The play breakdowns:
First quarter
Second quarter
Second half
And some final wrap-up thoughts for the week:
- Casey Rabach and Chris Cooley are still the weak links of the Redskins running game.
- Much was made of Portis' bone spurs, but I don't think the injuries hurt him too much. When holes were there he made the most of them; the weak running game was due to the pass-heavy play calling in the first half and problems with blocking (see above).
- I'm worried about Chris Samuels. He hasn't been terrible, but he has appeared this year like an average tackle. I don't know if that is a result purely of age or if he is not fully recovered from last year's injuries.
- Chad Rinehart appeared... somewhat adequate. He was overpowered at times, but managed to not be conspicuously awful, which is all I really ask from a backup guard.
- Stafford missed so many wide open receivers I lost count. This game really could have been a lot worse, as scary as that may be.
- Carlos Rogers and DeAngelo Hall both had miserable days.
- Blache appeared to get thoroughly out-schemed today, and that was the cause of the Lions' success running up the middle. In a way this is good news - if we were getting blown of the line there would be a major concern, but we weren't. Scheme problems are probably fixable.
- I think the pressure, and I'm not referring to the Lions, really got to Campbell today. The missed throws, the fumbles without contact, etc. were striking. I feel like the offense's confidence is at the breaking point. If they get booed after the first setback in the first quarter against Tampa, it wouldn't surprise me to see them go in the tank entirely. They can only take so much - why wouldn't they be pressing?
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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Was subpar scheme the only reason the Lions got so many yards on the ground against us? I didn't look at the game on TIVO or anything, but while I was watching, it seemed like they were getting a noticeable push on offense. It did seem a little weird to me considering that the d-line played quite well against the Giants but really didn't have a good showing against Detroit. Also, I really enjoyed reading your opinions on the plays and I hope you continue to do this throughout the season.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog last week and have really enjoyed it so far. Keep up the good analysis!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to sit down with your game notes and rewarch the game with my high definition tivo (sorry to rub it in) and see if I can see anything else you may have skipped over.
Pratik - I think it was scheme because there are very few cases of our D-linemen getting physically outmatched. The Lions blockers weren't blowing anyone off the line, but they were allowing a little penetration and funneling our defenders away from the gap the back was going to run through. They also did a good job of accounting for our linemen and managing to get one of their guys - often Raiola - free to block London Fletcher.
ReplyDeleteC-Money - That would be great, the more eyes the better. Let me know what you find, or if you disagree with my interpretation of anything that happened.