St. Louis Game Blog

The Redskins entered their road game at St. Louis coming off of an impressive victory over the 10 - 4 New Orleans Saints. The question in fans' minds was: has the defense finally found itself, or was the Saints game an anomoly? The answer came in this game, as the Skins' offense put 31 points on the board and Ladell Betts had another 100+ yard game yet the team still found ways to lose and let the Rams gain 579 yards.

My game observations:

* The cornerbacks' hands continue to be slippery as Shawn Springs dropped an easy interception on STL's first play. The play was a deep seam pass, the Skins' Achilles Heel all season, and finally a Skins cornerback covered the predictable play (every Skins opponent seems to open with it) well, yet he dropped the interception. The Skins D is on track to break a record for fewest interceptions this season with just six going into this game. The previous worst total for the team was 11, back in 1982 when they played five fewer games.

In contrast, Walt Harris, who played average to poorly in Washington has had six interceptions himself this season in San Francisco. Even better, they pay him only $835K per year.

* The Skins first possession was perfect execution, hogging the clock, running the ball and Sellers throwing a monster block for a 5 yard TJ Duckett run into the end zone.

* On every play there is one unblocked defensive player. In this game it was almost always Warrick Holdman, the journeyman weak-side linebacker who has had only 1.5 sacks in the past five years. The Rams knew who they did not need to block. In comparison, Arrington had 18.5 sacks in his last five years on the team, despite hardly playing for most of two years. The team's poor personnel decisions continue to haunt them.

* In the 2nd quarter Wright and Taylor got burned for a TD pass. What struck me most is how both of them were facing the receiver with their backs to the QB and the approaching ball. They seem to be coached to tackle the receiver and not try to deflect or intercept. In the end zone, that strategy is ridiculous. I found myself yelling at the television: "Turn around! Turn around!" at them again and again.

* Why does Saunders keep calling Todd Yoder's number in the end zone? Yoder is a journeyman former backup TE for Jacksonville and Tampa who had only two TD's and 28 receptions in his seven seasons prior to joining the Skins in September. As a Skin he has one reception and one TD. In the red zone, smart teams turn to their playmakers. Dumb teams turn to their Todd Yoders. A smart team would throw to Sellers, who had seven receiving TD's last season and has zero this season.

* Betts has done an outstanding job, and is ranked #1 in the NFL for the past five games, but the run play calling has not been strategic in a larger sense of being designed to tire the opposing defense. The Skins run up the middle almost 100% of the time. Classic Joe Gibbs football is to the run to the outside for the first half, thus tiring the defense, and then run up the middle for the second half and break big plays. The Gibbs strategy was exemplified in the 1982 Super Bowl, in which the Miami defense was tired from side runs and then Riggo ran for 43 yards up the tired middle for a touchdown.

The team suffers from the lack of an overall, consistent strategy to win games, and that includes personnel decisions. Castoffs are placed in key roles, guys with gazillion dollar contracts sit on the bench, play-calling in the red zone is bizarre and the secondary coaching is self-destructive. Kudos to Betts and Campbell for performing well under these circumstances and scoring 31 points.