I managed to re-watch the game before I passed out last night thanks to some not entirely legal means thanks to NFL Rewind having like a 24 hour delay on Monday Night Games...
But anyways I would like to make some updated thoughts on the points I made before:
- Harvin did have a better day than I originally thought even though he only had 34 yards officially.
It looks like only 3 of our 11 drives started at the 20 yard line or worst.
In comparison 11 of the Redskins 12 drives started at the 20 yard line or worst!
Now a lot of this is due to John Ryan and Haushka but Harvin did clearly affect several kickoffs giving us free and easy field position, they clearly didn't want the ball in his hands.
Harvin was also ripping dudes up with his runs after catch. After watching the replays I think you could have a legit complaint that Harvin really should of had 2 Touchdowns yesterday.
The play where Carpenter hit the guy on the ground did not appear to be excessive, yeah he probably should of tried to avoid hitting him in the helmet but the camera angle they gave didn't really show if he even made clean contact there. It certainly did not seem like the kind of penalty that should nullify a 41 yard Touchdown pass giving us a 15 yard penalty!?
However we were still able to score a touchdown on this drive thanks to Wilson barely staying behind the line of scrimmage and hitting Luke Willson for 19 yards on 2nd and 20, followed by John Ryan running 5 yards for the 1st down on 4th and 1 on the fake 49 yard field goal attempt. That was a very nice play, Ryan is quicker than I would of expected they didn't really have time to react to stop his run.
I thought the penalty on Harvin for the False start was totally bogus, I'm not a rules expert but it didn't look like he did anything illegal there. Harvin had TWO Touchdowns nullified on that drive and that time it did hurt us, we only got a Field Goal.
So overall I'd say Harvin did have a pretty solid day, about as good as someone could be with that official stat line in the end. I still wouldn't go so far to say it was his best as a Hawk though.
- Our pass rush was putting up a bit more pressure than I thought after re-watching the game. The problem was it didn't seem to effect Kirk Cousin's as much as we would of liked. He does have a quick release and he's pretty dang accurate, seems like a very solid QB considering he was the back up.
Our defense played pretty solid overall but it seems like they were exposed a bit with their zone defense. The Redskins were able to generate a lot of mismatches for DeSean Jackson, he should never be covered by Kam Chancellor when he's going deep.
I'd still like to see more production with our pass rush with actual sacks, but it's not like they were just lollygagging around all day.
Final Thoughts:
Russell Wilson was phenomenal. Our Pass Rush was passable. Our Offensive Line was pretty bad. Our offensive penalties were horrid although some of the calls were bad.
I think the main issue that is starting to dominate my thoughts with our team right now is our Zone Defense. It seems like teams might be starting to figure us out and creating mismatches very easily. I might make a new topic if nobody has yet just to see what others think about that specifically. It seems like our zone defense could be our biggest weakness against the passing game which could explain why we are 22nd in opposing passing yards. I'm not an expert at all with defensive formations and schemes so maybe others will have more info for me.