Colts Top Redskins, But……..

…. is this loss really devastating? The great Peyton Manning was supposed to carve up the Redskins Defense and run away with the game Sunday night. Well, Manning looked good for the most part, but even Peyton the great showed signs of being human. He’s not the second coming of the creator people. Peyton Manning is a man just like everyone else. And Sunday night, Washington had enough opportunities to win that game because of Manning’s mistakes. Note to every other team in the NFL: YOU HAVE TO MAKE MANNING PAY FOR HIS MISTAKES OR YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WIN AGAINST THE COLTS, PERIOD!!!

I had to record the game and watch it over myself. In all there were about five opportunities for interceptions to end drives, maybe even shift the momentum. But the opportunistic Redskins Defense just couldn’t quite come up with the momentum changing plays that were needed at certain points. Again, Carlos Rogers had two opportunities for interceptions and put both of them on the ground. Now I can’t be mad at him. Rogers is a solid Cornerback. If he catches half of the picks that he drops, he’d be considered a top Cornerback in the NFL. But, remember this people: If Rogers is dropping picks that means the other teams Receivers are not catching those passes. Kareem Moore even dropped what would have been a timely interception. The opportunities were there and aplenty. It leads me to believe one thing. Once this team gets used to the 3-4 Defense this will be one of the best teams in the NFL.

For once the roster and the scheme are close to being on the same page. You can’t ask Jason Campbell to be Peyton Manning behind David Carr’s Offensive Line. You can’t expect the Redskins to be the Patriots when you have the stability of the Raiders. And just in case you haven’t noticed, the only reason why Washington was even in the game was because of Donovan McNabb. McNabb just needs a little help from the Defense, and a little help from Kyle Shanahan. Kyle was killing me with the playcalling at certain points. You have to know when to go for a kill shot and when to let the other team slowly bleed. Early on in the game Washington had a chance to cut the Colts lead to 3 points, but on a 3rd and 1, we got the hairbrain idea to run a toss sweep with Ryan Torain. Unless you have Adrian Peterson or Frank Gore or even my new favorite running back Arian Foster, why the hell are we running a toss sweep on a 3rd down and 1 with Ryan Torain? DUMB!! DUMB!! DUMB!!!

Manning really wasn’t pressured as much I expected and he got some time to make plays. The smartest thing that the Colts did was to run the Hurry Up Offense and stop the Redskins from substituting. That was a great game plan. Manning was very affective at running the Hurry Up and I was surprised that Washington wasn’t prepared. If they were, I couldn’t tell. Although Manning played well, he gave Washington opportunities to change the outcome of Sunday’s game and I am embarrassed to say the Redskins did not take advantage of it.

As a fan, I can easily say Washington gave away the game against the Colts. The Colts are not as good as I thought they were, and Washington is better than I thought they were. There was a time early on in the season where Washington was getting the bounces and the calls were going their way. Now it seems as though the Redskins are running out of luck. At this point you have to start creating your own luck and scrap and scrape for everything. Washington has the personnel to win 13 games this season. In reality Washington may only win 9 or 10. But after a 4-12 campaign last year, I’ll take a 9-7 or a 10-6 season. One thing is for sure. The AFC South is a tough division and I am not looking forward to playing against Jacksonville or Tennessee. Washington is going to have to win the out of Conference games to give themselves a shot at the playoffs. Because let’s be honest, the NFC East is going to be decided by like the 3rd, 4th, or eve the 5th tie breaker and one of those is going to be the out of Conference games.

ALL HAIL DIRTY 30!!!

Aside from Aaron Rodgers being beaten to pulp yesterday, he looked good.  But, Donovan McNabb should be given props for sticking to it and pulling out an ugly win against the Green Bay Packers this Sunday. I am not happy with him having to throw the ball 49 times, but if I want someone to throw the ball that much, he is one of very few I would trust. But I want to talk about a player who everyone had something negative to say about last year. I heard people call him worthless and a waste. Some comments walked a fine line of criticism and racism. Those I wont acknowledge in my space. But I am one of very few who knew that LaRon Landry was being played out of position for the past 3 years and always said, move him back to Strong Safety and let’s see what happens. Um, are you seeing what’s happening? Landry is tops in the league for tackles. So much for him taking bad angles and/or being a poor tackler.

Sean Taylor, for one season, had to play Strong Safety and looked like a fish out of water. You are closer to the line to the line and lot of things happen so fast that you can’t really react the way that you’d like. That is, if you have never played that close to the line before. The next season, although shortened by his untimely death, was arguably the best of his career. Why? He was moved back the position that he is best at playing, Free Safety. Now we can utilize his intelligence, range and speed. All of which are his strengths. Enter LaRon Landry, STRONG SAFETY!!! It is true that Landry has all of the physical tools to play Free Safety. But if you have ever listened to this man in an interview, he couldn’t care less about an interception. Landry wants to hit. Find ways to utilize is talents. Thank goodness for Jim Haslett, otherwise Landry would have probably gotten away from us in Free Agency or a trade and that would have gone down as one of the top 5 Boneheaded moves in NFL history.

Where are all of the people who claimed that Landry was a bust? Where are all of the people who said that Landry was worthless? Where all of the people who claimed that Landry was a bad tackler? Show your faces and claim your madness. Landry through Week 3 of this season was Top 5 in tackles. Through two weeks of football he led the league in tackles. Am I a genius or is it that I pay attention to details. In one of my earlier posts I had a player spotlight on LaRon Landry go read it here (Player Spotlight: LaRon Landry). This was from last season. And just so you know, I wrote that blog on December 10, 2009. Tell me what you think about that article. But I digress. Landry currently has 52 tackles after five games, which currently ranks him #2. No, that is not a typo people!! And Landry came up with a timely Interception to give the Redskins a chance to win against the Green Bay Packers. This brings me to a point that I stressed last season and I will continue to stress until I am blue in the face. Good Defensive Backs don’t grow on trees. You’d better have a staff in place that knows how to coach them up or you can have a stud and not know what to do with them.  I mean Charles Woodson got away Oakland and looks fantastic playing for the Packers.  Same player, different coaching staff, different results.

People are still going to have a problem with Landry, but stats don't lie.  The man is a beast.  He's always been a beast and soon enough he'll be a Pro Bowler.  If he keeps playing the way that he has this season, it will be this year.  I really don't like acknowledging stupid comments, but when those comments are as harsh as what I heard about Landry, it is very hard to ignore.  Most of the people who made those comments never played organized sports let alone football, at a high level so I should have just taken it with a grain of salt.  I hope now people will pay more attention to deails as it relates to the ins and outs of football.  But, I guess that 's a pipedream, huh?  In any event, LaRon Landry is making a case for himself to be considered the best Safety in the NFL.  I am sure Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu will have something to say about that, but they will be the only two.  Hey if Landry is considered third that's not bad considering there are 64 starting Safties in the league.  That would make Landry pretty good.

IT WASN’T PRETTY…. BUT THE REDSKINS WON!!!

Donovan McNabb has a knack of attracting attention even when he tries to drift off into the background. This Sunday was unavoidable. In his return to Philadelphia, McNabb didn’t have the best passing game, but when you score more points than the other team, do you really care? In the first two possessions of the game, the Redskins scored. The best play between those two drives might have been Ryan Torain’s monster Touchdown. Poor Quinton Mikell took the brunt of that collision. But Donovan McNabb had a pretty floating Touchdown pass to Chris Cooley that put the Redskins up 14-0 early in the game. But things got really interesting after that.

If you ask me, had Michael Vick not gotten hurt, the Eagles may have sneaked away with a win Sunday. Kevin Kolb is a good QB, but doesn’t present the same problems that Michael Vick does. And Vick was making most of his plays from the pocket. That is something that we haven’t seen in all his years in the NFL. The Redskins Defense, who we have seen struggle in the past 2 weeks, came up huge in shutting down the very explosive DeSean Jackson. Jackson was a non-factor, but LeSean McKoy took over with 12 catches for 110 yards. How is that for McKoy who is a Running Back? Jeremy Macklin was also nonexistent. Brent Celek, Philadelphia’s stud at Tight End, was completely taken out of the game as well Sunday. This is where Michael Vick’s legs would have made the difference. Some of the play that Kolb ran for First Down’s, were good, it’s just that Vick would have gotten more yards on those plays. That may have been the difference. But for the Redskins the difference was made in the Offensive Backfield, by a virtual unknown, Ryan Torain.

I love finding guys like this. Ryan Torain is a guy that was brought in with no fanfare. This offseason Torain was brought in because Coach Shanahan signed him in the Denver before taking a break from coaching. Torain has been a hard worker. Torain is consistent. Torain is dependable. And when Clinton Portis was unable to go, Ryan Torain came in and not only finished runs, but finished the game. Torain only had 70 yards on 18 carries and one Touchdown, but the way Torain was running was something that has been missing. Portis runs hard, but in the past, there was a drop off when he came out the game. Now you have a guy behind Portis who runs just as hard, maybe harder, now you don’t have the drop off in the running game. Now Donovan McNabb doesn’t have to throw 50 times like the genius Eagles used to have him do. How big is it to give McNabb a running game? How big is it to have a talent like McNabb not feel like he has to do it all by himself. Slowly but surely, the pieces are falling in place. Washington might have the type of team to make a Playoff run.

At 2-2 this early in the season, there is a glimmer of hope. I am cool with a 9-7 season. It will mean that the Redskins have finished with a winning record for the fist time in 3 seasons. It will give the organization something to build on going into the 2011 season. Anything after 9 wins is huge. Anything after 9 wins may mean a Playoff birth. And the Post Season is something for which Donovan McNabb has a nose. Dare I say that Washington could sneak into the Playoffs this year and steal a win or two? We will see. They have a tough test this Sunday against the very good Green Bay Packers. Which Redskins team will show up? I would like the Defense from this past Sunday, to join the Offense from two weeks ago. If that happens, the Green Bay Packers are in trouble. But I think this game will be a close one. Who will win is anyone’s guess. But for the Redskins sake, this is a must win, because you need some momentum going into your showdown with the great Peyton Manning in two weeks.