The Washington Redskins bounced back from a 59-28 loss last Monday night, when Graham Gano kicked a 48-yard field goal with 8:17 left in overtime to give the Redskins a 19-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans.“I never seen anything like it” and “It seemed like every other play, somebody was going down” was how players and coaches described Sunday’s game.
The Redskins had a total of ten players go to the sideline with injuries, six were unable to return. They were already without three starters, cornerback Carlos Rogers (hamstring), safety LaRon Landry (achilles), and guard Artis Hicks (thigh) also not dressing due to injuries were defensive lineman Jeremy Jarmon (hamstring) and running back Ryan Torain (. During pre-game warmups running back Chad Simpson injured the fifth metacarpal in his foot and will need surgery.
The Redskins lost two players on their second possession of the game when linebacker Lorenzo Alexander (lower hamstring) and rookie safety Anderson Russell (knee) were injured on punt coverage. Center Casey Rabach (knee) went down on the Redskins next possession and the coaching staff had to shuffle the offensive line. Offensive lineman Will Montgomery who replaced Hicks as the starting guard was moved to center after the injury and guard Derrick Dockery played for the first time in four weeks. Running back Clinton Portis who hasn’t played in four weeks because of a sever groin injury, re-injured his groin on the next possession. This left rookie Keiland Williams as the only Redskins running back for the second week in a row because Torain is still recovering from his pre-game warmup injury from last week. Guard Derrick Dockery (knee) had to be helped of the field after the third play of the second quarter, and the Redskins only dressed seven offensive linemen for the Titans game. At this point tackle Stephon Heyer was the only guy left so he was forced to fill in at guard.
For those keeping score, LaRon Landry’s replacement was injured, Casey Rabach got injured and was replaced by Artis Hicks’ replacement, Portis and Alexander gone and so is the guy that replaced the guy that had replaced Hicks. The backup left tackle is in at left guard and the backup left guard is in at center and with a linebacker injured a backup linebacker (Darrel Young has lined up at fullback previously) will be the backup running back and no one has anything negative to say about the play of Stephon Heyer.
DeAngelo Hall, Santana Moss, Kedric Golston and Brian Orakpo were all injured and they returned to the game but linebacker Rocky McIntosh (groin) was injured on Tennessee’s first possession of the second quarter and his day was over.
The Redskins post game reports are not very good, Clinton Portis is unlikely to play on Sunday, and it isn’t known how many games he will miss, Casey Rabach will get an MRI on Monday but his injury is considered serious, Lorenzo Alexander probably won’t play next week, Derrick Dockery will get an MRI on Monday but early reports say it’s probably the MCL, Anderson Russell will also get an MRI on Monday, Rocky McIntosh has a severe groin injury and could miss a significant amount of time, and Chad Simpson could be placed on injured reserve
Notes and Quotes:
— ”We just kept dropping, Guy after guy, play after play. Sometimes in back-to-back plays. I’ve never been a part of anything like that. It just shows the resilience of the guys in this locker room.” …. Cornerback DeAngelo Hall on all of the injuries
— “I definitely feel like I should’ve been more productive on my end considering what they did, There was just a lot of yardage left out there. Like I said, they did a great job. I definitely feel like I should’ve been over 100 tonight.” …. Running back Keiland Williams the makeshift offensive line’s performance
— ”When Derrick Dockery went down and the coach was like, ‘Are you ready to play offensive line?’ I said, ‘If you think we had a problem with the 3-4, we’d have a real big problem with the o-line stuff,” …. Defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth on the possibility he could play on the offensive line
— “Sooner or later we had to have a good game, You can’t have bad games all year. So we were due to have some good third downs. It really said a lot about our guys. We knew we had to improve in that area, there was a lot of focus like there normally is but you still have got to go out and do it. I’m very proud of the way they responded.” …. Head coach Mike Shanahan on converting 50 percent of their third downs
— “There was nothing special to what was going on, There was nobody left and nobody cared that nobody was left. There wasn’t much time to say, ‘OK, what am I doing?’ …. Offensive tackle Stephon Heyer
— With Stephon Heyer at right guard and Will Montgomery playing center the Redskins gained a season-high 465 yards, and eight third-down conversions. The Redskins were 4-for-37 on third downs in their last three games, including 0-for-10 last week.
– Quarterback Donovan McNabb must have learned whatever it was that he didn’t know about Shanahan’s two minute drill. McNabb took the field with 1:37 left in the game, one timeout and the ball at his own 22 yard line. He went 5 of 8 (clocking the ball twice) for 44 yards to get the Redskins into FG range. Gano missed the 47 yard attempt, but McNabb sure looked like he knew what he was doing.
– “We really needed this game… must win for us, I’m in the right place [in Washington]. It is a growing process and we are starting to grow. . . . Once it starts, it’s going to happen quickly.” …. Quarterback Donovan McNabb on the offensive production
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Bernie Marshall