Quick Thought: Redskins vs Giants

Offensive Breakdown will be up tommorow and Defensive Breakdown will be up on Wednesday.  In the meantime however, a closer look at who was in the game on the final 2 offensive drives:

10 players in the game unless stated otherwise: O-line (5), Campbell, Portis, Moss, Cooley and A.R.E. The following shows the 11th player in the formation and any substitutions of the 10 players listed above.

Drive XII

1^st and 10: Thrash in

2^nd and 10: Lloyd and Thrash in, Moss out.

3^rd and 8: Lloyd in.

1^st and 10: Sellers in

2^nd and 10: Betts and sellers in. Portis out.

1^st and 10: Sellers, Betts, Yoder in. Portis and A.R.E. out

2^nd and 10: Betts and Sellers in. Portis out.

3^rd and 10: Thrash and Betts in. Portis out.

Thoughts: On a crucial 3rd and 8, the coaches bench Thrash and sub in B. Lloyd as the #3 WR. He runs what seems to be a “go” route with Randle El (who was lined up on the same side), running an underneath crossing pattern. The play went to Randle El for the first down. I’m assuming that Thrash does not have the necessary deep speed to run off defenders and therefore execute this type of play.

Drive XIII

1^st and 10: Thrash and Betts in. Portis out.

2^nd and 10: Thrash and Betts in. Portis out.

2 MINUTE WARNING

3^rd and 21: Thrash in

4^th and 8: Thrash in and Betts. Portis out.

1^st and 10: Thrash and Betts in. Portis out.

2^nd and 13(?): Lloyd and Betts in. Portis out.

3^rd and 13: Betts, Thrash and Lloyd in. Portis and Moss out.

1^st and Goal: Stop clock, same formation as previous.

2^nd and Goal: Betts, Sellers, Yoder and Pucillo in. Moss, A.R.E. and Portis out.

3^rd and Goal: Same as previous

4^th and Goal: Same as previous.

Thoughts: Moss and Portis sat out the final 5 plays of the game. 3 being due to the goal line package. But why were they out on 3rd and 13? On that play, Thrash and Lloyd ran “go” routes down either sideline (they were each lined up all the way out wide on each side of the field). The route fits Moss’ abilities, but they were both jammed at the line, so perhaps the Skins anticipated this and got 2 of their bigger WRs out there. The play worked and Randle El caught it at the 1 yard line.

As far as the goal line package goes…what ever happened to Sean Taylor being a red zone WR? He has the vertical to go up with Randy Moss…why not have him line up wide? I say you take out Pucillo and place Sean Taylor…or even B. Lloyd (6’0 ft, 36 inch vertical with a knack for making the up top circus catch) in his place. I realize it’s not conventional thinking to do so, but compared to Mike Sellers and Chris Cooley on an over-under route combo, it’s not such a bad idea.

Gibbs already addressed the decision to go with Betts over Portis…and judging by the way the Giants filled the gaps, I’m not so sure it would’ve mattered. But I’ll take a closer look at that in tomorrow’s offensive breakdown.