The Redskin Report

It wasn’t pretty nor did it inspire much confidence, but the Washington Redskins sit at 1-0 after a 16-13 overtime victory over the Miami Dolphins. Shaun Suisham’s 39 yard field goal with 9:27 left in overtime was the difference. While it wasn’t the dominate performance many Redskin fans were hoping for, they all go into the same win column and hey the Redskins are ahead of the Eagles already.

Positives

• Shaun Suisham - I know I’m biased because he’s a rare Canadian NFLer, but the guy was cool under pressure and belted that kicked perfectly through the uprights. He’s obviously earned the coaches trust to go for a 39 yard kick on 1st down. Add in the fact that he can actually get a touchback or two on kickoffs and the Redskins may just have found their kicker.
• Run Defense - Now that’s what I like to see. The Dolphins could not run the ball to save their lives. They ended up with 66 yards with a 3.3 yard per carry average. But even those numbers are inflated by a couple of successful end-arounds. Excluding runs by the receivers, the Dolphins running backs had 18 carries for 47 yards or 2.6 yards a carry.
• Pass Rush - It wasn’t fantastic and the Dolphins offensive line isn’t exactly the Hogs, but the Redskins managed 2 sacks and were getting fairly consistent pressure. We’ll see if it can keep up against better protection units, but for this week, it was solid.
• Antwaan Randle-El - The Dolphins put focus on shutting down Chris Cooley and with Santana Moss having a bad day with drops, Randle-El’s performance was huge. If he can become a bona fide deep threat, the Redskins offense becomes much more dangerous and it will force safeties to respect both sides of the field instead of following around Moss all day long.
• Offensive Line - Almost 200 yards rushing and Jason Campbell for the most part had time to throw the ball. Even without Jansen, the line will be a strength for the team.
• Clinton Portis - The guy is good. I warned everyone who’s been on his case this past summer, you’ll be back loving him in no time.

Negatives

• The Corners - The Dolphins spent the 1st three quarters picking on Fred Smoot and then decided to share the love by picking on Carlos Rogers in the 4th quarter. Memo to Smoot and Rogers - Trent Green can barely throw the ball more than 30 yards these days, you don’t have to give 15 yard cushions and fall for the deep fakes all day long. And is it just me or did Shawn Springs are 15 years this off-season? He made some nice plays, but the guy looks old.
• Jason Campbell - I wasn’t sure if I wanted to list his play as a negative or not, but in all honesty, he looked like a QB making his 1st season opening start. He was off on most throws and generally looked out of sync. Both of his interceptions could have probably been prevented with better efforts by the receivers, but besides the deep passes to Randle-El, he just wasn’t very precise. He did throw for 222 yards which is about two weeks of Mark Brunell, so that’s nice. My non-expert opinion is that he was just a bit too hyped up and that resulted in all his passes being high and behind the receivers.

So… let’s hear your thoughts on the game.