Redskins, Lightning strike Ravens 13-7

I want to say something about lightning in a bottle, but I’m not that clever. The Washington Redskins won its abbreviated game against the Baltimore Ravens Saturday. The Skins took the lead with a score off a third-quarter turnover in the game cut short for safety reasons. The Redskins game recap can be found at redskins.com.  For the Ravens perspective see The Baltimore SUN story and the Ravens Roost on MVN.com. The third preseason game is the dress rehearsal for the first team, but the real first team did not play. Jason Campbell, Clinton Portis, Chris Samuel, Marcus Washington, Shawn Springs sat out the game for injury concerns. New guard Pete Kendall joined the team too recently to start. Look for the tune up game to come Saturday against the Jaguars. Injuries and the short short game make it hard to assess performance. There were a few positives. Washington sustained two scoring drives of 40 yards and 73 yards ending in field goals that kept the team competitive. The drives consumed 10:17 of game clock. The defense scored off of a turnover when rookie linebacker Dallas Sartz intercepted Kyle Boller’s pass at the three yard line and ran it in for the inning touchdown. Newcomers H.B. Blades, LaRon Landry, London Fletcher-Baker, along with Rocky McIntosh were the leading tacklers for the Skins. There were no serious injuries.     There are some concerns. The offense did not score a touchdown. The running game is still concern. Marcus Mason had one rushing attempt for five yards. That averaged up performance slightly. Depth and blocking are concerns. The Redskins failed to convert a third down in seven attempts.  The defense allowed a 13 play, 70 yard scoring drive by the Ravens that ended with a touchdown. In spite of the Redskins scoring drives, the Ravens had a three minute advantage in ball control. I’m happy for Dallas Sartz for his interception, but may not be enough to make the team. Injuries have hampered his ability to impress the coaches. The shortened game cut off Todd Pinkston’s chance to show if he has anything left in his tank. He might get another shot this weekend. Other, less known players are in the same boat. So how do the Redskins grade out? Here the report card.

Redskins Preseason Report Card:

Note that yards-per-pass-completed are raw yards that disregards sacks and penalties.  Todd Collins completed 53% of his passes. Mark Brunell went 0 for 2. The game ended before Brunell, and a lot of players, could show what they could do. Based on preseason games alone, I’ve seen enough to convince me that Todd Collins should be the no.2 quarterback. Overall, I grade this performance as a C to C-. The Ravens would probably have won this game if the starters for both sides remained on the field.