RG3 Stuns as Skins Upset Saints in the Season Opener

Tebowing is outdated. Griffining is the new thing

So many questions surrounded Redskins rookie, Robert Griffin III, before the season had even begun. First off, was he worth the 3 draft picks (2 first and 1 second rounder) to obtain him? You have to wonder, considering you are essentially giving up a starter each year with those first round picks. Or how Griffin was going to deal with all the hype in Washington D.C...; the pressure of leading a team that hasn't won its division in 12 years, a team that has only won two playoffs games since then (STILL 1 more than the Cowboys) a team that has reached double digit wins only twice in that span. Needless to say the new millenium has not been a good one for the Redskins, and its entire coaching staff and fan base is hoping Baylor product Robert Griffin III was the catalyst to drive this team into the winning ways of New England and the Manning led Indianapolis Colts.

We have yet to see if he is going to be this generation's Sammy Baugh but from what he showed in his first regular season game in New Orleans there is strong reason for hope in D.C. Now then, onto the game.

The Good

1. Robert Griffin III
By far the best rookie and probably the best quarterback on the field Sunday (Minus Matt Ryan). He was the only rookie quarterback to win on Sunday. He was the only rookie to throw for multiple touchdowns. He was the only rookie to throw zero interceptions. He out-rushed fellow rookies Trent Richardson and David Wilson. He was the first rookie quarterback to start the opener for the Redskins since the 1960's and the first rookie quarterback to lead a team to 40 or more points in its season opener. The first Redskin quarterback to lead a team 40+ points since Mark Brunell did it in 2005 against the 49ers.  Griffin showed remarkable poise and decision making ability in the game. He rushed when had to, slid when he had to and didn't take any unnecessary hits. He knew when to run and when to throw, as evidenced by a long pass to Santana Moss on a 3rd and 6 when Griffin had an open lane for a first down. He had good vision as well, finding Fred Davis for a 26 yard play all the way on the other side of the field. He only took 1 sack and turned many plays that weren't going anywhere into positive ones and didn't turn the ball over. Sure every game isn't going to be like this but Griffin is still learning and has no where to go but up.

2. Alfred Morris
Mike Shanahan's uncanny ability for finding running back gems in the late rounds continued this year with the 6th round pick of Alfred Morris. Morris showed tenacity on every run, finishing with a hit whenever possible; on his second touchdown he broke a strong tackle and toppled into the endzone on a first and goal, essentially sealing the game. He rushed for 96 yards and 2 scores, the only rookie running back to score on Sunday. He was also instrumental in dominating the Saints in time of possession. A whopping 39 minutes to the Saints 20 could only be accomplished from Morris's strong rushing attack.

3. Cedric Griffin, DeAngelo Hall, Josh Wilson and DeJon Gomes.
The Redskins were advertised as having a rather thin secondary but they proved otherwise. Griffin forced a redzone fumble after getting beaten by Marques Colston, saving a touchdown and breaking up several passing and finishing third on the team with 3 tackles. DeAngelo Hall also didn't allow any big plays and made solid tackles in the running game and also had a sack of Drew Brees. Josh Wilson also broke up a couple of balls, including a deep one where he landed hard on his shoulder. He had 3 tackles and 2 assisted tackles. DeJon Gomes is a Redskins late round pick from Nebraska and filled in for Brandon Merriwether and picked off Drew Brees just when it looked like he was mounting a comeback. He then returned it to the 3 yard line, setting up a Morris touchdown.

4. Billy Cundiff
Cundiff won the kicking job without competing in it and, yesterday, showed why. He nailed all four of his field goals and extra points with a long of 45 on the day. He also scored more than both Alfred Morris and Robert Griffin III. If he can keep his nerves set the Redskins should many close games they lost last year.

5. Offensive Line
Either the Redskins offensive line is seriously underrated after all these years or RG3 scares off defenders trying to rush him. Probably a combination of the two but a a bad offensive line doesn't allow 153 rushing yards or allow no more than 1 sack in a game. If the line can stay healthy and keep up this level of play, things look good for the Skins offense.

6. Defensive Front 7 

While it wasn't a sack Kerrigan gets a good lick on Brees.

Jim Haslett's front seven is as dangerous as we thought they were. They logged two sacks in the game but pressured Drew Brees the whole game, not allowing him to set in a rhythm until late in the 4th quarter. Orakpo blocked two passes near the goal line and nearly had an interception. Kerrigan had a sack and caught an interception but had it knocked away by Darren Sproles. The linemen were a relentless force, consistently pressuring Drew Brees regardless of who was trying to block.

The Bad

1. Shutting Down in the 4th Quarter
Early on in the 4th the Redskins had a decent lead but started running a vanilla offense, running the ball all three downs, trying to burn clock with 12 minutes still on it. This lead to punts, which lead to Drew Brees touchdowns and an imminent Saints comeback. Luckily Gomes bailed them out and allowed the coaches to learn this lesson the easy way.

2. 4th Down Defense
We gave up two touchdowns on two fourth down plays. 'Nuff said.

The ball makes up 25% of Bank's body mass

3. Brandon Banks
Banks needs to keep the ball secured if he wants to keep returning kicks. Hopefully today was an anomaly but if he keeps up this 2 fumbles per game look then Santana will be returning kicks and Banks will be looking for a job.

4. Penalties
Granted we do have some not so bright replacement officials but still, most of the penalties called were legitimate and the redskins racked up 127 penalty yards on 12 penalties. This is not acceptable, winning NFL teams have discipline and don't make stupid mistakes like this. The Redskins had 464 total offensive yards, imagine how many more they would have had they not went backwards for 127 yards.

5. Too much praise on Griffin
Griffin deserves the glory for playing a spectacular game but its important to put in perspective. The Saints had NO tape whatsoever of Griffin's actual offense. All they had to go on was Shanahan's vanilla'd down preseason offense. The element of surprise was helpful and definitely kept the Saints off balance, but pretty soon teams will be able to watch and observe Griffins weaknesses and capitalize on them. This is essentially what happened in 2008. Jim Zorn started the season 6-2 but once teams caught on to the tape and stopped his infamous stretch play the Redskins plummeted to an 8-8 record.

6. Punts
Yes a punt did get blocked and got the Saints back in the game but Danny Smith won't let that happen again because he's Danny Smith. Plain and Simple.

Next week is a real test for the Redskins to see if they dominate the Rams like they should or play down to the level of their opponents as they've done in years past.

Note: My hiatus from blogging is mostly due to schoolwork. College applications, 3 A.P.s and working in a lab does't leave as much to write as the summer did. And as always thanks for reading!