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I've never been able to watch more than 15 minutes of the movie Napoleon Dynamite so I never got as far as the Vote for Pedro scenes in the movie. Napoleon Dynamite has some sort of cult following and those who enjoy it strike me as odd.

The Dallas Cowboys have some sort of cult following and fans of the team strike me as, um, heathen savages. It's so odd that I will be cheering for the Cowboys (1-4) against the New York Giants (4-2) tonight.

The Redskins intercepted their way in Chicago to a 4-3 record. If the Giants lose to the Cowboys, the Beast will be knotted in a three-way tie for first place, with the 'Boys a game and a-half behind.

The Giants are playing as if they are serious about winning the conference. They sacked Jay Cutler nine times in the first half of the Chicago game, a 17-3 win, but have yet to face a Beast team.

The Giants are ranked seventh in the Bloguin.com NFL Week 6 Power Poll. The talented but inept Cowboys are ranked 26th in the same poll.

In the idealized world of sports competition, the better teams win out. The Redskins need work, so any back door help is appreciated. I don't want the 'Skins to chase the Giants before they face them on December 5. New York plays Dallas twice and Philadelphia once before then.

Washington already has wins against Dallas and Philadelphia. A division loss by New York helps the cause. It won't hurt the Eagles or Cowboys, either. The best chance for a Giants division loss is tonight in Dallas, or November 21 at The Linc in Philly.

So just for tonight, I'm for Dallas even though it will feel as odd as watching Napoleon Dynamite. I'm going to do it alone, in the dark, very quietly with beer.

If the Cowboys win, I'll vote for Pedro. I promise.

UPDATE: (Groan) Giants 41. Cowboys 35

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Every win is a good win, even the ugly ones. The Washington Redskins 17-14, um, beat-down of the Chicago Bears is as butt-ugly good as any win we'll see this season. The worst that can be said is that neither team played well enough to win a playoff game.

Lets save those thoughts for another post.

The thinking around here is that the defense is the stronger part of the team and that the defense would carry the offense until McNabb and company jells. Thus, Washington's last placed defense through six games is asked to cover for a top-ten offense.

If you are a regular reader of Redskins Hog Heaven, you know that last place defense doesn't mean the worst defense. The NFL ranks teams by yards. Yardage doesn't tell you enough about a team.

The Redskins had the 10th best defense in yards last season, yet they were hardly the 10th best defense. Washington snagged 11 interceptions in 16 games, scored no defensive points, and finished with 12 losses in 2009.

This year, the 'Skins have eight interceptions in seven games, five by DeAngelo Hall, four of those Sunday against the Bears. Washington has scored defensive touchdowns on an interception return and a fumble recovery, both by Hall.

So stop the hand wringing about last place in yardage and bask in the disruption of opponent's scoring drives. With that, I tip my hat to Hall. At last, his performance is worth the money.

Concerns about Washington's offensive line make us look oh so provincial. (Yeah, that includes me.) We have our issues, but I'll take our O-line over the Bears' or Eagles' line any day.

The world is a circle and life repeats

Much was made of Donovan McNabb's return to his Chicago roots Sunday. Some referenced Mike Shanahan's former association with Bears' quarterback Jay Cutler when both were with the Denver Broncos, big losers on Sunday to Jason Campbell and the Oakland Raiders.

It was Cutler's hissy-fit upon Shanahan's departure that led to Snyderrato's unseemly efforts to trade multiple draft picks to Denver for Cutler to replace Campbell. Denver used Washington's offer to extort Kyle Orton and multiple draft picks from Chicago who turned to Orton after dumping Rex Grossman who is now Washington's back-up quarterback.

Cutler's experience in Chicago is less than he hoped. He surely wishes to be reunited with Shanahan in Washington in preference to Mike Martz' offense in Chicago.

What if the Bears dumped Lovie Smith and offered Shanahan the chance to return to his Chicago roots (Franklin Park, Illinois) to coach?

After that 59-14 beat-down by the Raiders, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen might be second-guessing his decision to replace old school Shanahan with the fresh new thinking of Josh McDaniels.

Jason Campbell is struggling in Oakland, but he is 2-0 against McDaniels who coldly rejected him as Cutler's replacement. Oakland's point-a-minute offense was more the result of Darren McFadden's four touchdowns and 196 yards of total offense than Campbell, but Jason finished the day with a substantially better QB rating (127.9) than Orton, Cutler or McNabb.

It's a small world and a round one.

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Redskins Hog Heaven is one of the voting sites for Bloguin NFL Power Ranking. Up to now, I've looked at NFL ranks for points scored and points allowed for my ranking formula. You play to win the game, as Herm Edwards said, but points can lead you astray. The Redskins went into last weekend's game ranked eighth best in point allowed. That didn't make them the league's eighth-best defense.

With 35 percent of the season complete, there are better comparative stats to look at, namely Football Outsiders Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA). If you blog, you know DVOA. It's like having your own NFL unpaid quality control coach to crunch down and distance stats. All the cool kids have QA associates to crunch the numbers. So I've calibrated Hog Heaven's tally sheet to use Football Outsiders' offensive and defensive DVOA rather than points. And yes, I do take account of the won-loss record and strength of the offensive line.

Unfortunately, DVOA is not kind to the Washington Redskins. After the Colts game, the Redskins ranked 16th in offensive DVOA and 23 in defensive DVOA. With the loss to the Peyton and the ponies, I sent my tally sheet in with Washington ranked 22nd in the Bloguin power poll, due out Friday.

DVOA shatters my assumptions about the 2010 Redskins. Look at points allowed and you have to conclude that the "Skins defense has to carry the team until the offense jells. That's seemingly confirmed by watching games, even with missed turnover opportunities by the defense.

Yet Washington's offense is performing better against league average than the defense. It turns out that you can believe your lying eyes. The offense busts more big plays, but they have more issues than the defense. Both have to improve in that area to move up in the ranking. They are close, but we are not talking horseshoes here.

My formula has Dallas at 18th (ugh) and Philadelphia at 16th. The Eagles are helped by Kevin Kolb's strong showing in the past two weeks leading to two wins and No. 4 ranking in the latest offensive DVOA.

In an uh-oh moment, the 4-2 New York Giants pop up to No. 2 overall on the strength of their defense. The Giants finally surpassed the third-ranked New York Jets in power on my tally sheet. Indianapolis tops the charts. Pittsburgh and Kansas City round out the top five.

We will point you to the Week Six Bloguin Power Poll when all the voters have had their say.

Earlier, we looked at some of the defensive lapses that led to the Redskins loss to the Colts, but also pointed out that the Redskins' pass defense did about as well if not better than expected against Manning and the Colts.  While I would call that realization encouraging, I also went as far as pointing out that if we want to actually raise the expectations for our defense consistent to those of a playoff defense, we were a piece short in the secondary, and would need to address that through means of going outside the organization.

By the same standard, we are about 8 pieces short on the offensive end of the ball.  There is no solution here that could be fixed by adding just one more player to the mix, even if that player were a wide receiver for McNabb.  The problems in this game were everywhere.  However, one unit that clearly did better than last week was the pass protection unit, specifically, the backs Keiland Williams and Ryan Torain, who proved to me that they both have the skill set to be excellent pass protectors in this league.  Prior to this game, that was largely an unknown factor about their skill sets.

The other area the Redskins were excellent against in protecting McNabb was in picking up the line stunts that the Colts love to call.  Those stunts, usually involving twists between the tackles and end, were largely ineffective thanks to some quick thinking by LG Kory Lichtensteiger and both running backs.

The Redskins were not so good at actually winning their one on one match-ups on the OL.  Dwight Freeney proved conclusively to me to be the best pass rusher that Trent Williams has faced this season, and even though Williams got more help with him here than ever in the past, he still struggled to keep Freeney off of McNabb.  Over on the other side, it was Robert Mathis who actually recorded the two sacks from this pass rushing pair on this day.  I thought Jammal Brown really stepped up his game in this one to make Mathis have not-such-a-decisive edge in the pass rush, but he needed a lot of help from the strength of his quarterback's legs to avoid more sacks.  Clearly, McNabb was comfortable in strong-arming Mathis all day to try to avoid sacks.  Kory Lichtensteiger and Casey Rabach are both liabilities in any sort of one on one situation.  Because of this, the Redskins cannot expect to pick up any sort of pressure scheme while having the same number of blockers as rushers.  Those matchups favor the defense.

Though McNabb saved a number of sacks this way, he also took a pair of inexcusable sacks where the ball simply needed to come out sooner than it did.  He was sacked when the Colts blew up an attempted screen.  He also got sacked on a man-blitz concept where the ball wasn't even necessarily "hot", it just needed to be thrown in some semblance of rhythm to Anthony Armstrong who was out of his break in plenty of time over the middle.  All in all, the way the Colts defensive front played, they deserved to have about three sacks in this game, so it could be argued that McNabb was neither a help or a hinderance in pass protection on the day.  The sack he took on 2nd & 5 on the last drive was pretty critical.  McNabb had enjoyed some rushing success late in the game but Keiland Williams was completely uncovered by the soft zone scheme on a swing route, and he should have been in McNabb's natural line of vision.

More on McNabb

Donovan's completion % (QB Rating) by game this year:

• Week 1 vs. Dallas - 46.9% (63.4)
• Week 2 vs. Houston - 73.7% (119.0)
• Week 3 at St. Louis - 59.4% (79.7)
• Week 4 at Philadelphia - 42.1% (50.2)
• Week 5 vs. Green Bay - 53.1% (75.0)
• Week 6 vs. Indianapolis - 64.4% (67.5)

Now when you consider that Houston has been one of the worst pass defenses ever, it's really hard to look at these numbers with any confidence in the process.  But that's just it: the whole thing is a process.  The Redskins task the quarterback with a lot of responsibility: more than Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell, or Todd Collins ever had within the offense.  Problem is, putting more on McNabb's shoulders might not be the best strategy.

Why not run more?

This is a legitimate question I had before going to the tape: Ryan Torain had 104 yards in the middle of the third quarter in a one possession game.  How in the heck did Torain finish with just 100 rushing yards against the Colts run defense?  Why did this team rush for just 9 yards on 3 carries in the final 17 minutes of the game.

The answers were actually kind of obvious, and there were four main reasons:

1. The Colts were winning at the line of scrimmage
2. The Colts were forcing us into terrible field position
3. Torain wasn't running the ball where the plays were designed
4. Chris Cooley got hurt

Look, that combination of factors is going to kill a running game.  Torain was able to rush for 100 yards on 20 carries (5.0 YPC average) because and only because the smallish Colts front absolutely could not tackle a lick.  They were in the backfield all night long, as the Redskins just couldn't run block at the first level.  However, Colts lineman were very rush-first in their mindset, had poor gap discipline, and this is a worse tackling team than the Redskins are.  As such, Ryan Torain was able to break a bunch of tackles and run for a number of yards in this game.

Ultimately, however, Torain was disappointing on film, just never seeming to take the play into the best hole, doing a lot of lateral running against a quick defense, and generally not following his blockers.  On top of that, Trent Williams, Kory Lichtensteiger, and Casey Rabach were allowing a lot of penetration.  Also consider: Chris Cooley and the receiving corps were a primary factor in the gameplan for rushing the football.  Cooley left at the end of the third quarrter with a concussion.  That changes the blocking schemes entirely.  Fred Davis is a capable blocker, but certainly can not be used in an identical role to Cooley.

Don't underestimate what the result of starting a drive inside our own ten did to our gameplan.  There's a large difference between trying to go 65 yards on the ground and trying to go 93 yards on the ground.  That difference is about three game minutes.  As it turned out, the Redskins would not save those minutes, but that's not something they could have known at the outset.

Above all, this is a team that is designed to throw 40+ times per game.  We can stay balanced, stay within the gameplan for a good percentage of the game, but at some point, this team is going to try to throw to win.  That's their identity.  Players like Ryan Torain and Keiland Williams aren't going to get them to change that identity.  Donovan McNabb is the centerpiece of the offense.

Throwing Inaccuracies

I think there is elements of really good design in our passing offense.  Santana Moss went from an overpaid superstar playing out the guaranteed portion of his contract under Zorn and Cerrato to the engine of the passing offense under Mike and Kyle Shanahan.  Moss is the most irreplaceable guy in the passing offense, and is nearly certain to earn himself an extension before he hits the free agent market.  Moss is 30, but I think he'll be the primary receiver through age 32 (2012).  A role change has extended his career as such.

The emergence of Anthony Armstrong across from Moss has allowed Moss to slide into this role without creating a major flaw in the downfield passing offense.  Remember now that this is just a two receiver base offense, although the Redskins are doing more 3 WR stuff in the past two weeks than in the prior four.  Those two receiver positions appear to be settled with positive value players.  The Tight End position isn't an issue, though Chris Cooley has been sub-par as a receiver, he's earning his keep as a blocker.  Fred Davis starting in place of an injured Cooley will cause us to have to alter our run blocking schemes, but Davis is probably a better receiver than Cooley at this point in their careers.  Someday, I believe he will be a better all around blocker.  That day is not here yet.

There are problems on the offensive line and problems with the receivers, and we need to take those problems for what they are without ignoring them.  But the biggest reason the Redskins are unable to convert their schemes into points is because of subpar play in the offensive backfield.  Ryan Torain has killed two weak rushing defenses, but he leaves a lot of significant on the field.  Mike Sellers is playing better of late, but seems like a poor allocation of resources for a team that has both Chris Cooley and Fred Davis on it.  Keiland Williams has proven useful in a third down role, but so far hasn't shown in practice that he deserves to have that role extended.

McNabb has just been inaccurate and progressively playing less and less ahead of the opponent from a preparedness standpoint.  At best, the total product of his efforts in this offense have been slightly above average.  7.3 yards per attempt is a decent total, but Kyle Shanahan runs a vertical offense that creates oppotunites for big passing plays.  Jason Campbell's YPA total was 7.1 last year with a fraction of the downfield opportunties.  That's not good.  Consider: leaguewide offensive passing efficiences are up this year, thanks to not having to record cold weather passing days.

It's a fact that Donovan McNabb is surrounded with league average to slightly below average offensive talent, and against below average defensive secondaries, he has very middling offensive numbers.  He's taking a league average amount of sacks, and has not fumbled, but is on pace to throw for 5 fewer TDs than the Redskins quarterback did last year with the same number of interceptions.  So for those keeping track: we're turning the ball over less in the passing game last year, but we're worse on third downs, worse in the red zone, much improved on big plays, but overall completions are down.

Quarterback play is improved from last year.  We just haven't seen the results show up yet in the quarterback's statistics, and furthermore, we can't score at last year's rates without the benefit of turnovers forced by the defense and special teams.  Having a better quarterback might eventually lead to an improved record in the long run, but clearly, the Redskins are winning no more games because of their offense this year than they were last year.  If there's a big revelation after 6 games in the Mike Shanahan-Donovan McNabb era, it's that what's improved hasn't improved at the rate anyone had hoped when we acquired an elite head coach-quarterback combo.

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Ex-Redskin Of The Week: Russ Grimm, Hall Of Fame Class Of 2010, 70 Greatest Redskins, Redskins Ring Of Honor.
No matter how many passes Brandon Lloyd caught this week, there could only be one candidate for Ex-Redskin Of The Week: the incomparable Russ Grimm, founding member of The Hogs offensive line in the golden age of Joe Gibbs. Grimm was the Redskins' third round selection in the 1981 NFL Draft out of the University Of Pittsburgh. With Joe Jacoby, Jeff Bostic, Mark May and George Starke, Grimm formed the most dominant offensive line unit in modern pro football. The unit gained fame as The Hogs, the colorful pet name used by offensive line coach Joe Bugel to motivate them. The Hogs were the perfect fit for Joe Gibbs' muscular version of the Coryell Downfield Offense system. Gibbs favored ball control with a punishing ground game and possession receiving, supplemented by judicious long-range scoring strikes. The Hogs propelled Joe Gibbs, John Riggins and Art Monk into the NFL Hall Of Fame.

Grimm appeared in four Super Bowls with the Redskins, winning three of them. He joined the Redskins coaching staff after spending his entire playing career (1981-'91) with the team. He was named offensive line coach in 1997 and helped launch the playing careers of tackles Jon Jansen and Chris Samuels.

Grimm was swept out in the coaching purge of 2000. He joined the coaching staff of his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers. Joe Gibbs upon his return to the Redskins inquired about signing Grimm to his staff in 2004. Steelers coach Bill Cowher retained Grimm by promoting him to assistant head coach. Gibbs had offered that position and title to Gregg Williams. Grimm earned his fourth Super Bowl ring with the 2005 Steelers. He appeared in his sixth Super Bowl with the Arizona Cardinals after the NFL 2008 season. Ironically, the Cardinals faced the Steelers.

Some speculate that Grimm's Hall Of Fame acceptance speech would reignite his prospects as a head coach candidate.

Russ Grimm Hall Of Fame Ring Ceremony at FedEx Field on You Tube

Ex-Redskin Of The Weak: Jason Campbell, Quarterback, Oakland Raiders
The only constant about Jason Campbell is inconsistency. Just last week, RHH named him Player Of The Week for coming off the bench to lead the Raiders to an upset win over Norv Turner's San Diego Chargers. On Sunday, Campbell started for injured Bruce Gradkowski as the Raiders fell to the previously winless San Francisco 49ers. Campbell worked hard to reach journeyman quarterback status. He's not bad enough to be truly bad, but nowhere near expectations for a first round draft pick.

Campbell led the Raiders to the 49er nine and 12 yard line on Oakland's first two possessions. Neither drive ended with touchdowns. Two incomplete passes closed the first drive. The Raiders didn't even let Campbell pass to close the second drive, opting for three straight Michael Bush runs instead.

This would be the time for Campbell to go mano-a-mano with the coaching staff about play selection. That goes against Campbell's public persona, to his detriment. Campbell cannot speak from a position of strength when his 21 pass attempts yields 83 yards and two interceptions. Even by Raider standards, that's sad.

Oakland's loss had more to do with the defense than with Campbell. But Campbell isn't a guy who can carry a weak team no matter how hard he tried, and he tries hard. As a Campbell fan, I hoped for a better showing, if only to tweak Dan Snyder's nose. Instead, Campbell is bound for the same career track as Patrick Ramsey, invisible in the NFL.

Albert Haynesworth may have played his last down as a Washington Redskin.  That's probably not the case.  But who really knows?  With the trade deadline approaching this afternoon, you have to at least allow for the fact that someone is going to meet the Redskins asking price of a second round pick.

But who?

The Redskins are a piece short on defense, and it's become clear over his three games in the lineup that Albert Haynesworth isn't the missing piece the team needs to compete.  They'll explore offers for him, but they're not going to settle for below market value, and so if Haynesworth remains on the team, they will have to increase his role to receive that value.  But the Redskins, a defense full of movable pieces, need to add another piece in the secondary in order to compete with the big dogs in the NFC East.  That includes pretty much any team that isn't Dallas right now.

Pass Defense

Not such a bad game from the perspective of the pass defense.  The Colts threw for 8.0 yards per attempt in this game.  That's a good day for any quarterback, but it's right around Peyton Manning's career average.  For this season, Manning is around 7.5 yards per attempt.  In essence, Manning got most of his yardage on the day on one coverage-splitting play in the first quarter.  He made a number of throws that could have been crushing mistakes if the Redskins would have just caught the ball.

Still, I left the tape feeling like the Redskins had possibly allocated too many resources to the passing game.  Let's take the example of how the Redskins linebackers and one lineman always stand up and walk around in the dime package.  This is useful because with subtle, hard to follow movements, the Redskins can walk around and more or less throw off the blocking schemes.

To combat this, Peyton Manning went no huddle.  Actually, the Colts always go no huddle.  On about three or four drives in this game, the Colts went legitimate all-out offensive hurry up.  Three or four snaps per game minute for an offense that never wants to see the football hit the ground.  This exposed a flaw in the Redskins defensive gameplan.

The Redskins found themselves playing a lot of base defense looks, running what would essentially be a four man front.  But the four lineman, Holliday or Golston at the nose tackle, and then Lorenzo Alexander as a stand-up three technique, and Brian Orakpo with Andre Carter at the dual ends.  It was a four-two nickel look with dime personnel: Reed Doughty played linebacker most of the day.  He did fine, but he wasn't confusing anyone by looking like a full time linebacker.

The Redskins could have stopped the run with that personnel, but really struggled with leverage against Colts offensive linemen (particularly Alexander).  They just couldn't anchor against players who had their hands in the dirt, and on a majority of the hurry up plays, it was a struggle just to get lined up and run the same four man rush.  There wasn't any time between plays with the Colts not making any substitutions, and so any plan about running creative pressures against Manning went by the wayside early.  If you think that wasn't by design, you're not familar with Manning's work.  Manning was well aware his offense wasn't going to be able to handle an onslaught of blitzes, so this is something he could do to protect them from that.

With that said, the Redskins got a lot of pressure on Manning in this game, which kept him from systematically carving the pass defense to shreads.  Manning missed a bunch of open receivers in this game because the Redskins were able to get a lot of limbs around him with just a four man rush.  By my count, the Redskins had 13 hits or hurries on 12 plays.  Manning's stats on these plays would be good for a mortal, but are well below expectation for Manning: 6 for 12 for 5 passing first downs and 75 yards, just 6.25 yards per attempt.

Manning took advantage of a couple of match-ups in this game.  His number one key was anytime we put Reed Doughty on Dallas Clark, which would have been our match-up in any man coverage situation.  He lived off that match-up whenever he got it.  Secondly, he looked for Reggie Wayne against Phillip Buchanon.  That would have been a match-up you'd expect the Colts to win, but in a mixed bag of results, it was probably won narrowly by Buchanon and decisively so on the last passing play of the game by the Colts.  Early on, the Colts thought they might be able to hit Austin Collie in the seam behind Carlos Rogers, but that one was a decisive win for Rogers who continues his streak of hot play -- and of games with a dropped interception, now at four.  The final match-up the Colts went with was anyone-with-a-pulse (Pierre Garcon or Blair White) against DeAngelo Hall.  The Colts had great success throwing against the "even" coverages of the Redskins (cover 2, quarters), significantly less success against the coverages that had Kareem Moore in the middle of the field.

A big problem with the dime coverages was that zone or man was easily definable by the positioning of the three safeties.  We did what we could to disguise our zones earlier in the game, but on the Garcon 57 yard TD, we fooled no one.  The problem was that Manning's read against what we tried to show (cover three) would have been identical to what we actually ran (quarters).  When we rotated the coverage, dropping Landry, all Garcon had to do was alter the depth that he ran that skinny post at in order to run at an angle that puts any zone coverage in a bind.  DeAngelo Hall's only job on that play is to stay over the top of the route.  Landry needs to be in a position to play on that ball.  Landry was out of position at the snap, of course, which is his excuse.  Hall just got run past.

Run Defense

Here is where the dime package really hurt us, because without the lineman putting their hands on the ground, they can be driven off the ball by anybody (and were).  Without the flexibility to substitute, the Redskins were in dime most of the game.  HB Blades started for Rocky McIntosh at linebacker.  I believe that he played just four plays in the game: the first two, and two of the last three.  I know on the third drive of the game, Perry Riley got a snap at linebacker and made a very violent tackle.  He and Blades had a tackle each in this game.  For 94% of this game, London Fletcher was a lone linebacker.  He played well.

Still the Redskins' desire to force Manning to put the ball on the ground and take the game out of his hands was systematic in nature.  We weren't looking for all time great run prevention numbers in this game.  We were just looking to keep their rushing stats to not look like passing stats.  Even at that standard, they failed.

You can blame shoddy tackling for the difference between tempting Manning to run the ball, and losing a game in the process.  Joseph Addai and Mike Hart were going to have an endless string of 6 yard carries, but a 14 yarder to the right side and a 46 yarder to the left side included missed tackles by DeAngelo Hall and Kareem Moore respectively.  A 13 yard TD run occured because Reed Doughty (at linebacker) whiffed in the hole, and because neither of the aforementioned "football players" made any semblance of a tackle attempt on Addai.  Moore might have actually assisted him in staying on his feet.  Moore's footing was terrible the whole game, slipping to the ground more or less any time he made a cut.

A solution

There are no moral victories against the Colts, which is the frusterating thing about playing them.  We may have learned some life lessons, but no team out there is emulating the Colts approach to things.  No film from this game is going to improve us in the future.

However, I believe that we need a solution to our defensive issues, personnel wise, and that we need that player in our secondary.  In my assessment, we have in DeAngelo Hall and Kareem Moore two identical secondary players who have similar skill sets and can back up one another.  We do not have a cover corner in either of them.  If Hall and Moore split time as free safeties, we would need another corner to field a nickle unit (Philip Buchanon is currently playing a the level of a starter).

Going bold, I would try to secure CB Nnamdi Asomugha from Oakland, who could be had from them before the trade deadline (Tuesday) for the right price.  That's a team that would welcome Albert Haynesworth with open arms, problem being that they don't exactly have a need at defensive tackle with Richard Seymour in the lineup.  But Seymour is an impending free agent and Haynesworth has a team-friendly contract, mostly to the cost of Dan Snyder.  That could be an attractive long-term move for the Raiders.

And what a move it would for the Redskins to bring in one of the game's best cover corners to complement Carlos Rogers and Phillip Buchanon.  This would probably cost future draft pick (2012?) considerations, perhaps in the first round.  But Asomugha would be a big pickup for the Redskins, has a contract option for the 2011 season, and could tilt the balance of power in the NFC East in favor of Mike Shanahan's team.

More subtle solutions would include using Adam Carriker, our best down lineman, more often in passing situations as an interior rusher alongside Haynesworth (so long as Haynesworth is a Redskin).  We can push Lorenzo Alexnader to the edge, and bring LaRon Landry up and get to Jay Cutler in creative ways next week.  London Fletcher showed great versatility this week in moving from primarily the strong side to the weak side with Rocky sidelined, and we might find that playing more HB Blades or Perry Riley is an excellent short and long term move that improves us as a defensive team.

But I believe right now the biggest need for additional personnel is in the secondary, where the Redskins just don't match-up well on the offensive right side, where Hall's short coverage gets little deep help from Landry or Kareem Moore.  Teams are really going to keep pressing us there until we show we can stop it.  Right now, I'm not certain the Redskins can stop anyone, through the air.

Conclusions

What needs to be said about this past match-ups: we still think of the Colts of an offensive juggernaut, but that's really not the case anymore.  The Colts are no longer a great football team.  They are a still quite good football team that wins battles relative to it's opponents strengths and weaknesses, and makes sure to have the game in the hands of Peyton Manning when it matters most.  They never trailed in this game.  That's not a good sign, because the Colts made many of mistakes and gave the Redskins every chance to seize control of this one.

The Redskins defense lost it's battles to an offense that is more talented than it is, understandably.  However, it's minor wins in the passing game were combined by inexcusable lapses in concentation against a running game that no team considers to be a threat.  That's not really excusable for a proud unit like the Redskins.  The Colts netted under 300 passing yards.  If given that fact at the beginning of the game, Redskins fans need to be confident that their team could have pulled out a close one.

We'll look into some of the offensive reasons why the Redskins came up just short, but it's not inaccurate to look at this game as another close home loss to an AFC South team that simply got away.

Mike Shanahan mystifies me. He fascinates me, too. Six weeks into the season and I'll be darned if I can figure him out.

I like that he is playing younger players. I wonder if he's putting the best defense on the field with those players instead of Albert Haynesworth who wasn't even active for the game against the Indianapolis Colts.

Haynesworth said that, tragedy aside, he was ready to play and that he wanted to play. But he suspected since his return to practice last Thursday that he would not play since he only practiced with the scout team and wasn't in any defense package for the Colts game.

Haynesworth is quoted in a story appearing on the Sunday Night Football All Access web site where he reminded that he had more experience against the Colts than any other player on defense.

That's a good point. I hear coach Shanahan say he wants to win now. He did not win with DT Vonnie Holiday on the defensive line. Big Al might have made some difference on a critical down or two.

How do we read that Haynesworth spent the week on the practice squad? Sounds bad, yet Brandon Banks spent the week before the Eagles game on the scout team. The Redskins signed Banks to the active roster the day before the game and he played.

When Chris Cooley let slip that Haynesworth was practicing with the scout team, Shanahan said it meant nothing. Every veteran would spend time on the scout team.

So what was with the talk until Sunday that Haynesworth was a game time decision? Was it to keep the Colts guessing? Is that how you win?

The Washington Redskins forgot how to build perennial winners. That sad situation predates Daniel Snyder. Norv Turner's regular season record here was 49-59-1, .454, between 1994 and 2000.

Shanahan adheres to a process. Practice and you can stay. Practice well and you can play. Practice perfect and you can start. I love that approach. The Washington Redskins need that approach. It is still disconcerting to see high value players on the inactive list.

Greg Blache was rigid in his approach to defense and inflexible in his use of players. That seemed bad to me. Isn't it equally bad when Shanahan does the same?

Sunday Night Football shines a spotlight on trade-bait players. Do we infer from Haynesworth's absence Sunday that Shanahan does not seek to trade him?

Is Shanahan making the point that winners are not built around stars. Stars emerge from the process. To whom is he making that point?

The Redskins were in the Colts game until the end with a mix of young (Torain, Armstrong) and veteran (Holiday, Galloway) players. Torain was the leading rusher in Week 6 going into the Monday Night game. That contest features Chris Johnson (Titans), so Torain's lead may not hold up. But we don't expect to see that performance when Clinton Portis is on the bench.

You sense that Shanahan is moving in the right direction. The table is set for a 10-win season next year. But some of Shanahan's moves are real head-scratchers.

That's one thing I miss from last season. Jim Zorn was candid. Shanahan obfuscates. The press will ask him about Haynesworth Monday. Shanahan will give a 30-word answer that divulges nothing.

He is a mystery.