First Quarter

[Scooter]

looking for some positives, i'm going to go back through and disect the game as much as possible. for those that are new to my main concerns, i'm going to be focused primarily on the line play and noting what stands out (and keeping an eye on mario). hopefully it doesnt get too depressing.

first drive - defense. looked pretty good and got a 3 and out. referees were a little generous to us with the spot on second down (and in general the i thought the refs tried to help us all day). redskins find out that noone blocks payne by themselves as he steamrolls the LG for a 3rd down stop of no gain or even 1 yard loss. mario comes within inches of getting his hands on portis the first two downs, and weaver gets flattened on the first two downs. bright spot - payne.

first drive - offense. fantastic. two runs right (same 2TE right formation). hodgdon and pitts join together well and pitts releases strong on 2nd run and picks up LB. 3rd play is play action post route with AJ wide open, mckinney gets knocked over and outside rushers get to carr on both sides but carr gets it off just in time. touchdown to bruener on play action boot. bright spot - carr drops with confidence and throws downfield quickly and without hesitation or worry about rushers.

second drive - defense. 5 plays, 4 are runs. mario gets credit for tackle on first down, pushing away the TE and grabbing portis in persuit for minimal gain. second play we get real good penetration from payne & travis, forcing portis to cutback wide in the backfield, minimal gain. 3rd down is the back breaker ... mario comes around to cut off brunell and almost gets his hand on the shovel pass. what turns this into a long gain is poor persuit. ryans gets blocked, but simmons and earl both remove themselves from the play by running into people who are already engaged. fourth play was a sweep left for a big gain, linebackers very slow to react (orr never really did react). td run, wide cutback to the left ... here's mario's problem. mario's very slow to pickup the ball and takes way too long to react to the play. at any time, mario could've thrown the TE blocking him aside, but by the time he found the play it was too late. payne gets doubled and blocked in the back ... TD. nothing positive here.

second drive - offense. this is where we fall apart, and it's mostly because of poor blocking. first play is a run right where mckinney stands around - his man stops dayne for minimal gain. second play cook & salaam run into eachother, both of their men come free at carr who gets a great pass off to dayne for a big gain. third is a quick out to AJ for about 6 yards followed by our first fumbled snap (this one's solely hodgdon's fault). 3rd and about 5, redskins blitz 6 plus 1 delayed. carr gets credit for 1/2 of this sack because he had enough time to get rid of the ball (obvious blitz) and the entire left side is open (i'm assuming, camera angles dont let me see their routes). dayne misses a block, salaam gets beat badly again, and nobody picks up the delay. not much positive here either - cut mckinney and bring back wand, PLEASE!

3rd drive - defense. redskins get methodical and we just cant get them off the field. first play of the drive, mario looks silly and obviously is having trouble mentally. noone blocks him and the play comes right to him, but he never locates the ball and the play goes for a big gain right around him. after that they come back running inside and mario picks up a couple assists and holds the pile pretty well for the rest of this drive. early in the drive is where tackling becomes an issue - santana moss makes 5+ texans miss, inexcusable (mario in persuit gets the tackle). after that i get annoyed. mario williams should not be in coverage. mario drops back to attempt to cover the TE who gets the catch and picks up about 8. a couple of almost stops keep this drive going and it's capped by poor judgement and our entire secondary being out of position. 2 guys bite on the fake (LB & safety i think) and chase right, as dunta is way out of position and never gets close to randle el on the quick toss to the left. good blocking and poor persuit and this one ends up a big TD. positives - run defense hasnt looked too bad so far, but not strong enough to force third & long.

that's the end of the first quarter. although we're down 14-7, we're very much still in it at this point and are about to get the ball back. also, no blitz at all the first quarter, and once only sent three on a first down. i'll probably do this for each quarter or just the rest of the game. although after re-reading this, i'll probably shorten it up quite a bit.

 

[utahmark]

nice. i did this sunday. looks like we are watching the same game.

 

[thunderkyss]

... here's mario's problem. mario's very slow to pickup the ball and takes way too long to react to the play. at any time, mario could've thrown the TE blocking him aside, but by the time he found the play it was too late. payne gets doubled and blocked in the back ... TD. nothing positive here.

Absolutely..... He's had this same problem since Week 1. He will get into the backfield, and not know what to do. He seems disappointed that no one blocks him. With his speed, he could've had several sacks by now. On this particular play, what is so disappointing, is that he isn't pursuing anyone. Before the snap, he should have in his mind... "this is a pass play..... kill the QB" or "this is a runningback..... kill the ball carrier" On this play, he does neither.

dayne misses a block, salaam gets beat badly again, and nobody picks up the delay. not much positive here either - cut mckinney and bring back wand, PLEASE!

we want Wand to start at LT right?? & Weary at RG?? I agree.

& while I'm not making an excuse for Dayne or Salaam...... but did you notice how both of them tried to establish their blocks two yards ahead of where Carr tried to set up??

Weird.

 

[Scooter]

With his speed, he could've had several sacks by now. On this particular play, what is so disappointing, is that he isn't pursuing anyone. Before the snap, he should have in his mind... "this is a pass play..... kill the QB" or "this is a runningback..... kill the ball carrier" On this play, he does neither.

exactly and this is what i've been arguing across the board. if mario's sole purpose was quarterback, he'd look like a bigger antwain peek. instead he's trying (unsuccessfully) to diagnose the play and chase the ball. these are things that CAN be taught, and something that players pickup through experience. once he's gotten to the point in his career where he knows his assignment and how to react instantly, he's going to be an elite player, but very few rookies come into the game with that kind of knowledge namatter where they're picked. i'm not saying he's played great, because he hasnt. i'm just pointing out why he hasnt, and making it clear that i didnt expect him to this early.

as for blocking, yes, i deffinately would rather see weary & wand. and yeah i've noticed that aswell from cook, dayne, lundy, & salaam. they all fall back too far into the pocket before engaging their rusher. the strong blocking backs are good at reading the blitz and picking up their player much earlier - giving their qb more room to move around the pocket. that's something i'm not sure that we've ever had.

 

[thunderkyss]

as for blocking, yes, i deffinately would rather see weary & wand. and yeah i've noticed that aswell from cook, dayne, lundy, & salaam. they all fall back too far into the pocket before engaging their rusher. the strong blocking backs are good at reading the blitz and picking up their player much earlier - giving their qb more room to move around the pocket. that's something i'm not sure that we've ever had.

no, I mean on that they are trying to establish the pocket 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and David is setting up 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage. When the attacker comes in, they don't run right at Dayne or Salaam..... they are two yards in front of David, so Dayne & Salaam are having to reach to get a block.

In the Indy game, after David got sacked, his stride (dropping into the pocket) wasn't very rhytmic....... he'd take a long stride, cross his legs, a short stride, cross his legs..... etc...... almost stuttering through a couple of steps.

Today...... good thing for David, is that he didn't do that. But his five step drops were more like 6 steps..... I hadn't gone back to the other games, to see if he did it then as well. But I'm wondering if this is a new development.

 

[Scooter]

that i hadnt noticed and am glad you pointed it out. i really havent payed much attention to the pocket as a whole or how carr sets up. deffinately something i'll be looking for as i go through the rest of the game.