On Track

With the Redskins now four games deep in the 2006 season, several players seem to have found a groove or at least returned to old form: Mark Brunell has obviously rebounded from a terrible beginning to post two big performances and two big victories. The Brunell topic has been beat to death, but sufficeth to say, that the 36-year old quarterback has played well enough the last two starts to quiet even the loudest of complainers… at least for a week. John Hall may not have kicked a fifty-plus yard field goal yet this year, but he hasn’t missed any lately either. Perhaps more of note is that his leg strength seems to be returning as his kickoffs are consistently stronger. He’s not going to be registering many touchbacks, but he is kicking off with enough distance to allow the special teams coverage units to get down field and stop the opposition from starting from beyond their 30-yard line. Chris Cooley finally sprung to life against Jacksonville. His four catches for 70 yards were his best effort of the season, and he looked a lot more like the focused Cooley of yore. Maybe it was the crazy hair; it’s gone now, and so is the lack of concentration. Captain Chaos looked ready to start living up to his nickname again after just being Captain Non-Factor in the first three games. Andre Carter had his best game as a Redskin last Sunday. Not only did he register his first sack of the season, but he also made a few good tackles and was effective against the run. Hopefully as he continues to settle in to Gregg Williams’ defense, things will become more and more automatic for him. The entire offensive line is definitely on track again. After struggling in the first two games of the season, they’ve come on to not only play well the last two weeks, but to dominate both of those games. Derrick Dockery is playing the best football of his NFL career; so good in fact that some people think that he’s playing the best of all the Redskins’ linemen right now. Analyze until the cows come home, when the quarterback hasn’t been sacked for two weeks and the running backs have put up over 350 yards rushing in that time, the offensive line deserves a lion’s share of the credit. Games are won and lost in the trenches and right now the Redskins are winning those battles again. Who will find their groove this week against the…