New England Patriots slaughter Washington Redskins in third pre-season game
New England Patriots defeated Washinbgton Redskins 41-0 in their third pre-season game.
Quarterback: Tom Brady was brutally efficient. he completed 17 of 30 passes for 231 yards and a touchdown.
Offensive line: Looking good. It hit the right guys even though it wasn’t able to create much running room early in the game. Solid pass protection all the way through. We have seven solid linemen and one or two more might well be adequate.
Runningbacks: A good enough performance. Corey Dillon left the game after gaining 39 yards on a screen play that almost was stopped in the backfield. Kevin Faulk had 38 yards on six rushes, Laurence Maroney 12 on four (one touchdown) and Heath Evand 16 yards on eight carries (one touchdown). Garrett Mills had no carries, one catch for six yards and mostly a pretty weak day blocking. Could well be the odd man out, although he’ll probably make the practice squad. Evans is a vastly better blocker than Mills. Mills had one catch which he promptly turned over to Washington.
Receivers and tight-ends: Ben Watson was the highlight reel of the game with eight catches for 97 yards and one touchdown. Troy Brown snagged 4 catches for 64 yards, including a 36 yard bomb to Washington’s 5 yard line that set up Maroney’s score.
Defense: Simply pulverized Washington’s offense. Recorded seven sacks and gave up a total of 154 yards. Junior Seau made some good plays in his pre-season debut as a Patriot, Mike Wright looked good in the 4-3, Tully Banta-Cain handled both pass-rushing and edge-setting well. Backup nose tackle Jonathan Sullivan is this year’s Monty Beisel. Well, not quite, Beisel was meant to be a starter, I don’t think Bill Belichick had such high-flying plans for Sullivan. Regardless, neither Beisel nor Sullivan have any business playing for New England.
The best thing about the game was that New England’s offense took advantage of Redskins’ particular style of hard-charging defense.
