Brunell claims slight edge at QB
By Jody Foldesy
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
From the Sports section
Veteran Mark Brunell took a shaky lead in the Washington Redskins' quarterback battle last night thanks to one beautifully thrown pass and a dismal outing by young Patrick Ramsey.
Brunell didn't play great in a 23-20 preseason loss to the Carolina Panthers but hit Darnerien McCants for a 61-yard touchdown in the third quarter. The pass was a well-timed bomb down the left sideline, just over the outstretched hand of cornerback Dante Wesley and right in stride with McCants.
Overall, the outing was anything but decisive in the team's most scrutinized battle of the preseason. Brunell finished just 6-for-15 for 119 yards with an interception, and his performance came entirely against Carolina reserve defenders.
Still, one good throw was more than Ramsey managed. The young passer looked skittish in the pocket and threw with little precision or zip. He finished 4-for-11 for 62 yards, though even those figures were inflated by a final series against backups. In three series against starters, Ramsey completed two of seven passes for 39 yards with an interception, a sack and two mishandled snaps.
"Obviously, I feel like I could have done 100 percent better," Ramsey said. "I'm not real pleased with my performance, but I'll get better."
Including Monday's 20-17 win over the Denver Broncos, in which neither quarterback played well, Brunell is 10-for-23 for 137 yards, while Ramsey is 7-for-19 for 74 yards.
Last night reinforced the thinking that Brunell, who signed a seven-year, $43 million contract during the offseason, will win the job, if only by default. Coach Joe Gibbs intends to continue rotating the passers until he decides on a starter. Brunell will start Saturday at Miami, and Ramsey is scheduled to go first Aug. 27 at St. Louis.
Jones not bad
Kenyatta Jones appeared to hold up for the most part in his first start for right tackle Jon Jansen, who was lost for the season when he ruptured an Achilles' tendon against Denver in the first preseason game.
Jones wasn't beaten in any glaring instances, though the Redskins rarely left him "on an island," or without help. Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers did record a sack, but it didn't come against Jones specifically. Jones was whistled for holding late in the second quarter, negating a completion to H-back Chrisey.
Jones said the sack was "a miscommunication between me and the guard."
"It was my first time back at tackle again," said Jones, who started at right guard against Denver. "There's a lot of room for improvement. But it didn't go bad, though."
The situation at right tackle remains fluid. Washington considered moving left guard Derrick Dockery there but decided to try Jones first, betting continuity would be best for the line as a whole. Jones has experience at right tackle, starting 12 games there for the New England Patriots in 2002.
Baxter injured
Tight end Fred Baxter appeared to suffer a serious knee injury in the third quarter when he twisted his leg while running downfield alone.
Club officials said Baxter had a sprained knee and would have an MRI this morning. He was carted from the sideline a few minutes after exiting and evaluated by team doctors.
Washington picked up Baxter on June 2 to compete for a backup role at tight end. A 12-year NFL veteran, he played the past two seasons for the Patriots, not catching a pass either year. Walter Rasby is entrenched as the starting tight end.
At least two other Redskins suffered injuries last night. Rookie tackle Mark Wilson's nose was broken, while rookie cornerback Rufus Brown bruised his right thigh.
Extra points
Nose tackle Brandon Noble returned to the starting lineup despite a fractured hand, which he had wrapped in a hard cast. It was Noble's first game action since the 2003 preseason, when he tore two knee ligaments and dislocated a kneecap against the Patriots. ...
Return man Chad Morton decided at the last minute not to play because of the ankle injury that bothered him during the week. Punter Tom Tupa, in a gametime decision, did not dress because of a strained back muscle. He injured himself at practice Thursday.
Joining Tupa in street clothes were cornerbacks Rashad Bauman (hamstring) and Walt Harris (knee), running back Ladell Betts (hamstring), linebacker Mike Barrow (knee), center Ben Nowland (knee), tackle Brandon Winey (ankle), wide receiver Cliff Russell (hamstring) and defensive end Phillip Daniels (abdomen). ...
For a second straight game, the Redskins did not introduce starters. The players decided to do so as a sign of unity, much as the Patriots did in Super Bowl XXXVI against the St. Louis Rams.
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Redskins sloppy in muck
By Mark Zuckerman
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
From the Sports section
Two games into their five-game exhibition schedule, a few things are becoming abundantly clear for the Washington Redskins.
• Patrick Ramsey has done little to deserve winning the starting quarterback derby.
• Mark Brunell has done just enough to retain his status as Joe Gibbs' presumptive choice.
• It's a good thing Gibbs has three more preseason games because after last night's 23-20 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers, his team hardly looks ready for competition that actually counts in the standings.
"They're playing hard, and if we keep doing that, we're going to win football games," Gibbs said. "But we're making way too many mistakes. We've got a lot to learn."
Five nights after pulling off a haphazard 20-17 victory over the Denver Broncos in the Hall of Fame Game, the Redskins again slogged their way through 60 minutes of ugly exhibition football.
Whoops, make that 68 minutes. With the score tied at the end of the fourth quarter, the two teams had no choice but to keep playing. Carolina's John Kasay finally ended it by drilling a 52-yard field goal with 7:31 to go in overtime.
The sloppy play and conditions didn't keep an announced crowd of 58,876 from sticking around for most of the night to witness Gibbs' FedEx Field debut. The mere sight of the Hall of Fame coach back on the sideline wearing a Redskins hat and windbreaker was enough to keep those fans who showed up satisfied on an otherwise forgettable night.
It's unlikely Gibbs emerged with much satisfaction over his team's play. Aside from a couple of big second-half plays, Washington did little to impress its coaching staff.
Ramsey in particular struggled through a rough night. Given the opportunity to start after backing up Brunell in the exhibition opener, the third-year quarterback looked out of sorts during his one-plus quarter of action.
Under center for five offensive series, Ramsey produced zero points. He was a dismal 4-for-11 for 62 yards, was intercepted once, sacked once and twice botched the exchange from center Lennie Friedman.
In his defense, Ramsey was playing with a wet ball, the result of the few remnants of Hurricane Charley that sideswiped the area yesterday evening.
Still, it's safe to say Gibbs expected more out of the 25-year-old quarterback, who is running out of time to reclaim the starting job he once held.
Ramsey had to figure he was in for a bad night when he botched the game's first snap, barely recovering in time to hand the ball off to Clinton Portis for no gain.
Things only went downhill from there, with Ramsey nearly throwing an interception on the next play. He consistently looked uncomfortable in the pocket, at times holding onto the ball too long or floating ill-advised passes into heavy coverage.
Ramsey converted just one big play -- a 34-yard bomb to Laveranues Coles just before he was drilled by defensive tackle Brentson Buckner. Two plays later, though, Ramsey's fade pass to Coles came up well short and wound up in the hands of cornerback Dante Wesley.
After five uneventful series, Gibbs pulled his starter (who is now 7-for-19 for 74 yards in two games) and turned the offense over to Brunell and the rest of the second team.
"We made a lot of mistakes on offense, period," Gibbs said. "Our quarterbacks were a part of it. We're doing enough from a mistake standpoint that it's got us concerned."
The veteran quarterback, coming off a disappointing debut of his own, fared slightly better this time around. He immediately found wide-open H-back Chris
Brunell remained on the field for much of the third quarter with mixed results. His third-down pass to Darnerien McCants was tipped by cornerback Hank Poteat and intercepted by linebacker Brandon Short. Moments later, though, Brunell atoned himself with a pretty rainbow to McCants for a 61-yard touchdown that brought the night's biggest roar from the crowd.
The long bomb provided the perfect exit for Brunell, who departed having completed six of 15 passes for 119 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
The rest of the night featured the usual comedy of errors typically found in the preseason. The two teams combined to commit 24 penalties, helping slow the pace of the game down to a crawl at times.
Third-string quarterback Tim Hasselbeck engineered two scoring drives -- capped by a 14-yard Sultan McCullough touchdown run and a 34-yard Ola Kimrin field goal -- to give the Redskins a 20-17 lead.
The Panthers, though, came back to tie the game on John Kasay's 37-yard field goal with 23 seconds left in regulation and send it to overtime.
By far the strangest moment of the night came four minutes in, when a punt by Carolina's Todd Sauerbrun deflected off back judge Steve Freeman at the 1-yard line, leading to all sorts of confusion. Referee Bernie Kukar originally placed the ball at the 1, then after a long conference moved it to the 20, only to send it back to the 2 after Panthers coach John Fox successfully challenged the play.
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DAN DALY
What NFL stadium now seats more than Martinsville?
From the Sports section
News item: Latest expansion of FedEx Field boosts capacity to 91,655.
Comment: There's probably a clause in Joe Gibbs' contract that says, "Stadium must have more seats than Martinsville (86,000) by 2004 and more than Lowe's Motor Speedway (167,000) by 2008."
Even if Dan Snyder fills the place, it won't be the biggest regular-season crowd in NFL history -- not by a long shot. A game between the Rams and the 49ers at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1957 drew 102,368. The Rams were the darlings of L.A. back then. For three home games in '58, they had attendances of 100,470, 100,202 and 95,082. (They also packed in 95,985 for a preseason game against the Redskins in '51.)
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