MVN - Most Valuable Network

Landry, Stingy ‘D’ lead Redskins to Big Road Victory

That didn’t take very long.

Gregg Williams has found the best use of his remaining defensive personnel, and a dominating defensive performance delivered a must-win game to the Washington Redskins, a 22-10 victory over the New York Giants.  The Redskins have now established a winning streak behind journeyman quarterback Todd Collins, their first winning streak since September 17, also their last road divisional win.  It also marks the first time the Redskins have won two road games in the division since 2005.

Collins only completed 8/25 attempts on the night, but he threw for over 150 yards in Giants Stadium with swirling winds.  That’s a more than respectable 6+ yards per attempt, although the Redskins were lucky to not turn the ball over even once with their quarterback throwing seventeen incompletions.

Clinton Portis rushed for 126 yards on 25 carries, the first time he has gone over 100 yards since Nov. 18 against Philadelphia.  It’s only the second time he’s averaged more than 5 yards a carry in a game this season, but it’s the second time he’s done it at Giants Stadium this year.  Portis broke a 35 yard scamper with 1:15 to go in the first half, setting up a Shaun Suisham field goal.  Suisham hit 3 field goals in as many attempts, and he’s 8/8 on the year at Giants Stadium.  More encouragingly, Suisham’s kickoff distance improved as the game went on, and his final two kickoffs drove Giants’ return man Ahmed Bradshaw back inside the 5 yard line to field them.

But the real story is on the defensive side of the ball.  Though they benefited greatly from the weather, a laissaz faire policy to officiating, and an uncharteristically unfocused performance from the Giants receivers, the pressure harrassed Eli Manning, and the coverage was, on the whole, very impressive.  This is the kind of defense that made the Redskins so successful in the early season.  They enjoyed their most success when Reed Doughty, who has proven to be a very sound tackler, played up in the box.  Brandon Jacobs rushed for close to 150 yards, but he did most of his work with Doughty and Landry in deep cover two.

Landry did an incredible, Tayloresque, job at defending the deep pass.  His one blemish on the night came when he went from the middle of the field to the sideline while the ball was in the air to seperate Plaxico Burress from the football on 3rd and 1.  He then stood over Burress, and delievered an air punch, which drew (and rightfully so) a taunting penalty.  The drive continued, ending in a Lawrence Tynes field goal.

It’s a wonderful long term thing to see the Redskins secondary return to form with Reed Doughty in there.  On one hand, it lands credence to the line of thought that believed that there was no need to spend a high pick on a safety as long as your team had a highly touted safety who could cover sideline to sideline.  The Redskins now will rely on Landry in the future to develop into the pass covering terror that Sean Taylor very well could have been, and Doughty’s emergence will allow the Redskins to focus their drafting efforts elsewhere in the 2008 draft.

The playoff scenario for the Redskins is simple.  It’s a mathmatic impossibility for them to make the playoffs without beating the Vikings in the Metrodome next week.  With a win, the Vikings could (pending the outcome of tomorrow’s game with the Bears) be eliminated by the Redskins, and then only the Saints would stand between Washington, and the 6th seed.

It is possible that the Redskins could make the playoffs without winning the Dallas game.  Losses by the Saints at Philadelphia and at Chicago (two very tough places for a dome team to win in December), coupled with one more Minnesota loss either tomorrow against Chicago, or in Denver in week 17, would deliver the 6th seed to the Redskins at 8-8, provided a win over Minnesota next Sunday Night.

A four game winning streak would virtually guarentee a playoff birth for the Redskins.  Denial of such a situation would require a Saints victory in both Philadelphia and Chicago, and another Giants victory.

Speaking of the Giants, this loss sets up a must win situation in snowy Buffalo next week.  The Giants need one more win to clinch a wild card birth in the NFC, and if they don’t get it in Buffalo, then they will be playing a must win game…against the New England Patriots, who in all likelyhood will be playing for the first perfect regular season in 35 years.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 1:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.