Thoughts from Skins game

[barrett]

1. I hope we never see Steve Slaton returning kicks again. That was the single worse KR effort I've ever seen. He stutter stepped repeatedly and never hit the seam hard. You can't return kicks like you run the zone stretch. Not to mention the screwup of trying to field the ball going out of bounds and taking one out of the endzone to end up at the 15.

2. Kubiak with the punt on 4th and 4 from the 36. If you don't like a missed FG giving it to them on the 43, just go for it. We had 500+ yards. Should be able to pick up 4. As it was we punted and turk dropped it well into the endzone. Mismanaged all around.

3. McNabb is great on the deep ball. Not very accurate though. We should have given him the same gameplan as Peyton got last week. Everything in front of the DBs, make him move the chains, and I doubt they score more than 10 points. Instead we've got Sellars and Fred Davis and everyone else in Maroon behind us every other series.

4. Mario played great. Single handedly stopped the skins in the 2nd half. Also learned he is 6'7" and can knock down passes on the plays he doesn't get to the QB. Antonio Smith was good. Mitchell got pressure once. The rest of the DL no-showed.

5. Adibi looked terrible. Diles not much better. At one point they had 300+ yards passing and 3 yards rushing and our LBs were STILL biting on play action. Were they really afraid that Portis was going to 'gouge' us for an 11 yard run (about the most he gets with the speed he has these days). I didn't realize how much we would miss cushing in coverage.

6. Safety play was ok. Pollard tackled well and had the good kick block. Wilson was the only guy to make plays in pass defense all day.

7. Foster impressed me. I thought we would have to go to Slaton as the pass catching back which would have telegraphed our offense. Foster was solid as a blocker and in the screen game. I just wonder why we only screened once in the first half. We couldn't block them and the one screen we ran went for like 40. Through 2 games Dennison hasn't used the RBs in the screen game much (or the TE). I think this is an element from last year we need to go back to.

8. This is why I am such a big fan of Walter and always defend him. He wasn't healthy last year, but 2 years ago he was a big time deep threat. Good speed and Tall. More than a possession guy and blocker.

9. Why does Casey never play?

10. Schaub was very good once he got in rhythm. He made more plays on the move today than I've ever seen him make. Great on bootlegs, great at moving in the pocket. And with our backup, I don't mind him doing the Manning and dropping into the fetal position when he is caught dead to rights. Will help him stay healthy. Especially since he'll keep a play alive and take the punishment when he needs to (TD to AJ).

11. Good pass blocking in the 2nd half. Lots of good play-action and bootlegs to keep the rush at bay.

12. Big old brass shiny ones on all the guys after the effort today.

13. Shanahan has them on the right track in DC.