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Dallas Gored by Horn of Zorn
By Biggie, Resident Stat Boy | September 30, 2008
I am not going to talk about the Dallas Cowboys, vile scum that they are. I’m not going to talk about how their offense, best in the league on Sunday morning, only saw the field for 21:51, essentially watching Jason Campbell take snaps for three quarters of the game. I am not going to talk about perennial whiner Terrell Owens, who somehow feels that being the focus of a full third of the Cowboys’ 58 offensive snaps is not enough attention for him to be productive. I am definitely not going to talk about how Cowboys CB Terrence Newman was spanked not only by Santana Moss but James Thrash as well. If you want to hear about why the Cowboys lost, go watch ESPN or read Sports Illustrated. Their coverage of the game was far more focused on that than on why the Redskins, 11.5 point underdogs, won.
There are three reasons why those underdog Skins and their rookie coach won on Sunday, in what is likely the last Redskins-Cowboys game to ever be played in the Toilet Bowl. They are:
1. Jason Campbell.
2. Offensive execution, coaching, and ball control.
3. Managing to defend against the NFL’s best offense. Well.
Let’s take these in order, starting with Campbell. Jason’s stat line against Dallas was 20-of-31 passing (a 64.5% completion percentage) for 231 yards and two touchdowns, registering a 108.4 QB rating. That is Campbell’s third straight game with a quarterback rating over 100 and his third of the season (Campbell had two such games all of last season). Campbell completed passes to five different receivers, including 8 to Santana Moss for 145 yards and touchdown tosses to Antwaan Randle El and James Thrash (Thrash still plays offense!). Campbell outplayed counterpart Tony Romo (who had a 90.7 QB rating and completed 59.6% of his passes) and is continuing a strong year in which he’s thrown 124 passes, completed 81 (his 65.3% completion percentage this year is a career high), thrown for 878 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions (now the only starting quarterback in the league without one), and – get this – not fumbled once. His QB rating on the year is 102.2, fourth-best in the league and better than any other NFC East QB. (Fun fact: If you think Zorn’s offense is more pass-happy than Gibbs’, think again. Campbell averaged 32.1 attempts a game last season, and now throws 31 times a game under Zorn.)
Has Jason Campbell arrived? Is he the franchise quarterback that Redskins Nation has been waiting for since the days of Heath Shuler and Brad Johnson? It’s too early to tell, but one thing is clear: After three superb performances, he’s certainly showing what Gibbs saw in him when he drafted him.
The second reason the Redskins managed to manhandle the NFL’s “best team” is a tale of two offenses. One held the ball for 38:09 (a stat that’s incredible in itself), ran 70 offensive plays (37 of them runs), got 161 yards on the ground, and earned 22 first downs against a team that had allowed 17 per game. The other held the ball for 21:51, ran the ball a grand total of 11 times, only 8 of those by their star running back, got a whopping 3.25 yards a carry from said running back, and threw it 47 times. For those of you keeping score at home, that means that this second offense threw the ball 81% of the time. Guess which stats belong to which team.
The Redskins offense, despite having two touchdowns on one drive called back on penalties on the same center and settling for four field goals inside the Dallas 15 yard line, performed admirably against a defense that had been ranked 9th in the league. For one, while the Cowboys had not given up 100 rushing yards to any team before Sunday, Clinton Portis and Co. ran for 161 on 37 carries. Clinton himself had 121 yards on 21 carries (5.8 yards per carry), his first 100-yard game on the season and by far his best average yardage in any game this year (his YPC this year is 4.3, his best since 2005). On a 12 play, 6:54, 55-yard drive in the fourth quarter that ate up nearly seven minutes of clock and Dallas’s last two timeouts, Portis had two separate runs go for more than 10 yards (11 and 13, respectively). On that drive, Portis and Ladell Betts ran the ball 10 times for 44 yards, a 4.4 yard average, and earned three first downs between them. The drive ended in a field goal, giving the Redskins two 10-plus play scoring drives on the day that ate up 11:59 of clock between them. The Redskins also had two scoring drives of more 10 or more plays against both the Saints and the Cardinals. They are 3-0 in games where they manage that.
In the passing game, Santana Moss raped Terrence Newman and the rest of the Dallas secondary (again) for 145 yards on eight catches – his third straight 100-yard game against Dallas and the fourth such performance against Dallas in his Redskins career. I think we all remember the first one. (Fun fact: Santana Moss, with 421 receiving yards, has the second-most yards of any receiver in the league, behind Greg Jennings, who has 482). Chris Cooley was quieter than he has been in recent weeks, catching only 4 passes for 28 yards, although three of them were for first downs.
Speaking of first downs, the Redskins had 22 (7 rushing, 14 passing, and one on penalty – good thing the Dallas defense can’t count to 12) compared to 21 for the Cowboys. After netting only 11 of them against the Giants, this is the third week in a row that Washington has managed more than 20 first downs, but the first time during the win streak that they have allowed an opponent more than 20 (the Saints had 16 and the Cardinals 19). The Redskins now average 19.8 first downs a game (so, 20), 10th best in the league. On third down, the Redskins still have room for improvement (their 34% conversion rate on third down is 22nd in the league). They did better on Sunday, converting 40%, although the Cowboys (who convert a league-best 57% of the time) still managed to get a first on 50% of third downs.
So, let’s recap the Redskins offense so far this season. They are the 9th ranked offense in the NFL, averaging 342 yards a game. Their 255 plays from scrimmage are 8th most in the league. In terms of ball control, the Redskins hold the ball for an average of 32:26, 5th best in the league (the Eagles are fourth). In the turnover differential, they are tied with the Titans at +6 for best in the league, and the Redskins have not committed an offensive turnover this season. The passing offense is 17th in the league with 209.5 yards a game, although (again) it is the only one without an interception). The Redskins are the league’s 11th-best running team, averaging 132.5 yards a game. In scoring, they are ranked 18th with 21.5 yards a game (but remember: they have scored at least 24 points each of the last three weeks). This is an offense (so far) that wins the TOP battle, doesn’t turn the ball over, runs a lot of plays, and keeps the chains moving. Now they just need to get more points out of it.
Now that we’ve sung the praises of the offense, it’s time to give the defense its due. Going into this week’s game, the Dallas Cowboys were the top offense in the NFL, gaining 440 yards a game, and averaged 32 points a game. Against the Redskins, they had 344 net yards and 24 points, both their lowest outputs of the season. To be fair, they only had the ball for 21:51, far less than any other game this season (they had it for 29:02 against the Eagles), a fact for which the offense deserves a great deal of credit. Tony Romo, T.O., Marion Barber, and Jason Witten can’t put up fistfuls of points if they’re not on the field.
That is not to say, though, that the defense didn’t do its part in the victory. The coverage of Terrell Owens, for one, was particularly impressive. In the first half, Shawn Springs covered him like a glove – Owens only had two catches for 11 yards. In the second, when Springs went out with an injury, Carlos Rogers stepped in and performed admirably as well. In Dallas’ second-to-last drive, a 3 and out, Tony Romo threw incomplete to Owens three times in a row – with Carlos exactly in position each time. Granted, Owens still had nine touches (including 2 runs) for 82 total yards and a touchdown, but that was with the Cowboys attempting to get him the ball between 19-20 times. Not bad at all. To round out the solid play of the secondary, Chris Horton had yet another interception: his third of the season and his career. The performance of the Redskins’ defensive backfield this year, despite being 23rd in the league (giving up 223 yards a game), is fairly impressive given that the New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, and New York Giants are the league’s 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 8th best passing offenses, respectively.
The most impressive part of the defensive performance against the Cowboys was in their run defense. Marion Barber had had 62 carries for 285 yards, a 4.6 yard average, through three games. That equates to an average of nearly 21 carries for 95 yards a game, in addition to scoring 4 touchdowns (at least one in each game). He had averaged 5 yards a carry against both the Browns and the Packers. The Redskins, however, rendered him a non-factor. To begin with, he only had 8 carries in total, getting 26 yards (a 3.3 yard average), and did not score for the first time this season. His teammate in the backfield, Felix Jones, did not have a carry or a catch, despite the fact that he averages 8.2 yards a carry. The Cowboys ran the ball only 11 times out of 58 offensive snaps; the Redskins succeeded in making the Cowboys one-dimensional, and it was a disadvantage that Dallas could not ultimately overcome. The Redskins are now 11th in the NFL in run defense (allowing 92.2 rushing yards a game) and 14th in overall defense, despite playing some of the NFL’s top offenses. In fact, all of the Redskins’ opponents to this point are the 2nd (Dallas), 3rd (New Orleans), 4th (Giants), and 5th (Arizona) best offenses in the league in yardage. Philadelphia is 6th.
Well, that’s it for this week. The Redskins are 3-1 and have an incredibly difficult game against the Eagles this week. Let’s see how they do.
Topics: NFL, Redskins, Sports | 4 Comments »
October 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am
Oh man… I’m so horny for Zorny that it’s not even funny.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:37 am
It’s been fun to watch the Redskins improve, and I’m used to disliking the Redskins. Zorn looks like a winner, and that offense is good. Do you think he’d drop this lame Redskins gig for an offensive coordinator position for the Steelers?
No? Eh, I thought it was worth a shot.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:34 pm
The last Skins drive was classic Gibbs 1.0, Riggo-drill-type football. It was a thing of beauty.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 am
….so far nobody has given the Redskins any credit about the win, mostly it’s been about what Dallas forgot to do and TO being a douche.
This week it will be an interesting b/c of the similar but different WCO styles of the Skins and Eagles.
The keys IMO will be to continue to run the ball to slow down the Eagles blitz schemes and to also again control the TOP. If the Eagles are forced to be pass only and the Skins cqan keep Mcnabb from breaking loose with his run-potential, then the Skins maybe able to generate some 3 and outs or another INT or two.