Washington Redskins 31 – New York Giants 21
Overview: It was certainly a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Redskins dominated the Giants, building a 28-0 halftime lead. Defensively, while the Giants kept Terry Allen largely in check, QB Gus Frerotte, WR Henry Ellard, and WR Leslie Sheppard (both receiving and running a reverse) killed the Giants. The Skins were able to convert 5-out-of-7 third down attempts in the first half. Offensively, the Giants were able to pick up decent yardage on the ground, but an ineffective passing attack stymied the Giants’ offense. The Giants were 0-for-6 on their third down conversion attempts in the first half. 5-out-of-7, 0-for-6 — that’s all you need to know right there. In the second half, roles reversed as the Giants were both able to move the ball and largely control the Redskins’ offense. Unfortunately, the huge lead given to the Redskins in the first half was too much to overcome.
Quarterback: Once again, it was an up-and-down game for Dave. In the first half, he continued a disheartening trend of paying too much attention to the rush rather than his receivers down the field. On the Giants’ first third down conversion attempt, Brown was under pressure and sacked, yet he had a wide-open Chris Calloway running a crossing route. If Dave is going to survive, let alone flourish, in this league, he must set up, make his read, stand tough in the pocket, and throw the football. He is quickly developing a reputation around the league as a guy you can rattle (just like Tommy Maddox). Dave threw two interceptions in the first half (and for the game), but the first was off the receiver’s hands and the second was a Hail Mary at the end of the half. In the second half of the game, it was a different Dave Brown. He looked more confident and let it rip. The Giants’ first drive in the second half was extremely impressive as Brown hit Lewis (4 catches for 73 yards on the drive) repeatedly for big yardage, ending in a 31-yard TD strike. On the 91-yard drive, Brown threw two bad passes (one behind Lewis on a slant and another an overthrow to Hampton), but the rest were right on the mark. Not coincidentally, Brown was given good time in the pocket. Same story on the second drive, good protection and Brown remained hot, leading the Giants on a 56-yard drive that culminated in a 13 yard TD pass to Calloway. Brown continued to shine on the fourth drive, a 80-yard march that ended in a Ty Wheatley TD run. Brown was sharp throwing the ball inside and outside and looked like a totally different quarterback. He just missed Calloway for another TD late in the game on a deep pass. Hopefully, this game (like the game against the Vikings) will represent another building block for Brown.
Wide Receivers: Brown was sacked on his second third down conversion attempt in the first quarter (after the Ellsworth interception) mainly because none of his receivers (Calloway, Dawsey, and Lewis) could get open. While many can fault the receivers or the quarterback, we still do not like the design of the pass routes — they just don’t seem to complement each other. This makes these routes (and receivers) very easy to defend. Dave Brown’s interception that was returned for a TD by Darrell Green was totally Lewis’ fault — the ball was thrown low and right at Lewis, but Lewis let the ball bounce off his hands and into Green’s. This play took away from what otherwise would have been a great game for Lewis who caught 9 passes for 125 yards. He was lucky, however, that the refs blew the call and said he was down on a clear fumble in the second half. Chris Calloway also had a good game (9 catches for 108 yards). We particularly like the crossing route he ran on his TD catch. Where the heck are Lawrence Dawsey and Amani Toomer? Dawsey received quite a bit of playing time, but made no plays. Toomer hasn’t been seen much in the regular offense since early in the season.
Running Backs: Hampton had another typical Rodney Hampton game — nothing spectacular, just solid, hard-nose running that picks up roughly four yards per carry. Ty Wheatley was very impressive on his first carry, a 19-yard pick-up where he showed good quickness and balance. We loved the misdirection on Charles Way’s 19-yard catch and run. The Giants had the RB’s and line all running left, while Brown bootlegged right and threw to Way — now that’s what we have been calling for! For the most part, Way blocked well, but he did commit an obvious (and dumb) holding penalty on Harvey in the 4th quarter. Regardless, the Giants’ running game was impressive throughout the contest as both Hampton and Wheatley picked up good yardage.
Tight Ends/H-Backs: Howard Cross dropped two passes that were tipped, but VERY catchable (one would have been for a TD). If he doesn’t turn it around soon, we would take a long look at Brian Saxton. Cross did make catches of 14 yards and 19 yards in the 4th quarter. Aaron Pierce was not a factor in the ball game.
Offensive Line: The big news here was the fact that Reeves had replaced left guard Rob Zatechka with veteran Lance Smith. We are not crazy about this move. While Smith is a fine player and would definitely be starting on almost ANY contending team, the Giants are a rebuilding club that had made an early decision to play the young guys on the line and suffer the consequences in order to build for the future. Smith is not the future; Zatechka is and Zatechka needs the work. In the first half, the run blocking was fairly solid, but there were still problems with the pass blocking. Smith, in particular, did not look rusty at all in leading a number of outside sweeps. DL Rich Owens picked up two sacks early, beating Ron Stone on one play and Brian Williams on another. Greg Bishop was also called for a false start penalty and was challenged by Ken Harvey a number of times. Brian Williams and Aaron Pierce had problems blocking Sean Gilbert and Ken Harvey respectively on a 3rd-and-one running play and the Giants were forced to punt. In the second quarter, on another third down play, Stone and Gragg had problems with a stunt run by Owens and Harvey, and Brown was hit as he threw (the ball fell incomplete). Later, Gragg and Stone let Owens beat both of them as Owens forced Brown to get rid of the ball; combined Gragg and Stone are almost 700 pounds — a guy who weighs around 260 pounds should not beat both of them. The pass protection did settle down in the second half and Brown was given more time to throw, especially on the first two drives in the second half. On the third drive, the protection broke down and the drive was halted — the Giants were not helped on this drive by Gragg’s 5-yard false start penalty either. Throughout the second half, the run blocking remained solid as all five starters did a nice job driving the Skins off the line of scrimmage and gave Hampton and Wheatley room to run.
Defensive Line: Aside from a few occasions, this group was solid against the run. Strahan and Harris were successfully occupied by Redskin blockers on a couple of occasions, but for the most part, the front line did its job. Chad Bratzke was embarrassed on Sheppard’s big reverse when (1) he did not keep contain on his side, and (2) he was blocked by the opposing quarterback — however, most of the weakside defenders were badly burned on this play, not just Bratzke. Really, Allen only had one big run in the game — a 22-yard pick-up in the 3rd quarter as Bratzke, Armstead, and Agnew (in particular) were blown off the ball on the play. Against the pass, however, this group did not exert enough pressure and Gus Frerotte had too much time to throw in obvious passing situations. Cedric Jones almost did sack Frerotte in the endzone for a safety in the second quarter, but had problems rushing the passer in general. He just doesn’t look strong enough yet to disengage from blocks. The Skins and Terry Allen were able to pick up a huge first down late in the game when Allen turned the corner against Jones’ side. He also missed a tackle on a screen pass to the fullback earlier in the game.
Linebackers: Corey Widmer continues to show improvement. On a number of plays, he was successfully engaged by a Redskins’ blocker, but for the most part, he held his own. He made a very nice play in the first quarter where he shot through the line of scrimmage, beat the block of the fullback, and tackled Terry Allen from behind for a loss. Corey Miller was also strong at the point-of-attack. Marcus Buckley and Jessie Armstead had a quiet game.
Defensive Backs: Percy Ellsworth picked off his first pass as a Giant, making the type of play that Vencie Glenn did last year. On the play, Ellsworth read the QB’s eyes AND made a good jump on the ball. Percy was one-tackle away from scoring on the play. However, on the down side, Ellsworth looks like a poor tackler. He missed two easy tackles in the first half; poor tackling was one of the reasons he was not drafted. On the Skins’ first drive, Ellard picked up a big first down when Sparks’ blitzed on the play, could not get to the QB quickly enough, and Wooten was left to cover Ellard one-on-one — a nightmare for ANY safety. Wooten was fairly solid the rest of the way and made a number of big hits. Jesse Campbell was strong once again in run support; the illegal contact penalty called on him during the Skins’ last drive was costly, but it was also a VERY bad call. Sehorn had problems covering Ellard. On the Skins’ third scoring drive, Sehorn was beaten back-to-back by Ellard, first to pick up a first down on 3rd-and-10, and then he caught a bomb from Frerotte that set up Allen’s third TD run. Sehorn was also burned badly by Ellard in the 4th quarter on what would have been a long TD bomb but the QB missed the wide open receiver. Phillippi Sparks, as usual, played at an All-Pro level — we can’t remember a receiver catching a ball on him all game.
Special Teams: Brad Daluiso was very short on his first kick-off. His 41-yard miss late in the game was inexcusable!!! We would seriously consider waiving Daluiso and bringing Olindo Mare off the practice squad. Mike Horan did a poor job when he attempted a coffin corner kick in the first quarter, but came back with a monster punt later in the second quarter that was downed inside the ten. Tyrone Wheatley had a really nice kick-return of 35 yards late in the second quarter, but Toomer bobbled the a kick and was tackled at the ten (no excuse for that). The punt and kick coverage units did a great job throughout the game and kept Brian Mitchell in check.
Coaching: Dan Reeves has no business running the offense. He’s a good motivator and disciplinarian, but his offensive game plans are archaic. We already have mentioned the pass route designs. Another example is running play-action during the two-minute drill — this isn’t going to fool anyone, but Reeves continues to call it. We thought Nolan did a good job with the defense once again. However, with the Skins borderline in field goal range on their last drive, we did not like his passive call that allowed the RB to pick up six additional yards underneath. We would have liked to see a blitz on the play — the Giants needed a sack there, yet Nolan had them only rush three.