Lions at Redskins: Fire Millen!

Detroit Lions (3-1) at Washington Redskins (2-1)
1:00 p.m. FedEx Field
It’s been two weeks since I’ve had to write about the Redskins, and that’s certainly a good thing. I still can’t get over the loss to New York two Sunday’s ago. How did that happen? I could understand if it was a decent team. But the Giants? Really?

As usual, too many people in the area are paying attention to the end result. In this case, that happens to be the last drive and the last series near the goal line. Almost no one is focusing on the cause. How did the Redskins fall a touchdown behind? Why were they in that situation to begin with? To hear Redskins fans talk you would think that the Skins scoring in the final seconds would have completed a miraculous come-from-behind win. Before we forget, it’s probably important to note that even if the Skins had scored in the closing seconds, it would only have tied the game. And they shouldn’t have even been in that position to begin with considering that they were up 17-3 on a Giants team that was already trying to make excuses for why they quit on their coach again.

For the first 10 quarters of the season, the Redskins offense was functioning well. No, they weren’t carving up the turf, but the play-calling was great and the execution was good enough. A lot of heavy running, short passes and the occasional downfield shot are what we saw…but in no real predictable order. Typical Joe Gibbs offense. Then all of a sudden, that offense disappeared. Back to the predictable running plays off tackle and the third and longs with only one real deep threat. The result was also predicable. Three and outs, followed by punts, loss of field position and a tired defense. Why this occurred, I don’t know. I can’t tell you what was going on in the minds of Gibbs and Al Saunders. All I know is that as soon as the play-calling turned ugly, the game turned as well. And the 2007 Redskins, which for 10 quarters looked like a team capable of challenging for the division, turned into the 2006 Redskins and became unable to hold a substantial second half lead.

I’m not ignoring the bizarre set of circumstances around the goal line on the last drive. Certainly the Redskins should have scored. I had no problem with spiking the ball on first down (remember, they had no timeouts and only 50 seconds…it’s better to get three good plays off than rush a first down play an have a turnover because no one knows what’s going on) or going play-action on second. Yes, Mike Sellers should have made that catch, but he probably wouldn’t have scored because Kawika Mitchell was waiting for him. Still though, the idea of rolling Jason Campbell out and letting him see the entire field was a good call.

Now, I had no problem with the Skins running on either third or fourth down. But the big question all week is why Clinton Portis wasn’t the guy getting the ball. I think it’s clear, at least for anyone who knows how Gibbs works, that Portis’ fumble early in the fourth quarter led to his benching in the last few series of the game. Which is a bad move on Gibbs’ part. Portis did make a mistake by dropping a handoff. But you don’t take out your best player in a last second situation. Make him run laps the next day at practice. Don’t hurt the team by going to Ladell Betts who has done absolutely nothing all year. I’m sure Michael Jordan missed his fair share of last second shots, but I guarantee you Phil Jackson wouldn’t give the ball to Horace Grant in the next game.

Even if Portis was allowed to play, neither he nor Betts should have had the ball. Let Sellers pound it in. Heck, let Jason Campbell, who is a 6-5 truck of a quarterback, get two shots on QB sneaks from one-yard out. I hate those stretch run plays on the goal line. Especially because Betts is a good straight-away runner. Everyone is in the box for the defense on the goal line, who are you trying to fool?

My Redskins friends have tried to see the glass half full. At the beginning of the season, we all said if the Redskins go 2-1 into their bye week, they’d be in good shape. Lo and behold, they are 2-1. But I think most fans figured the Skins would beat Miami and New York while losing in Philadelphia. I don’t think many fans had the Skins at 2-0 going into their game with the Giants. Talk about having the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. They had a real shot to go 3-0, and put the Giants at 0-3. They would have kept pace with Dallas and virtually ended the Giants season in the span of one afternoon. And they should have. It’s not like the Giants came into Landover and dominated all afternoon. The Redskins basically handed them a win on a silver platter.

Now the Redskins enter a very crucial part of their schedule. After this week’s game, five of the next seven are on the road. These next three games are going to determine the path of the season. With two home games against Detroit and Arizona, with a road trip to Green Bay sandwiched in between, the Redskins MUST win two of the next three games before taking a trip to Foxboro. At the beginning of the season, the typical fan looked at the schedule, saw games against Detroit, Green Bay, Arizona, Tampa Bay and New York and basically penciled them in as wins. That isn’t the case anymore. All those teams are better than expected. The Skins are really going to have to earn two wins somewhere in this span. Facing New England with anything less than a 4-2 record is not a scenario that anyone wants to face. Not to mention the fact that if the Redskins are going to compete for a playoff spot, they may want to start beating NFC teams, especially two teams (Green Bay and Detroit) that they may need tiebreakers against down the road.

Yesterday, I talked about the bizarre NFC South streak where the last place team finishes first the next season, and has done so the past four years. That’s a great fluky streak and all, but how about this number. The Redskins are 20-0 against Detroit at home. 20-0. I have beaten the Redskins in Washington as many times as the Lions have. Most of those wins came when the Lions were actually good. While that seems like a lifetime ago, it’s only been about 10 years. Not too long ago, the Lions had this guy named Barry Sanders. You may have heard of him. Even during the glory days with Sanders, Herman Moore and Brett Perriman the Lions weren’t able to win in D.C. That 20-0 even includes two blowout losses in the playoffs (yes, the Lions actually made the playoffs once upon a time).

This 3-1 start not withstanding, the Lions are one of the most pathetic franchises in NFL history. They haven’t won a championship since the 1950’s. They have never appeared in a Super Bowl, let alone won one. They haven’t won a playoff game since 1991. They haven’t appeared in the playoffs since the Redskins dismissed them in the first round of the 2000 postseason. Detroit, Buffalo and Houston are the only teams that haven’t made the playoffs in millennium.

So when Jon Kitna said before the season that the Lions would win 10 games and make the playoffs, I’m sure there was a lot of laughter around the NFL nation. We had been down this road the last couple of years. Detroit drafts a wide receiver, all the analysts look at how stacked their offense is (while conveniently forgetting how bad the defense is) and everyone picks them to be a darkhorse in the NFC. Only to have the Lions go belly-up by week five and finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-12. So a bold prediction from Kitna was used as another excuse to bash the Lions and Matt Millen (I apologize for the title of the post, I know it’s a little late to jump on that bandwagon. I’ve always wanted to use that title but haven’t had the chance because the Skins haven’t faced the Lions in three years).

However, through the first quarter of the season, the Lions have set a 12-4 pace. On top of that, the Bears have fallen apart, and the only thing standing in Detroit’s way of challenging for the awful NFC North title is #4 in green and gold. And it’s only a matter of time before Mr. Favre starts throwing interceptions as quickly as he consumes painkillers. So because of the sudden emergence of the passing game, and the crapulence of the North, Detroit actually looks like – insert joke here – a playoff-caliber team. At least until you look at the fine print.

Two of the Lions three wins have come against the North. And both were one-score wins against the two bottom teams in the NFL’s worst division. The other win came against Oakland. Sure the Raiders have improved, but they’re still no better than a six or seven win team. So to say that Detroit has played the Sister’s of the Poor is an understatement. Their one loss came to Philadelphia, which right now, is no better than any of the three teams that Detroit has beaten. The week following the Redskins Monday night win, the Eagles put up 42 first half points on their way to a 56-21 victory over the Lions.

We all know about Detroit’s passing game. The Jon Kitna-Roy Willams passing connection is legit. It may be one of the top five combos in the league. But this question has been asked before. Besides Kitna and Williams, what else does Detroit have? They statistically have one of the worst defenses in the NFL (again). The offensive line is as bad as it’s always been. There is no running game to speak of. The real question is not whether the Lions are for real, because they aren’t. The real question is when will the rest of the league realize that this is, in every sense of the term, a one-dimensional team. This team does one thing well, and only one thing well. That’s pass the ball. A good team should be able to beat them easily.

The Redskins will have Clinton Portis (knee sprain), but probably won’t have Santana Moss. That really hurts because this is a game that Moss could just go off. Detroit has nothing in the secondary. I might as well be playing out there. Still, the Redskins will have the Portis-Betts combination, and that should be the emphasis for the offense. The more they run, the longer Kitna and company stand on the sideline. Even the Redskins offense, despite not having Santana, should be able score early and often against this ragtag group. As for the defense, it will be a challenge. Williams and his fellow receivers will get theirs. Giving up 21-28 points would be a victory for the D, because the Redskins would still be in position to win the game. Despite Detroit’s gaudy offensive numbers and 3-1 record, this is a game the Redskins should win. If the Redskins want to be taken seriously, they have to start winning easy home games.