Smoot Lays The Smack Down-Redskins vs. Ravens (Preseason Special)

edit. just finished, moved to post # 34.

MSU guys just don't cut it in the NFL as starters. Last guy that did half decently was Lorenzo White and that was like 15 years ago.

Armstrong has so a strong case for him being on the roster. If Austin can show some spark in the next two games and Kelly is unable to play, it couldb e most likely bye bye for him.

edit from post # 31Just got done looking over the game. A few thoughts:

McNabb: He should've been 14-26 TD, 2 INT. He's still trying to find his comfort level with the offense and WRs. Several passes were behind WRs. The INT was ugly. That being said, his ability to keep plays alive is huge and will be a major plus in the regular season. Accuracy hasn't been McNabb's strong point throughout his career, but hopefully by Week 6 or 7 he and the receiving corps are more comfortable and timing is better. It's good to have an unquestioned leader at QB.

Grossman: Is what he is, a game manager that will make some good plays and knows the offense, but will make some plays that just make you shake your head (INT pass). Let's hope for a healthy McNabb all season.

First Unit OL: Trent Williams was solid for the most part. He did get abused by Suggs on the LJ drop, and gave up a sack but Suggs is a Pro Bowl player. He also got blown up by Suggs on 3rd & 1 on the Skins 2nd possession (more on this later). Brown looked a bit rusty, but I expect he'll be in form by Week 1. Dock & Rabach, average, nothing particularly good or bad. I think Rabach will have the same problems in pass pro as last year, should be OK in the run game as he really just needs to get to a spot and isn't asked to move anyone. Hicks is a concern. He was abused on a stretch play, missed a blitz pickup and appeared to be a half-step or so slow. Hopefully he'll be more solid in the next two games.

Back-up OL: Heyer will be OK as a RT, I would like to see Rinehart get a good deal of time the next two weeks. He didn't play, is he injured? Lichtensteiger seemed solid. He didn't anchor well and got blown back on one play, but Grossman rolled away. Didn't see too much problem with Robinson, but that's because the Ravens were too busy explioting the A gaps. E. Williams completely missed on two consecutive A-gap blitzes and didn't come down to help at all. Montgomery shouldn't be on an NFL roster. Capers' first two plays he looked like his feet were stuck in cement, he's bad. He looked exactly like what we saw at the Senior Bowl. Cook and Oldenburg haven't shown anything to warrant keeping them around.

RBs: Portis looks quicker this year, solid in pass pro. LJ is more of a downfield runner, although he got to the edge on the first play of the game. He also tripped over Hick's feet on what would've been a decent run. I don't believe LJ is going to turn out to be a good fit for the zone-blocking scheme. However, if KS gets his head out of his ass on 3rd/4th & short run calls LJ should be productive (again more later). LJ missed on a blitz pick-up and had his dropped pass to cap off a "stellar" performance. K. Williams showed good hands out of the backfield and will help as a KR. If he doesn't make any major mistakes the next two weeks, he'll be on the roster.

Sellers: I would really like to see our rookie Morris get a good look in the next two weeks. Sellers whiffed on one block badly and got jacked up on another. This isn't the first time we've seen this happen either.

TEs: Cooley and Davis each had a drop, but they both made good plays. These two will be fine and I expect good prodcution from both this year. Cooley's deep whip route on the first drive and the seam route on the 3rd posession were both excellent.

WRs: Moss made some very good plays. He did have drop in traffic. Armstrong showed good hands and playmaking ability. He really helped himself tonight. Roydell Williams had a couple of good plays, but they were against 2/3rd unit guys. Thomas.....the physical ability is there, but unfortunately GTripp's assessment of him coming out of MSU may be correct unless he can have better focus and concentration. No excuse for the drops he's had. He'll give us enough as a KR and 3rd or 4th WR, but unless he works to improve his hands he'll never be an every down WR in the NFL. I'd hate to give up on Kelly, and I don't think the team will just yet, but if he can't get on the field consistently by mid-season he's gone.

Secondary: Rogers played well. Excellent pursuit on the reverse play. Good coverage and solid tackling. Hall surprised the heck out of me tonight and made two very good tackles. He appeared frozen and got beaten on a go for 20 yds late in the first half, but other than that looked good. Barnes missed three tackles. He's disappointing me in a big way, the last thing I thought we'd see from him is piss-poor tackling, maybe coverage mistakes but weak physical play I didn't expect. Buchanon missed a tackle too, the 2nd unit CBs need to pick up their physicality. Tyron had a nice strip (yes it was a fumble) and an excellent play to stop the slant for a TD. He helped himself tonight.

Landry looked aggressive and played well. If he's used near the LoS on attack mode or given a specific man to cover he should do well. He's another guy that doesn't function well in space or with read-react.

DL: Here's where the serious concern starts. In the first series on the second play, a stretch L, Kemo was pushed back in a big way. Two plays later he was handled by the Ravens C 1-on-1 on a toss R. He didn't stand out later in the game one way or the other. But....it's not a good sign when the anchor of your defense isn't anchoring. All the "trade AH" talk sounds good, but it's hard to run a 3-4 without a stong NT. NT is going to be a team effort between AH & Kemo this year if we're going to be successful on D. Now, if a 4-3 team that's a contender losses a starting DT, we can get some value for AH (2nd rounder min.), and they (or AH) pay back a large portion of the $21M check he just got, then maybe we make a move. Barring that, he'll finish the year here and NT will be our #1 priority in the 2011 draft.

Our DEs did nothing to stand out other than Golston was driven inside badly on the second play of the game. On the second unit, Darrion Scott was dominated on the GL TD run and had two other major negative plays. Howard Green did nothing to help himself and AH was obviously just going through the motions for over 50% of the plays he was in. Rob Jackson and Jarmon did nothing to stand out.

ILBs: Rocky and Fletch wil be fine. Blades and Riley are still making some mistakes but I think will be adequate backups.

OLBs: This is the major area of concern for our defense. We have two converted DEs starting at OLB. AC showed in SF that he wasn't an OLB, he's confirming that again now. First play of the game AC bites on the action to the left and gets beat by the reverse... basic football....when action goes away and you are contain, B-C-R Backside, Counter, Reverse. This is high school stuff. Same possession on the toss play, AC is not quick enough on the read to make the play. Next possession in addition to the rest of the front seven AC is beaten for a resulting 6 yd gain. He also had the dropped INT.

Orakpo may ultimately make the transition to OLB, but not if he keeps playing like he did tonight. Second play of the game he gets WAAAY to far upfield creating a huge running lane. On the Rice's fumble recovery run Rak comes in completely out of control and Rice makes him look real bad (so will Felix Jones, A. Bradshaw or L. McCoy twice a year if he doesn't learn to play under control). He got sucked inside on the 4th play of the next Raven possession which resulted in a +5. Rak is a prototypical RDE, he's not good in space....yet. We'll know by the end of this season if he's capable of making the transition. If he still isn't cutting it, he would have good trade value to a team running the 4-3.....in the AFC.

For our second unit guys, Chris Wilson had a couple of nice rushes off the edge. Draft (I believe) got crushed on the GL run. Other than that nothing noteworthy.

And finally......my major gripe.....on 3rd or 4th and short why are we still running stretch plays? We saw this too many times last year as well. Zone blocking in short yardage DOES NOT WORK. It's fundamental physics, you cannot take a lateral step and expect to drive back a person coming straight at you, full speed. That's why TW got blown up by Suggs. I don't blame him, I blame the playcall. And we did it more than once.

Note to KS, install a power run package for short yardage. It's not blasphemy against the Zone Blocking gods to run an ISO on 3rd & 1. O-Lineman like to line up and play smash-mouth. F the finesse crap in short yardage, IT DOESN'T WORK. If anyone from Redskin Park wants to PM me, I've got some basic stuff that works real well out of a Tackle Over, a Jumbo I, or we can go old-school with a Power I.

Orakpo should have stayed a D linemen.

And finally......my major gripe.....on 3rd or 4th and short why are we still running stretch plays? We saw this too many times last year as well. Zone blocking in short yardage DOES NOT WORK. It's fundamental physics, you cannot take a lateral step and expect to drive back a person coming straight at you, full speed. That's why TW got blown up by Suggs. I don't blame him, I blame the playcall. And we did it more than once.

Note to KS, install a power run package for short yardage. It's not blasphemy against the Zone Blocking gods to run an ISO on 3rd & 1. O-Lineman like to line up and play smash-mouth. F the finesse crap in short yardage, IT DOESN'T WORK. If anyone from Redskin Park wants to PM me, I've got some basic stuff that works real well out of a Tackle Over, a Jumbo I, or we can go old-school with a Power I.

I disrespectfully disagree :mad: lol

Still I think that this time around with the coaching, the system, and the fact that the O-Line is still gelling that it's way to early to judge the short distance running game. It's not like they weren't successful with it in Denver rather I'd say we still have a sour taste in our mouths from the avalanche of run left calls in the red zone under our last head coach. Ironically though the reason Zorn did that so often was because those same plays worked like a charm in Seattle. Of course they had the Jones, Hutch, and Alexander in their primes for those plays but they all Zorn seemed to remember was it worked.

LeRon McLain What's with all the trash talking afterward "Yeah we own the Beltway. This one's for Zorn!" And a Gatorade shower for Zorn? Really?

Holy cow... I didn't see the end of the game, but they really gave him a Gatorade shower? For a pre-season game?! Did they also carry him out on their shoulders, shouting hip-hip-hooray? LMAO

I thought this game showed how far the Skins still have to go to compete with the top teams in the league.

Exactly Irish, we might have to temper our expectations a bit back down to reality.

DL: Here's where the serious concern starts. In the first series on the second play, a stretch L, Kemo was pushed back in a big way. Two plays later he was handled by the Ravens C 1-on-1 on a toss R. He didn't stand out later in the game one way or the other. But....it's not a good sign when the anchor of your defense isn't anchoring. All the "trade AH" talk sounds good, but it's hard to run a 3-4 without a stong NT. NT is going to be a team effort between AH & Kemo this year if we're going to be successful on D. Now, if a 4-3 team that's a contender losses a starting DT, we can get some value for AH (2nd rounder min.), and they (or AH) pay back a large portion of the $21M check he just got, then maybe we make a move. Barring that, he'll finish the year here and NT will be our #1 priority in the 2011 draft.



I'm going to give Kemo a pass for now and hope he can shake some rust off before the regular season.


OLBs: This is the major area of concern for our defense. We have two converted DEs starting at OLB. AC showed in SF that he wasn't an OLB, he's confirming that again now. First play of the game AC bites on the action to the left and gets beat by the reverse... basic football....when action goes away and you are contain, B-C-R Backside, Counter, Reverse. This is high school stuff. Same possession on the toss play, AC is not quick enough on the read to make the play. Next possession in addition to the rest of the front seven AC is beaten for a resulting 6 yd gain. He also had the dropped INT.


Yeah, we knew what we were getting into with AC, but I'm not giving up on him just yet. Coming from DE he's naturally a bit more aggressive than he should be at OLB, but I think AC is a pretty smart guy and he'll learn to play the position better.


Orakpo may ultimately make the transition to OLB, but not if he keeps playing like he did tonight. Second play of the game he gets WAAAY to far upfield creating a huge running lane. On the Rice's fumble recovery run Rak comes in completely out of control and Rice makes him look real bad (so will Felix Jones, A. Bradshaw or L. McCoy twice a year if he doesn't learn to play under control). He got sucked inside on the 4th play of the next Raven possession which resulted in a +5. Rak is a prototypical RDE, he's not good in space....yet. We'll know by the end of this season if he's capable of making the transition. If he still isn't cutting it, he would have good trade value to a team running the 4-3.....in the AFC.


I pretty much feel the same about Rak as AC, and like you said, he needs to learn to play under control. Just too aggressive for now. He'll learn, but it might take a few really good beatings.


And finally......my major gripe.....on 3rd or 4th and short why are we still running stretch plays? We saw this too many times last year as well. Zone blocking in short yardage DOES NOT WORK. It's fundamental physics, you cannot take a lateral step and expect to drive back a person coming straight at you, full speed. That's why TW got blown up by Suggs. I don't blame him, I blame the playcall. And we did it more than once.

Note to KS, install a power run package for short yardage. It's not blasphemy against the Zone Blocking gods to run an ISO on 3rd & 1. O-Lineman like to line up and play smash-mouth. F the finesse crap in short yardage, IT DOESN'T WORK. If anyone from Redskin Park wants to PM me, I've got some basic stuff that works real well out of a Tackle Over, a Jumbo I, or we can go old-school with a Power I.

I agree. This is also really frustrating to me. The offensive linemen have the advantage on every play, given the fact that they dictate when the ball is snapped. If the lineman can't get a 1 yard push on their guys, then something is seriously wrong. It's easy, just like you said, dive and trap from the I. If you can't get a yard like that, then you can't get a yard and you have to hope the defense will give you one.