Word of Muth: Stretch Slice by Ben Muth
The Redskins had a simple game plan against the Colts: run the football effectively and use play action to create big plays. They were able to run the ball pretty effectively, but they didn't find any big plays in the passing game. As a result, the Redskins lost another close game to fall back to .500. Despite not coming away with a victory, the coaching staff has to be happy with the way the team ran the ball. A big part of that success was the emergence of a possible workhorse in Ryan Torain, who ended the game with 100 yards and two scores.
Of course, Torain wasn't blocking for himself out there: he had a lot of help from the fullback, tight ends, and offensive line. The offensive tackles were the focus of Cris Collinsworth's commentary (and the majority of this article), but the interior offensive linemen played better. Artis Hicks and Kory Lichtensteiger never jumped off the tape. That was actually a good thing.
The Redskins were running a lot of Zone Stretch. It's a play that doesn't lend itself to really impressive blocks, especially on the interior line, where a stalemate is often a win for the offense. Both guards did a nice job of staying engaged with their men and keeping them on the line of scrimmage. This allowed Torain to be deep into the line of scrimmage before he would make his first cut. The later a running back can make a cut, the harder it is for linebackers to flow over top of plays without getting caught up on their own defenders or opposing offensive linemen. Casey Rabach was solid as well, but he was a slight tick below the guards.
The Redskins' tackles didn't play as well as the interior line, but then again, they had a much tougher job. Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis may be the best defensive end combination in the National Football League (copyright: Ron Jaworski). In the running game, I think that Trent Williams and Jammal Brown brought the fight to the Colts. Ryan Torain was consistently able to get to the edge of the defense and chew up chunks of yardage at a time (let it be noted that the Colts secondary was a big part of this too -- they were MIA in run support). That being said, they were usually double-teaming with the tight ends on these plays, so they were rarely on their own. Still, they were effective double teams, and there's no such thing as style points for an offensive line...
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Goaldeje beat me to the twitch. Possibly one of the worst calls of the season. The toss just isn't a good 3rd and one play but it can be effective against teams who don't play press with their corners.