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You can’t sugar-coat this…The Redskins came in here and they whipped the Saints’ ass. You can’t say nothing about it. I mean you look at time of possession, they controlled the tempo…We’ve always said the best defense against Drew Brees is to not let them possess the ball. Well, the Redskins had the ball 2-to-1. And if you don’t have the ball, you can’t score.
Third down efficiency was one area that I looked at. How you going to sustain drives when you’ve got to convert on third day, and the Saints didn’t get it done. Now, the Saints were struggling in preseason on third-down conversions…but what is surprising is that we were unbelievable last year, almost 57 percent, number one in the NFL.
Listen, I think the crowd wanted to cheer and be loud…but look at how the Saints started the game. The way we started, the crowd can’t get into the game. Now, we didn’t even force a 3-and-out. When you look at what happened in the first quarter, RG3 was 7 for 7, and I can tell you he wasn’t scared out there. The crowd did not influence him, and the Saints did not influence him. I’d normally be so excited for him, because he’s from New Orleans, but plays for the Redskins. I got to give RG3 a lot of credit.
I know a lot of people want to hate on Jim Haslett…but Jim Haslett’s defensive game plan was outstanding. I mean, nobody has stopped the Saints like they did in the first half. I mean, when is the first time you’ve seen a Saints offense have 140 yards in a half? So you got to give Coach Haslett a lot of credit.
But you look in the history…this is one team that has had the Saints’ number. If you look in the series, the Saints and Skins have played 24 times, and the Redskins have a 2-to-1 margin. And when you look in the Superdome…I know everyone talks about the “Domefield Advantage,” but the Redskins was 7 and 1 in the Dome! I mean, I was part of the team that beat the Redskins in 1992. Other than that, 7 and 1 against the Saints. And Coach Mike Shanahan, he has 15 wins on opening day. He leads all active coaches with the most wins on opening day.
They played to their strengths, their front 7, I thought they controlled the temp. We can’t afford to have the penalties we had, we really shot ourselves in the foot. Coach Payton always said you don’t ever want to get more than nine, and we had twelve. And don’t blame the refs. There were a couple of interference calls, but it went both ways. So you can’t use that as an excuse.
Against a team like the Redskins, how they going to get after the quarterback. If you’re third-and-long, a lot of times, let’s front a screen play. Well the Redskins figured that out, and a couple of times, Drew had to drop back and throw it away. They can really get after the quarterback.
You’ve got to be impressed with the Redskins, the way they played. Look, this team beat the world champs twice last year. Now, we crushed the Giants by three TD’s, but the Redskins beat the Giants twice. You know what they did NOT have last year? The Redskins didn’t have a quarterback. NOW they got a QB in RG3. And now we’ve got a tough challenge to go on the road and face a desparate Carolina and Cam Newton. And another thing surprising in time of possession: They were second in the league with 33 drives of 10 plays or more…So you could see Shanahan mixing it.
I know the fans wanted to cheer, and I thought we’d turned the corner, and I thought we had a shot at winning with the block of that punt, and Roby’s score…and I thought we were RIGHT there. But the problem is, to start the 2nd half, all of a sudden, they go on a 6-play, 77-yard drive to make it 27-14.
I know one thing, and the coaches will challenge the players on this…Coach Payton will get up in the players’ faces…The Saints got humbled. Now how you bounce back is what will be interesting, but you’ve got to give the Redskins the credit, because this win was not a fluke. It’s not like Washington lucked out…that was an ass-whipping.
Photo by Chris Bennett
