So much hand ringing and head-shaking today. Yes the Panthers are not a terrible team, but something inside of me wants to believe that we are not a terrible team. Yet, the 1-5 team made the 3-2 team look terrible yesterday. Now I personally lay most of the blame yesterday on the defense. There were opportunities to make plays that could have changed that didn’t happen. The obvious ones are Hall missing on an interception which could have been 6 points, Orakpo not going for the strip on his vicious sack of Cam and Landry being a step slow to recover the ball when the Panthers were ahead 23-13. If we get that one and score a TD like we did, the game is very different at the end. But on top of that, the defense seemed to take so many bad angles throughout the day on running plays, which seemed to obviously be running plays pre-snap, which resulted in huge gains. Letting Newton scramble for a 30 yard gain on Carolina’s 1st possession was another killer play at the beginning of a game which set the tone for the rest of the game. (Last week, the killer play was due to the official’s failure to call Vick for grounding; this one yesterday was self-inflicted) Our defense has looked quite porous against the run the last two weeks. Both the Eagles and Panthers have had balanced attacks against us which have prevented us from being able to anticipate what will come next.
Frankly, we looked unprepared to play yesterday as we did two weeks ago in the 1st half against the Eagles. In the 2nd half yesterday, the Panthers were able to wear us down and frankly seemed to make all the adjustments necessary. The game of course was 16-13 at one point, but from that moment on, Carolina stuck it to us. I thought that Wilson would draw Steve Smith more often since Hall has a bum knee and toe. And even though Smith is great, Wilson seemed incapable of making any plays against him. We missed having Atogwe out there on some of the deep outs that Smith and Newton connected on, but at the end of the day, we could have survived if all the Panthers got were some big plays in the passing game. The running game killed us.
On our side of the ball, I thought that the boy wonder got away from the running game a bit early once again. Sure we were down 23-13, but there was a lot of time left in the game and we had been successful running the ball with Hightower. The problem was that Helu and Torain never got a chance to establish their rhythm. I understand the importance of riding the back who’s got it going, but the great part of having depth at running back is that you can cycle the different backs into the game to keep the defense on their back feet. When Hightower went down, the boy wonder seemed to say “F@#! it, let’s just pass”.
Now with the injuries piling up, the outlook for the Redskins looks bleak. Sure we’re only 1 game behind the Giants, but they play the Dolphins at home next week and while the Giants are good for one stinker at home a year, they already had theirs against Seattle a few weeks ago. Dallas could be 4-3 and Philly 2-5 or Philly and Dallas both 3-4 after they play next week. We of course have the Bills in Toronto. Winning this game would not have covered up the issues the Redskins have, nor does losing it hide the strides we have made as an organization. But at the end of the day, progress comes in victories and we have lost 2 in a row and it feels like if we lose next week, like our season will be over.
This will be the test of Shanny as a coach. Will we go quietly into the night against Buffalo or will he gather what’s left our patchwork offense, light a fire under a defense which shows a lot of potential and prepare the team to save the season. Good draft picks, wise off-season free-agent acquisitions are all good, but now it comes time to coach Shanny. Put the Boy Wonder aside, tell Haslett to cool his engines a little and take this team under your wings. It’s now or never.
