Well, IF I had to pick this game, which in my picks post I clearly said I would not, I would have picked the Skins to win by a field goal...if only because the Giants are a team of walking wounded. Look at this list of big names who were out today:
Johnathan Goff (IR)
Osi Umenyiora (PUP list)
Justin Tuck
Aaron Ross (IR)
Prince Amukamura (1st Round Pick-IR)
I could go on, but you get the idea. As exciting as this game was as Skins fan (we had not beaten the Giants since 2007, and had not beaten them at home since 2005), I have to keep level headed about this. We beat a beat up, banged up, Giants team that if playing a full strenght would have been a much different opponent. Nevertheless, some of the same bugaboos that have plagued the Redskins franchise for years surfaced in the 1st half. A blown coverage on Hakeem Nicks set up the 65 yard pass which would lead to Eli's 1-yard plunge. Pass protection was suspect, but we knew this coming out of the preseason. With that in mind, dare I say that Rex Grossman played a great game! He had one fumble following a Jason Pierre-Paul sack, but even that was not the worst thing in the world...he took a sack instead of trying to force the issue. In fact, he threw no picks today. We definitely saw Good Rex today. He knows that his leash is very short considering how much the Shanahans loved John Beck going into the preseason. He played like he was playing for his job, and that's what he needs to do for the entire season.
Defensively...wow. Save a couple of mistakes like the blown coverage above, and one long drive where they could not get off the field on 3rd down, the defense played out of their minds today. Ryan Kerrigan will be defensive rookie of the week (and could be defensive player of the week) following his pick 6 of Eli in the 3rd quarter. The defense generated pressure using 3 and 4-man rushes all day. Again, it was against a depleted Giants team, but it makes a defense's job so much easier if you can generate pressure with your defensive line. We did just that. In addition to Kerrigan's pick 6, the defensive line generated 4 sacks, and was in Eli's face all day. All in all, I have to like what I see, pretty much just like what we saw in the preseason.
OK, the bad...Gano missed. We knew it was going to happen. I mentioned the blown coverages and suspect pass protection above. We can fix that though, and next week's opponent (Arizona) is another depleted team that can provide an excellent opportunity to improve on the things that we did not do well today. Larry Fitzgerald's got a new contract, and the same determination as before. He'll beat you if the coverage is perfect...we better not slack off on the coverage at all. Otherwise, it doesn't matter who is the QB for that team, Fitz will light you up.
Hey, 1-0 is a whole lot better than 0-1. Let's go for 2-0 next week.
UPDATE 9/15 @ 6:15PM: Ryan Kerrigan has in fact won the Pepsi NFL Defensive Rookie of the Week Award.
No comments:
Post a Comment