Redskins vs. Lions - Second Quarter Review

I ordinarily would do a full half at a time, but it's been one of those weeks so I've had to do the 1st half in two chunks. Remember I ended the 1st quarter review with 1:30 left, but there was only one play worth describing that occured before the quarter break.

I'll try to get the 2nd half review up before the weekend, and intend to do it all in one post.

Redskins second possession

1-10-W25 – Draw to Portis out of the shotgun. Rabach is carried backwards 4 yards and pushed into Portis, who manages to fight enough to make it only a 2 yard loss. Rinehart did a good job of getting to the second level and blocking the LB, so there would have been a decent gain if Portis had been allowed to make it to the hole.

[Second Quarter]

1-10-W36 – Play action. Rinehart pulls to the left, allowing Samuels to block a tackle. Unfortunately Rinehart can’t quite get his feet set once he gets to his new position and the rusher he is responsible for is able to push through him and hit Campbell’s arm as he throws, leading to a loft into the middle of three defenders that easily could have been intercepted. Not sure what the idea was with the protection call here – Heyer found himself with no one to block.

2-10-W36 – Quick pass to Sellers in the flat, which is jumped by the LB and should have been intercepted and returned for the touchdown. This is the point where I started worrying about Campbell’s nerves – if there’s one thing he usually does well it’s avoid interceptions.

3-10-W36 – Nice pass rush design by the Lions. A DT gets good push against Rinehart. The LDE stunts inside to get through the hole that creates. What was supposed to happen was for Heyer to turn in on the tackle and Rinehart to pick up the stunting end, but Heyer was momentarily frozen by a LB who blitzed passed him and was picked up rather poorly by Betts (I think – I’m working with standard def here). The stunting DE and the LB force Campbell to scramble, and he ends up hitting Santana short of the first down marker.

Lions third possession

1-10-D6 – Center Dominic Railoa kills us again. He slips through the line perfectly and squares up Fletcher, allowing Smith to shoot up the middle for 18 yards. I’ve already checked – Raiola is not a free agent after the year.

[skipped a bunch of plays here]

3-7-W43 – Stafford hits Bryant Johnson in stride. Johnson is able to outrun Tryon and Horton and puts a move on DeAngelo Hall; eventually London Fletcher pulls him down from behind after a long pursuit.

3-5-W14 – Orakpo stunts inside, which leaves Haynesworth working 1-on-1 on a tackle who can’t handle him. He easily overpowers the LT to get the sack. Unfortunately, this is the play where he hurt his him and was lying face down for a very long time after the play.
Lions kick a field goal to make it 10-0.

Redskins third possession

1-10-W23 – Campbell gets good protection but tries to force a deep out to Devin Thomas, who is double covered. It bounces off a DB for another near-pick. By this point Jason was clearly pressing.

3-13-W20 – Jason gets good protection and hits Cooley in the seam. Cooley immediate looks to the first down marker and slams the turf in disgust when he sees he’s a yard short of the sticks.
Hunter’s punt: 59 yards, 4.75 hang time. And that’s 59 yards in the air, it wasn’t one of those punts that racks up cheap yards through lucky bounces. Lions get a good return off of it but it is cancelled by a penalty.

Lions fourth possession

2-1-D27 – Reed Doughty sniffs out the run and shoots the gap to take down the RB in the backfield. Do the Redskins have two fantastic strong safeties or are the safeties just really well coached? Or both?

2-6-D43 – Doughty again! Reads the run perfectly and gets the ballcarrier in the backfield. I’ve always judged Doughty unfairly because I can’t erase Terrell Owens’ huge day in 2007 from my memory, but they guy really is a pretty good player. It’s too bad he’s somewhat redundant with Horton – their strengths and weakness kind of match up so it’s not like they playing time can be divvied up by situation.

2-10-W20 – Smoot breaks up a perfect pass to Bryant Johnson in the end zone. Smoot is the only corner who had a good day.

3-10-W20 – Big TE Pettigrew is blanketed by Hall but uses his size to block him out and make a first down catch over the middle. A recurring theme here – the Redskins corners (other than Smoot, for this week anyway) have a terrible time with big receivers.

(Lions are eventually stopped in the 7 and settle for a field goal with 2 second left)