So it begins, Vinny stands alone

September 4, 8:03 AMWashington Redskins ExaminerMark Newgent

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More of this please. 

It has arrived.  

Tonight the Redskins kick off their 2008 season against their division rival and defending Super Bowl champions the New York Giants. 

In that vein let me unveil a new feature of this page, Redskins Game Day Examination.  Lord how I wanted to call it Redskins Sidelines, but I’m sure there is a lawsuit in there somewhere, and really its not the same without Sonny and Sam and a studio full of kids sitting on the floor. 

Every game this season I will interview my Examiner counterpart for our opponent.  Hat Tip to Will Allensworth at Hogs Haven who, gave me the idea. 

Herewith I present the first installment of Redskins Game Day Examination with New York Giants Examiner Zac Wassink. 

Zac returned the favor and I answer his questions here.

Mark Newgent: What's the fallout from Osi Umenyiora's season ending injury?  

Zac Wassink: We'll have to wait and see on this one. The Giants are losing an All-Pro on defense. Anybody who thinks that this unit is going to be just as good as in 2007 is fooling themselves. The biggest thing that concerns me is their ability to get to the quarterback. In the playoffs, the Giants had blitz schemes that just couldn't be stopped. These will now obviously have to be altered with Umenyiora out.
 
MN:  Do you see any drop off in performance/focus from last year's Super Bowl run?

ZW: Absolutely not. The Giants are arguably the most disrespected Super Bowl champs in recent memory. "Brett the Jet" has already made them the second most covered football team in New York. If anything, I think the Giants are even more determined to show that 2007 was hardly a fluke.
 
MN: Is Eli Manning poised to sustain his growth and evolve into a quarterback like his brother?

ZW: Eli has played even better than I expected. While he hasn't been perfect, he's been placing passes with the same precision we saw during the run to the Super Bowl. The thing I love seeing, though, is how confident Eli looks in the pocket now. The "deer in headlights" look is gone. This is a young man who knows that he can win football games. I have to admit that I'm interested to see how he reacts after making that first mistake, though.
 
MN: Do the Giants have a winning record at the Meadowlands this season?

ZW: Probably not. Seattle always finds a way to beat the Giants. Games against Dallas, Washington and Philly are anything but easy. Carolina isn't a team I want to see this season. The only game that I fully expect them to win at home is the November 16 game against Baltimore.
 
MN: What are your keys to a Giants victory?

ZW: Eli Manning. This is the answer to this question every week. If Eli Manning plays like the MVP we saw in the first month and a half of 2008, the Giants will be in every single game this season. One way to keep Eli from making mistakes is to utilize all three talented running backs on the team. There is no unit with the talent of Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw. If these three guys can stay healthy for an entire season, the Giants offense is going to surprise many people in 2008. On defense, the Giants must contain the run. I have much more faith in the secondary than plenty of the "experts." Still, once the Giants start giving up those big runs that make my stomach turn, they focus too much on the backfield. If the Giants begin biting on play action, they're in trouble.

MN: What weaknesses can the Redskins exploit to win?

ZW: The Redskins will be the first team to test the Giants pass rush without Umenyiora. If I were Washington, I'd do this early and see what the Giants can do without the All-Pro. If the Redskins can keep Big Blue away from Campbell, they're probably going to win the game.
 
MN: Name a Giant who could be the difference maker in the game. 

ZW: Domenik Hixon. Expect to only see Hixon on select third down plays. Still, Manning looked for and found Hixon often during the preseason and showed off his speed on kickoff and punt returns. Remember this name in a month when you need a backup receiver on your fantasy football team.
 
MN:  Give me your prediction for the final NFC East standings for 2008.

ZW: I'm picking Big Blue first. Yeah, it's a homer pick but I believe that the Giants are still talented enough to win the division. They're the defending Super Bowl champs and still have something to prove to most of the nation. Maybe I'm just in denial but I still think this is a team capable of winning 10 or even 11 games. After that, it'll be the Cowboys, Eagles and Redskins in that order.

Thanks Zac.

One observation, I predict a 17-10 loss for our guys.  However, Zac’s answer to my fourth question regarding the Giants home record jumps out at me.  This dovetails with Rich Tandler’s view that this is a winnable game.  I agree it is, but with the way the offense has looked, you can’t say this game is a lock with any great deal of certainty.  However, I do hold out hope the offense can get it going tonight and put up some points. 

One important pregame note: Jason Reid believes that—depending on how the knee holds up in pregame warm ups—Jason Taylor will start tonight against the Giants.

Its your team now Vinny

My GM Vinny

Jason LaCanfora and Jason Reid have a lengthy piece on the dawn of the Cerrato era.  To sum the piece up: this is Vinny’s team now and should things go sour he has no one to hide behind this time. 

LaCanfora and Reid are fairly hard on Cerrato—not without good reason—but they don’t stray into unWise territory.  Cerrato and LaCanfora have, to put it politely, a strained relationship.  That comes out in the piece:

He has spent almost all of his career in the safety of the shadows cast by much more powerful and accomplished football men: Lou Holtz, George Seifert, Joe Gibbs. Even when briefly out of the game, working for ESPN, he was hidden away on the lowest rung of the network's enormous cast of NFL observers.

 

It is common for NFL team officials to use subterfuge with reporters to keep them from reporting a possible trade, but Cerrato went to extraordinary lengths. He lied repeatedly on and off camera to local reporters, denying having any contact with the Dolphins. The next day he went on ESPN, his former employer, and contradicted in great detail his own public statements from a day earlier. Cerrato then did not appear with Zorn and Taylor at the lineman's introductory news conference in Washington.

The piece also cites salary statistics that go a long way in explaining the last eight years. 

In dead salary cap space, the term for money still allocated to players no longer on the team, the Redskins were first since 2000 at $83 million, according to the records. Washington was followed by the 49ers and Denver Broncos ($80 million), Tennessee Titans ($78 million) and Oakland Raiders ($75 million).

However, Reid and LaCanfora do acknowledge that the mindset of proliferate spending has changed. 

"We've all learned a lot from mistakes of the past that we've made," Cerrato said. "We have a good feel for what fits the Redskins, what does well for the Redskins, and what helps us win games. The type of people we need, and the type of things we need to do, we have a pretty good understanding of that. The biggest thing you need is good people. What we have found is that good people win."

 

"Good people, in tough times, bring you out of tough times. They don't allow the tough times to continue. When you're in crisis situations, or when you're in three- or four-game losing streaks, good people bring you out of that. Joe kind of got us going in the right direction, he got us stabilized and settled, and I want us to keep going in the right direction."

The last part there echoes something I’ve been saying for the last couple of years now.  Through Gibbs, Dan Snyder and Cerrato learned their lesson that you can’t go out and buy a championship.  Whatever their faults in the past or silly games they play with reporters, Snyder and Cerrato have started something different at Redskins Park.  It may take a season or two for Zorn to get the team he needs to make a winner, but at least it appears that he has an owner and chief executive, who will no longer throw the baby with the bath water every year.  If the front office can further develop that consistency then that may very well be the legacy of Gibbs 2.0.

Odds n Ends

Ben Folsom’s season predictions are up at the Curly R.  Ben’s range is between 10-6 and 4-12.

The Washington Post debuts the Zorn Zone, where Coach Zorn gives his insight on the weekly opponent. 

From Extreme Skins, through Hogs Haven, around the Curly R and now to the imperial cyber realm of the Examiner…  Chris Cooley is not only Captain Chaos but now add Commish to his list of nicknames.  Cooley put together a Redskins fantasy league.  Given that I drafted Cooley as my fantasy TE, I got Ivan Bosky insider trading happy when Campbell drafted Cooley as his TE.  Cooley returned the favor by taking Campbell as his QB.  Pad the stats guys, pad the stats.