The Detroit Lions have been hapless in Washington. They are Oh for twenty in games played on the Washington Redskins’ turf. That was those Lions. On Sunday, the Redskins face these Lions.
These Lions are the No. 1 passing team and fourth ranked offense in the league after four games. They’ve put up 114 points enroute to a 3-1 start. Jon Kitna’s 105.6 QB rating has him ranked sixth and he has tossed eight touchdowns to four interceptions.
Kitna evenly distributes his scoring strikes to Roy Williams, long an elite receiver, and Rams refuge Shaun McDonald. Both have three touchdown catches. Eight of Williams’ 26 receptions have gone over 20 yards; one catch went for 91 yards and a score. Calvin Johnson, the Lions No. 2 overall draft pick, hasn’t even warmed up yet. He missed last week’s blowout of the Bears, but has 10 catches for 189 yards and two TDs on the year.
The Lions’ performance in Mike Martz’ second year as offensive coordinator will invite inevitable comparisons to Al Saunders’ second year with the Redskins. Washington, with Jason Campbell at quarterback, has put up 53 points in three games and average just under 200 passing yards per game. Campbell has thrown two touchdowns to three interceptions for a 69.6 QB rating.
This is the wrong comparison. Saunders does not face Martz’ offense. Gregg Williams does. Martz vs. Williams is the compelling story of this game.
Defensing the Lions When George Allen held sway here, he had one defensive approach: take away the other guys strength. Make them beat you with a weakness. Richie Pettibon carried that tradition well into Joe Gibbs’ first run as head coach here. Pettibon is long gone, but deputy head coach Gregg Williams’ mission is the same, take away the Lion’s strength and that means stopping the Lions’ passing game.
The Lions come at you with four competent wide receivers. You might say that Charles Rogers off the team is a case where addition by subtraction worked. [I’m a Michigan State grad, so I can say that. Rogers played college ball at MSU.]
Roy Williams, McDonald and Mike Furrey have each caught 20 balls or more. So, this game is a stess test for the Redskins’ upgraded secondary. Shaun McDonald and Mike Furrey are Mike Martz guys from the Rams. Furrey is a converted safety. Expect Gregg Williams to find out early if the Redskins cornerbacks can keep up with with the Lions receivers in man coverage.
I’ll be keeping an eye out for who starts at the nickel back for the Skins, Fred Smoot or Carlos Rogers. I am assuming that Shawn Springs will cover Williams. Springs played nickel in game one. Fred Smoot was heavily targeted in the Miami game. Rogers had a decent game against the Giants, but gave up the game winning touchdown to Plaxico Burress [another Michigan State receiver].
If the Redskins can man-up on Detroit’s receivers, Williams can play his preferred pressure defense to disrupt Jon Kitna’s timing.
Man-to-man coverage in the 4-3-4 defensive set lets the Redskins keep three linebackers on the field. A lot of the Redskins pressure comes from Marcus Washington and Rocky McIntosh. One of those two will come out if the Lions force the Redskins to the nickel zone. That would be a shame. You want those linebackers in because you want pressure on the Lions’ notoriously ineffective offensive line that has already allowed 19 sacks of Jon Kitna.
How interesting that the Redskins just signed former Lion O-lineman Rick DeMulling.
In the Zone When Williams is worried by deep plays, he has the Redskins in the Tampa-2 or the cover three. Former safety Matt Bowen in his September 26, 2007 Washington Examiner article describes the Tampa-2.
“The ‘Tampa 2’ – called that because of its success when Tony Dungy coached the Buccaneers – needs certain ingredients to make it work, which the Redskins have: a middle linebacker who can run, physical and athletic corners, two safeties with range who can hit, and a line that can pressure the quarterback. The defense must be fast, physical, and have excellent pursuit.”
Bowen describes how the middle linebacker, London Fletcher Baker ranges the middle of the field to pick up tight ends or running backs, while the corners play off the receivers and the safeties cover deep.
The linebacker, in effect, plays the short safety. The Tampa-2 demands disciplined coverage and it demands pass rush from the defensive line. When it works, it forces passes to the flat and can cause turnovers. When it works the way Mike Martz wants, it will break down if flooded by four good wide outs looking for seams in coverage.
Martz, with better receivers than the Giants, probably paid a lot of attention to film of the second half of the New York game. Gregg Williams would be wise to pull out film of Mike Martz’ St. Louis Rams to gameplan the Lions.
See also Defense Looks to Disrupt Pass-Happy Lions.
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Visit the Lions web siteand they describe the discipline needed to to attack Washington’s offense. They say discipline in keying on Clinton Portis, Santana Moss and Chris Cooley is essential. They note that the Redskins disguise their plays to go in one direction then do something different.
They have high hopes that DE Kalimba Edwards returns to the line-up after an injury. He’s been out for two games. Detroit brings the 29th ranked defense in yards per game [381.8]. Teams ran successful third down conversions 44 percent of the time.
Detroit’s last away game was also a visit to the NFC East. The Eagles shellacked them 56-21. Jon Kitna threw for 446 yards in that game. Detroit thinks the players were too over confident after winning their first two games, but I think they were blinded by Philadelphia’s throwback uniforms.
Over at the NFL Fantasy site, they say Jason Campbell has a good matchup against the Lions defense. They add that the Lions fast-paced offense will give Campbell more possessions to make plays. That’s fine as long as they don’t ask Campbell to get in a shoot-out with these guys.
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Santana Moss sat out Thursday’s practice due to his groin strain. If he sits out Friday’s practice, that would not be a good sign for playing Sunday. Brandon Lloyd sat out Thursday’s practice due to a kick in the shin. The Skins are silent on who kicked him, but I think it was the same guy who shot LaRon in LaGroin with that paintball gun last summer.
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This game could see the return of little used running back T.J. Duckett, who was a little used running back in Washington last season.
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Ex-Redskin Martin Mayhew is assistant general manager for the Lions. That could mean that he is being groomed to be a GM, perhaps even for the Redskins, if, you know, Joe Gibbs and Daniel Snyder, ever accepted that at competent GM could really help the team. The fact that Mayhew is assistant to Matt Millen may hurt his candidacy.
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