Miscue After Miscue as Skins Fall to Rams

No offense to the St. Louis Rams, but when teams outside of the NFC West see the Rams pop up on their schedule, they have to feel good about it. Ever since their last trip to the Super Bowl, it's been all downhill. Multiple picks in the top 5 in the last few years should equate to a team that isn't supposed to win too many games. Until their week three matchup with the Redskins, they hadn't.

Coming off an overtime loss to the Houston Texans (a game the Skins easily could have, and should have, won), they traveled a little west for their first road game of the season, going up against the 0-2 St. Louis Rams. Despite having a terrible running game so far this year, the Skins passing offense behind Donovan McNabb was firing on all cylinders last week, something he looked to continue this week.

McNabb didn't impress, but he wasn't all that terrible against the Rams either. He completed just over 50 percent of his passes for 236 yards, as well as a touchdown to Santana Moss in the second quarter. He also threw an interception in the fourth quarter that sealed the Skins fate. Not that the one interception was the deciding factor, though. The Skins blew the game much earlier than that.

Miscues had to have been the word of the day for Washington. The opening kickoff sailed out of bounds, Moss fumbled due to lack of ball security, a punt was blocked due to the defender being untouched, and it seemed as if Washington was being called for a penalty on just about every other play.

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The one bright spot for the Skins had to be the second quarter. In the second fifteen minutes of play, the Skins dug themselves out of a 14 point hole to bring it within one at the break. The running game finally got going, with touches for Clinton Portis and Ryan Torain equally effective. They finished with 90 combined yards, most of which came in that second quarter, on 14 combined carries. For some reason though, that was just about the extent of the running game, as the Skins didn't really get back to it in the second half, even after they briefly gained a 16-14 lead on a Graham Gano field goal a couple minutes into the third.

The Redskins are going to have to shake this one off if they want to pull back to 2-2 after next week. The Skins travel to Philly to face the red hot Eagles, who, behind Michael Vick, have looked very impressive in their two wins this year. This will be the much publicized return to Philadelphia for Donovan McNabb, who had spent his entire career as an Eagle before being traded to Washington this past offseason.

By Matthew Dagen
ProFootball-fans.com Washington Redskins Correspondent