The Washington Redskins Official Blog

Welcome to week 1 folks. Here in in Washington there are sweeping changes going on. First off Rex Grossman is out as starting Quarterback, 2nd year player Jimmy Claussen, the cast of of the Carolina Panthers and former Golden Boy, has now been given then reigns at QB. We will not be employing the single feature back, but instead will feature three, yes three, running backs. Tim Hightower, Rookie Roy Helu, and underappreciated Mike Goodson will be the backs in this offense. Newly Acquired Brandon Marshall and Anthony Armstrong will get the nods at WR. If everything goes as planned, this will be one potent offense. The Defense also has a few changes. Rookie Ryan Kerrigan and Returning Starters Brian Orakpo and Lawan Landry will anchor this defense which looks to terrorize the Quarterback all day. Things are looking up for the Redskins and this season may be the first step towards a Return to Greatness.

After a back and forth game that featured too many lead changes to count, the New York Giants prevailed over the Washington Redskins 31-28. The game was won on a late 4th quarter Touchdown catch by Hakeem Nicks. After that touchdown the Redskins had 0:22 to work with and they drove all the way down to the Giants 2 yard line only to watch the clock tick to 0:00 as they had no timeouts remaining. Washington coach Sinister "I felt we did a lot of things right today on offense, Helu really shined out there and Jimmy will be proving all his doubters wrong in the coming weeks. Hats off to Coach Jerry, he had his guys ready and they played a helluva game. There is nothing bad to be taken from this game, they were just 3 points better then us today. Notice to all NFC teams, you had better take notice on the Redskins, this is NOT a rebuilding year, we are aiming to win it all NOW not later."

This is definitely going on the sshow. Good stuff. I'll never get tired of seeing Jacobs trucking that safety.

Jacobs didnt do to much trucking like that in the game but he was still a beast that was hard to tackle. Mine and Jerry's games are always like this, no matter the teams.

Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers. 5 of them. That is the biggest reason why the Cardinals lost to the Washington Redskins today. It started with the opening Kickoff. Patrick Peterson fumbled and it was recovered by Mathias Kiwanuka. The very next play, Roy Helu ran for a TD. It was downhill from there for the Cards. Though they moved the ball well, they never seemed to be able to shake the turnover bug with another fumble coming from Kevin Kolb and 3 Interceptions thrown as well. Redskins move to 1-1 behind that ball hawking defense and a not so dominate Offense. Nothing was done particularly well on Offense but they did enough to win and scored when given the chance.

Helu Jr. Proving he should have been higher then a 4th round pick coming out of Nebraska.


In a Shockingly one-sided affair, the Washington Redskins ran all over the St. Louis Rams for a 28-3 win. Jimmy Claussen once again managed the game well, throwing 0 picks and picking up a few key first downs en route to 60 yards passing. The real game winner were the Redskins trio of running backs. With 3 running backs over 85 yards rushing (Helu 93, Lewis 92, Goodson 87) all the Redskins had to do was run, run, run. Brian Orakpo terrorized Sam Bradford for 2 sacks and many hurries. Things are looking up for the 3-1 Redskins going into the Bye week. Hopefully they can keep the momentum up against the Eagles in week 6.

After going 1/5 for 23 yards and 2 Interceptions, Jimmy Claussen was pulled in the week 11 match up against the hated division foe the Dallas Cowboys. This has resulted in Coach Sinister re-evaluating the Quarterback situation in Washington. Jerrod Johnson was inserted in but he went 10/26 also with 2 Interceptions. Washington does have 1 untested Quarterback in Hope Bromley. Coach Sinister stated that he is leaning towards giving Jimmy one more chance but if he does, another game like the one versus Dallas will result in his benching.

Jimmy Clausen has been benched. Enter the Era of Jerrod Johnson. The rookie out of Texas A&M went 7 for 14 for 1 TD and 2 INTs but he injected a much needed energy boost in the offense. Johnson makes teams account for his mobility and he busted off a 9 yard gain for a first down in the game versus the New York Jets. Though he only ran once, the threat of a run seemed to make the Jets play differently. Overall Coach Sinister was happy with the performance saying this "Though he made some rookie mistakes, I saw enough in him to name him the starter for next week's game. We will evaluate his performance after that and move from there. If we are going to make the playoffs, it will be on the arm of Jerrod Johnson."

With the 31-3 Thrashing that the New York Giants put on the Washington Redskins, they fall to 7-7 and ending their playoff dreams in a very competitive NFC. In the game the Redskins could do absolutly nothing on offense. The defense played mildly well, forcing 2 fumbles (not recovering either however) and grabbing one INT, but gave up many big plays in the run game with BOTH Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw going over the 100 yard mark. After the game, Coach Sinister was fuming at his players, he only had this to say "My hat goes off to the New York Giants, they beat the hell out of us today. I wish them all the luck in their play off run. As far as our own team goes. I can only guarantee you one thing, there will be many large changes taking place this offseason. When we come back next year, you will NOT see the same Washington Redskins team. This type of play is unacceptable." There have been rumors of the Redskins shopping Brian Orakpo around to get a Quarterback. They are looking for someone who can start right away, not a long project, but just about any quarterback would be better then the ones that they have.

This year was a crazy year for the Washington Redskins. Even though they are in the toughest division in USSML, they had playoff aspirations. Starting the year 3-1 mostly confirmed these apsirations but after the by they dropped 2 in a row dropping them to the cellar in the NFC East. They were not able to recover after this losing key games to the Cowboys, Seahawks, Giants and Patriots after that.

The major thing that was holding the Redskins back this year was a lack of a passing attack. In the first few weeks 2nd year QB Jimmy Clausen came out hot having around a 90 QB rating. After the bye week however, he fell apart throwing interception after interception in the game deciding moments. It is apparent that Clausen is not a clutch player and this will be dealt with in the offseason. The Redskins also tried Rookie QB Jerrod Johnson but he did not produce any better results.

The best thing to come out of this year was the resurgence of the Redskins Running game. The stats may not indicate this but the Skins were dominant on the ground. Featuring Rookie HBs Roy Helu and Dion Lewis and 3rd year HB Mike Goodson, the Redskins were able to run on almost everyone. The issue that arose was they were playing from behind in a lot of games so the game rested on Clausen a lot. Ryan Torain showed Dominance in Goal Line situations scoring 7 Touchdowns on 54 carries. Roy Helu was easily the most impressive gaining 613 yards on just 86 carries and 8 Touchdowns. He showed the breakaway speed that impressed the Redskins enough to draft him in the 4th round, though he could have been taken much higher. Dion Lewis was a cast off from division rivals the Philidelphia Eagles. Coach Sinister seen something in the kid and grabbed him with the first Free Agency Period and handed him over the Kickoff Return duties. Lewis did not dissapoint taking 2 returns to the house and averaging 30 yards per return. Lewis also helped out in the inside running game. He is so small he is hard to find in the pile and ran for 461 yards on 70 carries for 6 Touchdowns.

Mike Goodson split time as HB and WR, and will be expected to resume this roll next year. HB Tim Hightower was a non-factor and is likely to be cut or traded.

For the receivers, the only 3 to impress Coach Sinister were newly aquired WR Brandon Marshall, Rookie WR Austin Pettis and TE Fred Davis. Marshall came over in the early portion of the season in a deal for Santana Moss and proceeded to be the Redskins only big play threat in the passing game grabbing 4 TDs and averaging 21.8 yards per catch. In a short season, Rookie Austin Pettis showed he has the hands to be a possesion receiver grabbing 9 catches from the slot and not dropping a single pass. Fred Davis showed the ability to break away from coverage and catch the 1st down catch all season long. He will get more looks on 3rd down next season.

On the Defensive Side, Coach Sinister felt as if the Redskins were solid in ever portion of the game, even if the stats do not indicate that. Newly aquired DT Phil Taylor was a clog in the middle making HBs run to the outside more often. Safties Laron Landry and OJ Atogwe roamed the field effectivly and both were the leaders of the Defense. Landry getting 51 tackles and forcing 4 fumbles and Atogwe getting 46 tackles and 6 Interceptions. Cornerbacks Josh Wilson, Captain Munnerlyn, Philip Buchanon, and Buster Skrine did enough to allow Coach Sinister to say they will all be retained and no moves made to change the line up.

In the Offseason the Redskins are excited about the progression that will happen with it's current players and Coach Sinister will be focused on getting a new Starting QB, bolstering the Defensive End position and obtaining another playmaker in the Receiving Corp.