A late Madden Prediction

The football gods could not have rewarded the Redskin faithful with a more beautiful day. With clear skies, a temperature of 78 degrees the weather was beautiful and seemed to energize an eager crowd. The Redskins seemed to feed off of the crowd’s intensity and routed the Vikings 52-17 in a series of plays and possessions we’ll describe for you. A booming kick by John Hall begins the day as the Vikings choose to down the kick in the end zone. The Vikings very first play of the game ends in disaster, as sweeping Chester Taylor runs to the left to be met by Sean Taylor who lays a devastating hit. That hit jarred the bar loose from Chester’s possession just to be recovered by the Vikings but not after a substantial loss in yardage. The Redskins defense gets the Vikings into a 3rd down situation but lose that battle because of an anxious Andre Carter who was called for encroachment. On the ensuing play, Lemar Marshall is barking out audiles for his defense as he tries to match the shifting of Brad Johnson’s offense. Brad Johnson tries to throw an out pass to #40 Jim Kleinsasser but its intercepted by Sean Taylor and returned 49 yards for 6 points. The Vikings second possession of the game is once again controlled by a menacing Sean Taylor who is making tackles all over the place. It almost seemed as if the Vikings offense was a bit stiff when the usually efficient and conservative Brad Johnson is picked off in their territory by Mike Rumph. Mikes’ 1st interception as a Redskin was returned for 27 yard and another 6 points. The Redskins offense has yet to see the field and the Vikings yet to see Redskin territory. More defensive control is exuded by the Washington Redskins as another Vikings offensive possession is sputtering horribly. The possession almost ended in another Sean Taylor highlight but an overly aggressive Mike Rumph bats away a sure interception for Taylor. The 3rd Viking possession ends in a punt enter the Al Saunders offense. Mark Brunell and the new offense do not disappoint. Clinton Portis breaks off an 8 yard run and a 12 yard reception by Chris Cooley seems to further animate an already enthusiastic Fed-Ex stadium home crowd. The 3rd and most successful play of the drive came from a broken play. Clinton Portis ran out into the flats to set up a screen pass from Brunell but the play was held up by Randy Thomas who was being held. Mark Brunell turns his eyes back down field to see a streaking Brandon Lloyd going across the middle of the field. Brunell connects his 37 yard pass with Lloyd for the 3rd Redskin TD of the game but only the 1st for the offense. On both teams following drives 3 & out was the consequence. Sean Taylor stopped a pass to the C. Taylor in the flats one yard shy of a conversion while the Vikings batted down an attempted pass to ARE to convert. The Vikings following possession netted them their biggest play of the game thus far, a 35 yard strike to Travis Taylor. However, a near interception by Marcus Washington ended the Vikings drive prematurely on 3rd down which led to another Vikings punt. Broken plays seem to be working out really well for the Redskins in this game. On a play where Mark was looking for B. Lloyd in the flats, he was flushed from the pocket. Scrambling to his left, with #93 Kevin Williams closing in, Mark fires a pass to S. Moss who was running a drag route. An aware Randle El blocks Antoine Winfield which subsequently blocked Fred Smoot also and a block by Brandon Lloyd on Darren Sharper sealed the Vikings fate, a 74 yard pass for a TD. To end the first half, the Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell nailed his only kick of the game, a 50 yarder with 3 seconds left on the clock. After the half the Skins offense stalls and punts the ball to the Vikings. Coming out with a sense of renewed urgency the Vikings try to make a game out of this travesty. They score quickly and efficiently via the air. M. Robinson received a pass from Johnson to put their points on the board. The rest of the game is pretty even with the Vikings scoring 14 points in the second half and the Skins scoring 17. Travis Taylor finally hauled in a 21 yard pass from Brad Johnson in the 4th quarter with TJ Ducket and Chris Cooley receiving TD’s as well. The last TD to Chris Cooley was of special importance. Joe Gibbs, dedicated to his QB of the future inserted Jason Campbell into the game with 1:50 on the clock. Taken almost as a slap in the face the Vikings defense came out with a renewed vigor and sacked the young QB. JC fired back by completed 4/5 of his passes and throwing an 8 yard strike to Chris Cooley in the end zone. Redskins 52-17 In summary, the Redskins offense looked pretty good considering the circumstances. After an abysmal preseason showing you’d expect the offense to look worse, especially the passing game. However, it’s the running game that was spotty. The absence of CP in the backfield on every play took a toll; hopefully he’ll be healthy enough to start the entire game for Dallas in week 2. The Redskins defense looked astounding even in the absence of Shawn Springs. 52 – WASHINGTON REDSKINS (1-0) 17 – MINNESOTA VIKINGS (0-1) DIVISION STANDINGS New York Giants 0-1 Philadelphia Eagles 0-1 Washington Redskins 1-0 Dallas Cowboys 0-1 TRANSACTION WIRE…