Quick Hitters Week 5: Same old, same old

People who don’t pay close attention to football games will heap more ill-considered condemnations upon QB Jason Campbell after this game, but the truth is that he completed 17 of 23 passes for 1 TD, no turnovers and a passer rating over 100. If your quarterback plays that well and you still lose to a bad team, that’s because the rest of your team isn’t getting it done. That was the case [again] today.

Campbell’s fine play was all the more incredible considering the almost complete lack of pass blocking by Washington’s battered and inept offensive line. Campbell was harassed all day and Head Coach Jim Zorn had no choice but to go to nothing but short, quick passes in order to prevent even more sacks and protect the health of his starting quarterback. Washington’s front office has pointedly ignored investing in its offensive line for years and the chickens have come home to roost. Everyone knew before the season that this would be a big problem if it wasn’t addressed. It wasn’t addressed and the result is as predictable as it was preventable.

OT Chris Samuels left the game with an injury on Washington’s second play from scrimmage and his replacement, D’Anthony Batiste, was no replacement at all. I’ve written many nice things about Samuels over the years and there were those who disagreed with me. I’d ask those people now how they like not having Samuels around. You never notice a 6-time All Pro left tackle until you don’t have him and his replacement is being treated like a speed bump by the defense [DE Everette Brown, in this case]. If Samuels misses even more time due to this or any other injury, this ugly season will become uglier still. 

The Redskins led 17-2 in the third quarter and gave up 18 unanswered points to lose the game. So the defense blew it, right? Well, no. Both Carolina touchdowns were set up by hideous errors by the special teams. The first Carolina TD came soon after the Washington kickoff coverage team allowed a 55-yard return to their own 40 yard line. The second TD came right after the punt receiving team botched a routine punt and gave the ball back to the Panthers inside Washington’s 15-yard line. Carolina needed to travel less than 55 yards for two touchdowns.

Washington’s offense continues to be a mess. The Panthers were giving up over 170 yards of rushing per game coming into this game, but Washington couldn’t even get near 100 yards and averaged only 3.1 yards per carry. In addition, Washington accounted for only 198 yards of total offense, a pitiful number by any measure. Washington got its first touchdown when the defense forced a fumble inside Carolina’s 15 yard line. The second TD came after DeAngelo Hall returned an interception to the Carolina 1-yard line. Washington’s offense had to travel less than 15 yards for its two touchdowns. Other than that, Washington managed only one scoring drive, a 60-yard march that led to a 38-yard field goal. It’s a tribute to the defense and the general awfulness of the Panthers that this game was as close as it was.

We saw both sides of DeAngelo Hall today. He made his 3rd interception of the season in the 3rd quarter and returned the ball to the Carolina 1-yard line. That was important because it’s not clear Washington’s offense could have traveled much farther than that to get the 7 points. However, on the last important play of the game, DeAngelo Hall was one-on-one with QB Jake Delhomme, an ungainly and mostly immobile quarterback. Hall had a clear chance to make the tackle before the first down marker, but he failed to do so, allowing Delhomme to drag him for the first down. It was yet another example of Hall’s bad tackling this season and this particular example effectively ended the game. Hall is the only real playmaker in the secondary, but he’s also prone to bad plays and horrible tackling.

How lame was the egocentric celebration by TB Clinton Portis after he scored a 1-yard TD run? The score was entirely set up by Hall’s interception the play before, but from Portis’ antics you might have thought he just ran 50 yards with no blocking.

TE Chris Cooley was held without a catch for the first time since his rookie season. Why? The answer is obvious. With Washington’s offensive line unable to protect the quarterback, Cooley was needed to block. Because the five offensive linemen were so awful, Washington had to give up its second-best receiver.

Kudos to Andre Carter, who had 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble. Where the hell has that been? 

MVP OFFENSE: Jason Campbell

MVP DEFENSE: Andre Carter

OFFENSE: F

DEFENSE: B

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

COACHING: D

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