MVN: Most Valuable Network

I'm home from the game and find myself more frustrated than angry about the Washington Redskins loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

The Redskins had ample opportunity to stay withing striking distance of the Giants and to put a dagger in the heart of the Cowboys' playoff hopes.

They failed, leading to an inescapable conclusion -- while better than once expected, this team isn't as good as we hoped.

Two drives portray the team.

First quarter on the Redskins opening drive, Washington is awarded the ball mid field after a penalty. They capitalize on the windfall with a 10 play drive for a touchdown. Clinton Portis rushes five times for 29 yards. Jason Campbell overcomes a sack for an eight yard loss, completing three of four passes ending with his touchdown pass to fullback Mike Sellers for the lead.

Clinton Portis accounts for half the plays and 60 percent of the yards in the drive. Jason Campbell throws short passes to Santana Moss and the back, Sellers. That's a heavy dose of Portis and crisp execution.

The Skins would not look so good for the rest of the game.

Opening drive, second half, Washington overcomes a rare mishandled kick return by Rock Cartwright that left them with poor field position on the 13 yard line. Washington moved the ball from deep in their territory to the Dallas 42 yard line largely on Jason Campbell's masterful short passing game. He completes seven of seven passes, including a short pass to Ladell Betts who turns it into a 20 yard gain. Campbell would follow that with a seven yard completion to Chris Cooley.

Then the bottom fell out. Campbell's pass to Moss from the shotgun formation is intercepted by Terence Newman at the 33 yard line. Moss was double covered, giving Newman the confidence to go for the ball instead of stopping any gain. But, the pass should not have been thrown.

Dallas did not score from that turnover, but the Skins lost a sure scoring opportunity and the chance to put Dallas away.

Instead, they let Dallas hang around. The Redskins could not beat a team held to 17 points even with a 2:1 turnover advantage.

Tomorrow (later today), we'll look at the stats to see their story, but we can draw some conclusions after ten games.

The Redskins are competitive as a team. They have the talent to win nine or 10 games. When they strike that perfect balance of running to passing, they can be quite formidable.

They are not a dominating offense. They do not sustain. Even when they make drives, points to bury an opponent are hard to come by.

The offense may be too dependent upon Clinton Portis. Reliance on running is so Joe Gibbs ago. If the owner wanted that, Gregg Williams would still be here.

There's nothing wrong with Portis running. His presence Sunday night was a lift for the team -- and fans. It's just not enough anymore. That's the formula the Redskins used to make the playoffs. It's not sufficient to win the conference. 

Over the next six games, someone not named Portis will have to step up and win games.     

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According to Jason La Canfora, Clinton Portis completed a pregame workout, and was in good spirits.  The feeling on the field right now is that Portis is likely to dress and play in this game.  There is no word on whether Ladell Betts or Shaun Alexander will be getting the start.Per La Canfora:Director of rehab Larry Hess and running backs coach Stump Mitchell are the field with Portis, with Coach Jim Zorn and head athletic trainer John Burrell watching about 20 yards away on the sidelines. Portis has finished the roughly 15-minute workout and is meeting with seven other people on the sidelines, including Zorn, Burrell, director of sports medicine Bubba Tyer. Portis seems to be in good spirits, smiling, walking off the field talking to Zorn.Shawn Springs is still less than certain to play.  He's recovering from a torn calf muscle.ANNOUNCEMENT:  Come and join Cowboys' Blogger Rubin Thomas and... Read more

The Dallas Cowboys traded for Roy Williams specifically to compete with the Washington Redskins contends Greg Trippiedi in his excellent game preview here at Hog Heaven. If that's the case, then surely cornerback DeAngelo Hall is the Redskin counter-move.Today's Washington Post carries the background story of how Hall arrived here after being unceremoniously dumped from the Oakland Raiders by Al Davis. The article is interesting because it shows the inner working of the front office -- the team behind the team.While exec vp Vinny Cerrato worked the phones with Hall's agent and second guessed which other teams might have interest (Patriots, Eagles and Ravens according to the story). Meanwhile, before discussing it with Cerrato, head coach Jim Zorn talked to defensive coaches Greg Blache and Jerry Gray abut whether and how Hall could fit the scheme -- and the locker room.Tarnished nickelDeAngelo Hall figures to play nickel back in Washington's... Read more

This time, there will be no errors.  No easy points.  No crazy defensive tricks from that team from down south.  This game carries too much meaning for that.I learned a lot about the Dallas Cowboys from the week four Game Tape Review.  I saw a lot of problems for them in the future.  I did not see nearly as many problems as all those injuries revealed. The Cowboys run an incredibly vanilla defensive scheme.  They do not disguise their coverages or their fronts.  They play the exact same 3-4 personnel package against all offensive formations until you reach third down.  That makes them incredibly easy to scheme against, knowing what defensive look you are going to see on every first and second down.The Redskins' favorite offensive scheme is their 3 WR sets.  Here's how the Cowboys are expected to defend this on Sunday:(you can click the image to enlarge it)What... Read more

I wanted to get this out earlier this week for fan digestion, but unfortunately life got in the way.  Anyway, I figured that many of you are wondering how much the individual stats have changed over the last three games.  Well, this is me showing you the answer to that.I still don't have defensive stats from the Giants game.  The defensive numbers are in eight games, while the offensive numbers are for all nine.Pass Coverage Player Targets Comp % SR YPA Carlos Rogers 63 47.6% 36.5% 5.54 Fred Smoot 37 67.6% 56.8% 7.95 Shawn Springs 13 69.2% 61.5% 4.69 Reed Doughty 11 63.6% 63.6% 14.00 Chris Horton 13 46.2% 38.5% 4.31 LaRon Landry 10 10.0% 10.0% 0.90 Leigh Torrence 13 53.8% 38.5% 7.62 London Fletcher 24 62.5% 29.2% 4.08 Rocky McIntosh 23 73.9% 60.9% 5.91 Marcus Washington 10 80.0% 60.0% 6.90 HB Blades 3 66.7% 0.0% 2.33 Kareem Moore 2... Read more

Where's Clinton?Clinton Portis sprained his knee during the Steelers game last Monday. Jim Zorn described Portis as day-to-day for practice this week and "50-50" for the game against the Dallas Cowboys game Sunday night.That would imply a questionable status for the big game. My long years in fantasy football taught me that stud players who are "questionable" will play come game time. Especially for a prime-time night game with a national television audience. Always.DC area radio reports and some national articles are describing Portis as "Doubtful" as of Tuesday night. That's more like a 75 percent probability that he will not play. Whoops!What a time for CP to be doubtful, just when we are playing them.No word yet on whether Ladell Betts will be healthy enough to play. He is running drills at practice, but did not go at full speed today.Shaun Alexander is next on the depth chart, but... Read more

New Washington Redskins defensive back DeAngelo Hall has no hard feelings toward controversial Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. Hall made that statement on "Redskins Radio," ESPN980, in an interview Monday.Says Hall, Davis called him into his office to discuss the situation. Davis found, to his surprise I gather, that the Raiders are not as good as expected. The Raiders need better offensive linemen and Davis needs to clear cap room; thus, the need to release a high cap player (Hall) signed only this season.Hall describes Davis as a "good guy."As for his flamboyant persona, Hall reminds us that he's only 24 with a lot to learn. He says he's matured since last year, but did not say how. He might have been thinking of his humbling experience in Oakland as he spoke. Hall is from Chesapeake, Virginia, an emerging cradle of pro players. Like many from the area, he found... Read more

When the Brett Favre saga finally wrapped itself up, I wrote an article for MVN Outsider titled "Brett Favre is a Jet, but are the Jets a better team?" The premise of the article was this:  the Jets already had an efficient passer at the QB position in Chad Pennington.  He had been pushed to the side to make room for a youth movement (Kellen Clemens).  If you're willing to declare the youth movement a bust, what exactly does Brett Favre give you that Chad Pennington does not?  I came to the conclusion that the Jets could win with either Favre or Pennington, but Favre was 38 and far more likely to collapse, and generally didn't seem to be worth the trouble.  The Jets are winning with (but arguably in spite of) Brett, but Pennington moved on to the Miami Dolphins and in the ultimate irony, might ruin the worst... Read more

I'm writing this shortly after the news broke that the Redskins have inked DeAngelo Hall to a 7 game contract, so I'll try to keep this in perspective.I felt at the end of the day on Monday that the Redskins had a rough go of it on defense.  Carlos Rogers got caught off guard twice, Rocky McIntosh was horrible and got benched, Fred Smoot was terrible, Leigh Torrence was not great, and Landry didn't do a whole lot either.  With the back seven looking that poorly, I figured I'd run the numbers and the Steelers would win going away.Then I did run the numbers, and they say that clearly the Redskins won the struggle on this side of the ball.It's important to remember that for the first 28 minutes of this game, the Redskins defense was in total control.  I mean, they had given up three points, and the Steelers... Read more

I'm not exactly breaking news when I tell you that the offensive performance by the Redskins in this game was sloppy, slow, and ultimately futile.  The Steelers' front seven really is every bit as good as advertised.  Front eight, really since Polamalu is really a glorified cover LB.  What's surprising is just how similar their defensive philosophy is to ours, despite the obvious preference for fewer defensive lineman.There were a bunch of goats in this game for the Redskins.  The first and most critical was injury.  If the Reskins are playing with a healthy Shawn Springs, a healthy Chris Samuels, and a healthy Santana Moss, the dynamic of this game is entirely different.  Obviously the pass protection totally stunk.  Jason Campbell did not play very well, although for a different reason in both halves.The Redskins have a very boom or bust running game.  Not bust, in the way that if... Read more