It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t convincing, but in the end, it was enough. The Washington Redskins scraped out a 23-20 win over the hapless New York Jets in overtime, thanks to a clutch 46-yard field goal from Shaun Suisham.
Here are THN’s Fifth Quarter rankings for each unit:
Rushing:
For the first time in the 2007 season, the Redskins ran with some effectiveness and some conviction. Clinton Portis had a monster day; his 196 yards rushing was easily his best total of the 2007 season. Going into the game no Redskin back had posted 100 yards rushing yet this year. Portis nearly did it by half-time with 88 first half yards.
Portis also had his longest run from scrimmage this year – the longest by any Redskin in 2007 – a 32-yard run.
Ladell Betts was used less to spell Portis than he has been in the past, but he still managed to log 64 yards on nine carries for an impressive 7.1 yard per carry average.
In total, Washington gained almost 300 yards (296) on the ground.
Obviously offensive line injuries have severely hampered Washington’s ability to run this season, but they took a step forward on Sunday. The Redskins are still struggling to run right, but they were exponentially better against the Jets and deserve full marks for the effort.
4 Quarters
Passing:
What passing? Jason Campbell hit ONE pass to a Redskin receiver in the first half, and through eight games, there still isn’t a single touchdown reception from a wide receiver.
Campbell struggled all day and threw his seventh interception of the season; he finished just 12 of 23 for 142 yards. He did make some big plays in key situations, like a 29-yard 3rd down scramble in the third quarter, but the young quarterback continues to show plenty of growing pains.
Chris Cooley ‘led’ all Redskin receivers with a whopping four catches. Washington has to get Cooley into the offense more; especially considering that he turned those four catches into 58 yards. Moss grabbed four balls in the second half and had 49 total yards against his former team.
2 Quarters
Defense:
It was a bittersweet day for the defense. At times they played well, but at times they struggled. Rookie quarterback Kellen Clemens had a solid day for the Jets with 226 passing yards (23 of 42), and he burnt the defense plenty on broken plays, with 48 additional yards rushing on seven carries.
Rocky McIntosh led the way for Washington’s defense with eleven solo tackles and one assist. The second year linebacker is easily the most improved player on the team and continues to play well. McIntosh also registered one of three Redskin sacks on the day, his third of the season (Andre Carter and LaRon Landry had the others).
Considering that Washington put Carlos Rogers on Injured Reserve this week, Marcus Washington didn’t play, David Macklin was a game-time scratch, and Fred Smoot was just returning from an injury, Gregg Williams had to be creative with his line-up. Pierson Prioleau saw a lot of different roles for himself on Sunday, and although he missed some tackles, he deserves some credit for filling a lot of different gaps.
3 Quarters
Special Teams:
It started brutally for the special teams unit when Leon Washington returned the opening kick-off 86 yards for a touchdown. Shaun Suisham did not get all of the kick-off but it was certainly the last thing that he would do wrong on Sunday.
Suisham proceeded to kick five field goals on five attempts, including the game-winning, walk-off 46-yard boot in overtime. Suisham’s other field goals were from 46, 40, 22, and 40 yards, and the young Canadian tied the Redskin record for field goals in a game.
Not only that, Suisham kicked an on-side kick that the Redskins recovered, and the play had a major role in Washington’s comeback as far as momentum goes.
Derrick Frost only punted the ball twice, but the second one was or 55 yards and came at a time when the Redskins really needed it. Washington was pinned into their own end and Frost had to punt from the end zone, but he nailed it and got the Redskins out of a bind.
After a bad start for the teams unit, they were near perfect the rest of the game.
4 Quarters
It was an ugly win for Washington, and while a win is always a win, they’re very fortunate to be sitting at 5-3 going into a big division tilt against the Philadelphia Eagles next weekend.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Mark Solway