I don't know whether it's worse to be blown out in a game or to get involved in a back and forth scoring fest where the last team to have the ball scores and it's not you. The latter is what happened in my 41-38 week two loss to the Saints. As planned, this week I spent a lot of time on my offensive and defensive lines in practice, and I did in fact see better results than in last week's debacle in New York. This was an absolute barnburner that I thought I'd won when I scored a touchdown with 18 seconds left to go up 38-34. But Drew Bress managed to move downfield and put one into the endzone from my 5 with no time left to win by 3. Now that I've had a few minutes to calm down, here's the breakdown of how the game went.

Offense

Having scored 15 points the week before, 38 isn't too shabby for my Redskins. On the other hand, I had a two touchdowns that didn't come by way of my offensive unit. This week Jason Campbell went 25/40, identical to last week's total in my loss to the Giants. Remember when I said I wouldn't throw 40 passes again? I guess I lied. Campbell had 351 yards and 3 touchdowns and an interception. The pick came late in the game when I was trying to get back into it and could have cost me, but Campbell threw two touchdowns in the fourth quarter for what should have been enough to win.

The O line did a bit better in pass protection this week. We still gave up 4 sacks, but two of them were coverage sacks and I was pretty satisfied with their protection of Campbell. What I'm not happy with is the combined 25 carries for 72 yards between Ladell Betts and Samkon Gado. Had I been able to pound the ball a bit better, I might have been able to manage this game a bit better instead of going back and forth on scoring drives with Drew Brees.

Even though the offense moved the ball well, there were a few other disappointing areas. Though his numbers don't show it, Campbell missed on a couple of big opportunities where he either settled for a check-down when someone was open deep, or threw off target passes to players who were wide open. The receivers made their share of mistakes as well. In total they had 6 dropped passes. We've got to do a better job of supporting our quarterback.


Defense

Oh where to begin? Drew Brees threw for 473 yards and 4 touchdowns, his only mistake being a pick 6 by way of Carlos Rogers that nearly cost the Saints the game in the fourth quarter. Terrance Copper had 7 receptions for 222 yards and 3 touchdowns. Terrance Copper!? We had an issue with big plays last week and that continued. Our pass rush was a bit better with 2 sacks from Andre Carter and 1 from Demetric Evans, as well as a few other times where Drew Brees was hurried. Rookie Phillip Merling didn't have a sack but did have one great play where he blew up Brees causing an errant throw.

What can I say about our secondary? It was in trouble last week with Shawn Springs in, and without him we were absolutely and unbelievably terrible. The pick 6 by Rogers was the only right spot. The rest of the day our DBs were chasing WRs down from behind. The play of our safeties in particular was very poor, as Bernard Pollard was burned over the top several times. Remind me again why I traded for that guy?

Special Teams

Shaun Suisham made the only field goal I asked him to kick, so he's still got a job. We did have a huge mistake where Reggie Bush returned a kick for a touchdown that made me want to pull out what little hair I have on my head. On teams our saving grace was Antwaan Randle El who had a touchdown return of his own to end the first half.

Highlights

Antwaan Randle El was once again a difference maker with 7 receptions for 69 yards and a kick return for a touchdown. Santana Moss has been surprisingly quiet these first two games. Chris Cooley did everything I wanted this week and more with 5 catches for 99 yards and two TDs. These two touchdowns came in the fourth quarter when we were down by 10 points, so we can start calling him "Clutch" from here on out. Limas Sweed followed up last week's stellar performance with 2 more catches for 37 yards, but was outshined by fellow rookie Mario Manningham's 4 catches for 67 yards. If Mario hadn't dropped two passes he'd have had an even better day.

Injuries

Portis and Springs still out is my biggest concern right now.  Both are out another couple of weeks and H.B Blades is out a couple of days but should be back next week.


Final Thoughts

Right now my approval rating is at 16 after my heartbreaking loss to the Saints.  I've got to win my next game at home against the Cardinals or this may be a very short career.  The Cards are also 0-2 so this is my best bet so far.  I didn't end up signing any help for my defensive backfield last week but at this point I don't think I have a choice.  Had I not been burned over and over again, this is a game that could easily have been a blowout for us.  I'll continue to work on improving the line play on both sides of the ball, and if we can make the kind of progress we made last week, we may do ok against the Cards.

1-2 here we come!