Game 11: Redskins 30, Colts 17

Bonus coverage! This is the week 3 matchup between Indianapolis and Washington, so of course it's a matchup of the top two picks in the draft: Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, who I'd like to get a look at before the Rams' home opener. The pre-game said he struggled against Chicago's pass rush in their previous game, but at the same time, he's adapting nicely to life as a pocket QB and has shown some lethality on the run. Let's see how he does against the team that beat the Rams by five TDs two weeks before...

FIRST QUARTER
RG3 gets the ball first, at his 34. Bomb for Pierre Garcon off play-action barely misses, and Garcon was open. As he showed at the Shrine Game, Alfred Morris proves very hard to tackle for 4. Blitz comes in clean on RG3 on 3rd down, but he fakes the blitzer and runs off right end and dives for the first down. RG3 throws a nice quick hitch to Garcon for 4, but on 3rd-and-2, the Colts are blitzing again, and RG3 does not even appear to see the LB coming and gets drilled for a big hit. Got the pass away, but he'll need to show a lot better blitz recognition than that to survive his rookie season.

Yeah, suddenly now Adam Carriker can play 4-3 DT, making a couple of run stuffs out of that offensive front. Jim Haslett rushes 3 out of a 3-4 look on 3rd down and drops everybody else back, but Luck finds DONNIE AVERY on a drag route, and the noted physical WR runs through a LB for the Colts' first 1st down. Next play, big shocker, smoke route to Avery goes nowhere. THAT, we're used to from Avery. Colts pick up a blitz out of 4-3 to allow Luck to hit T.Y. Hilton for 10. Is the T.Y. for Thank You? A clipping penalty on center Samson Satele kills the drive. Barry Cofield whipped Satele on 1st to force a quick pass, a DeAngelo Hall blitz on 2nd blew up an attempted shovel pass, and the Colts surrendered with a handoff on 3rd. Could be poor eyesight on my part, but Haslett seemed to use a lot of 4-3 on that drive. Also, Brian Orakpo is out.

Alfred Morris continues to show why he was a member of RamView's Never Draft A Kicker class when it takes a half-dozen Colts to tackle him after a short gain on 2nd down. On 3rd-and-2, Griffin tries the bomb for Garcon again but misses it by more this time. And it wasn't open. Three-and-out, though I doubt they would have bombed away again in a real game.

Colts start this drive from their 8. Luck beats a blitz with a completion to Reggie Wayne over the middle for one first down, but Haslett gets him the next time by blitzing London Fletcher, with Ryan Kerrigan and Chris Wilson, in the Orakpo role, meeting at the QB to split the sack. Steven Bowen whips a man on the inside to sack Luck again on 3rd down, and it's hard to believe the Rams aren't going to have similar problems with the Redskins' speed on the LOS and the number of angles Haslett will throw at them. One thing is that the Colts haven't tried very much running so far.

RG3 continues to show a strong, accurate arm on short passes, including a 3rd-and-2 bullet to Josh Morgan at midfield on Washington's opening series. The pocket closed on RG3, but he bounced outside and made the throw. Unlike most rookie running QBs, he hasn't been looking to run first.

SECOND QUARTER
Nice run/pass mix by Kyle Shanahan here. Pounds Morris three times for about 15, which sets up play-action for RG3. Griffin does a nice job to step up from Dwight Freeney's pressure and hit Garcon for 18 in the red zone. Morris powers off right guard and nearly scores from about 20 out, but gets to finish it off the next play with another excellent, second-effort, power run. This guy's not going to be the opening day starter? Um, okay.  Redskins 7-0

Meanwhile, RG3 looks every bit as good as, well, Sam Bradford at the moment, though he's really benefiting from Morris' play.

Redskins keep pretty good pressure on Luck throughout the next drive, but he does a good job repeatedly stepping up out of pressure and leads Indy to a game-tying 79-yard TD drive. He hits Wayne for 21, Avery on another short drag, and Hilton beautifully for a 31-yard TD behind Madieu Williams on the out-and-up. Pretty clear that Bradford is going to have to be good on the move if he's going to do anything against the Redskins week 2. Redskins 7, Colts 7 Scott Wells and Harvey Dahl are also going to have to do a better job on Cofield than the Colts are. Also, Haslett seems to know when the Colts are running and always has the box stacked for it. So Jackson's going to see a ton of that - nothing new there - so all the more important that Bradford's going to have to be light on his feet againt Haslett's pass rush.

Washington responds with a fine long TD drive of its own, though it's fueled more on the ground than it is by Griffin through the air. Morris - I still can't believe he isn't starting the season - continued to grind up the Colts front and also proved he can get outside, bouncing left for a big 20-yard run. Tim Hightower, who won't even make the team, bounced a run outside for another 15 to get Washington inside the 5. Along the way, Griffin continued to look poised and threw several short-yardage darts, including a short TD pass to Santana Moss. Redskins 14-7 Colts can't really stop them at all at the moment. The Skins are running too well, and Griffin's been getting the ball out too quickly. Also, both of the big runs this drive went around left end behind crushing blocks by LT Trent Williams. He's Robert Quinn's matchup for week 2.

The one thing Griffin hasn't shown yet is ability to hit anyone deep. The Skins took their third shot of the half with Leonard Hankerson this time, but they seem to miss by more on every try. RG3 clearly has the arm for it, though, which is enough of a threat by itself.

The good matchup between the rookie QBs continues through the last minute of the half as Luck gets the Colts back across midfield, but a Hail Mary is just broken up at the goal line to preserve the halftime lead for the home team. Wilson is playing like his hair is on fire; Indy has had to resort to double-teaming him down the stretch. And he's the backup!

THIRD QUARTER
Washington holds the Colts to one first down before forcing a punt after the halftime break. Colts can't get anything going on the ground at all; the rare time Donald Brown does find a running lane, the Redskin safety shuts it down. They've supported the run well all night. London Fletcher's blitz forces a rushed throw out of bounds from Luck, and the punt.

RG3's first really bad throw is a 20-yarder well behind Garcon to start the next drive. He hasn't had to do a lot of throwing downfield in this game. Future opponents will probably want to make him prove he can hit those, though the rest of his game does not suggest a problem there. The problem at Redskin Park is that they're too stupid to start Alfred Morris, who goes over the 100-yard mark (14-107) with a nice cutback run for 20 on a sweep right that the Colts had stuffed. The passing game sputters a little bit, though, which leads to a punt.

Indy's Luck has run out; Chandler Harnish now at the reins of the Colts. The Redskins have sent in the backup defense as well, so I'll be phoning it in from here. Good news for Wilson; he still counts as a backup and stays on the field, where, after the Redskins stuff yet a couple more runs, he whips the right tackle and buries Harnish in the end zone. Chris Wilson's a player to keep an eye on. Redskins 16-7

Laugh of the night comes as the home crowd boos the entry of Rex Grossman into the game. Hightower charges for 8 on first down, but fails to get the rest on two more tries. Send in the punter.

The Redskin D continues to dominate the battle of the backups, with Lorenzo Alexander's sack forcing the Colts off the field this time. Nothing fancy here; the Skins are just rushing vanilla out of 3-4 sets. More than a little embarrassing the Rams didn't look better against an offensive line that's looked pretty outmatched all game here.

Dominating field position so far this half, the Radskins are quickly in FG range after play-action from Grossman to Anthony Armstrong for 20. Rex next beats a blitz with a quick slant to Terrence Austin inside the 15, followed by a pretty easy TD to Morgan on a post route. Can't say I've noticed Justin King as one of the Colt corners getting beaten in this game, which comes as a shock. Redskins 23-7

Even though play-action has little reason to be effective at this point, Harnish and the Colts do succeed in using it to string some passes together, and get across midfield in time for the end of the third.

FOURTH QUARTER
Harnish and the Colts o-line looks a lot more composed as they march into the red zone, with Harnish getting good protection and hitting Britt Whalen several times. Deji Karim fumbles at the 10 on a 3rd-and-short run, though. The Colts win a review and get to keep the ball but Chuck Pagano pusses out on 4th-and-1 and kicks the FG. It's preseason! Adam Vinatieri doesn't need 28-yard FG practice! Ugh. Got another Spagnuolo here. Redskins 23-10

Redskins get out of a hole when a Colt LB stupidly touches Grossman on top of the helmet (and Redskins color man Joe Theismann just as stupidly complains about the call and blames it on the fake zebras when Ed Hochuli would have made the exact same call). Grossman then bombs away to Dezmon Briscoe across midfield and hits a swing pass to Tristan Davis for another 15. Nice leaping catch over the middle by Austin puts them at the 12, then a fairly-easy catch for a very open Briscoe on a simple post route scores Washington another TD. Redskins 30-10 Grossman's 8-8-120 with 2 TDs.

Harnish hits Jeremy Ross with a 20-yard out, and after Kevin Barnes' terrible blown tackle, Ross tacks on another 40, turning Reed Doughty several directions before Doughty can finally make the tackle. Without looking it up - I'm on dialup today, it's not very easy - I'd hope Ross at least made the Colts practice squad; he's turned in some big plays this preseason. After Harnish scrambles down to the 10, Bryan Kehl's blitz forces a throwaway and 4th down, but Darren Evans plunges in for the score. So now Pagano's OK with going for it? Forgive me for not being thrilled with the Colts' near-term prospects. Redskins 30-17

3:48 to play, with Kirk Cousins to mop up for the Redskins. Big cheer that Grossman is out, even though he just turned in a perfect passer rating. It's a 3-and-out with Cousins getting walloped on a 3rd-down miss.

2:50 left. Haslett still blitzing, so Harnish goes deep down the sideline and the Colts get a friendly call on a hit on the receiver. One thing the fake zebras are calling is anything remotely close to a hit on a defenseless receiver. Harnish gets the Colts inside the Redskin 40 despite facing a lot of blitzing. Brandon Thompson breaks up a 4th-down pass for the Redskins to stick a fork in this one.

Final score: Redskins 30, Colts 17

What have we learned: Unlike what you'd expect from rookie QBs, Griffin's willing to stay int them week 1. And they're having trouble getting any running game going. Good luck, kid.

Player of the game: The Redskins' broadcast agrees with me: despite Grossman's perfect game, Alfred Morris gets the POTG, 14-107 with a TD. Skins keep getting a ground game like that, they will be difficult to reckon with.

Up next: I think that's probably it. Happy football season!

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