Thoughts on Skins vs Titans

[KLHJ2]

The outcome of the game was a win for us, however after my analysis we should have either tied or lost. Here ar my thoughts.

1st Team Offense
Jason Campbell was pretty solidwith the excecption of his % and no TD passess. I am weary of him turning the ball over on fumbles. I feel that at least one of the sacks on him could have been avoided had he observed the defense and shifted protection accordingly (the fumble he lost). To his credit he threw no intercecptions, and showed alot of poise.

O-Line
I know that Chris Samuels is out and Wade is new at LG, but the offensive line was getting blown up. Even Jansen made a mistake. Point blank, because of their lackluster play they gave up 2 sacks as a starting unit and gave running backs no holes to run. With that said they have some work to do.

RB
Ladell Betts and Rock Cartwright had no room to run. They made the most of what they had which wasn't much. Both backs are more than capable of running when holes are present. With the excecption of one run by Betts, Rock did a better job of running the football. I didn't see Sellers touch the ball at all.

WR
Santana further proved why he is the number 1 by receiveing for roughly 50 yards on 2 catches. ARE, caught one pass for a first down, but the chemistry between he and Campbell needs improvement. Sadly. Brandon Lloyd nor Cooley made a mark on the field. I do not think that Cooley has fallen off though. Cooley just did not have the opportunity.

Defense
While overall they played great , due mostly to London Fletcher, who did drop a clear intercecption; I do have some concerns. Fred Smoot played off of his receiver a little and allowed a big first down catch. the defense also allowed the TE Scaife to run free a little too much during the game. Other than that the D seemed to get to the ball pretty quickly.

Special Teams
Rock Cartwright made a bone headed move to take the ball out of the endzone on the first play of the game, setting the skins up in bad field position that would plague them throughout the first half. Shawn Suisham missed a field goal by hitting the left upright denying Washington a tie in the first half. Suisham also commited a stupid penatly by kicking his first kickoff out of bounds giving the Titans the ball at the 40. The punt coverage team also did not fair well by giving up a couple of big returns. On a positive note, Frost punted the ball very consistently and even forced a fuble on one play. Too bad it went out of bounds and we were unable to recover.

I am not even going to go over the second team offense as they were more lackluster than the first. IMO Brunell should be cut and Collins should have the Backup job. Brunell just does not have that fire anymore and it looks as if he has done nothing in the offseason to maintain his status.

Second and third team D
They looked good because HB Blades picked up where London left off. That play carried over to the 3rd team D wich won the game. Again, TE's were giving them a bit of a problem. Reed Doughty was in perfect position for an intercecption, but dropped it. I am sold on Byron Westbrook and hope that he makes the team as the 5th corner.

3rd Team Offense
Todd Collins for once outshined Brunell and led the offense to its only score. On this rare occaision I belive that he outplayed Brunell. Todd's awareness of this offense was evident in this game. I also believe that more passess should have been compleeted with all 3 QB's in the game as 2nd and 3rd team WR's dropped many passess. Campbell and Brunell should have faired better.

Final Analysis
Unless the Offensive play picks up I do not see the skins winning more than 7 games this year. This week they got lucky, but if you watched the game you realize that there is still alot of work to be done. I understand the injury that we have on the O-line now, but if it doesn't improve when Samuels comes back and Wade doesn't get a handle on things it is going to be a long season.