Redskins at Patriots: Imperfect Story

Washington Redskins (4-2) at New England Patriots (7-0)
4:15 p.m. Gillette Stadium
Whatever is going on, or not going on, at halftime has to stop. It has to change. It’s not working. Even though I’ve been privileged enough as a member of the local sports media to attend Redskins games, sit in the press box, and have access to the field, players and coaches before and after the game, no one is allowed near the locker rooms during halftime. So the only people who know what’s going on in there are 53 players and the coaches. And they’re not telling anyone what’s happening.

Are they relaxing? Are they getting too worked up? Are they like Gilbert Arenas, playing internet poker? Do they order out for Chinese? For all we know, the real Redskins keep getting abducted at halftime and replaced by another team in similar looking uniforms. The difference with the Redskins in the first and second halves is obvious to the most casual fan. It literally looks like a different team.

Four times this year, the Redskins played with fire after halftime. Twice they’ve been burned. This past Sunday they let the match go down awfully close to their fingertips. Holding the Cardinals offense to 19 points is usually a pretty good afternoon for a defense. But not when the Cards are missing their starting quarterback, their backup quarterback is so beaten up he can only hand the ball off with one arm and the team loses two offensive linemen in the middle of the game.

So is the defense to blame? No. The defense has been playing out of its mind. This is the best job Gregg Williams has done. He has no – I repeat – no complete defensive lineman. Andre Carter is a pure pass rusher who is a liability on first and second down. Cornelius Griffin is the opposite, a great run stopper who couldn’t get to the quarterback if he started the play lined up behind center. Phillip Daniels is always hurt. And while Demetric Evans, Kedric Golston and Anthony Montgomery have all been pleasant surprises, none of them is going to be confused with a Pro-Bowler anytime soon. For crying out loud, this was a unit that couldn’t even pressure 48-year old Kurt Warner.

On top of the defensive line deficiencies, Marcus Washington has been hurt. Fred Smoot and Carlos Rogers have been hurt. Shawn Springs has had to shuttle back and forth between Dallas and D.C. to be with ailing father. At safety, Gregg Williams has a rookie who is still learning where he should line up and a veteran who still makes too many aggressive mistakes. Other than London Fletcher (who is an absolute stud and will probably prove to be the best free agent signing Daniel Snyder has made) and Rocky McIntosh, there have been no consistent and reliable performers. Yet, through it all, Williams has this defense playing better than it ever has before.

The defense can’t do it all. In the second half of games, they’re on the field way too much. The offense has to have the ball for more than 13 minutes in the second half. The Cardinals, with no running game, wore the defense down. The Giants did too. Even the Lions were starting to do so until Rock Cartwright’s punt return broke their back. I know Joe Gibbs has made a living off getting an early lead and then reeling in the playbook. And that strategy can be successful (see Bill Cowher). But the offense still has to put together one or two decent drives in the second half in order for that to work. I’m not saying touchdown drives (though that would be nice), but at least drives that are going to give your defense a rest.

Offenses are too good in this day and age for teams to just sit on seven to ten point leads. Gibbs is a brilliant play-by-play tactician, but for whatever reason, his strategy for the entire 60 minutes seems to be lacking. The Skins dodged a season-ending bullet on Sunday. Next time they may not be so lucky.

Fortunately for Redskins fans, the home team was a bit lucky this past weekend. The reason that win was huge is because now the Redskins hit the road for four of their next five, and have a 4-2 record entering that stretch. A loss would have put them at .500. That would have meant the Skins would have had to beat the Eagles at home and split the four road games to realistically stay alive for a playoff berth. On top of that, they would have gone to New England at real risk of dropping under .500 for the first time this season

That brings me to the 2007 New England Patriots. Funny, I haven’t heard much about these guys. Are they any good? Is Tom Brady still their quarterback? That’s the problem with following a NFC team. You miss out on a lot of AFC games.

In all seriousness, the Patriots are a very good team. I know I bash them a lot, and I believe the points I make are valid. This is not the best team in NFL history. This is not the best team since the 49ers of the 1980’s. The Patriots are probably not even the best team in the NFL this season. Just look who they’ve played so far (more on that in a moment). However, to say that this isn’t a good team simply because they’ve played a weak schedule is foolish. This is a very good team, a team that is certainly capable of making a Super Bowl run and a team that can beat any other team in the NFL soundly if it has a good day. So far, the Patriots have had a lot of good days.

Every week I’ve reminded you about some of the defenses the Patriots have played so far. And I’ll do it again. Five of New England’s wins have come against Cleveland, Cincinnati, Miami, Buffalo and the New York Jets. Those are five of the six worst defenses in the NFL. Let me write that again so you pay attention through the unwavering hype that is coming out of Bristol. THE PATRIOTS HAVE PLAYED FIVE OF THE SIX WORST DEFENSES IN THE NFL. That isn’t my opinion. That is based on statistics.

Now, for Brady to put up 27 touchdowns in the first seven games, even against the weak competition they’ve faced, is unreal. He is a machine. This is, by far, his best season. He could crap the bed the rest of the way and would still obliterate his previous season highs. 40 points a game on any collection of NFL defenses is impressive.

My problem stems from the fact that no one is even considering the opposition the Patriots have played so far. Before we even contemplate naming the Patriots one of the best teams of all-time, isn’t a look at their schedule worthwhile? Don’t you think the level of competition has helped the Patriots on their way to a record breaking season? Don’t you think it’s easy to take chances against bad defenses? Isn’t it easier to take shots downfield, knowing that even if you turn the ball over, you can probably score on the next possession? Isn’t it easier to be more aggressive with a lead (except if you are the Redskins) and then build on that lead against bad teams, thereby feeding a circular effect that opponents haven’t been able to stop? The answer is unequivocally yes.

You’ve been brainwashed into believing the Patriots are this good. ESPN isn’t good at a lot of things anymore. Take a look at how far SportsCenter has fallen since the Dan Patrick-Craig Kilborn-Keith Olbermann-Rich Eisen glory days (how does Linda Cohn still have a job?). SC is now just a former husk of itself, complete with so many sponsers and worthless elements (Ultimate Highlight…what the hell is that?) that it has become unwatchable. However, ESPN is very good at telling you what they believe the news is. It shouldn’t work like that in sports. The news is the news, whether it’s a team in Boston or Boise. ESPN doesn’t prefer that approach. They are able to take a team, tell you how good they are, talk about them nonstop and all of a sudden, people start to believe them. Why do you think the NFL draft has become so important? Not because it actually is, but because over the course of the last 15 or so years, ESPN has led you to believe it’s important. And they’ve been remarkably successful convincing you that the only important teams reside on the East Coast or named the Dallas Cowboys. One of my favorite invented ESPN story is the assumption that Bill Belichick is running up the score every week as retribution for the punishment handed to him by the NFL for deliberately cheating. That premise is so completely ridiculous, I don’t know where to begin. Do you think if he wasn’t punished he would intentionally play close games? No, he’s scoring points because the terrible defenses they’ve played can’t stop him. What a stupid notion by ESPN. It’s just another excuse for ESPN to talk about the Patriots. Heck, take a look on what was on their front page last Sunday. Remember, there were several important division and conference showdowns. So what was the lead story?

“Leave it to the unbeaten Patriots to make news beating a winless club.”

That’s right, they led with New England. A meaningless game that was over by halftime. This is classic ESPN. What news did the Patriots make beating a winless club? THERE WAS NO NEWS. The Patriots did what everyone expected them to do. That’s like the local 6 o’clock news leading off their broadcast with a fender bender. ESPN is inventing the news so they can continue to hype up a handful of teams, trick you into caring about them, then in turn, have you watch their programming, bump up their ratings and make more money. That’s what it’s all about. The big fat dollar. Wake up people. Stop suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and realized you are being brainwashed.

On to the game. New England has played one decent team this year. That was Dallas. The score indicates they beat the Cowboys soundly, but the game was close late into the third quarter. The Patriots defense is very weak in the secondary. A good passing team, like Indianapolis, can tear this team apart. Asante Samuel is the best defensive back on this team, and he isn’t one of the top 20 corners in the NFL. Rodney Harrison is way past his prime (assuming he’s stopped using steroids). He is no longer effective in pass coverage at all. He is a liability on any passing play.

On the other side of the ball, we all know how good New England has been this year. However, I again point to the defenses they’ve faced. And have you seen some of these touchdowns on replay? Randy Moss or Donte Stallworth will catch the ball, and the defensive backs just fall down. No one seems willing to tackle these guys. No one seems willing to bump these guys at the line of scrimmage. That will not be a problem for the Redskins. The Redskins secondary, other than Carlos Rogers, are all very good tacklers. Moss and Stallworth (especially Stallworth when he was with Philly) are known to be afraid of taking big hits. In fact, most big receivers don’t like getting hit. If Brady goes over the middle early, and either Taylor or Landry light one of these suckers up, it will completely change the course of the game. Wes Welker, because he is small and used to taking big shots, scares me a lot more than either Moss or Stallworth do.

The Patriots are beatable. The Redskins certainly have the defensive backs and defensive scheme to hang around in this game. The problem is the Redskins offense. The one area where New England is obviously vulnerable is the one phase of the game the Redskins are struggling in. To take advantage of New England’s defense, you have to be able to run the ball, then go downfield for big plays against this weak secondary. The Skins haven’t been able to do either one with any consistency. If the Redskins can’t put sustained drives together, there is no way the Washington defense will be able to stay on the field all game and stop Brady. It’s not going to happen. So unless the offense suddenly steps it up, the Redskins can probably hang around for a little more than a half and will then fade away.

The Skins do catch New England at a good time. Everyone knows the most important game in the history of the Western Hemisphere is next weekend when the Patriots visit the Colts. To say this week is a trap game for New England is a huge understatement. The Patriots are 17-point favorites, at home, against a team from outside their conference, a team that has struggled the last two weeks and with a game coming up against their one main rival. This is the definition of a trap game. Plus, with all the blowouts, the Patriots haven’t been forced to play a close game into the fourth quarter. If the Redskins can keep it close for three quarters, who knows how the Patriots will come out in the fourth.

I really do see the Skins hanging tough in this one. I think it will be close. I just don’t think the Redskins can keep their defense off the field long enough. The offense is going to have a couple of back-to-back bad possessions in the second half. That will be enough. That, and the overwhelming feeling that Rogers is going to cost the Skins at least a couple of big plays. However, considering the trap game effect, and the Redskins playing with absolutely nothing to lose in a game no one expects them to win, could be the advantage Washington needs. All I know is, for the amount of hype ESPN bestows on Patriots, if the Redskins do pull out a win, ESPN better have this game in their top 10 all-time upsets. In reality, it wouldn’t be that big an upset at all. But ESPN and their sidekicks in New England don’t dwell in reality anymore.