The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Personally I think that we need some kind of momentum shifter to go our way. Whether it be a long TD run/pass or an interception/fumble recovery, we need the momentum to start off with.

Two words....Joey Galloway. Clayton is out, so our banged up secondary has to shut down Galloway. I have no qualms about Cadillac. We took care of him the first time for the most part, but our banged up secondary must eliminate the big plays with Galloway. The improved pass rush should help.

Galloway and Alstott. Stop 'em!

I think we have to have the same gameplan as the first game. Load up on the run and make simms beat us. He beat us the first game but let's see him do it twice now that we have Griffin and Taylor in there who were missing the first game (Also the Phillip Daniels sighting). Springs doesn't look like he is going to play but we will get Rogers back. Secondary needs to step it up! No Question we can get it done!

I'm going to say Pass Rush. No matter what we will have a young secondary on Saturday. Even if we double Galloway he's pretty cagey. I think that our pass rush against a good o-line is going to determine this game. If we can penetrate and get to the QB we will win.

Chad

I think that the addition of Carlos Rogers in the beaten up secondary will be the biggest key! He will have fresh legs and be able to shut down joey galloway...

Alstott ran all over us when Cadillac couldn't.

We need to have a better game plan for stopping him. It kills you twice when big #40 has a good game... Bucs fans love him (can't say as I blame them) and when he gets going... all of Raymond James Stadium does.

It will be made that much more difficult by the fact that we HAVE TO establish that we can stop the run with just 7 men in the box. We need to be able to let the safeties drop back into some zone coverage and help the depleted secondary.

ST will help when he cheats into the box, but I'm not sure Alstott's going to be all that intimidated if he gets smashed in the mouth.... he's a tough football player... it may even spur him on.

ST will be the key to a lot of the wild card game. He's the pivot guy that is going to have to make plays both against the run and in coverage. The game might not come down to ST entirely... but we can't win without a great game from #21 IMO.

Alstott had 21 yards and he was their leading rusher lol but he scored twice. One of them was when they got the ball off a turnover at the friggin 4. He didn't do all that much that anyone else couldn't. Not to mention he was stuffed like a turkey on the 2 pt. play. He will get nothing...

Hopefully the field will be 100 yards instead of 99.5 yards when the Bucs have the ball.


Our secondary is the key. We didn't have #21 last time we played them. Now we do. Chris Simms I dare you to throw deep with him back there.

chaddukes wrote:I'm going to say Pass Rush. No matter what we will have a young secondary on Saturday. Even if we double Galloway he's pretty cagey. I think that our pass rush against a good o-line is going to determine this game. If we can penetrate and get to the QB we will win.

I totally agree. The best and most obvious way to shut a reciever down is to shut down the QB. With the way the D-line has been playing thus far In feel very optimistic that they can get it done.

Proof positive that you can't judge a game by stats alone IMO

He had 9 rushes
2 were touchdowns
1 was the 2 point conversion that ultimately spelled DEFEAT
2 of his other 6 rushes were for first downs

the Skins efense didn't seem to be able to stop him when they most needed to and this defense has been VERY good at bending and not breaking in just about every other game.

He also caught an 18-yard pass that had a 15-yard penalty tacked onto it and accounted for yet another Buc TD as it put them on the WASH 30 (they scored 3 plays later)

It wasn't just what he did, but when he did it. Cadillac ran the first series and the Bucs were 3 and out... it looked like the Skins D was going to have little trouble stopping the Bucs run game... second drive they brought in Alstott after the turnover and he ran the ball 3 times on the way to the end zone for their first score.

Next drive they put Cadillac back in and they went 3 and out.

Alstott just seemed to keep giving momentum back to the Bucs when they had lost it with Cadillac...at least that was my opinion of it.

And like i said... every time Alstott did ANYTHING, the crowd was rejuvenated.

As I recall the Bucs game, we handed them a couple of turnovers too. We were killing them on offense, but kept letting them hang around.

So I would say:
1) Play smart, no turnovers
2) Neutralize Simeon Rice. This guy has given us fits in the past. With Brunell still not up to full speed, we need to protect him well.
3)Play the Bucs receivers hard at the line. Last game, Bucs max protected to counter the blitz, and Simms just launched the ball deep milliseconds before the Skins' D got to him. We need to reroute those WRs and keep them from getting off the line.
4) Run, Run, Run, and Run the ball. Then run some more.

Voice of tv/radio broadcaster:

It is fourth down and inches ladies and gentlemen! Washington's defense has made a heroic stand on the line for three downs! Last time out for Tampa Bay.

With the score 17 - 14 Redskins and 10 seconds left on the clock Coach Gruden decides NOT to send the Field Goal unit.

Everybody in the Stadium knows what the play will be ladies and gentlemen. John Allstot lines up as the single back. Tampa brings two tight ends. Galloway open as the single WR.

Ball is snapped and Allstot hits the line low! Lavar Arrington jumps high and Sean Taylor goes low. Sean Taylor makes the stop! No signal yet.

Ball did NOT cross the line! Washington Redskins win, Washington Redskins win in the last play of the game! What a game! Joe Gibbs gets revenge against the Bucs in the Playoffs!

Lets go to the field for interviews with the players ...

My keyto the game: hard stand on run situations on third and short and goal line situations.

They need to come up with a defensive scheme that's going to confuse the young Chris Simms. They need to flush him out of the pocket and have our LB's waiting for him. If we can fluster him like we did Bledsoe, we have a shot!!

from our standpoint -we need bal control offense,run the ball first then pass,
defense-disguise a look for simms he hasn,t seen before.put in a few new wrinkles for this game.
pass rush will be key along wih the secondary.carry a chip on your shoulders for this game.
stop the bucs runnig game with alstott and cadilac williams.
hit them and hit them hard ,we need great tackling
takeaway galloways strengths.

we need to execute and wrap the football no turnovers,just create them on our behalf.

I see this game being the total opposite of the first game. I don't see Sims and Brunell putting up the numbers as they did in the first meeting, add to that that teams get more conservative in playoff games. I think that helps us... Gibbs plays conservative by nature and is very good at managing close game.
I agee we must stop the run and put the game on Sims. Of course TO's are hugh in playoff games We need to play solid ST this week again field position in so critical in games like this.

I would bet on the Bucs at home if they had a veteran QB. I think we rattle him and we win! We must jump on them quick, if we let their crowd get in it early we're in trouble.

Keep the cannon quiet. That'll do the trick every time.

The keys to this game are:

1. Don't let the 'unknown' receivers hurt us. It is a given that we lock down Galloway. But we can't let the number 3, 4, and 5 receivers hurt us.

2. Heavy Pass rush. Pressure on Simms early and often. We have a tendancy to make average/below-average QBs look good by giving them time to throw. We did it on Sunday at Philly until Marshall made a big play.

3. Portis left, Portis Right, Betts up the middle. We have to get Portis on the edges or off tackle in order to take advantage of his speed. Run often to Rice's side and let him over pursue. Use Betts to soften up the middle.

4. Play action. Teams have now seen for 5 straight weeks, us pound the ball on the ground. So now is the time to run play action.

5. ey and Royal. Brunell needs to go to them a little more quickly on the check down. We all know that Moss will be doubled so ey and/or Royal have to get off the line and into the flat quickly so that Brunell can quickly check down. He held the ball a little too long on Sunday and with his bum knee we can't afford to have him running that often.

In the first matchup on November 13, the Redskins:

Had more first downs (23 to 19)
Had three times more rushing yards (185 to 61)
Had more total net yards (389 to 340)
Had a higher passing completion rate (65.7 to 51.7)
Controlled the time of possession (34:25 to 25:35)

We lost the turnover battle (1-3) and did not have enough big plays on defense:

We gave up 2 interceptions but did not grab any.
We fumbled 3 times, lost one. We forced and recovered one fumble.
We did not record a sack, and gave up 2.

I think these will be the keys to the game.

Last time around...no Clayton, but we got owned by a "washed up" Hilliard and some kid named Shepherd.
These would be the WR's aside from Joey that Roybus is talking about watching.
Live and learn, Roy. Those guys aren't unknown to us anymore.

BossHog wrote:ST will be the key to a lot of the wild card game. He's the pivot guy that is going to have to make plays both against the run and in coverage. The game might not come down to ST entirely... but we can't win without a great game from #21 IMO.

This might be true but I fear him being attracted too much to play the run. In fact, a good game plan by the Bucs would be to start overplaying the run to attract him to the line and then take advantage of a wounded secondary.

I feel that you are overlooking the play and role of our linebackers. Why does ST has to do -their- job? He can help of course but I go as far as saying that the critical play for this game is not Sean Taylor's but the linebacker unit as a whole.

Marcus, Lavar, Marshall and Holdman have to make a statement against Alstott in this game.

BossHog wrote:Alstott ran all over us when Cadillac couldn't.

We need to have a better game plan for stopping him. It kills you twice when big #40 has a good game... Bucs fans love him (can't say as I blame them) and when he gets going... all of Raymond James Stadium does.

It will be made that much more difficult by the fact that we HAVE TO establish that we can stop the run with just 7 men in the box. We need to be able to let the safeties drop back into some zone coverage and help the depleted secondary.

ST will help when he cheats into the box, but I'm not sure Alstott's going to be all that intimidated if he gets smashed in the mouth.... he's a tough football player... it may even spur him on.

ST will be the key to a lot of the wild card game. He's the pivot guy that is going to have to make plays both against the run and in coverage. The game might not come down to ST entirely... but we can't win without a great game from #21 IMO.

I agree with everything you said, but you only addressed the defense. On Offense we have to establish our own running game. If we can pick up four or five yards running on first down, we can control the tempo of the game and open up passes downfield. I think we are going to blow them away this time. We are going to be playing with a lot of emotion, and we have a chip on our shoulder from the last game, when we didn't close the deal, and wound up having it taken away on a bad call.

This game will be a close one. The key will be for us to win the turnover ratio. We both have good outstanding Defenses I see it as a low scoring affair this time. The turnovers,who can hold on to the ball the longest and our field goal kickers are going to play a big time role if we want to win this one. Also field position. Which ever d can convert the turnovers to points will walk away with a win this Saturday. I hope Lavar tears it up with like five sacks. I dont know but I have a feeling Lavar is gonna break out this game.

They key to this game is keeping our intensity. They wont have 90,000 braves to ignite a fire inside of them, they wont have our energy to feed off of. They'll have to feed off of their own desire and that of the coaches and veterans. Hopefully they're hungry enough.