Brunell, RBs, Taylor and defense were impressive in shutout
The starting quarterback produced scoring drives, a rarity in the first two games. The rookie safety produced jarring hits and turnovers, again. Then there was the running game, which produced a night reminiscent of Joe Gibbs' previous Washington Redskins teams.
In Saturday's 17-0 victory over the Miami Dolphins, the Redskins did just about everything right, a change from the previous week's overtime loss to Carolina.
They held the offensively challenged Dolphins to 98 total yards while running for 181 themselves. They also outscored Miami by two touchdowns in the first half, when both sides were playing their starters.
Mark Brunell again outplayed Patrick Ramsey in the race for the starting quarterback job. Brunell, starting for the second time this preseason, completed 7 of 9 passes for 79 yards. Ramsey was 3 of 8 for 41 yards playing the entire second half. And a week after the quarterbacks combined for four interceptions, they played turnover-free.
Gibbs said Ramsey will start against St. Louis on Friday and no decision will be made on the regular-season starter until after that game.
Brunell completed only one pass to a receiver, but he also led the Redskins on scoring drives of 63 and 43 yards in the first half. That's quite a change from the first two preseason games when the only touchdown produced by the top two quarterbacks was a 61-yard pass.
But in those games the Redskins also didn't run the ball as well as they did Saturday, using more sweeps and counters. Clinton Portis finished with 37 yards on seven carries. Three other backs gained at least 33 yards. Running back John Simon rushed 12 times for 43 yards and caught four passes for 42 more. In the first two preseason games, the backs had rushed for a combined 174 yards.
"It was easy for us when we got the running game going," Brunell said. "You don't fix something that's not broken. Moving the ball that way meant when we did throw, we were effective."
"Our guys up front went after it hard," Gibbs said. "They were real aggressive. That was a big step up in the running game."
Rookie free safety Sean Taylor also earned another start after causing, and recovering, a first-quarter fumble that led to a 63-yard Redskins scoring drive.
In three preseason games Taylor has intercepted two passes, caused two fumbles and recovered one. Third-year safety Andre Lott had started the first two games.
"Sean has a lot of work to do on some of the small things behind the scenes," said Gregg Williams, the Redskins' assistant head coach for defense. "And he has a lot of improvement that he has yet to do for me to have confidence in trotting him out there on opening day. But he's so gifted that he bails out of mistakes right now that a veteran quarterback will make him pay for.
"But he's fun to coach. Even when he does the wrong thing he has that thing you can't coach, the feeling that he can make a play every time the ball is snapped."
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