FanHouse Redskins

Larry Johnson had been a free agent for all of a few hours Monday when it was reported that the Washington Redskins might have some interest in signing the ex-Chief.

Which, really, shouldn't come as a surprise -- mainly because Clinton Portis is injured with a concussion and considered questionable for Sunday's game ... actually, you know what? Check that -- the Redskins are interested in Johnson because he's a big name, he's available on the market and signing him would generate some "buzz," which is something that Dan Snyder is quite fond of.

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For the longest time, I thought that Friedgen was trying to win ball games in spite of Sam Hollenbach. All the plays were run plays except for really short passes for the last few games before the Clemson game. But with the Tigers defense completely shutting down the Terps running game, it was all on Sam Hollenbach to make some plays. And after he had his fair share of that, he started calling them.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Friedgen let Hollenbach call his plays as he saw fit during the last drive of the game. Hollenbach took Ralph's freedom and made the most of it. The final play before setting up the field goal, as we all remember it, was a 12 yard pass to tight end Joey Haynos to set up a 31 yard field goal. Turns out that Friedgen's play call was a running play but Hollenbach had better ideas.

With the way that Maryland had been running, it's possible that Hollenbach made the call that saved the game. Maryland was getting stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage plenty of times during the game, and I wouldn't be surprised if Clemson geared for the run on that play as well. Instead of a 12 yard gain, imagine they got barely any yards. It would have been a 43 yard field goal instead of a 31 yard field goal. That's certainly a makeable kick for all kickers not named Mike Vanderjact, and Ennis has had a great second half of the season. However, there's more of a chance that he'd miss the field goal from 43 than 31. Hollenbach insured the win with that last play call.

The Clemson game took Hollenbach from an offensive care taker to a real quarterback. He's making decisions and making plays on the field -- he had his first good long pass in a long time, a 56 yarder to Jason Goode. From here on out, we should all be less weary when Hollenbach takes the field. When the run game was shut down, he proved he could take the game himself.

And speaking of Mike Vanderjact, former Terp and current Redskins kicker Nick Novak hit the game winner against the Cowboys. Sure, he had missed one just minutes before that he should have made, but as I predicted before he even walked on the field, Vanderjact missed a 35 yarder and gave Novak another chance. Must feel good to hit big kicks against, Nick.

Well it's about time. Only, coming against the NFL's worst defense, what do we make out of it?

In a league in which dynasties are no longer a realistic possibility and every year a team or two rises from the ashes to shock the world, every victory is a hard-fought victory that shouldn't be taken for granted. And from the looks of how the Redskins have performed in the preseason and the first two weeks, beating the Texans the way they did was impressive.

So what was it that brought the Redskins to form? Was it the return of Clinton Portis? Was it Mark Brunell getting some extra time to throw the rock? Was it Al Saunders' play calling? Or was it simply a combination of everything?

Obviously football is one of those games in which there's no such thing as a one man team like the NBA. If an offensive lineman doesn't do his job, the passing and running game suffers. If a receiver drops a key pass, the momentum can shift and the game lost. If the offense scores 35 points and the defense gives up 36, what difference will it make.

In addition to the 22 starters, the backups have to execute as well. What's the point developing a running game if on a 3rd and short, the backup comes in and fumbles. Or the nickel back gets burned. And then there's the special teams. The game is based on field position. If the opponents' average starting position is around the 35, the defense's job already got harder. John Hall has to make his kicks. Derrick Frost has to continue to pin opponents' offenses deep.

And then there's the coaching staff. What happened to the explosive offensive play calling by Al Saunders or the suffocating defense by Gregg Williams? If is just player execution or can the coaching staff make better decisions as to what to call and when? Is Joe Gibbs involved in any of the play calling at all?

All the attention so far has ended up with Mark Brunell. As I watch all the pregame shows and read all the articles on the internet, fingers are being pointed everywhere but eventually being pointed at Mark Brunell. I'm pointing the finger at Mark Brunell.

But I also feel that the other 21 starters, handful of key backups and the entire coaching staff needs some finger pointing. Jon Jansen looked terrible against the Cowboys. I liked him better with two broken thumbs. The secondary is playing like a practice squad. David Carr had an impressive game last weekend, but he was overshadowed by Peyton Manning's performance. If we think Carr is vulnerable (he has the NFL's third best passer rating), he might put up better numbers than the two aging QBs we've faced so far. The d-line spends all game dancing with the o-line. Adam Archuleta is a heat seeking missile looking for the football instead of where the football is going. Andre Carter? Hello?

There are a lot of individuals that can get a finger, but ultimately, it's a team sport. The ultimate team sport. Hopefully the 0-2 start has refocused everyone and instead of spending all week whether or not Mark Brunell should be the starter, let's hope everyone collectively can figure out how to make it easier for him to do whatever he does and win some games. If it's Todd Collins or Jason Campbell back there, everyone still has to do what they do better in order for it to make a difference.

After a successful season last year and another high profile offseason, the Redskins entered the season with some experts saying they could possibly represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Even Sports Illustrated predicted the Redskins to finish first in the division and winning a playoff game.

But after only two weeks, not only are the Redskins looking disappointing, they don't even look like they'll be competitive. One of the key reasons (out of many) is the absolute lack of a running threat. Offensive guru Al Saunders is known for his power running games which set up aerial assaults no matter who was the QB. So far, though, his offense looks no better than Steve Spurrier's offense.

Going into the season some even said Ladell Betts could be a starter on most teams. Others even said TJ Duckett could given a chance. With those two lining up behind one of the NFL's marquee RBs, the Redskins looked like they had one of the best RB tandems in the league. The most productive runner on the team so far is Santana Moss (4 rushes for 47 yards averaging 11.8 yards a carry), only he's supposed to be catching passes. Ladell Betts has more yards but is only averaging 3.3 yards a carry. Ironically, the leading receiver stat-wise is Ladell Betts with 10 catches. The only rushing TD is scored by, well, Clinton Portis.

But it's not too late. Clinton Portis is back, and Saunders is addressing the need to refocus on the run. Joe Gibbs mentioned the reason the passing game hasn't been effective is defenses are keeping an extra man in coverage taking away the deep threat because there is no running game to fear. Mark Brunell has thrown for no TDs and has a QB rating of 67.7. With Portis lining up, though, things are expected to change.

And it helps that we're playing Houston this weekend. Their defense is giving up an average of 127 yards rushing a game (though only two games) and a whopping 350 yards passing (thanks primarily to Peyton Manning). QBs have completed 68.5% of their attempts (73 attempts so far).

This is the weekend for the Redskins to gain some traction and develop some momentum, self-confidence and more importantly, some respect. It all begins with the running game and if it can't be established against the Texans, brace yourself for a long season.

Last year every week, I would check Fox Sports' power rankings and every week the Redskins consistently was ranked in the top 10. Even when they were 5-6, the Redskins would be ranked high enough to make the playoffs. People questioned how this could be, and Fox consistently wrote, "We use a system based off this and that and some other stuff so how the Redskins got ranked that high every weekend, well, we have no idea..."

Sure enough, the formula was right and not only did the Redskins make the playoffs, they even won a game vindicating Fox Sports' power ranking system.

So, I checked them out recently to get an idea of what the HAL of NFL rankings thinks so far, and sure enough, there's been a change of heart. The disappointing thing is that the Redskins are ranked 25th. But there is some good news. The Houston Texans are ranked 31st!

The complicated formula is based a lot on previous games, but not all of them. It's something like the last eight. Since we're only two weeks into the season, maybe the formula is just getting warmed up. So, I checked out CBS Sportsline. They have the Redskins ranked two places higher at number 23, but they have the Texans tanked three spots better than Fox does, coming in at 28th.

Well, let's take it to those who really know football. Those who put money where their mouth is. I checked out Covers.com to see what they think. And slowly but surely we're moving up the rankings already. They have the Redskins ranked at number 20 and the Texans at number 29.

Power rankings are supposed to give you an idea of what a team's season is going to look like when the dust settles and not how it looked in the previous games. Perhaps many people think the Redskins are that bad. They also forget that football is a 16 game season. They're also probably the same ones who predicted the Redskins to win the division during the offseason. After a few victories, we'll revisit the rankings and see who finally decided to base their rankings off how the season is going to end and not how it looks right now.

If you've never been to a Redskins game at FedEx Field, there is no way possible to describe the atmosphere so that you can understand the energy in the air. When you have almost 90,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs, it's like putting your ears on a vacuum cleaner. The decibel level is shattering!

But not everyone who attends the games can hear. You see, the National Association of the Deaf filed the class-action lawsuit Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on behalf of three fans from Maryland who regularly attend home games. The three are deaf. So when announcements are made over the loudspeaker, obviously, they can't hear it.

One of the issues brought up was when a player gets ejected, deaf fans don't know why. All they know is Sean Taylor is sitting on the sidelines when the game is coming down to the wire. It should be obvious if this happens why Taylor is sitting on the sidelines next to Jason Campbell, but wouldn't it be easier to simply read why and know for sure?

One solution being suggested is offering closed-captioning in the stadium. The University of Texas has it for their games, making it obvious that Daniel Snyder can open up his pocketbook and make it possible at FedEx Field. Another idea floating around was providing deaf and hearing-impaired fans with seven-inch televisions, which would pick up captioning in the stadium.

Who knows, maybe they can even give a few of the seven-inch TVs to those fans who have seats in the sections where part of the field is blocked from their view and they have to rely on the big screens to see what's going on.

Well, we got a glimpse of him in week one and sorely missed him last week. But it now looks like Clinton Portis is ready to go.

After a seriously flawed offense in week one got worse in week two, the return of Portis brings some relief. Of course, he isn't the QB, nor does he play defense, but as long as he does what he does best, the offense should run smoother and the defense should get more than four or five plays off before they head back to the field.

Without Portis the Vikings and Cowboys were able to keep an extra set of eyes on Santana Moss while bringing some heat. With Moss buried behind opposing jerseys and Mark Brunell not having the time to look for Brandon Lloyd, Antwaan Randle El or Chris Cooley (or anyone for that matter), I'm wishing the preseason was six games long.

With Portis lining up in the backfield, defenses are going to have to cheat up to the line if they don't want him dancing in the end zone. And as soon as they come out of cover two coverage and rolling extra help to Moss, maybe, just maybe Mark Brunell will have more options than sideline, turf and the other team.

Now that the glass half full looks more like it's half empty, let's take a more realistic snapshot of what the Redskins are working with. It's easy to let the 0-2 record get us down, but last year's team, which was less talented (on paper at least) was 5-6 before making a run for the playoffs.

So what's going on this year? Are we really that bad? Is there any hope left for a run for the Lombardi Trophy?

Well, T.O. wasn't a factor, but neither was Mark Brunell, the offensive line, the defensive line, the secondary, the play calling on offense and defense...

Other than Rock Cartwright's 100-yard kickoff return, the Redskins couldn't get anything going until late when Dallas was playing prevent defense. The Cowboys sent the Redskins to 0-2 with a 27-10 victory. The offensive line had a hard time giving Brunell time to find a receiver, giving up six sacks and forcing Brunell to throw several balls out of bounds and an interception. The running game scared no one without Clinton Portis even dressed to play.

The defense fared no better. Drew Bledsoe had all day to throw the ball and Julius Jones ran threw the middle of the line all night. Gregg Williams called a conservative game, blitzing lightly and finding no ways to get pressure on Bledsoe. The Cowboys averaged 5.2 yards per play, 4.5 yards per rush and converted 22 first downs.

The cameras were all on T.O. going into the game, but he had very little impact on the game. He dropped passes like a rookie (including in the end zone), only catching three passes for a mere 19 yards. Terry Glenn, on the other hand, pulled in six catches for just under 100 yards including a 40-yard TD.

Brunell completed 18 passes, but 11 were to non-WRs. Moss was quiet all game until the end of the game when he pulled in a couple of meaningless catches. Ladell Betts caught seven balls, most of the productive ones late in the game, but only rushed for 40 yards on 11 carries. Take away his 17-yard gain and he only averaged 2.7 yards per carry.

Other than the ineffective play on offense and defense, the Redskins committed 11 penalties surrendering 117 yards. Penalties allowed the Cowboys to drive the field 99 yards for the TD that essentially sealed the game.

It's not obvious why the Redskins can't execute Al Saunders' vaunted offensive playbook, but it is obvious that Mark Brunell doesn't look comfortable in the pocket, is having a hard time finding open receivers and that there isn't much to hang our hats on.