Skins Survive Scare, Improve to 3-1

The Washington Redskins are off to their best start in three years, improving to 3-1 after surviving a late scare from the winless Rams, winning 17-10 in St. Louis. On a day when the Cowboys and Eagles both blew 20+ point leads, the Skins' win was that much sweeter, leaving them atop the NFC East no matter how the the Giants game ended (the Giants eventually won on a questionable call that should have been a fumble in the Cardinals favor, but that's neither here nor there). The offense got the job done in the first half, putting up 17 unanswered points, then the defense closed it out in the second despite what could have been some costly turnovers.

Coming off the loss to the Cowboys on a hard fought Monday Night Football contest, Rex Grossman lead the Skins onto the field in St. Louis expecting to win, hoping to avoid the trap game that has plagued this team so many times before. The Redskins stalled on their first drive, but when they got the ball back, took the ball downfield in 11 plays for the game's first touchdown. Grossman connected with Santana Moss, Moss's second of the season. Moss has had a solid first quarter of the season thus far, averaging just over 60 yards per game on 21 total receptions. The Skins second score of the day came in the second quarter on a Ryan Torain 20-yard touchdown run. The touchdown was Torain's first of the season. In fact, his 19 carries against the Rams were his first touches during the regular season. Torain absolutely made the most of his playing time, as he took those carries for 135 yards, an average of 7.1 per carry, and the aforementioned score. Tim Hightower, the starter weeks 1 through 3, only carried the ball 8 times for 24 yards, and Shanahan felt he was a little too banged up to return to the game, which he didn't really need to the way Torain was running the ball. Jabar Gaffney led the Skins in receiving yards, with 62 yards on 4 catches. The Redskins added a field goal in the third quarter to complete their scoring for the day.

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Throughout the second half, Redskins fans saw what most were expecting with Rex Grossman at quarterback. He started making some bad decisions and started turning the ball over. Thankfully, the defense came to play in St. Louis. The unit as a whole totaled 7 sacks, including 2.5 from Brain Orakpo and another from rookie Ryan Kerrigan. The defense also forced a turnover, a sack on Sam Bradford that led to a Barry Cofield fumble recovery. With the Skins up 17-10, and after a Grossman interception late in the fourth quarter, the defense stepped up with the stand of the season so far. Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis returned the pick to the Skins' 19 yard line, but the Washington defense held strong, and the only place the Reams went was backwards. First down saw a Rams penalty, second saw a 10 yard loss on a sack and then another 5 yards lost on another sack on third down forced a punt. Crisis averted. DeAngelo Hall led the team with 6 tackles, and the Skins kept the Rams under 200 total yards for the game.

Washington heads into their bye week at an impressive 3-1 and in first place in the NFC East. Coming out of the bye week, the Skins will host the Eagles. The media dubbed “Dream Team” dropped to 1-3 after blowing the lead against the 49ers. The Eagles travel to Buffalo next week to play the 3-1 Bills before coming to the nation's capital to play the Redskins.

By Matthew Dagen
ProFootball-fans.com Washington Redskins Correspondent