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.