Category Archives: Winners & Losers

Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Ravens Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games. This time a 16-10 win at Baltimore to move to 3-2 that was thiiis close from being 17-16 …

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Winners

Jamison Crowder — 85-yard punt return to the house?! The Skins’ first PR TD in 125 games, since 2008. Pre-Obama.

Pierre Garcon — Good to see 88 in the end zone. First time this season.

Will Blackmon — Was not expecting a big kick return from 41, but here we are.

Trent Murphy — Picked up a half sack, is still pressuring QBs out there this year.

Jose Lobaton and Daniel Murphy — Loby hit a three-run homer, after hitting just three all season, and Murphy got two RBI basehits, after getting basehits all season long. This was a stressful and ultimately joyous afternoon.

Losers

Matt Jones — Fumbled on his own 15 and only got 2.2 yards/carry, bringing his bandwagon to a halt.

DeSean Jackson — Absent from the game plan for most of it. Got his first catch in the fourth quarter.

Jay Gruden and Sean McVay — While we’re on the game plan, and pardon me if I have this wrong, because I was watching a lot of Nats too, but I think they threw on 3rd-and-1 about five times and failed each time.

The run defense — Allowed 6.2 yards per carry. That Baltimore threw it 46 times is a gift.

Dustin Hopkins — Missed an extra point as well as his first FG of 2016, a 56-yarder that fell just short. I still love Dustin Hopkins.

Medium

Josh Norman — Banged himself up so badly in the first half he reportedly “could not move his right arm.” Then came back in only to get beaten for the game-winning (losing?) score … that was then overturned. God bless.

Duke Ihenacho — Broke up Baltimore’s fake FG pass attempt, which could not have been more obvious. Also whiffed on a 35-yard Terrance West run. Has a great name.

Kirk Cousins — The TD to Garcon was a beautiful throw. The INT inside his 20 was godawful. The results were just good enough.

Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Browns Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels after Skins games. This time a 31-20 win over Cleveland to get to 2-2.

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Winners

Josh Norman — Struggled with Terrelle Pryor Sr., but saved the day with a boss interception in the fourth quarter.

Jordan Reed — Good things happen when the ball is thrown to 86. Today those included his first two scores of the year.

Trent Murphy — A few tackles in the backfield plus his fourth sack of the year, a new career high.

Matt Jones — 138 yards and a TD on 24 touches, continuing his progression:

Week 1 — 33 total yards
Week 2 — 65 total yards
Week 3 — 79 total yards
Week 4 — 138 total yards

Arie Kouandjio and Spencer Long — Filled in fine at left guard and center, it seemed.

Dustin Hopkins — Nailed a 49-yarder to maintain perfection for the season. Continues to be a kickoff master.

Tress Way — Penned Cleveland on the 2-yard line when they needed it, averaged 53.5 yards on two punts.

NFC East — The Eagles, Cowboys, Giants and Skins are 7-1 outside of the division, with Skins-Steelers in Week 1 being the only loss.

Losers

The defense — Poor tackling. No resistance to the run. Couldn’t get off the field on third down. Allowed 70% completions and got just one sack on a rookie QB who was the backup to RGIII’s backup. Probably would’ve blown this game if not for two forced fumbles/recoveries in the second half.

Injured players — The Skins were already short, then Ryan Kerrigan, Su’a Cravens and others went out.

Jeff Triplette — Called Norman for “shooting a bow and arrow,” which isn’t a real penalty.

Medium

DeSean Jackson — Only five yards on two official targets. But also about 70 yards on two PI calls. Maybe throw the ball to 11.

Kirk Cousins — After a good start, this was Shaky Cousins. Threw a gross pick and made some bad decisions with the ball, but threw for three TDs on 78% completions. No longer on pace to threaten the season passing yards record, which is fine.

New York Sucks, Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Giants Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games, this time a 29-27 win at New York …

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Winners

Su’a Cravens — Gorgeous game-clinching INT for the rookie safety/LB we all have high hopes for.

Kirk Cousins — This wasn’t Good Kirk, but it wasn’t Bad Kirk either (except for taking that sack at the end of the first half). A step in the right direction. By the way, he’s on pace for 5,275 passing yards, which would be the third-most ever.

Jamison Crowder — Four catches for 78 yards, including a 55-yard TD. Also broke off a 50-yard punt return that featured him dancing on both sidelines.

Quinton Dunbar — I have no idea what he was doing on the punt return he accidentally touched that later turned into a TD for NY. But that high degree of difficulty one-handed red-zone INT made up for it. Also caught a fake-punt downfield pass like he was DeSean.

DeSean Jackson — Five catches for 96 yards and one beautiful score. Continues to look good this (contract) year.

Josh Norman — ODB got some (seven catches, 121 yards), but it took 11 targets to do it, and he never found paydirt. Oh, and Norman made him cry.

Jordan Reed — Unreal one-handed catch-and-run on a long third down for a first.

David Bruton Jr. — Even though it wasn’t ruled as such, that looked like an end-zone INT to me.

Trent Murphy — Another sack. That’s three in two weeks.

Chris Baker — Absolutely crushed Eli, forcing a fumble.

Dustin Hopkins — Five-for-five on field goals, and the only kickoff he didn’t touchback was a short one that was returned shy of the 25 (more on that later).

Tress Way — Who knew Tress Way had an arm on him?

Jay Gruden — Not calling timeout at the end of the half was bad clock management, and running it on third-and-three on the final drive was too conservative, but they did have a more balanced offense and got a much-needed win at New York, so here we are.

The raised fists — Nice to see, in light of Gruden’s earlier comments.

Losers

Bashaud Breeland, Shaun Lauvao, DeAngelo Hall and Kory Lichtensteiger — All hurt, and Breeland and Lavau better not be for long. Hall’s may be an ACL.

Dashaun Phillips — All I know is he can’t stay with Sterling Shephard.

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Medium

Trent Williams — Had to play some left guard, where he’d never played before.

Matt Jones and Chris Thompson — Twenty-three carries for 88 yards. Okay.

Robert Kelley — Between the hair and lack of extra yards, it’s hard to tell the difference between him and Jones.

Orleans Darkwa — What’s an Orleans Darkwa?

Ben Kowitca (special teams coach) — Had a punt blocked (negated by penalty). Pulled off a successful fake punt. And I’m not sure if this is strategy or what, but each of the past two weeks Hopkins has pooched a kickoff high and to the right, and the other team hasn’t gotten it out to the 25. Something to watch.

Dallas Sucks, Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Cowboys Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games. This time a 27-23 home loss to Dallas …

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Winners

Josh Norman — His office remained mostly stationary, set up on the left side of the field. He did shut Dez Bryant down whenever they were matched up, though, and punched a fumble out of Ezekiel Elliott’s breadbasket. As good as advertised so far.

Trent Murphy — One-and-a-half sacks and a forced fumble! Trent Murphy sighting!

Chris Thompson — This blitz pickup, on a third-and-seven, is a thing of beauty. Nice catch-and-run for 38 on the final drive.

Jamison Crowder — That was a hell of a TD catch. Also caught six balls on eight targets.

Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis — Ten catches and 121 yards on 12 targets for the duo.

Dustin Hopkins — Two shorts FGs and plenty of touchbacks. Did not leave a surprise onside kick well short of the 10-yard mark.

Alfred Morris — Scored an untouched go-ahead TD in his triumphant return. Wish we could cheer for him still.

Losers

Kirk Cousins — The missed connection with a wide-open Crowder and the back-breaking end-zone INT were bad enough. But it was the little things, too. He’s not good right now, and the Redskins are bad when he’s not good.

Those calling for Colt McCoy — Start Cousins until he’s hurt.

The defense — Dallas shouldn’t score 27 points when they don’t have Tony Romo. Chalk it up to adjustment issues? Maybe, but also to Norman and Ryan Kerrigan being surrounded by replacement-level talent.

Jay Gruden and Sean McVay — Fifty planned passes versus 15 planned runs in a game that was tight throughout. They were getting 4.1 yards per carry, too. The bloom is coming off of a lot of roses.

Bashaud Breeland — Had trouble with Dez and tackled Cole Beasley for pass interference on the goal line. Tough season for 26.

Kory Lichtensteiger — The much-maligned center somehow messed up the snap on a spike play, forcing a 10-second runoff with 18 to play. You don’t see that much.

David Bruton Jr. — Doesn’t tackle too good.

John Wall — C’mon, man.

Medium

Matt Jones — Thirteen carries for 61 yards and a badly needed TD. Doesn’t seem capable of breaking tackles or getting extra yards.

DeSean Jackson — Three catches for 40 yards. He’d be a monster right now if Cousins was cooking.

Josh Doctson — Caught and ran one for 57 when the whole defense was keyed in on DeSean. Was also targeted on three end-zone fades, none of which were caught.

Pittsburgh Is for Whores, Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Steelers Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games, this time a season-opening 38-16 loss to Pittsburgh at home on Monday Night Football …

Winners

Matthew McCounaghey — The burgundy-and-gold suit was a nice touch.

Jordan Reed — Impressive on the first drive, at least.

DeSean Jackson — Six catches for 102 yards. Reinforced the opinion that he’s in for a big year.

Chris Thompson — Scored a TD on the day his brother got out of prison.

Sean McDonough — Liked him in his MNF debut, especially when he asked Jon Gruden, “Do you want to blast your brother?” for punting on 4th-and-1 from the Pittsburgh 40.

Arthur Moats — Started at LB for Pittsburgh. Go Dukes!

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Losers

Kirk Cousins — So that was terrible. Inaccurate out of the gate, he had one bad INT dropped and another bad INT caught. Rushed throws and failed to scramble — or even move, really — all night. Clear regression from the second half of last year. Showed why you don’t hand out a huge contract based on a 10-game stretch.

Jay Gruden — Chose to kick and punt on two 4th-and-short situations in Pittsburgh territory in the first half. Resulted in three points. Mike Tomlin went for it twice on 4th-and-1 in Washington territory. Resulted in 14 points.

Bashaud Breeland — Had the near-impossible assignment of matching up with Antonio Brown most of the night, one-on-one in many cases, and was burnt for two TDs. Better gear up for more WR1s down the line.

Matt Jones — Seven carries for 24 yards. (Didn’t fumble or get hurt, though.)

Jamison Crowder — Fair caught with no one in his area code. Fumbled after making a first down (Pierre Garcon recovered).

Trent Williams — Penalized twice. That should be his season total.

Greg Toler — Looked real bad in coverage on a 42-yard catch by Sammie Coates.

The defense in general — No pass rush. Couldn’t stop the run. Couldn’t get off the field. May be a long season.

D.C.-area Dancing With the Stars fans — Sorry, y’all.

Medium

Antonio Brown — Penalized for twerking. Is so, so good.

Josh Norman — Got into a shouting match with a teammate, and it was downhill from there. Didn’t play bad, and nearly made a couple big plays, but he was on the other side of the field from Brown most of the night. Bummer.

Ryan Kerrigan — Strip-sacked Big Ben and then got stripped himself. Better luck next time.

Dallas Sucks, Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Cowboys Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games, this time a 34-23 win at Dallas.

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Winners

Kirk Cousins — Threw three TDs in the first quarter to cap off a dream season, breaking Jay Schroeder’s 29-year-old single-season passing record in the process.

Colt McCoy — Relieved Cousins for his first action in 2015, showed that he’s still a quality backup.

Alfred Morris — First 100-yard game since Week 1.

Jamison Crowder — Five catches for 107 yards and a TD. Finishes with 59 catches in his rookie season, breaking Art Monk’s 35-year-old mark. Not bad for a fourth-rounder.

Will Blackmon — Created two turnovers on the goal line today, one of which was a brilliant strip.

Chris Baker — Picked up a sack and flopped on a loose ball to cap off a bit of a breakout season.

Rashad Ross — Was wide open for a 71-yard TD from McCoy, the first receiving TD of his NFL career.

Pierre Garcon — Tied a career high with his sixth TD catch of the year. Also made an unbelievable one-handed catch, but was out of bounds.

Jordan Reed — Four catches on four targets, making that 31 catches on 33 targets over the past four games, I believe.

Will Compton — First career INT. Fast becoming a fan fave.

Preston Smith — Finishes with five sacks in the final three games. Leads all rookies with eight on the season.

Ryan Kerrigan — After starting the season with 3.5 sacks in the first nine games, he finished with six in the final seven.

Ryan Grant — Nice to see him produce (three catches, one TD) in DeSean Jackson’s absence.

Tress Way — Four punts, 50 yards per, three inside the 20.

Jay Gruden — It was a good problem to have but a tough spot to be in. Rest the starters? Play them for a bit and then pull them out? Go for regular-season records? Go for the win? Whatever. The starters looked great, thus maintaining momentum (for what it’s worth), and the backups got in a good run too, plus they buried Dallas in Dallas. Delicate, and delicious.

Losers

Kysheon Jarrett — Was tough to see him come off the field with tears in his eyes after suffering what we hope was a minor injury. He’d be a big loss in the Wild Card game.

Dashaun Phillips — Carted off the field as Cowboys fans did the wave.

(Ed. note: We’re not calling these guys “losers.” We’re just saying the game didn’t go well for them. That’s all.)

Medium

Packers, Seahawks or Vikings — Who we got?! (Update: It’s Green Bay, next Sunday at 4:30.)

(Top image taken with love from @Redskins.)

Philly Sucks, Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Eagles Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games, this time a 38-24 division-clinching win at Philly.

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Winners

Kirk Cousins — Second straight 300-yard game with four TDs and zero INTs. And it was all on him, too. He threw it 46 times, and they only had 57 yards rushing. The only time his rating has dipped below 100 in the past nine games was vs. New England and Carolina. That’s no empty stat, either; the Skins were 6-3 during that stretch.

Jordan Reed — Not sure I’ve seen another Redskins receiver, let alone a tight end, in the zone that Reed is now. His last three games: 26 catches on 28 targets for 333 yards and five TDs. FEED REED.

Preston Smith — Three-sack game for the rook, who lost his cousin to cancer earlier in the day. Now has seven sacks on the year and looks like a solid second-round pick for our one true GM.

Scot McCloughan — Give this man the Executive of the Year Award right now, if that is in fact an actual award.

Jay Gruden — Coach of the Year? Probably not, but to turn this team around from 7-25 in 2013-14 to 8-7 and an NFC East championship this year is a near-miracle.

Dashon Goldson — Made 10 tackles on a cracked rib. Was in for all 81 defensive plays too.

Will Compton — Nine tackles and his first career sack.

DeAngelo Hall — I don’t think the scoop-six was such a difficult play, but I don’t doubt his nose for the ball either. That was his 10th career defensive TD.

Ricky Jean Francois — Picked up a sack in Star Wars cleats. Also tweeted the nerd-boss McCloughan image you see up top.

Pierre Thomas — From the waiver wire to seven catches on eight targets, including a first down on 3rd-and-14, in two weeks flat.

The diehards — Fans showed up in the middle of the night to welcome the team back to D.C. Ashburn. Not my cup of tea, but I respect it.

Tress Way — Averaged 50 yards on seven punts.

DeSean Jackson — That must’ve felt so good.

Losers

The kneeldown — Did not like that.

Alfred Morris — Should they even play a back that runs the ball?

Will Blackmon — He was getting targeted/used out there.

Dustin Hopkins — Missed XP and his kickoffs seem to be coming up short too. Not sure if that’s by design.

Medium

The offensive line — There’s no run game, but there is time to pass. It’s enough to win the division, but is it enough to beat Seattle?

NFC East champs got me like.

A video posted by chrismottram (@chrismottram) on

Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Bills Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games, this time a 35-25 win over Buffalo to move to 7-7 and stay in first place.

Winners

Kirk Cousins — Another perfect game for the Sundance Kid. Was serenaded after putting five total TDs on the board, and probably $5 million-plus on his free-agent deal.

DeSean Jackson — Six catches on eight targets for 153 yards, including a 77-yard score. DeSean is now tied for second in NFL history with 20 career touchdowns of 60 yards or more (Jerry Rice holds the record with 23). Doubt there will be any “keep him or cut him?” D.C. sports talk radio segments this week, as there were just two weeks ago.

Jordan Reed — Blew a block to lose eight on a first-and-goal rush, but c’mon, seven catches on seven targets for 84 yards and two TDs. His next score will be his 10th of the season, and he missed two games.

Pierre Garcon — It was nice to see him get a score. I guess there was enough to go around.

The Hogs — Just one sack allowed and very few penalties (the entire team was only penalized for five yards today).

Preston Smith, Jason Hatcher, Ryan Kerrigan, Ricky Jean-Francois and Will Blackmon — All these dudes sacked Tyrod Taylor. Bonus: Kerrigan’s was a strip-sack on third down inside Buffalo’s 10.

Terrance Knighton — His big ass was largely to thank for that first-half goal line stand, which ended with Buffalo going for it out of the shotgun on fourth-down from the one-foot line, attempting a fade that ended up out of bounds.

Jay Gruden — Two consecutive wins! First time this season.

The Carolina Panthers — Thank you for beating the Giants. Keep pounding, at least until you meet Washington in the NFC Championship of our dreams.

Losers

Replay review — The play shown above was not overturned, giving Jack Nicklaus’ grandson Nick O’Leary a 37-yard gain on his first NFL catch.

Jamison Crowder — Muffed a PR in Buffalo territory, up 21 in the first half. This is the first bad thing I’ve ever said about him, other than that he went to Duke.

The Buffalo Bills — Haven’t made the playoffs since 1999, and they’re not making it this year either.

Medium

Bashaud Breeland — Hopefully Sammy Watkins getting behind him for a 48-yard TD is fuel for fire.

Alfred Morris — Was great seeing him break off a 48-yarder near the end of the first, but I have no idea why he stayed in bounds, hurting the Skins chances of putting more points on the board. I’m just nitpicking now.

Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Bears Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games, this time a 24-21 win at Chicago that I watched about half of.

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Winners

Kirk Cousins — The Skins won on the road, and Cousins posted a decent game away from home too! The 104 rating and 300 yards are nice, but he threw two of the worst passes you’re ever going to see, one of which was picked and one of which was a miracle. He still comes away smelling like a rose.

Jordan Reed — Nine catches on nine targets for 120 yards and what should’ve been two touchdowns. Didn’t commit a penalty either, which is progress. Has officially put together one of the best TE seasons in franchise history.

Matt Jones — Eighty-six total yards, and he could be excused for that weird fumble.

Ryan Kerrigan — Picked up another sack, his fourth in four games.

Terrance Knighton — Got his first sack of the season. Just seemed to be tearing shit up.

Trent Murphy — Second straight week with a sack. Forced a fumble this time, too.

Jay Gruden — Six wins. They could lose out, which would suck, and this season would still qualify as a success. Win two of the last three, though, and we’re talking about a smash hit.

Losers

Alfred Morris — Twenty-four yards on 11 carries. Is now averaging a pitiful 3.4 yards/carry this season. Did score his first TD, though.

The offense after turnovers — HOLY SHIT IT’S FREE MONEY JUST PICK IT UP

The Redskins social media dept. — Oops.

Medium

Pierre Thomas — Nice to see a midweek pickup contribute right away, even if it was just one catch. My favorite part about the acquisition? He had 4.9 yards/carry and an 82% catch rate with New Orleans last year. My second favorite part? The Redskins offense now has two guys named Pierre.

New York Sucks, Redskins, Winners & Losers

Redskins-Giants Winners & Losers

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Handing out labels following Skins games, this time a 20-14 win over NY.

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Winners

Kirk Cousins — On the first drive, Cousins floated an out to the left sideline. Watching live, it appeared the Giants CB cut on the ball and caught it going the other way for a pick-six. In that moment, things had gone to pot real quick, just like the last Giants game. Fortunately, he dropped the ball. Cousins went on to complete 69% of his passes for 302 yards and a 114 QB rating. Wish he’d play like this on the road. (His rating at home is a Brady-esque 111; on the road it’s a Foles-esque 71.)

Quinton Dunbar — The undrafted WR-turned-CB made a big INT in the end zone, then shrugged off a finger injury in which the bone was sticking out. NO BIG DEAL.

Alfred Morris — Nothing spectacular, but he was well-fed (23 carries). It’s good when he’s well-fed.

Matt Jones — No fumbles! Also took a screen pass 45 yards.

The O-line — Did you see the blocking on that 45-yard screen? Also gave up no sacks and got the run game going a little bit.

Bashaud Breeland — Odell Beckham Jr. got his, but Breeland went toe-to-toe with the NFL’s best.

The whole dang secondary — Not sure how this patchwork bunch did it, but they picked Eli Manning three times, holding him scoreless through three.

Ryan Kerrigan — Looked great and picked up two sacks. Now on pace for 9.5, exactly in line with his 2011-14 average.

DeSean Jackson — Scored a 63-yard TD, after backpedaling across the goal line, as one does.

ODB — Such a bad man.

Jay Gruden — It’s December, and the Redskins are in first place. Holy shit.

Losers

Medium

Jordan Reed — Three penalties in the first quarter. Also eight catches on nine targets for 98 yards. Now has a career high in yards (541) and is catching 73% of balls thrown his way.

Special teams — Allowed a blocked FG. It’s been awhile since they gave us much to complain about.