All week I've been hearing and reading stuff about the upcoming Redskins-Cowboys game about how the Redskins secondary looked so bad against Minnesota that they should make Bledsoe look good again. The theory is that second-year CB Carlos Rogers won't be able to maintain T.O., let alone Kenny Wright or Mike Rumph.
Looking back at the Vikings game, Gregg Williams did not employ a lot of blitz packages. Brad Johnson was pretty much given a break because of the injuries suffered on our defensive side of the ball. With Pierson Prioleau going down early in the game and Shawn Springs still nursing his injury, that left zero depth in the secondary. If you blitz Rogers and Taylor, you have recently acquired Mike Rumph covering one-on-one with only Adam Archuleta covering the top. Not a good idea. The backup safeties are Vernon Fox and Reed Doughty, neither of whom has proven anything yet.
With Gregg Williams holding back on bringing the heat we're used to seeing, that left the pressure up to an injured Cornelius Griffin, Phillip Daniels and Renaldo Wynn. And where in the world is Andre Carter? Going against Steve Hutchinson, Matt Birk and Bryant McKinnie, you HAVE to bring some heat.
So what's going to be the difference this weekend? The first thing is having some real live game film to studying in game situations and with the first team to use as material to coach. The criticisms of not using the playbook in the preseason may have been valid, but with an injury-riddle defense, it made more sense to play vanilla and give the young guys some reps. Going into week two, preparation will be different and Gregg Williams has repeatedly proven to be a defensive strategist who can overcome obstacles.
Another reason this game will be different is because there will be no underestimating the opponent. Not saying that the coaching staff though the Vikings were going to be a cakewalk (rookie coach? Chester Taylor? Troy Williamson? Who'd've thunk it!?), but even if the Cowboys were 0-12, the preparation goes to another level against the Cowboys. With Bill Parcells at the helm, T.O. manning the receiver spot and a defense that has put some beatings on us, the Redskins have plenty to use to prepare for the game and not allow what happened in Minnesota to repeat itself.
But the primary reason why the Redskins are going to take this game is because Drew Bledsoe looks worse than Mark Brunell. Actually, Brunell doesn't look bad; he just looks too scared. He throws the ball out of bounds when he sees a ref in the corner of his eyes. No need to be like Brett Favre, but try and make a play every now and again when the situation is a dire one. Drew Bledsoe tried this past weekend and convincingly proved he's as good as Brett Favre at throwing picks. Sure, Parcells will make adjustments and so forth, but what Bledsoe did Sunday wasn't something you can throw a band-aid on.
The Redskins first team offense looked good all the way until the red zone. The stats are misleading. They moved the ball inside the red zone four times, even pushing into field goal range inside the two-minute warning (but John Hall missed it). Getting into the end zone is the challenge. One should've been a TD, but Darren Sharper laid a nasty lick on Santana Moss, jarring the ball loose in the end zone for an incomplete pass.
Al Saunders only has to spend this week studying the game film and figure out the offense's strengths and capitalize on them to score within the 20. He will do it. When have you known Al Saunders not to find the end zone on a regular basis?
The Minnesota game has Cowboy fans a bit too comfortable. Little do they want to remember that we lost off a missed FG and not one interception after another. A penalty, which was a dubious one, called on Sean Taylor cost the Redskins serious field position. If Taylor lays off the accelerator just a bit, John Hall only has to kick another 20-something yard FG. Bledsoe was passing out picks like turkeys on Thanksgiving.
