Looked like it was going to be an easy win but the Skins will find a way to make it tight in the end. The good thing was that they were able to find a way to win it. It was an exciting game (frustrating at times) but I thought it was a good learning game for RG3 and this young team. Here are my grades:
1. Offense: B+: Good mix of run and pass. Morris was solid again in the ground game. He fits the zone blocking scheme well and can find that hole and he is pretty tough to bring down. WRs were all pretty solid. Good to see Hankerson, Garcon, and Morgan all play a part in the passing game. Line was solid for the most part. It’s a tough TB D line and protection and run blocking was solid the entire game. RG3 was very good again. Sound decision making. Good in both the run and pass. No real mistakes. However, the highlight was his being able to drive the ball down the length of the field and get us in a position for the game winning field goal. This guy continues to impress me each week and he is proving to be well worth the price we paid.
2. Defense: C: Once again the run defense was stout. The pass defense was okay. However, once again, we gave up big plays. The first one was Josh Wilson on Mike Williams. Wilson let Williams blow by him and then it appeared that there should have been safety help but Madieu Williams was late to get over there. I am not sure on the safety responsibility on the play but it just appeared to me that he needed to get over there. The second big play was the deep ball to V. Jackson. D. Hall looked to have pretty good position but it looked like he misjudged the ball and slowed up for just a half second and when he dove to tip the ball was just short. I was a little disappointed with D. Hall on the play but I was more frustrated with the pass rush as we sent extra pressure but didn’t get in on Freeman fast enough. Frankly, the pass rush the entire game seemed a little weak. The only guy that was consistently getting pressure was Kerrigan who I thought had a great game. Speaking of pass rush, where is Jarvis Jenkins? Not sure how much he is playing I am assuming he is getting more time because of the Carriker injury but I have rarely heard Jenkins name being called. Finally, the TB first touchdown with Freeman throwing to Jackson in the corner…what was D. Hall doing. He is playing bump and run against a 6’5” physical WR. If he misses, it’s an easy TD which is exactly what happened. He needs to back off. That is poor positioning. We have to be able to get more pressure from the up front guys and then we have to somehow figure out how to stop the big plays especially since Matt Ryan and Julio Jones and Roddy White are coming to town this Sunday.
3. Special Teams: D: Cundiff sucks! He almost cost us that game. He probably saved his job for this week with the game winning 41 yard FG. However, missing three FGs in the game (two very makeable ones) is not going to cut it. Banks had a nice punt return and coverage was fine.
It was a big win on the road for us. Again, there were frustrating moments and this had a classic Skins finding a way to lose written all over it. That said, it was nice that we were able to claw back and find a way to win. It may have been ugly but I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. As mentioned, I also thought that this was a good learning experience for RG3 and this team. So I am getting all I hoped out of this team thus far. I said all along that I just wanted to be competitive and expected to be around .500 on the year and that is exactly what we have been a quarter of the way through the season. The only surprise is that I expected less from the offense and more from the defense and that hasn’t been the case. I am loving everything we are getting from RG3. I love the way we are using him for the most part as the offense looks very dynamic. I also love the running of Morris. On the flip side, I am very disappointed in the secondary and the coaching of the secondary. The good news on that is that I feel the coaching can correct some of the problems we are having back there so hopefully that group improves.
In the end, a good victory and on to preparing for the high flying Falcons.
HTTR!!!
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