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SKINSGRIDIRON EXCLUSIVES
In This Fan's Opinion... Ashburn - Forgive me if I don't get too excited about the 17-0 shellacking the Redskins put on the Miami Dolphins on Saturday night. While the Redskins certainly looked good, they were playing against a team in turmoil. The Dolphins already have had an entire season's worth of problems, and there are still two weeks left in the preseason. All Pro running back Ricky Williams quit a week before training camp opened, presumably to tour Jamaica with Snoop Dog and Cheech and Chong. The Dolphins also lost wide receiver David Boston to a season-ending knee injury in practice two weeks later. Miami replaced Boston with Marty Booker, a good receiver, whose production dropped off dramatically last year with the Bears. To get Booker, the Phins had to trade away young, talented, but disgruntled defensive end Adewale Ogunleye, who had almost as many sacks last year (15) as the entire Bears defense (18). Chicago is hoping Ogunleye will fill the gaping hole left by the departure of Phillip Daniels, who tallied a staggering 2.5 sacks last year and who still has yet to play a single down for the Redskins. With A. Jay Fiedley (it's a joke) at quarterback and Travis Minor (13 carries for 15 yards in two preseason games) at tailback, the Dolphins will need to rely on their defense to win games this year. I am astounded that the Phins would weaken their defense to get a wide receiver. One might argue that the Bears beat the Dolphins worse off the field, than the Skins beat them on it. If you're wondering why I seem to care so much about Miami, well, I don't. But, I need to keep telling myself that Miami is not very good so I can keep my expectations under control. The Redskins always seem to get my hopes up only to crush them during the regular season. Some examples: When the Skins thumped Dallas 35-16 on Monday Night Football in Richie Petitbon's first regular season game as head coach in 1993, visions of the Super Bowl danced in my head. Petitbon was going to follow in Coach Gibbs' footsteps and keep us atop of the NFC East for years to come. I never saw our 3-12 finish coming. The Skins started 7-1 in 1996 and were Super Bowl bound in the minds of many. But we lost 6 of the next 8 games and missed out on the playoffs for the fourth year in a row. The Redskins signed a lot of big name free agents prior to the 2000 season after being one botched snap from a potential appearance in the 1999 NFC championship game. We were buying the Super Bowl, but who cares? At least we were going to the Show, right? When we drove down the field and scored on our very first drive of the season against Carolina, it looked so easy that I stood up and announced to section 423 that the NFL might want to just hand over the Lombardi Trophy immediately and save everyone a lot of trouble. We missed the playoffs that year. And then there was that 2002 preseason opener in Osaka where our new head coach showed off the Skins new high-powered offense. Danny Wuerffel looked like Danny Wonderful to open that preseason, but, as we all know, he ended up being Danny Woeful. Two more playoff-less seasons followed under coach what's-his-name. As good as the Redskins looked Saturday night; we need to keep our expectations in check. If you're having trouble, then just repeat after me..."It was just Miami." But, regardless of whether we played the Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles, or the Duke Blue Devils, there is reason to be excited about this team. The offense showed some promise and it all starts with the offensive line. The Dirtbags looked more like a cohesive unit and less like a group of five fat guys standing next to each other watching fatter guys run by them. I was very encouraged to see Dockery, Thomas, and Friedman pulling and blocking downfield for the running backs. This obviously helped the running game. The tailbacks looked pretty good. Clinton Portis broke off a 22-yard run on the Skins fourth play and then plunged into the end zone from a yard out a couple plays later. Under center, Mark Brunell was efficient, but not spectacular. He has all but clinched the starting job for the opening game against Tampa on Sept. 12, even though Patrick Ramsey will start against the Rams Friday night. Ramsey simply looks too indecisive. That's understandable considering he's a young guy learning a new system. I was pulling for Ramsey, but it's becoming apparent that Brunell is the better choice to start the season. What I am most excited about is seeing what this defense will do once the games matter and the guys really get to play. Gregg Williams showed a bit more of his defense against Miami, but I'm sure there are a ton of defensive looks that the Skins haven't shown yet. We saw corner and safety blitzes against Miami, so it's hard not to get excited about Williams' attacking style. If we can't pressure the opposing quarterbacks with our front four, then we'll send LaVar, Marcus Washington, a corner, an equipment manager, and two front office secretaries after him. Hopefully, we won't see opposing signal callers standing patiently in the pocket waiting for what seems like minutes for a receiver to get open. I hope opposing quarterbacks will have a severe case of "happy feet," or at least a case that is worse than Patrick Ramsey's. The starting defense has not given up a touchdown in three preseason games. They bent, but did not break, against Denver and looked OK against Carolina. The entire defense barely even broke a sweat in Miami as they were only on the field for about 18 minutes. They held Miami to seven three-and-outs and for those who missed it, here are some more promising stats. The Skins defense held the Dolphins to:
I can't explain how excited I am about the defense without mentioning Sean Taylor. He continues to impress the coaches in practice and was rewarded with his first start on Saturday. He responded with another solid game that included a big hit to force a fumble. Not only he did he force the fumble, he recovered it and even advanced it a few yards. For those of you keeping score that's two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, two interceptions, and one touchdown for Mr. Taylor in three preseason games. The man is always around the ball. It looks like this first-round pick will be better than Gibbs' last one (Desmond Howard). Of course, Desmond did win a Super Bowl MVP award. Maybe Taylor will win one soon... maybe this year. Oops, there I go again..."It was just Miami."
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