Skins vs. Cowboys: The Great, The Good, and the Not-So-Good

The Great

• NFC East Champions!
• Alfred Morris.  200 yards rushing, 3 TDs, and sets the team record for rushing yards in a single season.
• Jim Haslett.  I've been hard on him in the past, but there's no question his schemes, particularly his ability to disguise coverage, has led directly to turnovers time and again.  The key interception by Rob Jackson was a direct result of Jackson faking blitz and dropping back without Romo noticing.

Skins vs. Steelers: Ugly

Skins struggle with the basics, and I mean pee wee league football basics:

• Catching - 12 drops and counting (Fox Sports says 10, I saw 12)
• Kicking - 12 yard punt and a blocked point-after-touchdown
• Tackling - missed tackles and more missed tackles (including some bad misses by London Fletcher)
• Juvenile Behavior - DeAngelo Hall acts like a frustrated12 year-old and gets ejected

Bright spots?

• RGIII kept his cool and played well 
• Alfred Morris stays his even-keeled self and shows some decisive, tough running
• Kai Forbath makes two more FGs, this time in tough field conditions

So the Skins bright spots come from three rookies ... at least there's hope for the future.

Hard 1st Half for London Fletcher

London Fletcher has had some poor games this year.  Today, in the 1st half alone, he had three bad plays.  He was run over by Ahmad Bradshaw, missed a routine tackle, and then on a 3rd and long he was juked in the open field by Bradshaw who then picked up the first down.  London has had other sub-par games this year.  At the age of 37, after 200+ consecutive games, he might finally be slowing down.

Edit 10/7/12: Apparently London has been suffering from balance issues which have been impacting his performance.  Scary.  Hopefully the issue resolves quickly.

Redskins vs. Rams: The Great, The Good, and The Not-So-Good

The Great
- Not much this week.
- London Fletcher. Last week London had a sub-par game. This week he not only had six tackles, but a huge INT in the endzone and a huge strip to get the Skins the ball late in the 4th quarter with a chance to tie or win.

Celebrating London Fletcher: Best Tackler in the NFL

Once again London Fletcher was snubbed for the Pro Bowl. This is unjust, so let's take just a moment to be perfectly clear about how good London Fletcher really is. By a key index, London Fletcher is the best tackler in the NFL. Period.

London Fletcher: Best Linebacker in the NFL?

Now entering his 14th season, London Fletcher didn't make his first Pro-Bowl until 2009 and is often referred to as "underrated." So how good is he?

To answer the question we can use the statistic +EPA/G. +EPA/G indicates "a defender’s impact on the outcome of his team’s games" by combining things like tackles, sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles, and passes defended into a single computation.

In 2010, London Fletcher had the highest +EPA/G in the NFL among linebackers: 4.53. This was better than Ray Lewis (3.65), Clay Matthews (3.62), Brian Urlacher (3.56), and every other linebacker.

Redskins vs. Giants: 3rd Quarter Live Blog

Live bloggin it for the 3rd quarter...

1) London Fletcher is still the man. To open the quarter, he has an swesome tackle of Bradshaw on the Giants' first drive of the half ... looked like Bradshaw was about to break it, instead just a 4-yard gain. To close the quarter, a sack [edit: was actually credited with half a sack, shared with Neild].

2) Got to feel good for Kerrigan, great play ... tipped the ball, intercepted the ball, scored the TD.