Eagles 20 Redskins 13-Game Analysis

I hate it when I'm right.

I saw this coming a week ago last Monday. 

I was really hoping I would be wrong on this..dead wrong. 

I practically guaranteed that Philly would  win this game, and in pretty much the fashion that they did.  Don't be fooled by the 1-score difference.  The only reason it was even that close is because the defense played out of their minds in the second half, but by then the damage had been done, and considering that our offense is not exactly designed to come back from 20-0 deficits, it was indeed over before halftime.  Once again, we have an opportunity to deliver a knockout blow to a division opponent and not only do we fail to deliver it, we leave the field once again with quarterback controversy (par for the course around these parts).  There are a couple points I want to make.

I got into a Facebook battle with a couple of Skins haters about the controversial non-call when Vick ran back into the endzone to recover a wayward shotgun snap.  He picked it up and threw a desperation heave to avoid a safety.  We saw the flag fly so everyone in the universe thought that Vick intentionally grounded the ball in the endzone, which is a safety and 2 points for Washington.  Instead, referee Bill Leavy said that Vick was outside the tackle box (negating any grounding), and to add insult to injury, the flag was on Brian Orakpo for a supposed helmet to helmet hit on Vick as he was being tackled.  The 15 yard penalty brought the ball out to the 30 yard line and Philly would go on to score a touchdown on the drive.  It seems like the universal reaction to that call (obviously what changed the game) was that it was bad, except of course for the perpetual Skins haters who believe that "edge" of the tackle box is the same thing as "out" of the tackle box (which of course it is not).  Now, I will not sit here and complain about the bad call.  Good teams need to overcome that and the Redskins didn't.  We had plenty of opportunities to make plays and put the Dream Team in their place, and well, with old #8 under center, there really wasn't much of a chance of that happening. 

Maybe it's just me, but it sure does seem like every year in DC there is always something resembling a quarterback controversy, but this isn't Sonny vs. Billy or Montana vs. Young.  This is (ehem) Rex vs. Beck.  We saw Bad Rex on full display yesterday.  After 1 good game against the Giants and 3 mediocre ones, Bad Rex was the only Rex we saw.  The only thing he saw was Kurt Coleman, who was the beneficiary of 3 of Bad Rex's 4 picks on the day.  After that 4th pick, the crowd chanting "We want Beck!" finally got to Shanahan, and he put Beck in the game late in the 3rd quarter.  However, by then it was too little too late, and it's not like Beck lit the world on fire either.  He missed a wide open Ryan Torain running a wheel route on his second pass of the game.  He does provide something that Rex never will: mobility.  Beck scrambled for a first down on a 3rd and long and also scored the lone touchdown of the day on a designed quarterback draw late in the 4th quarter.  That alone gives the offense a dimension which could serve it well down the road, but the problem is that as a passer, Beck is no improvement, and the quarterback position will be a revolving door throughout the season to be sure.

More importantly than the quarterback position, as Dan Graziano astutely notes, yesterday might have been a recreation of the Body Bag Game.  Chris Cooley has a broken index finger.  Trent Williams has a high ankle sprain.  Kory Lichtensteiger has a knee injury and could be done for the season.  On an offense that is built to control the clock and run the football, these are really bad injuries.  We knew before the season started that we had no depth on the offensive line, and it showed as we could not get the running game going at all against an Eagles front seven that had been gashed through the first 5 games.  We knew that if the running game could not get started, that was bad news because as has been well documented, the passing game is dreadful and it not built to come from behind.  I said throughout the game that we have to stick with the run, eventually we'll break one off, but it never came to pass.  Ryan Torain finished with a paltry 22 yards on 10 carries and Tim Hightower didn't even get in the game.  On the other hand, we called 40 pass plays (counting sacks and scrambles)...not exactly sticking to the run.

Next week we get Carolina Cam and the Panthers.  Our secondary will be tested with yet another mobile quaterback with a rocket arm and a speedy receiver in Steve Smith.  It is absolutely essential that we get the running game going next week to keep them off the field, whoever starts at quarterback.  The O-line better get some good reps in at practice this week.