| Craig Johnson. 19th October, 2005 - 2:05 am
 Well Skins fans, I am afraid that there might be a little bit of a re-occurring monotone in my writing. Two straight weeks now Washington has played with the fire to win and it’s the defense that still seems to be lacking. You could just tell that Kansas City was not going to play a game without a big play from running back Priest Holmes who provided the knockout punch on his game winning 60-yard reception.
The defense did not really play that bad and for two weeks straight that can be said. Just one thing that they are lacking and that is a little word called “urgency.” When the fourth quarter comes and we need a big play our defense has been demoted to having just one real playmaker, that being Sean Taylor. See we used to have this crazed animal that would hunt down opposing quarterbacks and end careers. He would step in front of tight ends and running backs on crossing routes that saw the ball either wind up in his arms for the interception, or leave him holding the players shoulder less head in his hands. He was like that pitbull dog that you never want to see running around your neighborhood without a leash. And that’s the problem here.
Our pitbull is being kept on a short leash that won’t even extend to the playing field. We all know that I am talking about LaVar Arrington. Do you know that this man who we put a franchise tag on, is on his way out of this organization? I will tell you exactly what is going to happen. He’s going to either get cut or traded and will wind up playing for the Dallas Cowgirls or the Philadelphia Beagles. No, even better than that, he’ll end up with the New York Grease balls and I will have to once again play witness to a New York linebacker ending another one of our quarterbacks career (Lawrence Taylor, I will never forgive you for what you did to Theismann). LaVar will get on a team and for two games a year he will have us squirming like little Garden Snakes in the direct path of a lawn mower. He’ll play without a leash and with full-out reckless abandonment. Instead of us letting him play like that for us, we would rather rope him and tell him to learn these defensive packages or get acquainted with the silver steel thing known as the bench. I am all about Coach Joe Gibbs knowing what he is doing, but Arrington needs to get onto the field and disrupt opposing teams. His presence alone will scare opponents into making mistakes. Even line him up at defensive end and let him pass rush. Anything could help the lack of pass rush we have now. I just cannot bear to see such talent get wasted and eventually thrown out of our organization only to reap havoc on us later.
Now that has been said I would like to focus on the reasons that we are 3-2 and not 1-4. Week in and week out Mark Brunell has continued to impress. No Anthony, you don’t need to adjust the focus on your screen, I really said it. I have been a fan of Patrick Ramsey, but Brunell is earning his keep. Against Kansas City last week Brunell had a quarterback rating of 110, finishing with great numbers, 25-of-41 passes, 331 yards and 3 touchdowns. Brunell is having a pretty decent season and is leaving the Redskins in games with opportunities to win. But Brunell needs someone to throw the ball too, and one of those someone’s goes by the name of Santana Moss. Moss has come into Washington and quickly asserted himself as a fan favorite all over Redskins country. We knew we had something special in week two’s defeat over Dallas and Moss will not slow his jets down for anybody. Moss has always been a playmaker and the only thing different is now he sports our burgundy and gold. In Kansas City Moss grabbed 10 balls for 173 yards and two touchdowns and almost made a game changing catch in the end zone with under 10 seconds left in the game. Moss enters this week’s game against San Francisco with 33 receptions and a NFL league leading 631 yards, and will most definitely add to these numbers.
On a two game slide and having San Francisco coming into FedEx Field may be a good thing. But in the NFL anything that looks good, is not always good. Win-loss records right now don’t mean anything. We need to do something that we haven’t done all year and that would be, put somebody away early. Jumping out on a big lead is exactly what this defense needs. That happens and just maybe Arrington will get off the bench, and if that happens then just maybe Alex Smith will never want to face the Redskins ever again. The opportunity is going to be there for us to do what ever we want. Now, we must do it.
Last weeks offensive game ball goes to, none other then Santana Moss. You put up those types of numbers and a 78-yard touchdown on a screen pass, then I would be a fool not to name him.
Defensive game ball goes to, Cornelius Griffin for applying pressure to Trent Green and finally getting that sack.
“THIS IS THE YEAR. I JUST KNOW IT.” |
