Steelers at Redskins: Maddening Mondays

Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2) at Washington Redskins (6-2)
8:30 p.m. FedEx Field
I said I was going to keep last week’s Redskins post short and sweet. That didn’t happen. I’ll try to take it easy this week. We’ll see how well I do.

Through five games against teams that are now 23-14, the Redskins looked pretty good. A 4-1 record against good competition that included two division wins on the road was reason for excitement. Since then, the Redskins have gone 2-1 against teams that are currently 5-16. And they didn’t look good doing it.

Now halfway through the season, Redskins fans have a team that’s 6-2 and is loaded with 17 seasons of disappointments and expectations. This could be the team. The Redskins have everything that a Super Bowl caliber team should have. They have a solid offensive line and a great power rushing attack. In fact, though eight games, they have the best running game in the league. They have a quarterback that isn’t making mistakes and an offense that doesn’t turn the ball over. Defensively, no team has been able to consistently run against them. And with a few exceptions, the defense hasn’t given up the “big play”. The special teams have been sketchy, but they have a reliable field goal kicker who is nearly flawless inside of 40 yards. The coaching staff is fresh and the players seem to like playing for them. Jim Zorn is not afraid to take a shot or two down the field and he is not afraid to let his team make plays in the 4th quarter to seal wins.

At the same time, the team is 6-2 and has yet to win a game by more than one score. Injuries are starting to hit the team hard. 16 Redskins were listed on the injury report this week. That includes the two main cogs in the Redskins offense: Clinton Portis and Santana Moss. That also includes Chris Samuels, who the Redskins were lost without against Detroit. The defensive unit has more players on the injury report than not on it. The Redskins are not exceptionally deep, especially among the front seven. Along with injuries, other problems have started to show. The Redskins have still not established another top flight receiver to line up next to Moss. Antwaan Randle El and Chris Cooley are great compliments, but they can not carry this team if Moss is covered or if his hamstring injury gets worse. Washington has still not established any sort of reliable pass rush. That’s mostly because Greg Blache refuses to blitz more than a couple of times a game. It’s also because the Redskins front four is either too slow or playing hurt. The Redskins also have had many problems with their punting game. Ryan Plackemeier is no better than Durant Brooks. He’s been consistent the last two weeks, but his punts aren’t going over 40 yards. The Redskins also have no reliable punt returner. Randle El has completely lost his ability to return punts. I’m not sure what happened between his time in Pittsburgh and his signing here in D.C. He refuses to run straight and he can no longer shake defenders. And while a lot of Redskins fans want Moss to return punts full time, that would open Moss up to more hits than he should be taking. As important as a big punt return can be (and was last week), I’d rather have Moss healthy for 7 to 8 receptions per game for the rest of the season.

So all is not perfect in Redskins land. Still, 6-2 is 6-2. It beats the 4-4 or 3-5 records Redskins fans have been used to seeing. However, this is historically where the Redskins season has gone south. After a strong start in last season’s first half, the Redskins lost their next four games. After a 5-3 start in 2005, the Redskins lost their next three games. Two of those were at home and two were against bad teams. Now, the Redskins recovered both times and made the playoffs. But instead of possibly winning the division, the Redskins made it as a wild-card and spent the postseason on the road.

The last time the Redskins started 6-2 was in 2000. Of all the bad seasons and disappointing seasons in the last 17 years, 2000 was the worst. The Redskins had Super Bowl talent and started the season strong. Then they suffered a terrible and strange defeat in the desert to Arizona. They followed that by losing five of their last seven games. That disaster of an ending cost Norv Turner his job and sent the Redskins into a mini-downward spiral that Joe Gibbs was able to pull the team out of four years later.

So now it is up to Jim Zorn and the Redskins to finish what they started. The Redskins don’t need to be perfect. A 5-3 finish would put them in good position in the division and the playoffs. But the Redskins can’t keep having these mid-season losing streaks. One loss doesn’t worry me. It’s when you string together a few that it becomes a real problem. The Redskins closing schedule doesn’t appear to be too hard, at least compared to the rest of the division. However, there are a lot of road games from mid-November to the end of the season. That includes two West Coast trips. With two tough home games coming up, a couple of bad plays and bad bounces here and there could easily send the Skins on another one of these November slides.

The other problem for the Redskins is their recent lack of success at home on Monday Night. The Redskins have not won at FedEx Field on a Monday since it was called Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in 1997. The Skins are 0-6 since. Which is another slight against the Skins. Only 6 home MNF games since 1997? Really? For a team that has made the playoffs three times and has been competitive a number of other seasons in that time frame? I’m not sure what scares the NFL away from Landover. It is the league’s largest stadium, and I think the NFL would be dying to get as many primetime games there as possible. It’s a great showcase for the league and the Redskins always deliver a great crowd on Monday. It’s unfathomable that it took a presidential election for ESPN to agree to have the Redskins on MNF at home. They should want to be there at least once a season assuming that the team is somewhat competitive.

Anyway, I said I’d try to keep it somewhat short and it seems like I failed again. Let’s move on to the Steelers, who will be making their first appearance in the Washington area since 1988. Somehow the schedule makers allowed Bill Cowher to avoid D.C. his entire career. Is that why he didn’t want to coach here? Did he even know that Washington had a team?

The Steelers are led by typing-unfriendly Ben Roethlisberger and 2nd year coach Mike Tomlin (I will spare you the Omar Epps look-a-like jokes…I believe enough of them have been made). After a successful first season for Tomlin, it looks like he has the Steelers on track for the playoffs again. This season they may even be the team to beat in the AFC. However, Roethlisberger hasn’t really been able to enjoy the 5-2 start. He has been beat up in the Steelers first seven games. He’s been sacked a total of 23 times. Last week against the Giants, he was hit on seemingly every passing play. The Giants forced him into four interceptions, which is four more than Jason Campbell has thrown all season. His stats are way down from 2007, and with Willie Parker missing most of the season thus far, the Steelers offense has struggled despite the hot start. In fact, the Steelers have really struggled protecting Roethlisberger and scoring points against the NFC East. They are 0-2 against the Eagles and Giants and 5-0 against AFC competition. The Eagles and Giants spent most of their afternoons against Pittsburgh battering Roethlisberger and only allowed the Steelers to score a combined 20 points.

However, in what will be a recurring theme the next few weeks, the Steelers are getting healthy just in time to play the Redskins. Parker will most likely be back for this game and the Steelers also get back receiver Santonio “How High” Holmes from his team-imposed suspension. The Cowboys will most likely have Tony Romo and a healthy Jason Witten in two weeks when they come to town. And the Seahawks will probably get back Matt Hasselbeck by the time the Redskins visit the Pacific Northwest. So there will be no cheap wins like the Giants’ victory over a mysterious Dallas team yesterday. The Redskins will have to go through good teams with their best players.

Despite Pittsburgh’s struggles against the NFC East, this will not be a pushover for the Redskins. The Eagles and Giants won by blitzing the injured Pittsburgh offensive line and sacking Roethlisberger, who refuses to get rid of the football this season. Those teams had success against the Pittsburgh line only because they blitzed the crap out of the Steelers. That is something the Redskins don’t do. I’m not sure how effective Washington’s four man pass rush is against any offense line, even an injured one. If Roethlisberger is going to get on track, this might be the game he does it in. When he’s had time, he’s been accurate.

The Redskins have also had most of their success offensively from the ground game. I’m not sure how the Skins manage to duplicate what they’ve done on the ground the past five weeks. This will be the best defense they’ve faced since opening night, and probably the best defense they’ll face the rest of the season (other than the Giants again). The Steelers barely allow 70 yards a game on the ground. Without the running game, Campbell will probably struggle. Since defenses will probably rule the day, and the Redskins certainly don’t seem to have the ability to pull away from opponents, I would expect a low-scoring game that comes down to the fourth quarter. Other than playing at home on Monday Night, what else is new?