass stains and traveled into Tennessee's home turf with the mindset of "We're gonna try like hell to win this game". Even with players dropping like flies with injuries they never quit, never gave up, never rolled over and played dead but kept fighting to keep themselves in a position to make winning thie game a real possibility.
I haven't seen that in two years.
I've missed it, too. Bad.
So even though we fans might raise hell with you guys on the Redskins coaching staff I'd like to say thank you for this one very important thing.
Thanks for bringing that back.
Besides if you're gonna re-build a team, that seems to me to be a damned good place to start.
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