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Sunday, September 09, 2007

September 9-- Skins 16 Dolphins 13

The Redskins have a winning record for the first time since 2005 after defeating the Dolphins in the season opener 16-13 in overtime at Fed Ex Field.. Shaun Suisham hits a 40 yard field goal on the Skins first drive of overtime to win it.. The Skins had pounded the Dolphins on this drive rushing the ball on 7 of 9 plays on the drive.. Joe Gibbs laughed when he was asked if it was a prudent decision to kick the game winning field goal on first down from the Miami 20 when it had become obvious that they were on their heels.. Gibbs said he knew when he made that decision that he would be second guessed (which is hard to do when it ends up being the right decison, still..) saying he had made his mind up because he had made mistakes in the past letting opportunities go for the sake of trying to get a little closer only to take himself out of field goal range.. Gibbs admitted the press and their second gues nature motivates him!

T Jon Jansen suffered a fractured and dislocated ankle in the first quarter and was carted off the field.. He remained at the stadium through the end of the game and had the ankle put back into place.. Jansen will need surgery that will not take place until the swelling goes down and according to one team official, I was told he would need 3-4 months of recovery meaning his season is likely over..
Undrafted rookie Stephon Heyer took over at right tackle even though he had not practiced at the position and never played it.. Todd Wade was among the pre-game inactives, Gibbs said the team decided to keep Heyer active because they thought that Chris Samuels (who had missed the entire summer recovering from a sprained knee) might need to be spelled during the game.. Jansen gets hurt and Heyer as to go in..
Joe Bugel said the team would evaluate the position over the next couple of days before determining who would start next Monday against Philadelphia..
Amazing stat of the day, the Redskins with an undrafted rookie at right tackle, a left tackle who hadn't played since December and a guard who two weeks ago played for the Jets rushed for 165 second half yards against a team that was ranked 4th in the NFL a year ago..

RB Clinton Portis made his 2007 debut with 17 carries, 98 yards and a touchdown.. he told the media after the game that he would carry the ball with a chip on his shoulder for the rest of the season and even if there are some media members who are rooting for him, he would make sure he attributed a chip to them too.. He said he wasn't trying to send a message to his doubters although he asked everyone to continue to believe the Redskins won't do anything.. Portis left the game early when he needed to get his ribs padded after a hit that left him bruised..

Jason Campbell did not throw a touchdown pass for the first time in his 8 starts.. he was picked off twice, the first of whcih he says "he's kicking himself." The second one was may have been an ill-advised throw to the end zone toward Brandon Lloyd, however Lloyd may have stopped on his route only to attempt to recover late when he realized the ball was being thrown deep..

Other injuries: DE Phillip Daniels suffered a sprained foot, S Vernon Fox left the game in the first half with a strained groin.. S Pierson Prioleau suffered a hamstring injury..

CB Fred Smoot was picked on incessantly by the Dolphins but blew a chance to redeem himself when he jumped a route late in the game when it was tied at 13 dropping a sure interception that likely would have been returned for a touchdown.. Gregg Williams described the play as missing "a walk off home run."

Most curious personnel decision was regarding CB Shawn Springs who did not start and was used mainly as a nickel corner.. Williams said he was just going to rotate Springs, Smoot and Carlos Rogers due to the heat but Springs plays were far fewer then the other two.. This will be an interesting topic this week..
CB David Macklin was also inactive in favor of young CB Leigh Torrence..

WR Antwaan Randle El had a big game, 5 catches for 162 yards, the longest grab was a wild play on the final snap of regulation when a hail mary was tipped back into the field of play right into Randle-El's hands.. He was stopped a couple yards short of the end zone as time expired..

The Dolphins had a bizarre time management moment at the end of the first half when they decided to not use one of their two timeouts until there was :04 left on the clock and they were facing a 4th and goal from the 1 yard line.. Miami went for it and scored a touchdown..
Washington ended up with 400 total yards and all believed they had not come cloe to playing as well as they can..

OK men..

2 Comments:

Blogger patrickhenry said...

Bram -- listening to you on the radio sputtering about the failed "gamesmanship" play. What do you call a hard count? And to answer your question, if the Dolphins had done the same thing to the Skins, and it had worked, I'd be irritated at the Skins for falling for it.

1:48 PM  
Blogger Bram Weinstein said...

If the Dolphins did the same thing and the same call isn't made the Redskins would have reason to call the league and object due to bias..
A hard count is not the same thing, this is the same as the hard head bob by the QB which was outlawed..
But as Larry said, if you aren't cheating you aren't trying, so I guess I agree..

4:18 PM  

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