Are the Redskins a Good Football Team?

It’s been a while since I posted anything substantive. Why start now? Instead, let’s talk about the Redskins for 1500 words or so.

First of all, let me just say that no matter how this season ends up, I am really enjoying the way this team plays under Jim Zorn. They dominate the line on offense, run right up the gut, and take their shots with deep passes and trick plays often enough to keep opposing defenses guessing. On the other side of the ball, they are playing confident, aggressive defense, making it very difficult for their opponents to put up points.

Here are some factors that I find to be very positive about the season so far:

• Clinton Portis (and the offensive line). Is Clinton Portis a new man? It’s hard to say. I think he’s been playing this well ever since Joe Gibbs arrived, but now he’s running behind an experienced, smart, enthusiastic (more on this below) offensive line, and his head coach is really calling on him to establish the parameters of the entire offense–run to set up the pass, run to set up the wacky gadget play, run to set up more damn running. From what little I understand about the NFL running back mindset, it seems like Portis is really responding to the confidence the team is showing in his abilities. It doesn’t hurt that his backups, Betts and Cartwright (and maybe, but probably not, Sean Alexander) beat the crap out of the other team when they get in the game. And he is great at picking up the blitz on passing plays. I love watching him lay out linebackers.

• Defense.What can I say? They’ve been pretty great. They came up huge in the Dallas and Philadelphia games, shutting down explosive offenses and really demoralizing those teams. The line is great against the run, and puts a decent amount of pressure on the quarterback

• ZORN. I wasn’t particularly happy to see Joe Gibbs go–he had a rough start, to say the least, but after a while his personnel and his game plans came around to something kind of like the Super-Bowl-winning teams he coached in my youth. Jim Zorn came in and did something very interesting: he didn’t mess with things too much. He took a hard-running, tough team, and stuck with its strengths. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t touch the defense, letting Blache take care of it. The results on that speak for themselves. And on offense, he’s interpolated his own playcalling preferences–quick passes aimed at creating yards-after-catch, and quirky gadget plays taking advantage of his personnel–with what the team has been doing well for a few years (running the ball down opponents’ throats). He hasn’t been perfect–his time management in the two-minute drill is still pretty questionable, for example–but for a guy in a head coaching position for the first time ever he’s done a great job.

• Attitude. This comes back to Zorn, too. For many years, basically since Gibbs left the first time, the Redskins have always seemed to be one bad break away from folding. They always seemed to lose the close games, and they got blown out far too often for my comfort. Much like the pre-2004 Red Sox, at critical inflection points they just seemed to fall to the occasion. Well, they haven’t come through every time this season (giving up the game-winning drive to the woeful Rams was pretty disappointing), but I no longer think failure is an inevitability. That comes down to a few things, including recent success in the regular and post-seasons, but more than anything I think this is the result of Zorn’s influence. He’s not a harsh taskmaster who comes down on anyone expressing themselves, nor a wise old man dropping science on kids he has nothing in common with. He’s a laid-back dude who had a pretty successful pro career, who’s managed to get the Redskins to focus and work hard without letting setbacks bother them too much. I can’t emphasize enough how different this team seems to respond to adversity from its predecessors. It’s really fun to watch.

• Fine. Cooley. He may be the most hyped player in Redskins history, but it’s true: Cooley is pretty great. He can contribute as a receiver, but I think his biggest contribution is with his blocking. Much like Portis, he really makes things happen for other players with his physical play away from the ball–something players like T.O. and Plaxico “gotta skip practice–my kid spilled his juice box!” Burress might want to learn from.

That said, I have some concerns:

• Jason Campbell. Now, let’s be clear. Jason Campbell is one of the biggest reasons we’re 5-2 right now. He has played very well, and has done quite a bit more than “manage the game”. But he’s had some luck along the way, too. He hasn’t had a turnover this year (at this time last year he had something like 48 interceptions and 62 fumbles), which is awesome, but that streak isn’t all about his decisionmaking and crisp spiral. At least two of his passes fell right through Cleveland defenders’ fingers yesterday, and those drops could have easily been interceptions. And there have been plenty of missed opportunities for opposing defenders in earlier games, too. That’s not to say that Campbell won’t continue to play great, but we can’t seriously expect him to finish the season with 20 touchdowns and no turnovers. And as close as Redskins games tend to be, it’s quite possible that one bad decision by Campbell (or a bad bounce off of a receiver’s hands) could decide a game or two.

• Defensive injuries and inexperience. How shaky is the secondary? Jason Taylor’s calf almost died. It looks like Springs is going to be a “maybe” for the rest of the season. Fred Smoot, while healthy, is about as reliable in coverage as John McCain’s economic policy. Leigh Torrence and Chris Horton are young, promising players, but they’re not ready to carry the defensive backfield. Carlos Rogers, Landry, McIntosh, the ageless London Fletcher, Marcus Washington, Demetric Evans and the entire defensive line have been awesome so far this year (and I don’t see any reason to think they can’t get even better as the season goes on), but the Rams demonstrated last week that the Redskins can give up big plays downfield. And for whatever reason, these plays have often been coming on last-minute drives–it seems like all a “prevent” defense ever does is prevent the quarterback from getting back out there to kneel and run the clock out. Also, it wouldn’t be too bad if these guys could mount a meaningful pass rush once in a while.

• Special teams. Suisham is as dependable a kicker as we’ve had in years. I have no complaints about him (yes, he missed a short one yesterday, but that happens every once in a while, and I thought the hold looked pretty bad). It remains to be seen whether our new punter, Plackemeier, will be a positive, but yesterday he at least broke even. Sadly, that was an improvement over Durant Brooks, who I think will be a very good punter eventually but who is not ready to contribute on game day just yet.

  But the punt returns have been borderline moribund so far. It’s been mostly Randel-El and Moss catching the ball, but considering how explosive they are on offense I think it must be about the blocking. Maybe this team isn’t emphasizing the punt return, but I think that it should be (especially since the defense is forcing so many punts). And although this may seem like a contradiction to that point, I don’t think we should have Randel-El or Moss returning punts, at least not on a regular basis. Why risk an injury to put a guy back there who’s averaging something like six yards per return? Let Thrash, Cartwright, or some other skilled but not critical player take on the role–at least until the other 10 guys on the field can open up some more holes in the coverage.

• The rookies on offense. Kelly, Thomas, and Davis are just not contributing yet. In fact, Thomas seems to be set on hindering the Redskins with untimely (and obvious) offensive pass interference penalties, most of which seem to be away from the play and several of which have resulted in failed third downs. This is not a big, big deal–rookies aren’t generally expected to come in and dominate, especially receivers, who tend to take a season or two to really come into their own. But I think the offense is one big playmaker away from being seriously dominant, and any of those three could have come in and been that difference-maker. The season’s not over yet, however, and I think that if Thomas can get his hands under control he may be able to make some plays and help score some points.

Although I wrote a lot about this team’s weaknesses, I think it’s safe to say that none of them are critical, and most of them are basically just speculative. It doesn’t appear that the Redskins are going to blow a lot of teams out, which makes for some tense moments, but so far they have come up big in most of those moments. They’re playing with confidence and they are well prepared, and they’re really fun to watch. I don’t think they’ll win the Super Bowl this year, but I do think they’re back to the Redskins team I watched growing up–a bunch of tough guys who nobody looks forward to facing, capable of winning every time they get on the field.

So what does this mean? It means I will enjoy watching the Redskins decimate the woeful Lions next weekend (in person!), and I think they’ll perform well enough the rest of the way to make the playoffs. Beyond that, who knows, but I’m looking forward to seeing it all unfold. (Just as long as they don’t revert to Norv form and play like crap when it really counts.)