Redskins Get Big win over Chargers

1. The Special Teams Remain a Thorn in the Redskins Side:

-Well the good news is they didn’t give up a touchdown, but special teams still cost the Redskins points as they had two field goals blocked. Not only are blocked field goals extremely rare, but the Chargers hadn’t blocked a field goal in 175 games. Now the second field goal was a 58 yard attempt so the chances of that ending in points was pretty small, but the first block is another story. That was a 25 yard field goal attempt after the Redskins had driven 92 yards on a really nice drive. How you let that kick get blocked is beyond me. The Redskins special teams are truly a comedy of errors right now, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting better any time soon.

2. Running Alfred Morris is a smart idea:

-It took 8 games (and overtime) but the Redskins finally gave Morris the ball 20 or more times in a game. Now as a fantasy owner I was hoping that Morris would have even had 3 additional carries instead of Darrel Young, but it was good to see Morris get 25 carries. Morris is such a strong runner and had a number of crucial carries for the Redskins throughout the game. Hopefully this continues and Morris is at 20+ carries for the rest of the season. If the Redskins do that they will definitely be in a position to win most of their remaining games.

3. Pierre Garcon Goes Off:

-Garcon may have had his best game as a Redskin as he caught 7 passes for 172 yards and a ridiculous 24.6 yard average. The fact that his long of the day was just 38 yards is even more impressive. When you are putting up 170+ yards you are likely doing it because of one big 70-90 yard reception, and a bunch of smaller ones. Garcon though didn’t have any “home run” catches, but picked up big chunks on all his catches. Whenever the Redskins needed a big reception he was there.

Garcon’s biggest catch though wasn’t one that went for huge yardage or even got the team a first down, but rather what it meant to the team overall given the situation. It happened on the Redskins last drive in regulation after a holding penalty put the Redskins in a 2nd and 20 situation as they were trying to run out the clock. The Redskins decided to throw for it to pick up some big yards in the hopes of running out the clock if they could get the first down. Griffin threw a ball well behind Garcon, but he reached down and caught it with one hand. Not only did that pick up 16 yards for the Redskins, but it kept the clock alive and forced the Chargers to take the time out. Now perhaps the Redskins would have run instead of thrown on 3rd down and the Chargers still would have been forced to take the time out, but this catch forced the Chargers hand. It also meant that Rocca was punting from the 45 yard line and was able to pin them inside the 10 at the 8 yard line. If Garcon doesn’t get those yards, the Chargers would have definitely had better field position, and possibly could have had more time on the clock at the end for better play selection.

4. Defense did their job:

-Some people may point to the Chargers 24 points or the fact that they almost won the game at the end and think the defense failed, but that simply isn’t the case. Up until the final 5 minutes of the game the defense had only allowed 7 points since the Chargers other TD came off the interception. While San Diego did march down the field twice in the final minutes of the game the defense did hold from first and goal inside the 1 yard line. The chances for any defense to stop a team from 1st and goal inside the 1 yard line is incredibly small and the Redskins beat the odds to send it into overtime.

5. Griffin has a solid game:

-It wasn’t the best game of Griffin’s career or even this season, but a week after playing the worst game of his career RGIII rebounded with a solid performance. Now he had too many batted passes, including one that was caught in the end zone for touchdown, but other wise he had a pretty good game. When he did have mistakes, he rebounded from them and would make a good throw the next time. That is the difference between last week and this week is that when Griffin made a mistake or a poor throw he didn’t compound the problem with making bad decisions to make up for the first mistake. While this wasn’t the RGIII who carried the Redskins in many of their wins last year, it also wasn’t the RGIII that was costing them games at the start of this season.