Quick reactions, Redskins-Lions

Ladies and gents, we now know who the Washington Redskins really are. It took an embarrassing loss to figure it out, but it's finally done.

Yes, the Redskins lost to the Lions 19-14 Sunday afternoon. Yes, Detroit broke their 19-game winless streak against the Skins.

And oh boy, I was enraged. I felt anger and pain, but most of all, I felt confused about where the team is headed.

Some points:

The Jason Campbell show is finished.
Until now, I was unsure whether Campbell would continue to be the starting QB of the Washington Redskins after this season. His performance against the Lions solidified my belief that he will not be. Yes, he put up ok numbers Sunday, but not when it mattered. And he never really seems to be in charge of games like a starter should be.
I wish that Colt Brennan wasn't on IR so that we could see if Brennan has what it takes. Alas, we've probably wasted Brennan's time on the team yet again.

Jim Zorn is on very thin ice, but not finished. Yet.
I'm sure most fans would like to see Zorn gone right now, and I think that he is calling some piss-poor plays (especially in the red zone). But it's not time to kick the head coach off of this island. I think if this season turns south, it'll be the end of Zorn's tenure here, and I can only blame Zorn. He chose to attach himself to Campbell. He chose to keep the play calling duties despite the fact he had never been an offensive coordinator before, much less a head coach. Nothing about his tenure in D.C. has been good.

What happened to the defense?
The Lions were able to drive up and down the field pretty much at will. Detroit continually took advantage of the Redskins' defensive backs and completed 55 percent of their third-downs. (The Redskins completed just 20 percent.)

I do believe that Mr. Greg Blache is in denial about how poorly his defense played against Detroit. The Lions held the ball for over 36 minutes and had drives of 99, 74, 86 and 84 yards. Those are whoppers of drives.

If this is a reflection on how the defense will perform, the team is in trouble. On top of this, Haynesworth's hip injury is a huge concern.

Some (too few) positives

• I don't think the Lions are as bad this year as people are making them out to be. Blache pointed this out in a post-game interview. They lost to the Vikings, who are unbeaten. They lost to the Saints, who are unbeaten.
• Santana Moss still proves he's the Redskins' best receiver. He had 10 catches, 178 yards and a touchdown. That's double what he had coming into the game. He needs to be consistent for the Redskins to have any success.
• Hunter Smith is awesome. The Skins haven't had too many good punters over the last 20 years. Hunter the Punter averaged 45 yards per punt, with a long of 58 yards. Simply excellent.

A question
Is it too early to talk about "blowing up" the team? I'm talking about a complete overhaul. New QB. New RB. New coach. A new general manager. Everything.

Jason Campbell against Detroit

I read an article this week from Sports Illustrated about how Detroit's pass defense has been very bad since 2007, and apparently the Lions are only getting worse. The Detroit Lions have the worst pass defense in the history of the NFL.

That got me wondering how Redskins QB Jason Campbell has performed against the Lions over his career. I knew that he had done well in the past, but I had no idea how well.*

Campbell has played two games against the Lions, but those games make up most of his career-high single-game totals.

In 2008 alone, he set career highs in completion percentage (82.1), average yards per attempt (11.7) and passer rating (127.4). He also threw for 328 yards, a season-high and second only to a 2007 game in Dallas where he passed for 348 in a loss.

His numbers against Detroit are simply out of this world compared to his numbers against everyone else.

Campbell	vs. Detroit	Everyone else
Yards per game	288	202
Completion Perc.	80.7	60.6
Yards per pass	10.1	6.6
Passer rating	126.4	80.2

The passer rating stat stands out. 126 is a phenomenal, elite number. His 10.1 yards per pass is very large as well.

Another number stood out - 0. Campbell has never thrown an interception against Detroit in his career. He has thrown three touchdown passes.

What do the numbers mean? They provide good hope going into Sunday's game at Detroit. The Redskins certainly need all the offense they can muster.

On another note
Check out this video from the NFL Films folks. They had Jim Zorn mic'd up last Sunday against the Rams. The communication between he and Campbell is great. I'd say this is definitely one of the best videos I've ever seen on the Redskins. Perhaps the best.


*Numbers are averages and thus a little off. They should be close enough to the real numbers not to make much of a difference. I spent 2 hours on this and you'll like it, damn you.