The Redskins improved to 3-0 in the preseason with their well-rounded 30-7 victory over the Buffalo Bills Saturday afternoon. Although scores and records don’t matter in the preseason, performance does. Here’s what I took away from yesterday’s game:
After the Redskins impressive 30-17 dismantling of the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, Redskins coaches got a further look into how the Redskins 53-man roster is going to break down in a few weeks. Here are a few guys that either helped or hobbled their causes:
Chris Wilson – had the best game of any Washington Redskin on Saturday, at least in my opinion. After sitting out 2011 and not playing football, Wilson looks hell bent on being employed in 2012. On top of Wilson’s sack that resulted in a safety, he also had three quarterback hurries and seem to be wreaking havoc in the Colts backfield nearly every time he rushed. If he wasn’t on the fringe of people’s 53-man before Saturday, he should be there firmly now. Wilson’s raw pass rush ability is very valuable depth, especially with Brian Orakpo knicked with an injury to the same area that limited him last year.
Kirk Cousins isn’t in Washington to take Robert Griffin III’s job. He’s a backup. Yet, he has stirred up more controversy than anyone in the draft. Let’s take a look at a few of the arguments concerning the Cousins pick.
1) The Redskins should draft best available
All I heard heading into the draft is that the Redskins need to draft the best available player. Where did all those voices go? Of course they are still around, but now they are up in arms because Shanahan actually did it. It’s not a good practice at all to bash the guy for not drafting best available and then bash him again when he does it. It seems everyone was so busy looking for a great quarterback in the senior bowl that they forgot who gave the best performance, Cousins. The guy is a smart player and an intelligent person. He’s more confident than John Beck and has better awareness on the field(Yes, Beck has no confidence regardless of what he says, remember the Bills game, ok) and more realistic than Rex Grossman (as well as more mechanically sound). Cousins has actually worked to improve his awareness and confidence.
We swept the Giants this year, with a very solid game against the Giants yesterday, following up on a very good performance in a shootout against one of the best teams/offenses in the league in New England. That was following a decent performance through 50 minutes against the Jets with Rex having a very off day. And that’s following a very good win against a young Seahawks team who just seems to give everyone fits.
Rex Grossman’s play has been up and down, as expected, and he still makes way too many mistakes, and some of them crucial. But under Rex Grossman, this offense seems to take a little flight. It’s true that receivers like the ability to go deep and not have to get smacked around in the middle after a 5-yard slant. It’s also true it opens up those 5-yard slants to keep defenses honest to the threat. Rex Grossman gives us a chance to be a lethal offense… but that’s it… a chance.
That’s it. The only question was, why did Shanahan take so long?
The Eagles had sold out. All effort was placed on stopping the run. They had committed to forcing Grossman to beat them with his arm.
Nothing does it like victory.
That good feeling this morning is real. The Redskins have continued the disciplined play that was the hallmark of their preseason.
First of all, for all the people shocked at the chippyness of this game, and how these two teams could possibly be rivals, I’ll say to you that you can look no further than any other game we’ve played against the Seahawks. They’ve all been chippy, and they’ve all been tough. While Trent Williams was the key guy in a lot of the video getting into it, and while it’s documented that the Seahawks may have started it by taking offense to a Redskins huddle at midfield, I wouldn’t count out veterans like Mike Sellers and Santana Moss having a lot to do with it before the game on our side.
On to the game, the opening drive was refreshing. It’s been a long time since this team has started a game with a long drive, and even longer since scoring (a touchdown at that) on the opening drive. It was a bit disappointing following up that drive with drives that just fell short, or ended early due to penalties in this chippy game, but my biggest praise goes to Kyle Shanahan for sticking with the run. There were definitely times we didn’t run enough still, but the early influx of the run definitely kept the Seahawks honest enough.
Okay, it’s finally time I present this long-winded rant about the Redskins. Just a quick disclaimer, there may be some foul language, I may target some people, and this is not going to be a rant all about the team or coaches… “fans” are as open a target as any.
Well, as some of you may have seen, I tweeted in the early hours of Sunday morning that the Dolphins wouldn’t care for the QB controversy that the Shanahan’s created because it wouldn’t matter in terms of their preparation overall. If they could score first, they could play pass defense the rest of the game, and they would win. Well, that proved to be the case.
Here’s a quick look at what’s going on at Redskins Park today:
Kareem Moore practiced…
… his 6 weeks on the PUP list are up, and while the Redskins didn’t make a roster move to bring him off the PUP list, Coach Mike Shanahan did say that Moore could be activated very soon. Washington actually has 21 days to integrate him back into the 53-man roster, but given the injury concerns to Oshiomoho Atogwe, Moore will definitely be on the fast track.