Each week, THN will choose their three players of the game at each position. Here are week sixteen’s selections:
Offense: Santana Moss
In his first game since being voted to his first Pro Bowl appearance, Moss put on a show, averaging 32 yards per catch with 3 touchdowns. Against New York, Moss caught 5 passes for 160 yards; his first 100-yard game since Week 7 against the San Francisco 49ers. With his Christmas Eve performance, Moss moved into second place in Redskins history for most receiving yards in a season. He is just 37 yards shy of passing Bobby Mitchell for the all-time record.
On his second touchdown catch, Moss showed great concentration by stopping in the middle of his route, waiting for the ball to fall into his arms, and then headed towards the endzone for a 5-yard score. With Patrick Ramsey in the game, “Santa-na Claus” delivered his third touchdown of the game. On the 72-yard touchdown, Moss adjusted himself, catching the ball in mid-air and brushing off Giants cornerback Will Allen with about 45 yards of daylight in front of him.
Moss has 9 touchdown receptions on the season.
Defense: Sean Taylor
Taylor led the Redskins in tackles with 8 tackles, and he defended one pass. Taylor’s presence aided the Redskins cornerback play as well. Walt Harris versus Plaxico Burress should have been a huge mismatch, given a 6-inch height differential, but the Giants 6-5 wide receiver managed only 3 catches for 40 yards. Without Taylor and Ryan Clark starting at safety, who knows how many more times the Giants would have gone deep on our secondary?
Special Teams: Ade Jimoh
Jimoh has played excellent on special teams all season and continued to do so on Sunday. During punt coverage in the second quarter, Jimoh sped past New York’s Will Allen and Curtis Deloatch and dragged down returner Chad Morton for a gain of only one yard. On the final punt of the game, Derrick Frost punted 45 yards into Giants territory, and the ball was downed by Jimoh at the Giants 3-yard line with just 13 seconds left in the game.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Jake Russell