Redskins Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down
The Redskins drop a game in St. Louis to the Rams 31-28. It was a loss that was well deserved. The defense was awful, the offensive line was porous, special teams stunk again, and heck, throw in a bone-headed penalty by WR Josh Morgan at the end of the game. It all adds up to a football game the Washington Redskins did not deserve to win. So who deserves the Thumbs Up and the Thumbs Down? We will tell you.
THUMBS UP:
QB Robert Griffin, III: Again, Griffin was the best offensive player on the field for the Redskins and without him, this game would not have been close. Griffin threw for 206 yards, threw for a touchdown and ran for a touchdown. Griffin did not have offensive line protection today and took some rough hits. Frequently, Griffin was forced to run the ball because of lack of seperation from his receivers. Griffin ran the ball 11 times for 82 yards, seven yards shy of leading the Redskins in rushing. He scored his first TD on the ground on a nifty run up the middle. Griffin did throw one bad pick, forcing the ball in the middle of the field. However, overall, Griffin put the Redskins offense in position to score 28 poiints and to win the game. The supporting cast failed him. One thing you can't blame Griffin for today was the loss.
LB London Fletcher: Fletcher made an outstanding interception in the Rams end zone to save the Redskins defense. Late in the game, he got the football back to give the Redskins one more shot to win, forcing a fumble with three minutes left in the game. Josh Morgan killed that opportunity (see below). When the Redskins defense failed, Fletcher bailed them out with two critical turnovers. He deserves a thumbs up!
THUMBS DOWN:
Where to start? We have to give three instead of the normal two.
WR Josh Morgan: He single handidly cost the Redskins the chance to win the game at the end, catching a big pass to move the Redskins to within one yard of a first down and in much better field goal position. However, Morgan proceeded to throw the football at a defender, drawing a 15 yard unsportsman like penalty, moving the Redskins from a 47 yard field goal range to 62, which Billy Cundiff ultimately missed. It was stupid. Down right stupid. He deserves a huge Thumbs Down and should be concerned about his job.
Defense: The group as a whole stunk up the joint, allowing the Rams to score 31 points and gain 452 yards of offense. The pass defense was shredded by Sam Bradford for 310 yards and 3 touchdowns. The rush defense wasn't much better, getting bullied by the Rams ground attack for 151 yards rushing. The Rams moved the ball at will for most of their offensive series, saved twice by London Fletcher. Jim Haslett has alot of work to do with this defense.
Special Teams: For the second consecutive week, the Redskins had another blocked punt. That is simply unacceptable. Danny Smith has got to fix this and find out what the breakdown is in the middle of the punting unit. That blocked punt led to 7 Rams points.
