Redskins vs Cowboys GT Review: Recivers and OL struggle equally

[GTripp0012]

Sometimes, you get into a situation where you watch a game, live blog it, watch the NFL replay, and you think you know what went wrong. And as Jim Mora Sr once said so elequantly, "You may think you know, but you don't know. And you never will."

But after putting the tape on, watching the game again in slow motion, and analyzing the statistics, I did realize that I didn't know, but also that I do know now. And it's an odd feeling, like being slapped upside the head. But hopefully, I can convey some of this knowledge to you guys.

Offense

Jason Campbell was sacked seven times against Pittsburgh three weeks ago. The offensive line was mostly at fault. This week, he was sacked only three times, and twice by NT Jay Ratliff. Three players on the OL were beaten for those three sacks. Chris Samuels by Ware, Casey Rabach by Ratliff, and Randy Thomas by Ratliff. The ONLY player on the OL who was consistently beaten in pass protection all game was Thomas, and later on, Samuels (who also had some really nice blocks vs. Ware). Rabach was beaten twice, once for a pressure, once for a sack, but Casey Rabach actually played a really good game against a much better player in Ratliff. Here's the crazy thing: Jon Jansen, who was patently terrible against James Harrison and Lamar Woodley a week ago, didn't give up a single sack, or a single pressure all game long. Jansen actually played his best game of the year, as did Rabach (although he was still beaten a lot in the running game). Randy Thomas was awful all game long, and allowed a ton of pressures, but Pete Kendall only missed one block all game. Samuels seemed to get better as the game went along, getting a feel for his position in the second half. None of the tight ends really blew a lot of blocks, and Campbell had at least as much time as he normally did.

So, wait, if the OL wasn't an issue, why did the Redskins only score 10 points? Well, it was a combination of factors, as you would expect. But against the Steelers, the Redskins scored 6 points and only deserved six points. If you had taken the scoreboard off the screen, made me watch all the plays in the game in succession, and then asked me to guess how many points the offense scored, I would have said that they probably scored between 20-25 points against the Cowboys. Basically, I thought they were pretty average in this game, and the stats defend this. The Redskins were MUCH better on third down than they've been all year, and I expect this trend to continue.

Now, you're probably wondering why the Redskins only scored 10 points still if they played much better than this. Well, you can start with the fact that the Redskins only had 9 drives all game. That's way lower than average, but it's also not uncommon for the Redskins offense that moves at a slow pace anyway. Of these drives: two ended with scores, one ended with an interception, and another with a badly missed field goal. So that's 4 out of 9 drives where the Redskins should have come away with points, but only did on 2. The other four drives included three 3 and outs, and one turnover on downs. For the Redskins, 5 drives ended in Dallas territory, and they only scored on two of them. This is a problem. The Redskins must score points when they get into opponents territory at an 80% plug once they get inside the Dallas 40 yardline. 40% is unacceptable, obviously. On the four drives that got in FG range, but didn't end in points, here's how they ended, on a play by play basis:

Drive #4 (2nd Quarter -- 5 plays in)

1st and 10, Dallas 40 -- Redskins come out in I formation against the 3-4. A zone left. It didn't make the play, but Rabach just leveled Z. Thomas after he shot the gap. Sellers block was the most important, and Samuels decleated Kendall's guy. Only three yards gained, though.

2nd and 7, Dallas 37 -- Redskins come out in 3 WR against the 3-4. Zone right, Tank Johnson beats Rabach and blows up the play in the backfield. One yard gain.

3rd and 6, Dallas 36 -- Illegal Substitution on Devin Thomas. 5 yard penalty.

3rd and 11, Dallas 41 -- After an inexcusable timeout, Ware beats Samuels inside and sacks Campbell for -10 yards. The subsequent punt was the one that Rock hit into the endzone.

Drive #6 (12 plays into a very successful drive)

3rd and 2, Dallas 35 -- The Redskins come out in 3 WR, against nickel coverage from Dallas. The Cowboys bring a safety (5 man rush), Randy Thomas was beat, but Campbell was not pressured and was able to step fully into his throw, and Newman simply predicted the route and jumped it for the drive killing INT.

Drive #7 (2 plays into a drive that has already covered 39 yards)

1st and 10, Dallas 18 (!) -- The Redskins come out in 2 TE with Cooley split into the slot left, and Davis on the line. Dallas has NINE in the box to stop the run. Good naked bootleg call, but Fred Davis was slow getting into the route and Campbell has to toss it away under major pressure off the edge.

2nd and 10, Dallas 18 -- The Redskins come out in 3 WR, and they catch Dallas in a blitz, and throw quick out to Moss, but the ball is tipped by Ware. Moss comes down with it, but Newman closes and they lose two yards. It's a brilliant read by Campbell that, unfortunately, got blown up at the line by a great player. Moss probably scores if this is complete.

3rd and 12, Dallas 20 -- The Redskins come out in 3 WR against a nickel from the Cowboys. Ratiff throws Randy Thomas to the ground and sacks Campbell.

4th and 20, Dallas 28 -- Suisham gets off a terrible kick on a 46 yard FG attempt that came up at least five yards short. Special teams left a bunch of points on the board in this one.

Drive #9 (6 plays into a drive that is moving into FG range)

3rd and 4, Dallas 37 -- Redskins come out in 3 WR (Dallas in nickel), with Campbell in the gun for only the second time in the game (first time, the play before this). The blitz is picked up, and Campbell beats the blitz with a slant to Devin Thomas, who drops the ball.

4th and 4, Dallas 37 -- Redskins come out in the same formation (Dallas in nickel), and they try to clear out the underneath route for Moss by running verticals from the other three receivers. The play works perfectly off the snap, and Moss even beat Newman across the field. Campbell, rather than throwing the ball on time, steps away from perceived pressure, and this throws off the entire timing of the play. Moss has to slow down as not to run out of bounds, and a perfectly designed play fails to work. This one is 100% on Campbell. This was the last play of the day for the Redskins.

So there's your answer: it was a mix of untimely blown pass protections, mistakes by Devin Thomas, a mistake by Jason Campbell, great plays by Dallas on the DL and by Terrence Newman, incredibly ineffective running when in Dallas territory, a mistake from Fred Davis, and the kicker not kicking the ball properly. That's the difference between 10 points and 22+ points. One thing that clearly isn't to blame is the play-calling. Zorn ALWAYS seemed to have the right play dialed up for the situation, but the execution was faulty in Dallas territory.

But this quick analysis ignores everything the Redskins did correctly on Sunday on offense, and that was quite a lot (though, against Dallas' weak defense, we certainly left opportunities on the table).

Pass Offense

Vital Statistics
Total Adj Yards = 149
Yards per Play = 3.92
Success Rate = 36.8% (14/38)

The passing game has been the weakness of the team in both of the last two losses, and it appears to have been the weakness once again. The pass protection can be blamed for some of the issues, but not all of them. In many cases, the pass protection held up long enough, and although it was probably a big reason that the Redskins couldn't go down the field with the football, a bigger reason was that Ken Hamlin was so far over the top of Santana Moss that the Cowboys were simply not going to allow a bomb. The fact that Moss had that one really long pass to open up the final drive where the Cowboys were expecting it really speaks to the ineptitude of their pass coverage unit when the ball is in the air.

Receivers
(Targets, Receptions, Success Rate, YPA)

Chris Cooley - 8, 6, 50%, 5.88
Santana Moss - 8, 5, 38%, 3.75
Devin Thomas - 5, 3, 40%, 2.60
Ladell Betts - 2, 2, 50%, 14.0
Antwaan Randle El - 2, 1, 50%, 12.5
Mike Sellers - 2, 2, 100%, 8.5
Clinton Portis - 2, 2, 0%, 3.0

Devin Thomas with a career high in targets, and successful plays, but ultimately still more of the same from the one they call DT. He caught more than half of what came his way, which is nice, except that he lost yards on one of those catches. Ladell Betts led the way in yards per pass attempt, but only got thrown to twice. And, thusly, with a subpar day, it's Chris Cooley who leads all four categories.

The receivers shoulder a lot of blame for this loss. Moss didn't get a lot of help from the playcalling or the quarterback, but Terrence Newman really did own him in this game. He could have made the biggest reception of the game on a downfield pass when Newman misplayed the ball, but he dropped a difficult catch. Moss has really flown back to earth over the last six games after a torrid start in the first four. His only decent game in the last six came in Detroit, and only by virtue of being the one chosen by the gameplan to win that one.

We got to see just how important Randle El is to this offense when he missed the last two drives with an ankle injury suffered on a punt return. James Thrash played the no. 2 receiver in the I formation, and he didn't even get targeted. Well, that was after Devin Thomas took a play as the No. 2 receiver, promptly lined up in the wrong place. Veteran CB Anthony Henry gestured to the official to make sure he saw that Thomas wasn't covering the tackle. So, the cornerback knows that the receiver is lined up improperly, and the receiver still doesn't see his error, and a nice nine yard run is taken away from Portis.

So without Randle El in the offense, the Redskins made 2 successful pass plays out of their final 8. (25%) This is well below their game mark (43% with Randle El). If he doesn't get hurt, the Redskins probably pull this one out. The offense is in big trouble without him, but should be fine as long as he (and Moss) are healthy.

Rush Offense

Vital Statistics
Total Adj Yards = 99
Yards per Play = 5.5
Success Rate = 38.9% (7/18)

Wow. 5 and a half yards per rush, but only 1/3 of the runs were successful. No wonder Jim Zorn got away from it. As you would expect, there were long runs, and there were runs that were stuffed, and there was very little in between.

The five longest runs for the Redskins: 22 (by Jason Campbell), 19, 18, 10, 9 accounted for 78 of the 99 adjusted rushing yards. So that means that, as effective as the Redskins running game looks on paper, 13 runs went for a grand total of 21 yards, which is frankly terrible. The Cowboys definately did a good job stopping the run, despite the high YPC figure.

Rushing
(Runs, Successful runs, YPC)

Clinton Portis - 15, 6, 4.5
Jason Campbell - 1, 1, 22.0
Ladell Betts - 1, 0, 1.0
Shaun Alexander - 1, 0, 1.0

Alexander had good blocking on his one run, but Shaun Alexander at this point in his career isn't even looking to hit the hole hard and go upfield. He's looking to try to drive through tackles at the line. He doesn't even do this very well. He's not the kind of guy you want to carry the ball in your offense. Betts on the other hand, hits the hole every bit as hard as Portis does, and deserves a bigger role in the offense.

Jason Campbell's long run is what brought up the YPC numbers to 5+ levels.

Overall Offense

Vital Statistics
Total Adj Yards = 248
Yards per Play = 4.43
Success Rate = 37.5% (21/56)

The stats say that this offensive performance was below average, which is true. However, ten points implies that the offense (1 turnover) was inept, which is false. The Redskins accomplished a lot of things offensively in this game. They just failed to score points. Against the Steelers, the Redskins took 7 sacks, threw more than 50 times, had 2.8 yards per play, and a success rate under 30%. That, is offensively inept.

So we have to keep this offensive performance in perspective, and call it what it is. Disappointing, but not crippling. Meanwhile, when we take a look at the defensive stats, we'll see that the effort given in this game was unacceptable on at least one side of the ball, and it wasn't on the offensive end.

[53Fan]

Excellent work TRIPP! Very informative.

[GusFrerotte]

I'll tell you why they score only 10 points, most of which you already hit on Gtripp. The line blows, we don't have a real #2 WR threat, and some of these screen type passes are waste of pages in the playbook. Also, what about this weak side rollout stuff? Our guys seem totally lost in running those plays. They run into each other, look confused, etc. Zorn needs to tweak the playbook in the offseason and really think about getting a new WR or two. Our rooks so far seem to be on the long road to nowhere. Hopefully Kelly won't be a Taylor Jacobs, then we will be OK for '09. Thomas needs to be worked up more in the offense. We need to see his potential so we know what we have to work with in the future. Randle El has his moments, but those moments are rather too few and far between to consistently help the team.

[MiraclesHappen07]

Hmmm another good post Gtripp, having these to read is really interesting. Gives a lot of insight to stuff that us other fans dont notice, or have the patience to look at, i know im one of them, lol

[SouperMeister]

You give us hope when you say "Zorn ALWAYS seemed to have the right play dialed up for the situation, but the execution was faulty in Dallas territory."

It sounds like a matter of better execution required, which is definitely fixable in the long run as the team continues to get comfortable with Zorn's system. I can't wait to see what Malcolm Kelly adds to the mix. He certainly can't make our disappointing red zone passing game any less effective.

Great stuff, as always, GT.

[The Goat]

Much appreciated game-breakdown Tripp. I too was especially encouraged to hear Zorn is calling plays that have a shot of moving the chains if our players can execute properly.

[GTripp0012]

If it was me as Zorn, I probably would have run more in those 3rd and less than 5 situations. However, the plays he called definately worked against the Dallas defense. Randle El dropped one on third down, and Devin Thomas dropped another one on a third down, and DeMarcus Ware jumped offsides on a third down, with no call.

[SmootSmack]

I think that 3rd down pass to Thomas was as much, if not more so, on Jason Campbell.

[SC Skins Fan]

Consistently the best posts on this site. Excellent.

[irish]

Good post. What worries me is that this is the time of the year when playoff teams start to surge but the Skins seem to be fading. We'll see this week if they start the playoff surge or turn the lights out on this season.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

I think that 3rd down pass to Thomas was as much, if not more so, on Jason Campbell.

It was not a good throw given the circumstances, I agree. But, on review, I thought it was pretty catchable. It wasn't on the turf or anything, it was just below DT's waist.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

It was not a good throw given the circumstances, I agree. But, on review, I thought it was pretty catchable. It wasn't on the turf or anything, it was just below DT's waist.

Definitely a ball that a good WR comes up with the majority of the time.

[firstdown]

Good post but I still think Zorn has in several games giving up on the run way too soon in a game.

[redsk1]

Wow, actual analysis. That's good stuff.

[GTripp0012]

Also, the fact that Dallas STILL doesn't have an outside pass rusher besides Ware after spending all that money on Ellis and drafting Spencer in the first round is really funny, I think. In two meetings this year, Jansen has handled both of them pretty easily, which is saying something.