Redskins-Colts, Best and Worst

[skinsfan69]

The Colts are not the team they were last year. They lost to Jacksonville! But there were some positives...Really like the way Torain is running. Santana is coming up big every week. Defesne creating turnovers despite missing some opportunities.

But same old same old...defense giving up 170 rushing yards to Indy is pathetic. McNabb misses too many open guys, Moore is now starting to look like Rogers. Too many WR's running wide open.

[MTK]

The Jags always play the Colts tough.

[SmootSmack]

Best

-ATV! All you non-believers can now go choke on your Hatorainerade
-Orakpo. Overall a so-so game to be honest, but made a huge play when we needed it. Star players do that
-"Fight for Old DC": Considering we didn't play our best, the fact that we fought with the Colts to the end is a positive sign
-Trent Williams: Still not fully healthy, but he's been impressive throughout his initial baptism by fire these past few weeks

Worst

-3rd and 1: I'm still shaking my head over that playcall. Simply made no sense to me
-Cooley: Missed a couple of necessary catches. Not saying either was easy. But you need to make the tough catches.
-Keiland Williams: There were a couple of times when he should have popped up for a quick screen that McNabb could turn to, and he didn't
-Fred Davis: When time is a factor, it's stupid to start jawing with a defender and let the clock run down more. And back to that 3rd and 1, just before that on 2nd and 6 Davis got 5 yards. Fight for that extra yard
-Kareem Moore: I've come to expect it from Rogers, though it's still inexcusable. But Moore has had a knack for getting the ball.
-Special teams penalties: Becoming too much of a pattern for this team

I think when the season started most of us had us losing to the Colts (I had us losing to the Packers, and beating the Colts though) and while it's true there is no such thing as "moral victories" there is such a thing as building an identity and fighting. Our identity is now a team that you have to take seriously and one that doesn't give up until the final clock. Just a little more air under that McNabb pass to Galloway at the end and we're 4-2. But if we're going to lose a game, good to lose this one. Now we need to pick up wins against the Bears and Lions and rack up the NFC wins.

[SFREDSKIN]

I'll point the things that need to be resolved and haven't yet:

Stop stupid penalties on special teams during returns, again they hurt the team last night twice.

Learn to stop the run up the middle, it's been killing the team all season.

Stop biting on play action, it's actually improved but needs more work.

Play or trade AH, this drama has gone too long.

Cut Roydell Williams and promote Austin.

[Longtimefan]

479 yds. of offense given up, even to the Colts is not good = worst.

Youth making it's mark, Armstrong, Banks, Torain and Alexander [among others] which bodes well for the future = best.

The team is struggling to find consistency on both sides of the ball. It's going to be difficult to adaquately define what this team is all about until answers are found for the struggles.

[Paintrain]

Positives:
-60 minutes of effort and committed football, a welcome change from the past decade-plus.
-Torrain getting more comfortable and effective.
-Rak still causing problems in opponents backfields. Cutler is soiling his shorts right about now because he knows that it's gonna be a long Sunday next week.
-We're done with the QB gauntlet part (Vick, Rodgers, Manning) of our schedule. I think our schedule gets easier from this portion and most 'analysts' would have had us at 1-5 at this point in the season so I am optimistic about our season.
-Lo Ax is a beast. He's well on his way to becoming a franchise favorite because of his effort and what he represents.
-Landry continuing at mostly an All Pro level. He's still a sucker for a play-fake but he's playing great.

Negatives-
-Kyle's play calling in the red zone. I don't know why he always seems to get cute in the red zone. In short yardage let's either man up or run simple routes. Pump left, spin and throw right is fine on the 30, not the 3.
-Rogers, Rogers, Rogers. Man, he has the worst hands on a human. Yeah, I get the argument that at least he's in position to make the plays but you have to MAKE THE PLAYS! At least 30% of the time, damn man-you're a pro!!!
-Cooley's concussion. While I love seeing Davis getting more time, Cooley's a proven commodity and we need his production.
-McNabb's decision making. I have been pretty hands off in my criticism of him, but his last 2 throws (4th and 10 bomb & last pick) were ones that seemed like major forces.

** Bonus negative **-Cris Collinsworth. Everything he says just annoys the sh*t out of me. Manning is already annoying but listening to Collinsworth stroke him for calling out a snap cadence for 3 hours was just friggin torture.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

Positives:
-60 minutes of effort and committed football, a welcome change from the past decade-plus.
-Torrain getting more comfortable and effective.
-Rak still causing problems in opponents backfields. Cutler is soiling his shorts right about now because he knows that it's gonna be a long Sunday next week.
-We're done with the QB gauntlet part (Vick, Rodgers, Manning) of our schedule. I think our schedule gets easier from this portion and most 'analysts' would have had us at 1-5 at this point in the season so I am optimistic about our season.
-Lo Ax is a beast. He's well on his way to becoming a franchise favorite because of his effort and what he represents.
-Landry continuing at mostly an All Pro level. He's still a sucker for a play-fake but he's playing great.

Negatives-
-Kyle's play calling in the red zone. I don't know why he always seems to get cute in the red zone. In short yardage let's either man up or run simple routes. Pump left, spin and throw right is fine on the 30, not the 3.
-Rogers, Rogers, Rogers. Man, he has the worst hands on a human. Yeah, I get the argument that at least he's in position to make the plays but you have to MAKE THE PLAYS! At least 30% of the time, damn man-you're a pro!!!
-Cooley's concussion. While I love seeing Davis getting more time, Cooley's a proven commodity and we need his production.
-McNabb's decision making. I have been pretty hands off in my criticism of him, but his last 2 throws (4th and 10 bomb & last pick) were ones that seemed like major forces.

** Bonus negative **-Cris Collinsworth. Everything he says just annoys the sh*t out of me. Manning is already annoying but listening to Collinsworth stroke him for calling out a snap cadence for 3 hours was just friggin torture.

I would add a smackdown on Al. TWICE he mentioned the Larry Johnson/Willie Parker backfield. But that never was the story. The story of our backfield going back to the spring has been the emergence of Torain and Williams.

It bugged me that national sports people missed this story line all summer. But to bring up the wrong story line in October, TWICE? Lame Al, lame.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Lotus

I would add a smackdown on Al. TWICE he mentioned the Larry Johnson/Willie Parker backfield. But that never was the story. The story of our backfield going back to the spring has been the emergence of Torain and Williams.

It bugged me that national sports people missed this story line all summer. But to bring up the wrong story line in October, TWICE? Lame Al, lame.

But that is part of the story. It's not just that Torain and Williams have emerged, it's that they surpassed two proven veterans to get there. Which is what Michaels basically said.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

But that is part of the story. It's not just that Torain and Williams have emerged, it's that they surpassed two proven veterans to get there. Which is what Michaels basically said.

Yeah I didn't have a problem with that. They outlasted a couple of well known guys, that's worth pointing out.

[mlmpetert]

You know, i made peace with the fact that Carlos cant catch about 1-2 years ago so its not something that i realyl get upset about anymore. He would be a top 5 corner, maybe a top 3 corner in this league if he could catch so its not like he sucks and cant catch, its just that he cant catch.

My biggest goat from this game was Kareem Moore. He just played horrible all around last night and made several key big mistakes, in addition to his piss poor tackling last night. Not tackling well pisses me off more than anything.

Remember against the Rams when CP stopped playing in the second half after playing awesome, that’s kind of how I felt about Torrain disappearing for a long period last night. Our running game looked awesome last night, then all of a sudden it changed for some reason and KS started to get cute. Play calling was upsetting at times. What was awesome about Gibbs was that when things worked you could pretty much expect more of the same, until it stopped working. I guess id rather have stuff stop working then have things that seem to be working stop prematurely.

I don’t know what to think about our defense still. We give up all sorts of yards each week, but we also get turnovers and held the Colts to 27 (which could have easily been 33+ if not for missed field goals and turnovers). Is it better to keep offenses, like Manning’s, off the field or is better to give up yards and get more turnovers? Were giving up more points than we have in the past, but not by a lot so I look at that as equal. Id personally like to see a lot more 4-3 looks.

I cant stand Chris Collisnworth either. In fact the whole Football Night in America cast sucks, besides Al Michaels.

Sellers looked great last night, I honestly thought he couldn’t block anymore and he proved me wrong.

Trent Williams is a player. Tough dude.

Ryan Torrian is fun to watch, I wish we used him more and threw some passes at him.

Great clock management by Shanahan last night. This is really something we havent seen since before Gibbs 2.0, 6 years ago.

Anthony Armstrong knows how to run routes.

[FRPLG]

Good:
Physicality, Trent did about as good a job as possible given that he is working with one leg, McNabb extended plays about 6 times, AA got the job done.

Bad:
Well we lost...there was a lot of bad but fixable stuff I think. I don't want to harp on it.

[SmootSmack]

Hadn't realized Cooley kept playing after he got banged up. Glad Shanahan saw it and put a stop to it before it got worse

D.C. Sports Bog - Fred Davis: Cooley played with his concussion

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Hadn't realized Cooley kept playing after he got banged up. Glad Shanahan saw it and put a stop to it before it got worse

D.C. Sports Bog - Fred Davis: Cooley played with his concussion

He definitely didn't seem right out there.

[BringBackJoeT]

Torain was simply a pleasure to watch. Watching one carry after another in which he gained ground after taking a hit was fantastic.

[Longtimefan]

There was absolutely no pressure in the face of Manning all night. You, [universally] cannot allow him to stay on his spot, step into his throws and just virtually play pitch and catch.

90% of Manning's throws come from within the tackle box, one would think the best way to pressure him would be up the middle, as demonstrated by NE a few years ago in a payoff game that soundly defeated Manning and the Colts. The defensive stratergy deployed by the front seven was, IMO an ineffective way to combat [or at least slow down] the way the Colts like to attack.

Now I know "if" never calls in sick on monday morning, so I'm not going to say 'if" we hadn't dropped interceptions, or if we hadn't done this and that. The bottom line is, we failed to find a way to win another close game. "If" the queen had nuts she'd be the king.