A solid win against a decent team. The offense was efficient, owned the fourth quarter, and the defense once again forced a game-sealing turnover. The Redskins simply went out and played better football than Arizona.

Offense

The unit again showed marked improvement. On their two long touchdown drives, the offense operated in true West Coasty fashion. Overall, for those two drives they passed 13 times for 89 yards and ran the ball 9 times for 57 yards. One of those second drive rushes was a 16-yard end around by Devin Thomas.

1^st drive: 6 passes 37 yards 5 rushes for 23 yards.

2^nd drive: 7 passes for 51 yards 4 rushes for 29 yards.

Bill Walsh would smile at that.

However, there were rough patches where they bogged down on drives that could have put Arizona in a deeper whole. Four possessions, 42 yards on 18 plays won’t cut it on the road against Dallas and Philadelphia. Usually, teams that can extend a lead in the second and third quarters go on to win. They must find ways to do that to beat the upper echelon of the NFL.

Despite that, the offense took advantage of two Arizona turnovers, converting them into 10 points, seven of which came on the 17-yard slip screen from Campbell to Moss, which put the Redskins ahead for good.

Red Zone efficiency: 100%

What a pleasure to see this team aggressively kill the clock. Even though they punted on the second to last possession in the fourth quarter, they took 6:30 off the clock and then after forcing a three and out, they didn’t sit on the ball. Campbell ended the game on 26-yard pass to a wide-open Chris Cooley.

Grade: B

Photo Cred: NFL.com

Defense

Once again, the defense provided a crucial turnover, and like Chris Horton last week, it came from an unexpected source. Carlos Rogers found his hands on a ball tipped by Leigh Torrence, which set up Moss’ touchdown. Rogers also recovered the James fumble forced by Rocky McIntosh.

The key to this game was pressure on Kurt Warner and the defense provided it by sacking him twice and batting away four of his passes.

They only big breakdown was Warner’s 62-yard strike to Larry Fitzgerald, who got Reed Doughty to bit on a corner fake.

The first Arizona touchdown came on terrible pass interference call on Rogers. The ball was clearly uncatchable.

Still the defense is only giving up an average of 16.6 points over three games and has a +5 turnover ratio.

Grade: B+

Special Teams:

No costly gaffes this week! However, even though he averaged 42.4 yards per punt, Durant Brooks made another bonehead play by calling for the snap before the ball was placed on the line of scrimmage. Believe me it looked painfully awkward even from where I was sitting way up in spitting distance of Andrews Air Force base traffic. Zorn gave Brooks a nice bit of what for.

Suisham’s kicks found the end zone again this week. He did miss a 52-yard attempt.

Arizona had 103 yards on five kick off returns. Not good.

Grade C

Photo Cred: NFL.com

Individual Performances:

Jason Campbell was an efficient 22/30 for 193 yards and two touchdowns. I also noticed that he is getting rid of the ball a lot quicker. Could it be that he is finally catching on to Zorn’s system. No interceptions, no fumbles in three games…knock on wood.

Reflecting Campbell’s efficiency Santana Moss and Chris Cooley each had seven catches for over 70 yards. In all seven different receivers caught balls from Campbell.

Clinton Portis earned 68 yards the hard way.

Kudos to Carlos on not only the pick, but for the presence of mind to get up and take the ball 42 yards to the Arizona 15-yard line.

While he didn’t get a sack Jason Taylor batted three Kurt Warner passes.

Rocky McIntosh has a way of persuading opponents to give up the ball. He has two forced fumbles in as many games.

I like the aggressiveness from Stephon Heyer. He just needs to do a better job picking his battles, that ~~WWF~~, WWE forearm to Darnell Dockett cost a touch down.

Up Next:

WE WANT DALLAS… WE WANT DALLAS.

Odds n Ends

The ever-optimistic Tom Boswell is well optimistic. I love this line from Boswell:

said Chris Cooley, who gave himself good exposure, for a change, with seven catches for 72 yards.

Buzz Kill: Via Matt Terl, Jason Taylor is out for at leas the Dallas game. Apparently, the Taylor got kicked in the calf and developed compartmental syndrome, according to Matt’s link could be fatal, but is easily rectified. However, a key element of the pass rush will be missing against Dallas.

Ben Folsom of the Curly R joined me at the game and we had a blast. Both of us took plenty of pics, some of which I will post tomorrow and Ben will on Wednesday. Ben has been at this Skins blogging thing a lot longer than I have, and I really appreciate him sharing his insights into the team and blogging.

Topics: Carlos Rogers , Jason Campbell , Santana Moss

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Comments

I now pronounce you Redskin fan and wife

1 comment

August 15, 12:34 PM

First, I’d like to send a shout out to my buddy Dave. Well, if you read the comments, it is my buddy DAVE. Dave got hitched down in the Mexican Riviera yesterday. Yet, he still found time to comment on his favorite site about... Read More
Topics: Carlos Rogers , Rocky McIntosh , Fantasy Football