Redskins vs. Buccaneers first half review

Redskins first possession

2-6-W24 – A very disturbing sack. Against a straight-forward four man rush, three different linemen are beaten in one on-one matchups. Campbell is trapped between Samuels, Heyer, and Rinehart and goes down for a four yard loss.

3-10-W20 – Heyer and Samuels are both beaten again, but this would have been survivable had Campbell been able to step up into the pocket. Unfortunately, Jimmy Wilkerson, rushing from the DT position, manages to get past Rinehart to Rinehart’s left. He bounces off of Casey Rabach, who is blocking no one but somehow manages to not to pick him up. Wilkerson penetrates to the exact point Campbell is trying to step up to, and forces the fumble.

Buccaneers first possession

2-G-W8 – The Bucs sell a play fake very effectively and all the LBs, who may well have been able to fill the passing lanes and break up this pass, get sucked into the line of scrimmage. It becomes simple at that point – two receivers are in the end zone, each with one-on-one man coverage, and Josh Johnson has clear throwing lanes and plenty of time behind max protect to choose which one is more open. Carlos Rogers does’t blow the coverange at all, but he is victimized for the touchdown due to his size disadvantage and a perfect throw.

Redskins second possession

1-10-W24 – Derrick Dockery opens up a hole, and Sellers takes out the LB who tries to fill it. Portis would have gotten more than four yards if Ronde Barber hadn’t come unblocked from the other side of the line and chased him down from behind. Dockery walled off his man on the earlier sacks, and at this point is the only lineman who has looked at all effective.

2-6-W28 – Handoff to Betts from shotgun. Rabach gets occupied helping Dockery on his man. Dockery does not in any way need the help. Rabach doesn’t notice that a LB is shooting through the enormous gap he has left open, and Betts gets taken down for a loss by an untouched defender.

Buccaneers second possession

1-10-T31 – I think Haynesworth loses gap discipline, which is not at all unheard of. He beats his lineman, but through the wrong gap, and while he gets penetration once on the other side of the line he isn’t quite able to get to the RB before he is through the gap Haynesworth was supposed to be filling. Fourteen yard gain.

2-6-50 – Orakpo is just too quick for the TE Jerramy Stevens. He beats him to the outside and would have gotten the sack had Stevens not pulled him to the ground in desperation. Orakpo is still able to get up and almost wrap up Johnson, but Johnson is able to just slither free and run for several yards, which are of course cancelled by the holding call on Stevens.

2-16-T40 – Handoff from shotgun. Kedric Golston uses his strength to hold his ground on the line of scrimmage, and maintains his gap responsibility to shed off his man and stuff the run.

3-13-T43 – This pass rush didn’t get there, but I liked it. Redskins lined up in a 3-2-6 with Golston at tackle, Andre Carter and Haynesworth at ends, and Orakpo as LB up close to the LOS (Fletcher is deeper in pass coverage). Golston almost penetrates and requires a double team to be slowed down, and Haynesworth at RDE rushes to the inside to try to open up a gap for Orakpo, who blitzes to the outside. It happens that Orakpo is slowed by a good chip from the RB who later caught the dumpoff pass (well short of the first down, and blanketed by Reed Doughty) but plays like this show how much fun we can have with our talented linemen.

The punt is short and wobbly. It appears from the camera angle that it will bounce straight into the endzone well before any Bucs can get there, but Antwaan Randle-El apparently thinks it’s in danger of going out of bounds and picks it up at the 4 yard line.

Redskins third possession

2-5-W9 – Cooley is lined up at FB and tries to be the lead blocker. The line does it’s job and opens up a big hole between LG and LT, but the LB who fills it unsurprisingly shoots right past Cooley and Portis is tripped up in the backfield, then stuffed at the line. I cannot imagine why it would ever even occur to Jim Zorn to use Cooley as a lead blocker on a power run.

Buccaneers third possession

2-9-T34 – Carlos Rogers makes a great play to bust up a quick hitch to the slot receiver. Rogers is covering the split end, who is clearly supposed to block him and give the slot guy room to run with nobody on him man to man. But Rogers reads the play from the beginning and reacts before the SE can get into his block. Rogers closes on the slot receiver as soon as the ball touches his hands and forces an incompletion.

3-14-T29 – Haynesworth is lined up at RDE and stunts to the left. On the way he reads the screen and makes it to the other side to break up the pass, and even nearly intercept it. He’s able to make it over because Kedric Golston occupies all of the interior blockers. Our defensive line makes me feel warm inside.

Redskins fourth possession

1-10-T43 – Portis runs to the right, and once again Cooley is unable to seal the corner. Sellers gets downfield and open up yards that Cooley never gives Portis the opportunity to gain.

3-4-T38 – Dockery is beaten by a stunt and the resulting pressure forces Campbell out of his desired passing lane. As a result, I think, he throws behind Malcolm Kelly and the ball bounces right off the hands of the trailing DB.

4-4-T38 – Campbell from shotgun. He has a nice pocket, but locks onto Kelly’s crossing route and forces the throw even though Kelly is thoroughly, utterly, unmistakably double covered. Intercepted by Aqib Talib. This looked like a desperation play by a quarterback who was afraid to hear more boos if he failed to convert on fourth down.

Buccaneers fourth possession

2-6-T40 – Haynesworth uses his agility to slip past the LG, who is left blocking air in a rather comical manner (he even maintains good leverage against the empty space). Haynesworth then bowls over the center to flush Johnson from the pocket, and the LG recovers from his shock and confusion to turn around push Haynesworth down from behind, which is totally illegal but nobody notices. Johnson shows more of his increasingly infuriating mobility to escape from the collapsing pocket and get within a yard of the first down, but the play is called back due to a hold (not on anyone who was attempting to block Haynesworth).

[Second Quarter]

3-11-T44 – Justin Tryon lines up as if to cover the slot receiver but blitzes instead. The RT is frozen by a stunt to the inside by Andre Carter so Tryon comes in untouched. Johnson tries to escape to the left side but Tryon chases him down from behind.

Redskins fifth possession

2-4-W30 – Campbell loses his pocket presence. Dockery has to drop way into the backfield to pick up a man who stunted to the outside. However the rest of the pocket was intact, and Campbell needed only make a step up or to the right to buy himself plenty of time. Instead he panics and throws a ball about six yard short to Cooley. Just to make it worse, Casey Rabach is called for holding.

2-14-W20 – Campbell is well protected off the play fake, and throws a very accurate 11 yard pass to Santana Moss on a crossing route. But there were two defenders closing in on Santana – if the pass had been off by a foot to either side it may have been picked.

1-10-W35 – Perfect zone play. Casey Rabach is able to slip to the second level and take on a LB (which he can still do very capably) and Portis gains 7 yards.

1-10-W46 – Play fake and seven step drop, but only two receivers go out and apparently neither gets open, as Campbell is forced up in the pocket. Cooley comes off his block and is right in front of Campbell for and easy dumpoff with absolutely no potential tacklers in front of him, but Campbell panics and somehow manages to overthrow him from about 5 feet away.

3-2-T46 – Campbell tries to hit Kelly who is covered one-on-one on a sideline go route, but he is perfectly covered by Aqib Talib and Campbell makes a bad throw and leaves the ball to the inside of the field. Kelly makes a spectacular leaping effort to try to get over Talib, but Talib is able to box him out and make the pick.

Buccaneers fifth possession

1-10-W43 – Josh Johnson hits a WR on a skinny post, and instead of just making the easy tackle LaRon Landry goes for the Sean Taylor highlight hit, but whiffs and allows 7 more yards. My friend Max, who I was watching the game with, pointed out that no one really expects LaRon Landry to be Sean Taylor except for Landry himself.

Redskins sixth possession

Redskins start piecing together a decent drive based on power running plays and dumpoffs to RBs with room to run. Then…

2-10-T34 – Campbell steps up in a collapsing pocket, then tries to shoot the ball to Cooley over the middle. Instead he pegs a referee in the side of the head (hard!) and the ball bounces straight up into the air, and it is nearly intercepted by three different Buccaneers. At this point I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head.

Buccaneers sixth possession

1-10-W37 – The Bucs choose to double Golston, so Haynesworth is left with a mere guard to handle and of course beats him soundly, hitting Josh Johnson and forcing an errant throw. Now I have talked up Kedric Golston a lot on this blog, and in my opinion deservedly so. But how do you double-team him instead of Haynesworth?

2-10-W37 – Orakpo and Chris Wilson are the ends, and both collapse the pocket. But Josh Johnson irritatingly escapes up the middle. London Fletcher has a bead on him three yards short of the first down but is taken out by an uncalled block from behind, so Johnson makes it all the way to the 21. This is the kind of QB that makes you want to break his legs.

2-6-W18 – Josh Johnson throws a ball directly at Carlos Rogers and it bounces off of his chest. Rogers is an excellent cover corner and I often defend him against unappreciative Redskins fans, but I cannot minimize his utter inability to catch a football. But if he was going to improve on this it would have happened by now.

3-6-W18 – Orakpo forces the LT to the outside, then when the LT overcompensates he beats him to the inside and sacks Johnson. We drafted a fully developed pass rusher. Now if we could just keep him out of pass coverage…

Bucs kick a short field goal in the closing seconds to take a 10-0 lead.

Second half review and wrap up thoughts to follow.