Redskins at Eagles: One More For The Road

Washington Redskins (3-1) vs. Philadelphia Eagles (2-2)
1:00 p.m. Lincoln Financial Field
Expert after expert, analyst after analyst and outlet after outlet raced to be the first to crown the Dallas Cowboys as the best team in the NFL. Who could blame them? Just a week ago, America’s team was officially back! Everybody aboard the bandwagon! And while the rush to judgment was all well and good, every major sports outlet forgot to look at the whole picture. The weak beginning schedule. The quarterback who has yet to win an important game. The lack of depth on both sides of the ball. And of course, what I wrote last week:

The linebacking corps is average at best. I also said back in August that the secondary was weak. They’ve only gotten weaker since Roy Williams (who is a liability in deep pass coverage anyway) got hurt and Pacman Jones has proven that he has lost more than step and is nothing more than a washed up “never-was”. The final weakness is Wade Phillips, who will lose this team as soon as the Cowboys encounter their first Owens-Pacman-Tank Johnson controversy or the Cowboys lose a couple of games in a row. The more I’ve seen of Dallas, the more I’ve seen that these problems have yet to be addressed.

Those problems all reared their ugly heads against the first good team Dallas faced. The Washington Redskins exposed all three of those problems last Sunday. The linebackers couldn’t find Clinton Portis all game. After the first quarter, they couldn’t lay a hand on Jason Campbell. The secondary was burned time and time again. Ken Hamlin is still trying to find Santana Moss. That would be Ken Hamlin of the new $50 million contract. When Adam Jones wasn’t lined up against Moss, he didn’t know who to guard. Antwaan Randle El and Chris Cooley each had key catches against him. The Redskins threw the ball whenever they wanted to and threw to whoever they wanted to. Dallas was powerless to stop it.

Following the game, the inevitable Terrell Owens blowup started taking place. After the game, Owens said something to the effect of “when I get the ball the offense goes, when I don’t get the ball the offense is stagnant.” I watched the entire press conference, and the Dallas reporters completely set Owens up with a misleading series of questions to get that soundbite. They then took that soundbite out of context and ran with it. But it doesn’t matter. That quote started a landslide of criticism, and the first cracks in the Cowboys’ armor have already been created. What was just a big loss to a division rival became more than that for Phillips and his staff. Now they have to worry about keeping Owens happy instead of winning football games. Despite being 3-1 with three relatively easy games coming up, Dallas now has to go in to damage control. We all knew it was going to happen eventually, I’m just thrilled it was the Redskins that helped the process along.

As I assumed, most of the attention after the game was paid to Owens and whatever nonsense he spews. Very little attention was paid to the game itself. When the game was talked about, the same analysts and experts that raced to name the Cowboys “best in the NFL” were the first to make apologies and excuses for them. And they were to first to take away credit from the Redskins. The phrase “the Cowboys did not play well” was used roughly 2,200 times this past week as the reason that Dallas lost and the Redskins somehow – inexplicably – won. Following the first excuse, the analysts then turned their attention to “Marion Barber only carried the ball 8 times” or “Felix Jones didn’t touch the ball” or “Tony Romo didn’t make the clutch throws”. Blah, blah, blah.

The Cowboys lost this game because they were outplayed from start to finish by the Redskins. I guess you can make the argument that Dallas didn’t play well. But maybe Barber only got 8 carries because the Redskins shut him down at the line. It wouldn’t be the first time. In five career games against the Skins, Barber hasn’t gained more than 70 yards in any of the contests. Maybe Romo couldn’t make the clutch throws because the Redskins defense was better than him. It wouldn't be the first time. He's only 1-3 against the Redskins. Chris Horton baited him into the pick, and the Skins secondary made life miserable for the physical Cowboys receivers. It wasn’t because Romo struggled or Owens didn’t get enough touches. It was because the Redskins defense forced Romo to play poorly. And even if the above Cowboy excuses are legit, that would be a sign of bad coaching by Phillips. Which means that Phillips was outcoached by a rookie signal caller. Jim Zorn was the better coach.

Another fact being overlooked is that the Redskins didn’t play as well as they could have either. The Skins drove the ball inside the redzone six times. They only scored two touchdowns. If the Redskins had played better inside the Dallas 20, they could have scored 35-40 points and the game would have been over in the third quarter. If anything, the Redskins weren’t lucky to beat Dallas, the Cowboys were lucky to only lose by two points.

My final word on that great win for the Redskins has to do with Rock Cartwright. A story was published Sunday night that said that Cartwright and resident Dallas thug Tank Johnson got into a fight after the game because Johnson thought that Cartwright was celebrating on the Dallas star. On Sunday night, both the Washington Post and Washington Times said that Cartwright wasn’t celebrating, dancing or making any sort of scene. He was just standing around midfield, smiling and enjoying the win. Soaking up the atmosphere, if you will. Johnson mistook Cartwright’s joy for smugness and took offense. Ok, simple misunderstanding. I was willing to overlook it as two combatants getting upset at each other after a tough division game and great rivalry contest.

Well, on Monday, ESPN took hold of the story as only ESPN can do. Except instead of presenting the views of both Johnson and Cartwright (as the Post and Times did), they only talked to Johnson after the game. ESPN’s story said that Cartwright was most definitely celebrating, and the story came complete with some quote from Johnson saying that Cartwright and the Redskins had “no class.” The story did not contain one quote from Cartwright or any member of the Redskins. Cartwright immediately became the villain. How dare he celebrate a big win on the field! The outrage!

Even if he was celebrating the win in an obnoxious fashion (which he wasn’t), who cares? His team just won a huge game. He earned the right to celebrate. But that’s not what really bothered me. The fact that Johnson had the nerve to say the Redskins had no class, and that ESPN reported it, took it seriously and debated whether or not the Redskins did indeed have no class, is an absolute joke. Here is Johnson, a man who has been arrested time and time again, complaining that someone else has no class. I guess we’re lucky Johnson didn’t go to the lockerroom and pull out any of his .22 calibers. Here is a member of the Dallas Cowboys - the same organization that employed drug-dealers like Michael “Cokeline” Irvin, Nate Newton and Quincy Carter, thugs like Johnson and Pacman Jones and currently star the most selfish and annoying wide receiver to ever play the game – criticizing the Redskins for not knowing how to play with class. This is the same team that employs Owens, is it not? The same player who just a few years ago, as a member of the 49ers, did his own famous celebration on the so-called “sacred” star. And Johnson has the nerve to talk about Cartwright not playing with class. Oh, the irony unkind!

Despite the criminals and morons that occupy the Cowboys lockerroom, I still thoroughly enjoyed the Redskins win. I didn’t show any “class” when it came to dealing with the few obnoxious Cowboys fans in the office. It’s funny how most of them have been very quiet this week. Wonder why? Anyway, as great as it is to beat Dallas, it was also an important win for Washington. The Skins now sit at 3-1 as they head out on the road…again. As I mentioned last week, the worst that can happen (barring injuries) on Sunday is that they lose to the Eagles, sit at 3-2 after a brutal opening slate and can focus on getting healthy against the Rams, Browns and Lions.

This is the sixth time since 1996 that the Redskins have started 3-1. Only once in the past five tries did they go 4-1. In three of those seasons, the Redskins made the playoffs. So I guess it’s not necessarily important for the Redskins to beat Philadelphia tomorrow, but it couldn’t hurt. Can you imagine the Redskins at 4-1 with all three division road games behind them? How sweet would that be?

The bad news for the Redskins is it appears that Brian Westbrook will play. Without him, the Eagles offense is bad. They can’t move the ball, Donovan McNabb is a sitting duck in the pocket and the Eagles usually lose. Corell Buckhalter is a decent backup, but can’t do the things in the passing game that Westbrook can. The Eagles offense has always done well against the Redskins, and with Westbrook, I expect them to put up anywhere from 21 to 28 points against the Skins’ D. I don’t think it matters that Jason Taylor doesn’t play. Taylor wasn’t a huge contributor in the first three games, and the Skins defense didn’t miss him against Dallas. Shawn Springs’ injury could be important. Springs continues to show his soft side year after year. And while he is soft, he is important. Just remember how easy it was for Plaxico Burress to make plays against the Skins secondary in week 1 when Springs was out. The secondary won’t be as good without Springs, but the Eagles don’t really have a big possession receiver to take advantage of his absence. Plus, the immergence of Horton since the Saints game will help offset some of what Springs brings to the field. Regardless, I expect 21-28 points from the Eagles offense.

The Redskins offense will have to show up again. The offense will face their toughest task of the season against Jim Johnson’s blitzing schemes. He blitzes on first downs. He blitzes on third downs. He blitzes in running and passing situations. He blitzes in short yardage and long yardage. He blitzes when he’s ahead and when he’s behind. I guess I’m saying that the Eagles Defensive Coordinator blitzes a lot. I’ve always like that aggression and I’ve always liked Johnson, despite the fact he coaches for the Eagles. I’ve thought for a long time that he’d actually be a better head coach than Andy “Father of the Year” Reid.

The key to attacking the Eagles is twofold. One is attacking the blitz when the Eagles come with it. As they say in the NFL, when a team blitzes, put the ball where the blitz came from. That’s where the field will be wide open. So that means screen passes to Portis and bubble screens to the receivers. Jason Campbell won’t have time to look downfield, at least not in the early going. The second way to attack Johnson’s Eagles is to stay balanced. You can’t go heavy with the run or pass. You have to make the Eagles guess because that is the only way you can keep the Eagles from blitzing almost every play. If the Redskins force the Eagles to back off their blitzes, they’ll win the game. The Eagles are not good enough at linebacker or in the secondary to rush only four or five guys like the Redskins love to do. If the Skins can get them standing around in zone coverage, Campbell should pick them apart.

This will probably the most I’ll ever get to truly enjoy a Redskins game. If they lose, so what? 3-2 isn’t great in the NFC East. But with three almost certain wins coming up, and the toughest part of the schedule over and done with, 3-2 is exactly where I hoped the Redskins would be after 5 weeks. The only reason this game is important is that it gives the Redskins a chance to put a major dent in the Eagles' season. If Philly loses, they fall to 2-3, they’ll be at least two games out of first place (and most likely at least two games behind the other three teams), they’ll be 0-2 in the division, and their disgusting fans will turn on them. The Redskins had several chances to step on the necks of other teams last season and didn’t take advantage. The best example would be the week 3 game against the Giants. If the Skins held on to that lead at home, the Giants would have been 0-3, and their season would have been over. Instead, the Giants rally, use that game as a springboard, and go on to win the Super Bowl. There’s no need or reason to let Philly back into the NFC East race. If the Skins lose, I won’t be worried. But if they win, it’s time to get really excited about this season. Just imagine…4-1 with no division road games left. It’s a pretty sight.