Redskins vs. Giants Recap

Sep 11, 2011

The Redskins opened their 2011 season today with a solid victory over the hobbled and rusty-looking New York Giants, starting off the year with a lot of positive energy and emotion. Rather than run recaps as game-log play by plays, we’ll spend each week looking beyond the 2 minute highlight special and talk about the themes for each team, top (and poor) performers as necessary. Without further ado, September 11th’s season opener… Redskins 28 – Giants 14.

Why did the Redskins win?

Although both teams came out rusty, the Redskins were the ones who fell behind. New QB, fresh off of his pre-season battle victory, Rex Gross began the game 0-4 and the team simply looked off. When Gano missed a field goal and the Giants were leading 7-0, having already hit a 60+ yard pass, fans were surely having bad memories of the 2010 season.

So how did the Redskins pull this one out? Rex Grossman played a solid, verging on very good game, had no interceptions, and the defense especially came alive in the second half pressuring Eli Manning and the Giants into an awful 1-10 3rd down performance and sacking Manning 4 times to help close things out.

Why did the Giants lose?

Primarily, the Giants looked rusty and off-key on offense — eventually succumbing to a lot of pressure (and a defensive TD) from the Redskins. On defense the team was clearly hesitant and/or unable to blitz a great deal with so many injuries in the defensive backfield, and while the Redskins running game suffered fits and starts — Rex Grossman (yes, Rex Grossman) threw for over 300 yards and scored 3 redzone touchdowns to sew this one up.

Three causes for celebration

Redskins: Rex Grossman, QB — Grossman only had one really ‘Rex Grossman’ moment, a late fumble that was disheartening but also understandable given the way the Giants defender blew right by starting LT Trent Williams. Otherwise? He threw for over 300 yards, looked comfortable and poised, and lead the team to 3/4 redzone touchdown conversions. All in all, a great start.
Defensive line, Redskins: What a difference a year makes. Quite possibly the worst performing player on the team last year was NT Ma’ake Kemoeatu…not a problem in this game! The defensive line for the Redskins, especially in the second half, got after Eli Manning with a vengeance and caused havoc to the tune of 4 sacks, a defensive touchdown, and a 1-10 3rd down conversion rate on the part of the Giants.
Giants second string defensive line: As mentioned briefly above, players such as DE Joseph and DE/OLB Pierre-Paul had moments where they abused Redskins starting offensive linemen and really proved to be the reason the Redskins didn’t put the game away earlier, even though they had the ball 4 times with a 7 point lead before finally being able to extend it to 14 midway through the 4th quarter.

Three reasons to worry

Redskins running game: Though RB Tim Hightower did score a TD, overall it was a lackluster performance for the running game — a mildly alarming fact considering the Giants were so beat up defensively and have a very weak linebacking core.
Eli Manning, Giants QB: Eli looked much like he’s looked in the pre-season…out of sync, slightly off, and not at all sharp. While he hit a few big plays for some yards, Manning was especially bad on 3rd down. While he was under fire in the second half, the first half was typical frustrating Eli Manning.
Health: LaRon Landry, SS, Redskins: Easily the worst player today on the Redskins defense was (don’t be surprised, Redskins fans) Reed Doughty. While Doughty was burned deep for one long passing play and almost on another, the real concern came on his inability to really help against the run on the Giants first TD where he completely blew a simply tackle at the 2 yard line. Landry needs to get healthy for this defense to become something noteworthy, as depth is a concern throughout the roster.