Browns at Redskins: No Time To Lose

Cleveland Browns (2-3) at Washington Redskins (4-2)
4:15 p.m. FedEx Field
So where do we begin? I guess we have to look back at last weekend. It was an ugly loss and an inexcusable one. The Redskins would have been sitting alone in first place at the time of this posting. All they had to do was beat a winless team that had been outscored 147-43 in its first four games. All the wiggle room and good will that followed road wins against Dallas and Philly flew out the window.

Surprisingly, around town, the mood about the Redskins hasn’t changed. There are still a lot of excited Redskins fans. A loss like the one last week would usually have this town up in arms and everyone would be in full-fledged panic mode. That hasn’t been the case. While no one is happy about the outcome of the game, I think a lot of fans have stayed rational and looked at the bigger picture. The Redskins body of work this season has still been pretty good. And their body of work last week against the Rams was pretty good. The Redskins dominated that game statistically, and if it hadn’t been for a couple of fluky turnovers, the Skins would have won. How many times is Pete Kendall going to catch a tipped pass, fumble it and then have it returned for a defensive touchdown? Maybe once in his career? The Rams game, while extremely disappointing, was more of a fluke than the Redskins beating Dallas and Philly on the road. Every team will have a game or two like that, so it’s best to get it out of the way early.

You can sit here and blame Kendall. Or you can blame Leigh Torrance for doing a terrible job of covering Donnie Avery downfield. Or you can blame Kareem Moore for not blitzing on the play like he was supposed to. Or you can blame the coaching staff for not getting the players up for an obvious trap/letdown game. What you should do is chalk it up as a decent effort by the Skins that was done in by turnovers and fluke plays. Let it go and move on to this week.

It was a busy week at Redskins Park. The Redskins finally ended the Durant Brooks experiment at punter and signed average veteran Ryan Plackemeier. Reed Doughty was placed on IR which means that Chris Horton will be the starter for the rest of the season (that’s a good thing). Former Bears safety Mike Green was brought in for some depth. The most significant move of the week was bringing in former NFL MVP Shaun Alexander to back up Clinton Portis. Ladell Betts hurt his knee in the loss last week, and Jim Zorn felt more comfortable turning to his former running back in Seattle than turning to Rock Cartwright. It’s a curious move for two reasons. The first is the risk the Redskins are taking in alienating Cartwright. This is a guy who rarely carries the ball anyway. The only time he sees the field is on special teams and the only time he touches the ball is during kick returns. Cartwright is a team leader, so it’s strange to see the coaching staff not give Cartwright the chance to be the second-string back. The second reason is the situation the Redskins will have when Betts returns. His knee injury is only supposed to keep him out 2-4 weeks. What happens behind Portis when both Betts and Alexander are available? Do the Redskins cut Alexander? Do they keep him on the roster but not play him? Do they give Alexander some of Betts’ carries? While this is a move with a lot of potential upside (especially if Alexander is healthy and has something left in the tank), it threatens to disrupt the chemistry of the running backs. It seems to be a distraction that the Redskins don’t need and could have avoided.

Now the Cleveland Browns come to the Washington area for the first time since 1991. The quarterback of that Browns team was Bernie Kosar. The head coach, in his first season, was Bill Belichick. The Redskins won 42-17 for anyone who is curious. The Browns only scored touchdowns and a fumble recovery and a fake field goal. It is entirely possible that the 2008 Redskins are the best Skins team since that 1991-92 Super Bowl team.

The Browns started the season much like the Rams did. They were completely outplayed by Dallas, Pittsburgh and Baltimore in three consecutive weeks. Their fourth game was an ugly, close win against the Cincinnati Bengals without quarterback Carson Palmer. They then had 15 days to prepare for a big Monday night home game against the Giants. Well, whatever happened in those 15 days seemed to have woken the Browns up. They handled the Giants pretty well, beating them 35-14 in a game that wasn’t even that close.

One reason the Browns have been showing signs of improvement is that they’re getting healthy. Earlier in the season, their wide receivers were decimated by injuries. Braylon Edwards was playing, but wasn’t close to 100%. Donte Stallworth couldn’t get on the field. Each week a different receiver seemed to miss the game. Combine that with Derek Anderson’s usual inefficiency, and the Browns passing game struggled to move the ball. Cleveland couldn’t stay on the field and their already weak defense was beaten over and over again.

The Browns seem to be clicking now. Despite the “mysterious” injury to Kellen Winslow (which everyone, even the sports outlets, knows about but refuse to report on…google the injury if you feel like being grossed out), the Browns offense is back in gear and looking more and more like last year’s version that almost carried Cleveland to a surprise playoff berth. Not surprisingly, the Browns defense is suddenly looking better now that it doesn’t have to spend 35-38 minutes on the field. They’ve only allowed 26 points in their last two games. This looked like a very winnable game for the Redskins at the end of September. Now it looks like another potential roadblock.

The Browns defense can be attacked up the middle, either on the ground or in the air. Cleveland is allowing 137 rushing yards a game and they’ll have to face the NFL’s leading rusher in Portis. This seems to me to be a no-brainer. Run the ball. Run it a lot. Then take some shots downfield against the Browns poor safeties. Santana Moss, after four big games, has completely disappeared from the offense the last two weeks. Let’s see if the Redskins can find him a couple of times downfield. I’m not too worried about the Redskins offense putting points up in this game.

The question on Sunday, at least for me, is the Redskins defense matching up with the Browns offense. Once again, Shawn Soft Springs will probably miss a game with a bruise and booboo. That means the Skins will have no physical corner to guard Edwards. Everyone remembers what Plaxico Burress did to the Skins in Week 1 while Springs was on the bench. I see no reason Edwards can’t do the same thing against Carlos Rogers and Fred Smoot (and I will admit that Rogers has had a good season so far, certainly better than anything I expected from him). Unless the Redskins go back to blitzing Anderson like they blitzed Kurt Warner, I have visions of a 10 reception, 120-yard game from Edwards.

A win here and the Redskins are right back on track. They can put the Rams loss behind them and get back on the march to the playoffs. 5-2 in the NFL is pretty damn good. However, for the first time this season, the Redskins are facing a game they can’t afford to lose. A loss to the Giants on the road is understandable. The loss last week was rough, but the Redskins had enough room for error after reeling off four straight victories. But a loss to Cleveland, combined with likely Cowboys and Giants wins against weak opponents, and the Redskins are going to start fading in the NFC East. Then there will be panic in Washington.