{"id":3684,"date":"2010-12-15T17:29:25","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T21:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehogs.net\/blogs\/?p=3684"},"modified":"2025-06-01T21:59:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T01:59:39","slug":"redskins-preseason-impressions-vs-buffalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2010\/12\/15\/redskins-preseason-impressions-vs-buffalo\/","title":{"rendered":"Redskins Preseason Impressions&#8230;  vs Buffalo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The muffed kickoff did nothing to tarnish the first impression\u2026\u00a0 the first drive ended in a punt from the 34, but the aura was undiminished\u2026 from that point on, our 1<sup>st<\/sup> and 2<sup>nd<\/sup> team offense, defense, even special teams exuded it\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Competence<\/strong>.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In the first preseason game\u2026\u00a0 At no point in this game was there any anxiety about what would happen next\u2026.\u00a0 The team was efficient\u2026\u00a0 effective\u2026\u00a0 yes\u2026 Competent.<\/p>\n<p>In the first preseason game, with a simple game plan on offense and defense, you could see it.\u00a0 The o-line came off the snap of the ball in unison, their moves choreographed, crisp, purposeful.\u00a0 I was astonished\u2026 these are the Redskins\u2026 they always look like slugs in preseason\u2026 If you were a receiver, there was a ball made available to you\u2026 If you were a running back, the holes were large, with blocks available at the second level\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo\u2019s first drive was effective, but as the game moved along, the Redskins defense became increasingly confident.\u00a0 Their speed picked up.\u00a0 They were moving to the ball, making solid tackles, hitting their marks.\u00a0 Linebackers were running down hill, taking advantage of the excellent work being done on the d-line\u2026 mistakes were made, but immediately corrected.\u00a0 Field position was never a problem\u2026 and we ended up with a +2 turnover ratio.<\/p>\n<p>Young players were showcased\u2026 Ryan Torrain, Kieland Williams, Brandon Banks, Anthony Armstrong, Perry Riley,\u00a0 and Lindy Holmes made strong arguments to make the team.<\/p>\n<p>Recycled vets Rex Grossman, Roydell Williams,\u00a0 Bobby Wade and Adam Carriker all made plays.\u00a0 It was Carriker who provided the pressure that resulted in Hall&#8217;s pick.<\/p>\n<p>It was clear that Chris Cooley already has a connection with Donovan McNabb\u2026 but McNabb also spread the ball around\u2026 as did Rex Grossman.<\/p>\n<p>Competence.\u00a0 Simple, unadorned competence.\u00a0 A football team just doing things as a football team should do them\u2026<\/p>\n<p>How very comforting.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the Bills looked hapless\u2026\u00a0 They have the look of a team going in the wrong direction.\u00a0 Perhaps not a strong test of competence\u2026\u00a0 Worry not.\u00a0 Preseason tests are soon to come against the Ravens, Jets, and Cardinals, in that order.inflatable bouncers<\/p>\n<p>No hapless teams in that bunch.\u00a0 There will be plenty of opportunity, both to challenge competence, and to improve as a team.<\/p>\n<p>Yup, it\u2019s still early, and yup, we\u2019ve seen some strong performances in preseasons past\u2026 but on those occasions (such as the Summer of the Spurrier Illusion), the team was basically built to score points in preseason (by taking advantage of the other team\u2019s lack of game planning\u2026 I mean, who game plans in preseason?), with tricks, and gimmicks galore\u2026 along with the unfortunate side effect of \u201crubbing it in\u201d in a game that meant nothing.<\/p>\n<p>This was different\u2026 this was simply a team that was looking to string plays together, and in the process, scored lots of points, most from within the red zone.\u00a0 They were not taking advantage of the normal preseason propensity to simply try to evaluate players, as Spurrier had done\u2026 Just trying to string plays together\u2026 as a competent West Coast Offense does\u2026\u00a0 put together a long drive, and put it in the endzone at the end.\u00a0 It was a defense just trying to get off the field\u2026 as any competent defense does, and in the process, give the offense something to work with.\u00a0 Special teams saw 2 touchbacks on kickoffs, with\u00a04 kickoffs into the endzone, and several punts returned for good yardage, including a 77 yard return for a touchdown.\u00a0Competence.<\/p>\n<p>Sure&#8230; there were a few misreads on pass routes.\u00a0 And, Rexy played chicken a couple of times, but that looks like growing pains.\u00a0 Should get straightened out&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The oft jilted Redskins fan in me says, we\u2019ve been here before\u2026 only to have the rug pulled\u2026\u00a0 but my head saw the performance on Friday evening, and saw something not witnessed since Gibbs 1\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Competence&#8230; during the first game of preseason\u2026\u00a0\u00a0huh!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still hedging&#8230; old habits are hard to break&#8230; but this could be the start of something special.<\/p>\n<p>HTTR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The muffed kickoff did nothing to tarnish the first impression\u2026\u00a0 the first drive ended in a punt from the 34, but the aura was undiminished\u2026 from that point on, our 1st and 2nd team offense, defense, even special teams exuded it\u2026 Competence.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[783,782,71,38],"class_list":["post-3684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-washington-redskins","tag-grossman","tag-mcnabb","tag-preseason","tag-redskins"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Redskins Preseason Impressions... vs Buffalo | The-Hogs.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2010\/12\/15\/redskins-preseason-impressions-vs-buffalo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Redskins Preseason Impressions... vs Buffalo | The-Hogs.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The muffed kickoff did nothing to tarnish the first impression\u2026\u00a0 the first drive ended in a punt from the 34, but the aura was undiminished\u2026 from that point on, our 1st and 2nd team offense, defense, even special teams exuded it\u2026 Competence.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2010\/12\/15\/redskins-preseason-impressions-vs-buffalo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The-Hogs.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/the-hogs.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-15T21:29:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-02T01:59:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/washington-commanders-helmet.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Keys\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheHogsdotNetv2\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheHogsdotNetv2\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Keys\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/the-hogs.net\\\/blogs\\\/2010\\\/12\\\/15\\\/redskins-preseason-impressions-vs-buffalo\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/the-hogs.net\\\/blogs\\\/2010\\\/12\\\/15\\\/redskins-preseason-impressions-vs-buffalo\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mike Keys\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/the-hogs.net\\\/blogs\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/efbf2428465a045d19727d62ed9b4aa8\"},\"headline\":\"Redskins Preseason Impressions&#8230; 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