Washington fans don't get to see the Redskins' next opponent, the Tennessee Titans, very often Both teams are off disappointing losses and need a win. Redskins Hog Heaven reached out to our long-time blogger colleague, Andrew Strickert who covers the Titans for Bloguin's Total Titans site, for the scoop on Tennessee. Here are his answers to my questions. Enjoy.

Cynically, you could argue that the Redskins gave away whatever edge they brought into a game when DeAngelo Hall and LaRon Landry were caught making light issue of the concussion that DeSean Jackson sustained in Week 6.  No one is going to confuse Hall or Landry for two of the wiser players on the Redskins, so perhaps it would be wise to gag order these two for the rest of the season.  The Eagles clearly came back out of the locker room ready to stick it to the Redskins, and both Hall and Landry were posterized by a picture perfect Michael Vick bomb in this game.  It was the perfect measure of revenge for the Eagles against two of the Redskins more grating trash talkers.

I think that narrative is nice and all, as we could all learn a lesson in humility from the humbling of the Redskins' secondary by Vick, Jackson, Maclin and the Eagles.  However, when you look at reasons the Eagles went for seven offensive touchdowns and beat the Redskins 59-24 in this one, neither Hall nor Landry was a major per-play contributor in this loss.  They could have both made two critical pass breakups instead of allowing the longest TDs of the day, and the Eagles would have still put up at least a 40 spot on the Redskins without really going after Hall or Landry on this day.  Anything in addition was just icing on the cake.  Landry and Hall both made a bunch of good plays for the Redskins in this game up around the line of scrimmage.  So it's not like those two didn't come ready to back up their words.  Their mistake was that they did the trash talking for an entire unit that would find itself overmatched in this game.

The biggest thing that did the Redskins in probably wasn't Vick as much as it was the playcalling onslaught brought by the Eagles against a defense that played the entire game on its heels.  The Eagles mixed screen passes with bootlegs, shotgun runs, downfield bombs, and simple west coast quick hitters.  It's tough to get pressure on Vick when you can't tell before the play where the heck he is going to set up.  In this game, the Eagles never gave the Redskins a chance to get in the face of Vick off the snap.  With the defense in absolutely no rhythm whatsoever, Vick was able to accomplish the rest.

Before we go and completely write off this defensive performance as a complete waste of our time, let me ask a rhetorical question: which Eagles skill player do you think had the best day?  I mean, the Eagles put up near 600 yards of total offense, surely, someone besides Vick was carrying the load?

Well, Vick didn't throw the 2 TD bombs to himself, but both Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson were largely quiet after Vick outthrew the coverage to make those plays.  The Redskins more or less handled the passing game to the edges in this one.  As far as for who had the best performance, you probably have your pick between Jerome Harrison and Jason Avant.  It's easy to say the Redskins were beat by Vick, but it's hard to say they were beat by the Eagles' best weapons.  Did Brent Celek play in this game?

I thought the Redskins did a pretty good job in coverage this game, because Vick had to get deep into his progression on most plays.  He still threw for 333 in the air, but those 333 were far less damaging to the Redskins' opportunities to win than the 80 yards on the ground Vick added in every single critical situation, moving the chains with ease.

On the second half TD to Avant when Vick stayed alive and inside the pocket for 8+ seconds before making the throw to Avant across the field, what can you say?  It's not like they dropped coverage, they just failed to get Vick on the ground.  This game was essentially an extended failure by Rocky McIntosh, by Lorenzo Alexander, Andre Carter, and Brian Orakpo to get ballcarriers to the ground, allowing the extension of drives that always ended in the end zone by the Eagles.

The Redskins won't see Vick again this year, which means that Lorenzo Alexander doesn't have to spend the next six days trying to chase around a video game character on the practice field.  However, the struggles of the Redskins to ever get anywhere near Vick in this one is potentially indicative of a bigger problem.  Right now, the Redskins' primary pass rush unit is a three or four man group involving Albert Haynesworth, Andre Carter, Kedric Golston, and Adam Carriker.  When you take out Haynesworth and Carter and make that a three man rush with Kemoeatu, the Redskins really have a problem.  There is very little in terms of pass rush that those three can get on opposing QB, and rarely do they rush in a way where one of them would represent a contain defender of any sort.  Adding Brian Orakpo to that group isn't going to change very much, especially since Orakpo is typically a contain rusher in that scheme instead of a freelancer.

These rush schemes make no sense unless the Redskins have been compensating for a fairly serious Brian Orakpo injury since the Bears game.  I'm starting to lean towards that conclusion.  Orakpo is beating absolutely no one when he does rush, and he's a weak player in his current role of short coverage and interior run fits.  I can't imagine that Jim Haslett would be using Brian Orakpo as he is if Orakpo was 100%.  But even if he was being used like this, I've never seen him this quiet for three straight games.  He had two sacks against Chicago, so if you took the under, you won it in that game.  He has done hardly anything against Detroit and Philadelphia (3 pressures, total, no sacks).

The Redskins devised one rush scheme that worked in this game, when they lined up two rushers very wide in second or third and long to come from the outside at Vick.  It's a defensive look that Vick couldn't solve.  He was sacked by Carter on it, pressured by Carter, Holliday, hit by McIntosh, and twice by Haynesworth out of this very effective four man rush concept.  Luckily for the Eagles, they were in 2nd and long...pretty much never.  An unbelieveable 12 out of the first 16 Eagles plays were 1st down plays where the Eagles get to dictate to the defense.  It's long been Andy Reid's most dangerous down as a playcaller, and because the Redskins couldn't stop anything, the Eagles stayed in first down for the entire first quarter.  

The Redskins first blitz came on the first play of the second quarter, which you might remember as being a 48 yard touchdown to Maclin.  The Redskins couldn't get close with their blitz packages, and they couldn't force a throw with a three man rush.  That conundrum, combined with mostly a poor use of personnel in the four man rush concepts, is why Vick made uncontested throws for four quarters in this game.

So while DeAngelo Hall and LaRon Landry may draw the ire of many for their actions and perceived performance in this game, you can lay the blame for the Eagles explosion at this one on guys like Kareem Moore, on Rocky McIntosh, on the slick footing which really screwed the Redskins on open field scampers by Vick, and on Brian Orakpo who has absolutely disappeared from the defensive schemes.  If you want to, you can blame Albert Haynesworth for loafing on the 22 or so snaps he played in this one.  If you can ignore the scoreboard, there were match-ups the Redskins defense won: London Fletcher on Brent Celek, Adam Carriker on Nick Cole, Carlos Rogers on whoever lined up against him, Phillip Buchanon on DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin.

There are problems that need solving.  In the case of Kareem Moore and Rocky McIntosh, we may just be looking at two guys who have been exposed as players who can't play at an NFL level.  Phillip Daniels is at the end of his career.  Kedric Golston is being used in a way his skill set doesn't allow for.  He can't be useful in this defensive scheme.

The Redskins need to find some sort of pass rush that they've lacked since the beginning of the season, when LaRon Landry and Brian Orakpo were all over quarterbacks.  I like the three man rush from a strategic perspective, but 3 man rushes only work when you can set Brian Orakpo loose on a side to himself.  In the current manifestation of the Skins defense, it's Albert Haynesworth who has been THE guy freeing up Andre Carter to sack quarterbacks.  Once a game isn't good enough as far as creating sacks.  However, with Orakpo pretty much a non-factor, it's roughly as much as the Redskins can expect to bring down the opposing quarterback.

Michael Vick likely had the best passing day anyone will have against the Redskins defense, but I'm worried about this unit for the first time this year.  Not pressuring Vick is one thing.  At this point, can the Redskins get pressure on anyone?  Are they even still trying?  In both cases, it's hard to say right now.

All things considered, the offensive performance for the Redskins in this game was better than before the bye.  I thought Donovan McNabb raised his level of play a reasonable amount from his past two starts.  In this game, the offensive mistakes in the passing game were forced by breakdown's elsewhere, and were largely not the fault of Donovan McNabb.  That doesn't excuse a number of missed throws that ended Redskin drive where McNabb had open receivers with little pressure and just flat missed, and it isn't intended to relieve McNabb of all blame for all three interceptions.  Two of the three were McNabb's fault directly, however, they were forced mistakes by problems elsewhere on the field.

What didn't change was that McNabb's not getting a lot of help in the passing game.  He did receive help from an unlikely source based on past history: Kyle Shanahan.  The first touchdown was set up by, and the second touchdown was scored on, a pair of well-anticipated calls by the junior Shanahan.  I thought the first TD pass to Darryl Young was also a nice play because it used misdirection to take advantage of a nosy Asante Samuel and a wet field to get the fullback wide open in the flat against a corner.  Screens were a useful part of the gameplan against a blitz-happy Philadelphia defense, and a big reason the Redskins put up four TDs on the defense.

Aside from Shanahan, McNabb got the normal contributions from Fred Davis and Anthony Armstrong, and then essentially had to do the rest on his own.  Joey Galloway was responsible for a third down interception and a third down drop in this game, and he's now featuring a catch rate under 30%, which makes him the Derek Anderson of NFL receivers.  Roydell Williams was a little bit better than that, but isn't McNabb's idea of a weapon by any stretch.  Santana Moss was once again a non-factor against the Philadelphia Eagles.  Chris Cooley was also a non-factor in this game.  He could win that match-up with Stewart Bradley the Eagles gave him one on one but often, Cooley was an important piece of the pass protection scheme.  When the Redskins left both Cooley and Keiland Williams in the backfield, that's when they protected McNabb the best and were able to get opportunities down the field (such as Anthony Armstrong's 76 yarder).  When Cooley wasn't used in protection and the Eagles went with zone coverage and A-gap pressure from Bradley (who is an excellent blitzer), Cooley was blanketed and McNabb forced some balls to him.  His forgettable season continues.

A couple of unexpected sources of productivity emerged in this game from the offensive backfield: there was Darryl Young at fullback, and Keiland Williams at tailback.  Williams struggled with his pass blocking in the six man protections in this game, which might be the biggest difference between him and Torain.  At least the biggest difference in favor of Torain.  Keiland Williams is a much stronger offensive weapon, because they use him as a receiver, and he's really one heck of a runner especially compared to Torain.  One criticism about Williams is that he's really not a one-cut back, but I think he runs well in the zone attack anyway, and with him running the plays, we saw the return of a couple of man blocking trap concepts.  I really, really like Keiland Williams.  I do think he needs to improve his blocking.  Sometimes, he's going to be asked to do more than just help out, he's actually going to be assigned someone in the protection scheme.  He just misses those assignments too often right now.  I like Darryl Young as a runner as well, in limited action.

That covers everyone I think.

Offensive Line Performance

These guys were an issue in this game, but had a good day run blocking at least.  The seams for Keiland Williams to run in were pretty spacey.  The Eagles are not a good run defense, but the Redskins OL still deserves some credit for improvement on the ground.  Through the air, however, was another story.

Both guards had two very costly blown blocks.  For Artis Hicks, his first blown block led directly to a Casey Rabach holding penalty, proving that the Redskins can actually turn a double team into two different mistakes (at the point which Hicks fell down, the hold was probably the right decision -- it only cost six yards -- though McNabb could easily have been picked on the play).  His second block led to a long sack where he just never realized a stunt, hanging out Stephon Heyer with two guys to block.  Kory Lichtenstieger also blew two blocks, one of which led directly to the McNabb pick six, the other on a stunt.  For Kory though, that was about it for his mistakes.  I thought he did very well in the running game, best I've seen from him in weeks.  For Artis Hicks, those blown blocks were only the most egregious of his troubles, as he allowed enough pressure to get benched for performance in the fourth quarter.  It's probably time to move forward with Will Montgomery at RG.  I'm not much a believer in Will Montgomery, but Hicks is a major liability in pass protection.

Casey Rabach also didn't play very well, getting driven back, missing blocks altogether.  The nicest thing to say here is that nothing Rabach did led directly to a critical error by the offensive unit.  He was just sort of bad independent of the outcome of the game.  Trent Williams did a good job neutralizing Trent Cole for most of the game, but he was beaten three times by my count.  Only one of those was a straight up bull rush.  The book on Trent Williams right now is that stunts to his side work, as well as bull rushes (he allowed three pressures via bull-rush in this game).  This was a good run blocking game for Williams, who was able to out-leverage Cole and move him where he wanted him to go to open up lanes.  On one incompletion, Trent allowed a hit on McNabb by making an embarrassingly poor cut block attempt on Cole that did nothing but give him a free run on McNabb.  Stephon Heyer allowed a hit on the quarterback in this one, but I think he remains our most consistent lineman this year.  In instances where the pocket is particularly clean, it's usually because Heyer is handling a one on one assignment to textbook execution.

I look at the way that Trent Williams can handle top pass rushers in this league and at the way that Heyer does his job at RT and think that adding a strong center to the middle of this line can really solidify this group.  I think a second year Lichtenstieger playing between Williams and a strong Center would make an excellent base of a line.  Then the Redskins will have to track down a RG and a RT somewhere, but will have a pretty good start in the process of rebuilding this group.

Third downs, revisited

The Redskins converted a fourth and four in this game when McNabb had a free rusher on him from the snap, backpeddled to buy time, and then threw off his back foot (as he did most of the day, out of necessity, not usually jitters).  It probably would have fallen incomplete had McNabb found anyone but Anthony Armstrong, who made a really fantastic catch on the ball for a seven yard gain.

This is significant only because it was the best play the Redskins made on a third or fourth down in this game.  The only other nominees would be Keiland Williams' 12 yard run on 3rd and 13, leading to a Redskins punt (but better field position!) in a 59-28 game or a 9 yard catch by Williams on 3rd and 10 in a 42-14 game, again leading to a punt.

Let's examine the third down woes from this game, excluding those two largely successful plays that could have resulted in 4th down conversion attempts.

Redskins on Third Down

• - 3rd and 3 Williams runs off the right side, makes a cutback to daylight, but tried to dance around former Redskin Dimitri Patterson instead of lowering his shoulder and running through that hole for a first down.  Patterson stuffed him for no gain.
• - 3rd and 4 Keiland comes up into the left A gap to hit Ernie Sims and whiffs, getting a piece of Bradley in the process.  McNabb eludes Sims and goes to his left, but throws off balance wide of Moss and the pass is intercepted.
• - 3rd and 4 The Eagles drop seven, and McNabb's pocket is clean.  Cooley is wide open underneath and McNabb is errant on the high side.
• - 3rd and 8 McNabb has this read from the start, protection holds against a four man rush, Galloway is well covered on an out (because he can't run good routes against fourth corners), but McNabb hits him in the hands anyway from a clean pocket.  Naturally, he drops the ball.
• - 3rd and 12 Because Galloway's route wasn't bad enough last time, he completely telegraphs his in cut and Patterson runs it for him, picking McNabb off.
• - 3rd and 4 Heyer and Trent Williams are driven into McNabb's face, which allows him to escape to his left, but Darryl Tapp shows in his face and bats the pass back into the ground.
• - 3rd and 7 Lichtensteiger is beaten to his outside shoulder by an Eagles blitz and McNabb throws off his back foot again, this time with Patterson undercutting Armstrong and returning the pass for a touchdown.
• - 3rd and 10 Parker stunts to the inside where Heyer passes him off.  Hicks has his eyes inside so he never sees it, and Parker goes right past him for the sack on McNabb.

First big point: the relative shortness of those downs and distances are attributable to the differences between Torain, who loses yards as a runner, and Williams, who does not.  Perhaps you didn't realize this, but the Redskins have just 17 offensive TDs this year.  5 of those were scored by Keiland Williams, who leads the team.  Torain has 4.  Cooley, Moss, and Portis have just 2 each.  Armstrong and Darryl Young round out the season's scoring.

Bad quarterback play, bad receiver play, and bad offensive line play are all equal parts responsible for the failures of this team on third downs.  What's remarkable is that even the good plays were desperation attempts: Armstrong makes a good catch, or Williams makes a hard run.  Those are your best plays in third down.  McNabb's worst down this year is third, but that doesn't mean he's making no play opportunities.  It just means execution is a multi-part animal, and this team cannot string three units together to create a single simple play.  Success appears to require the extraordinary performance of a single player.

It's hard to see this offense getting better in the short term.  They can replace Artis Hicks, and they can replace Joey Galloway, which would fix some issues on this offense, but the replacements would be Will Montgomery and Roydell Williams.  At some point, you're just not talented enough to be great.  Luckily, for one more week at least, the emergence of Keiland Williams keeps the flame of optimism flickering.  For all the faults here, particularly on third down, the Redskins just enjoyed one of their more efficient days of the season against a quality defense.

Ex-Redskin Of The Week: Brandon Lloyd, Wide Receiver, Denver Broncos
Few names in Washington bring up more toxic memories than Brandon Lloyd. Blloyd, as he is known around here, is the poster boy of ineffective roster management by a troubled NFL franchise. In two seasons in Washington, Lloyd appeared in 13 games, caught 25 balls, for 325 yards and no touchdowns. Sunday, Lloyd led Denver receivers with six catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns. He has been the league-leading receiver (48 receptions, 968 yards, six TDs) all season.

Redskins Hog Heaven was stumped by the dramatic change, so we did some checking. Ian Henson from BroncoTalk.net was kind enough to answer my inquiry. Here's what he says:

"Brandon Lloyd said it himself, he is who he has always been. He just finally got an opportunity. The man doesn't play special teams, he can't tackle or return a kick, so he's been useless as a fourth tier receiver. 

"When Kyle Orton was traded for, Lloyd soon followed at Orton's request. He was inactive until the Josh McDaniels imposed suspension of Brandon Marshall and the dude beasted. That was week 15 and the guy's been history in the making every since."

It's hard for a Redskins fan to see that. Lloyd joined the team in 2006 in Joe Gibbs' orgy of player acquisitions to fuel Al Saunders' potent downfield offense that would power Washington to the Super Bowl. Coach Gibbs called Lloyd a gifted receiver. Team president Gibbs immediately signed him to a six year, $30 million contract extension. Player Lloyd caught 41 percent of the passes thrown to him for 23 catches, 365 yards and no scores. Ex-player Lloyd counted as $5.5 million against Washington's 2009 salary cap (that could have covered two decent offensive linemen).

Brandon Lloyd was as lionized upon his arrival in Washington as he was loathed upon his departure.

The fact that Mark Brunell was his quarterback had more to do with his 2006 fall-off than any sense of belonging. The fact that Lloyd suffered a career near-death experience in Chicago and initially in Denver had more to do with him making the most of his chance when it came. The fact that he is in sync with Kyle Orton, also unappreciated by his former team, has more to do with his current success than any notion of opportunity.

Whatever the reason, Lloyd completed an outstanding week in an astounding year. The Pro Bowl and comeback-player-of-the-year honors await him.

What would have happened if he were on the Redskins roster last night? (Stop it. Stop it right now.)

Point after: Denverpost.com - Brandon Lloyd answers questions about McDaniels, Orton and disgruntled fans (not the Redskins)

There is less to Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb's contract extension than we thought.

Here's the deal. McNabb gets the full amount of $78 million if he plays every game of the 2011-2015 season. McNabb is due $3.5 million to sign the extension and a $250,000 bonus if he is active for the remaining eight games of this season.

There is a gotcha. The rest of the contract kicks in if the Redskins decide to keep McNabb in 2011. The team would then owe him a $10 million bonus and would be obligated for the balance of the contract. If the Redskins choose not to keep him, the team is free from the contract and McNabb becomes an unrestricted free agent.

The Redskins got an immediate public relations kick after universal criticism for benching McNabb in the Detroit Lions game by allowing McNabb's agent to gush about the deal. The details are emerging from sources in the NFL Players Association as reported on ESPN.com.

As a management-oriented guy, I see the beauty of the deal from the front office's view. McNabb is very confident that he will be a Redskin next season. The team may still be in the market for Michael Vick's services.

WTF! Another loss like that and the Philadelphia Eagles will move to the top of the chart as the team the Washington Redskins most love to hate.

I confess that I couldn't watch after halftime. For game summaries, you'll have to go to NFL.com, or ESPN.com, or CBSSports.com. This game was all about Michael Vick according to those sports sites. As CBS Sports put it: VICK-timized.

No doubt, that's true, but there were external factors.

The Eagles took exception to Donovan McNabb's contention after the first game that Philadelphia made a mistake when they traded him. They set out to prove otherwise.

The Eagles have the most dynamic young offense in the NFC. Even with that, the Redskins defense played like a distracted team. One wonders if the turmoil of the past two weeks unhinged the defense as much as the offense. Washington allowed 21.25 points per game going into last night's game. They were like butter in Michael Vick's hands, melting everywhere he touched them.

The Tweet of the evening was by Associated Press writer Joseph White:

·· · · · · · · "I've figured it out.·#Redskins players hv realize if they get benched, they get $40 million!!! So why play well?"

Gallows humor can be such a stress reliever.

No one could be happier for McNabb's new contract than Vick, an unrestricted free agent after this season. If 34-year-old McNabb is worth a guaranteed $40 million, 31 (next year) year old Vick could be worth $50 million or more. That would have been about the value of his contract with the Atlanta Falcons before Vick's street life caught up with him. 

After his game last night, only the Patriots, Colts and Packers would have no interest in signing Michael Vick. 

Did it help the Redskins to complete McNabb's contract extension before the game? Yes. The issues with McNabb had become a complete distraction. The front office had to settle the matter, either by locking him in, or by cutting ties with him. Now we can move on, though it's clear that McNabb of 2011 through 2103 will not be a match of Vick of 2011 through 2013. ··

Would the Redskins have extended McNabb's deal if they knew how poorly he would play against the Eagles? Probably yes for the reasons already given. But they might have assessed their shot to land Michael Vick before doing so. McNabb didn't play so badly last night. He just was not good enough to overcome the aroused Eagles. The question itself reflects the consistent flaw in Washington's thinking--the mantra of "win now" and the search for the one guy to save them. The loss was a total team failure by coaches and players.

Last season, fans sensed that no quarterback could be successful behind Washington's porous O-line and talent-starved receiving corps. With McNabb we know that the Redskins cannot compete for the post-season with those issues. The sooner the front office boosts the roster with well-selected young players, the sooner we get back to true contention.

How does the Eagles' approach building a roster differ from the Redskins? Philadelphia thinks about building a roster over a strategic horizon, say three years. The team on the field today is the team they planned to field two or three seasons ago. The approach requires that they value draft picks. So they shed players to acquire picks. Philadelphia had 13 picks in to 2010 NFL Draft. For more on that, see the Redskins Hog Heaven stories Redskins Offseason Acquisitions Are Holding Team Back and Snyder vs. Reid.·

What positives do we take from the game? We have four. First, Michael Vick is off the schedule for the rest of the season. The defense should show better than they did last night. Second, Brandon Banks played last night and showed no ill effects from the bye week medical procedure on his knee. That's a testament to youth and ambition. Third, Anthony Armstrong and Fred Davis showed up. They accounted for 153 yards on only three receptions. The Redskins have big play potential with McNabb throwing to those guys. Fourth, give RB Keiland Williams some love for 139 yards of total offense and three touchdowns. That would be bigger news if Vick hadn't dominated the game.

That's the best way to end this post, so I'm outta here.

WTF! Another loss like that and the Philadelphia Eagles will move to the top of the chart as the team the Washington Redskins most love to hate.

I confess that I couldn't watch after halftime. For game summaries, you'll have to go to NFL.com, or ESPN.com, or CBSSports.com. This game was all about Michael Vick according to those sports sites. As CBS Sports put it: VICK-timized.

No doubt that's true, but there were external factors.

The Eagles took exception to Donovan McNabb's contention after the first game that Philadelphia made a mistake when they traded him. They set out to prove otherwise.

The Eagles have the most dynamic young offense in the NFC. Even with that, the Redskins defense played like a distracted team. One wonders if the turmoil of the past two weeks unhinged the defense as much as the offense. Washington allowed 21.25 points per game going into last night's game. They were like butter in Michael Vick's hands, melting everywhere he touched them.

The Tweet of the evening was by Associated Press writer Joseph White:

               "I've figured it out. #Redskins players hv realize if they get benched, they get $40 million!!! So why play well?"

Gallows humor can be such a stress reliever.

No one could be happier for McNabb's new contract than Vick, an unrestricted free agent after this season. If 34 year old McNabb is worth a guaranteed $40 million, 31 (next year) year old Vick could be worth $50 million or more. That would have been about the value of his contract with the Atlanta Falcons before Vick's street life caught up with him.

Did it help the Redskins to complete McNabb's contract extension before the game?·Yes. The issues with McNabb had become a complete distraction. The front office had to settle the matter, either by locking him in, or by cutting ties with him. Now we can move on, though it's clear that McNabb of 2011 through 2103 will not be a match of Vick of 2011 through 2013.···

Would the Redskins have extended McNabb's deal if they knew how poorly he would play against the Eagles? Probably yes for the reasons already given. But they might have assessed their shot to land Michael Vick before doing so. McNabb didn't play so badly last night. He just was not good enough to overcome the aroused Eagles. The question itself reflects the consistent flaw in Washington's thinking--the mantra of "win now" and the search for the one guy to save them. The loss was a total team failure by coaches and players.

Last season, fans sensed that no quarterback could be successful behind Washington's porous O-line and talent-starved receiving corps. With McNabb we·know that the Redskins cannot compete for the post-season with those issues. The sooner the front office boosts the roster with·well-selected young players, the sooner we get back to true contention.

How does the Eagles' approach building a roster differ from the Redskins? Philadelphia thinks about building a roster over a strategic horizon, say three years. The team on the field today is the team they planned to field two or three seasons ago. The approach requires that they value draft picks. So they shed players to acquire picks. Philadelphia had 13 picks in to 2010 NFL Draft. For more on that, see the Redskins Hog Heaven stories Redskins Offseason Acquisitions Are Holding Team Backand Snyder vs. Reid.·

What positives do we take from the game? We have four. First, Michael Vick is off the schedule for the rest of the season. The defense should show better than they did last night. Second, Brandon Banks played last night and showed no ill effects from the bye week medical procedure on his knee. That's a testament to youth and ambition. Third, Anthony Armstrong and Fred Davis showed up. They accounted for 153 yards on only three receptions. The Redskins have big play potential with McNabb throwing to those guys. Fourth, give RB Keiland Williams some love for 139 yards of total offense and three touchdowns. That would be bigger news if Vick hadn't dominated the game.

That's the best way to end this post, so I'm outta here.