Redskins vs. Vikings, 4th quarter review

1st quarter review
2nd quarter
3rd quarter

FOURTH QUARTER

2-18-MIN 36 (15:00) (Shotgun) D.McNabb pass short right to K.Williams to MIN 26 for 10 yards (M.Williams; A.Winfield).

Timeout #1 by MIN at 14:16.

3-8-MIN 26 (14:16) (Shotgun) D.McNabb pass short middle to K.Williams to MIN 21 for 5 yards (A.Winfield, J.Allen).

4-3-MIN 21 (13:39) G.Gano 40 yard field goal is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-H.Smith.

MIN 17 WAS 10, 4 plays, 7 yards, 2:18 drive, 1:26 elapsed

G.Gano kicks 69 yards from WAS 30 to MIN 1. P.Harvin to MIN 15 for 14 yards (K.Barnes).

Excellent tackle by Barnes coming down the sideline then diving to the middle to trip up Harvin.

Minnesota Vikings at 13:34, (1st play from scrimmage 13:30)

1-10-MIN 15 (13:30) T.Gerhart up the middle to MIN 20 for 5 yards (R.McIntosh).

Another run right at the Maake Kemoeatu, another free five yards. Maake actually ends up on his back with two Vikings on top of him.

2-5-MIN 20 (12:56) T.Gerhart left guard to MIN 24 for 4 yards (P.Daniels, M.Kemoeatu).

Fletcher takes on the lead FB and stands him up, forcing the RB right up the middle. Rocky meets him in the hole and Daniels comes off his block to help as well, but the RB is able to force his way through with some good hard running.

3-1-MIN 24 (12:20) J.Dugan right guard to MIN 24 for no gain (P.Daniels; K.Moore).

Four man front for the short yardage situation; Haynesworth and Maake are the DTs. Hope this isn’t too predictable: Maake gets pushed off the line but Haynesworth fights through the left A gap and stuffs the play.

4-1-MIN 24 (11:57) C.Kluwe punts 49 yards to WAS 27, Center-C.Loeffler. B.Banks to WAS 31 for 4 yards (Tyrell.Johnson).

Washington Redskins at 11:45

1-10-WAS 31 (11:45) D.McNabb pass deep left to A.Armstrong to MIN 24 for 45 yards (M.Williams).

McNabb has time to go deep due to nice blocks by James Davis and Fred Davis to pick up blitzers. The safety is clearly confused about his responsibility on this play as he hesitates before picking up Armstrong, who uses his head start to blow right by him on a simple go route. Armstrong had a good three steps on his guy and should have scored but the ball is badly underthrown.


Side note: Until just now when I had to reference both James and Fred Davis on the same play, I’m pretty sure it had not sunk in that there were now two Davises on the offense. I have a feeling in previous reviews I have probably referred to “Davis” and you had no idea if I was referring to a tight end or a running back. Huh.

1-10-MIN 24 (10:58) D.McNabb pass incomplete short right to A.Armstrong.

Drop of an easy pass in the flat.

2-10-MIN 24 (10:54) (Shotgun) D.McNabb pass short left to S.Moss to MIN 23 for 1 yard (L.Guion).

Redskins start in an empty backfield but Santana motions across the backfield to take a bubble screen with Roydell and Keiland (lined up as a WR) arrayed in front of him to block. Keiland loses his battle with a DB, though, and Santana never has a chance.

3-9-MIN 23 (10:11) (Shotgun) D.McNabb pass incomplete short left to K.Williams (K.Williams).

Empty backfield, so the Vikings blitz a LB off the left edge who is unblocked because Trent does not have a TE on his side to help. That forces McNabb to throw immediately, and it is tipped by a DT pushed through Lichtensteiger.

4-9-MIN 23 (10:08) G.Gano 42 yard field goal is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-H.Smith.

MIN 17 WAS 13, 5 plays, 46 yards, 1:43 drive, 4:58 elapsed

G.Gano kicks 69 yards from WAS 30 to MIN 1. P.Harvin to MIN 26 for 25 yards (R.Doughty).

Minnesota Vikings at 10:02, (1st play from scrimmage 9:57)

1-10-MIN 26 (9:57) B.Favre scrambles right end to MIN 28 for 2 yards (R.McIntosh).

Carriker beats the RT to the inside, and only some pretty bad holding keeps him from chasing down Favre as he goes into his bootleg. He puts him on the run, though, and very good coverage by Alexander on Favre’s dumpoff route (FB in the flat) forces Favre to keep it for a minimal gain.

2-8-MIN 28 (9:15) T.Gerhart left end to MIN 31 for 3 yards (P.Buchanon, L.Fletcher).

Orkapo loses his gap responsibility by getting too far inside, seemingly giving up the corner. But the pulling guard is absolutely destroyed by hits from both Rocky and Kareem Moore, forcing the RB outside and partially tripping him up.

3-5-MIN 31 (8:29) (Shotgun) PENALTY on MIN-B.Favre, Delay of Game, 5 yards, enforced at MIN 31 - No Play.

3-10-MIN 26 (8:02) (Shotgun) B.Favre pass short middle to P.Harvin to MIN 35 for 9 yards (K.Barnes).

4-1-MIN 35 (7:25) (Punt formation) PENALTY on MIN-E.Griffen, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at MIN 35 - No Play.

4-6-MIN 30 (7:15) C.Kluwe punts 47 yards to WAS 23, Center-C.Loeffler. B.Banks for 77 yards, TOUCHDOWN NULLIFIED by Penalty. PENALTY on WAS-P.Riley, Illegal Block Above the Waist, 11 yards, enforced at WAS 22.

When Banks caught this he had 5 Vikings closing on him with no blockers. Really, he should have fair caught it. Now I really don’t mean to take anything away from Banks and his impressive return talent, but it looked like the guy who Riley blocked in the back would have had a pretty decent chance of taking down Banks before he got going. So it may not be entirely fair to say that Riley nullified a touchdown, because I’m not convinced it would have happened without the block. I also have to say that the block was borderline at best. Riley hit him in the shoulder, and it’s the sort of block you see on every single punt return and it seems to be luck whether or not it gets called. I think the NFL really needs to work on clarifying the rules here because it just make long kick/punt returns to random.

Washington Redskins at 6:54

1-10-WAS 11 (6:54) D.McNabb pass incomplete short middle to J.Davis.

And another drop that hit the receiver right in the hands.

2-10-WAS 11 (6:50) D.McNabb pass short left to K.Williams to WAS 13 for 2 yards (A.Winfield, K.Williams).

Cooley is left one on one against Jared Allen (RDE) and gets beaten to the outside just as badly as Brown gets beaten by the LDE, so McNabb is forced to dump it off to Keiland.

3-8-WAS 13 (6:47) D.McNabb pass incomplete deep right to A.Armstrong (M.Williams).

This ball never should have been thrown. The safety had inside position on the route and really should have picked it off.

4-8-WAS 13 (6:24) H.Smith punts 53 yards to MIN 34, Center-N.Sundberg. G.Camarillo to MIN 41 for 7 yards (D.Young).

4.1 seconds.

Minnesota Vikings at 6:13

1-10-MIN 41 (6:13) T.Gerhart right end to MIN 47 for 6 yards (L.Alexander).

Maake is driven off the line by a double team (sigh); Carriker is to his left but can’t control his inside gap.

2-4-MIN 47 (5:45) T.Gerhart up the middle to WAS 49 for 4 yards (R.Doughty).

1-10-WAS 49 (5:22) P.Harvin left end to WAS 47 for 2 yards (A.Carriker; L.Alexander).

Carriker does a great job fighting blockers as he works his way outside down the line to shut off the corner.

2-8-WAS 47 (4:41) T.Gerhart left guard to WAS 44 for 3 yards (K.Golston; M.Kemoeatu).

This time, Golston stands up to his blocker quite well and when the RB comes through Golston’s inside gap he sheds off to make the play. Maake, of course, got pushed off the line by the center, so there were still yards to be had.

3-5-WAS 44 (4:01) (Shotgun) B.Favre pass short left to G.Lewis to WAS 36 for 8 yards (P.Buchanon).

Four man front, but the Packers get the snap off before the Redskins are expecting it so both of the DTs, Holliday and Haynesworth, are not fully down in their stance when the play starts. Haynesworth still gets some push on a double team and gets his hand up to very nearly tip the ball.

1-10-WAS 36 (3:18) T.Gerhart right guard to WAS 32 for 4 yards (R.Doughty; R.McIntosh).

Maake and Daniels (RDE) are pushed off the line. Carriker drives the RT back, but he is once again held to prevent him from filling his inside gap (this happened all day).

Timeout #1 by WAS at 03:12.

2-6-WAS 32 (3:12) T.Gerhart left end to WAS 26 for 6 yards (L.Fletcher, P.Buchanon).

Alexander, at ROLB, sells outs on an inside run (understandable I suppose given how easy it is to run against the linemen, but lousy 2-gap defense) and lets himself get sealed inside by the LT. The play is forced outside directly to Kareem Moore, but Moore is taken out by a nice crackback block from the WR, then the RB simply runs through tackle attempts by Fletcher and Buchanon.

1-10-WAS 26 (2:35) T.Gerhart left guard to WAS 24 for 2 yards (R.Doughty, P.Daniels).

Doughty fights through the block of the tight WR and chases down the play from the backside.

Timeout #2 by WAS at 02:31.

2-8-WAS 24 (2:31) T.Gerhart right tackle to WAS 24 for no gain (P.Daniels; R.McIntosh).

Daniels fights his way down the line from RDE.

Timeout #3 by WAS at 02:25.

3-8-WAS 24 (2:25) B.Favre scrambles up the middle to WAS 14 for 10 yards (R.Doughty).

Favre bootlegs to the right off play action. It looks like he has nowhere to go because there are three defenders tracking him down the line. But Carriker overpursues and lets Favre cut inside him, and Doughty and Alexander for some reason both cover the FB in the flat to take away Favre’s dumpoff option, and both are unable to recover in time to prevent the first down. And that’s the game.

Two-Minute Warning

1-10-WAS 14 (2:00) B.Favre kneels to WAS 15 for -1 yards.

2-11-WAS 15 (1:20) B.Favre kneels to WAS 16 for -1 yards.

3-12-WAS 16 (1:20) B.Favre kneels to WAS 17 for -1 yards.