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Lions Feel Redskins' Pain
The Redskins sacked Lions quarterback Jon Kitna five times. Defensive end Andre Carter had two, including this one for a third-quarter safety.
(By Jonathan Newton -- The Washington Post)
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While it might be a bit much to say Gibbs has a cosmic connection to his players, they nonetheless responded to the week away and the subsequent pleadings to not fall apart late in the day. The result was one of their most dominant wins -- offensively, they had 366 total yards and, defensively, they held Detroit to just 144. Kitna came into the game leading the NFL with an average of 306 passing yards a game. Yesterday, he had just 106.
The strange thing is that the Redskins didn't plan anything special to stop him. Usually Williams is known for his imaginative blitzes, sending players running at the quarterback from all angles of the field. His trademark is aggressiveness, figuring it is always better to make the quarterback panic before he throws.
This time, however, Williams didn't install a single blitz. Instead he asked his defensive linemen to push forward through the Lions' offensive line and try to get to Kitna themselves. This is often a near-impossible task because there are usually five offensive linemen protecting the quarterback and four defensive linemen attacking him -- a fact Detroit Coach Rod Marinelli glumly pointed out after his linemen failed at their task, giving up five sacks and leaving Kitna flustered countless other times.
Several of the Redskins players who had played with or against Kitna in the past said it was the worst they had seen him perform.
"Or maybe it was as good as we played," said cornerback Shawn Springs, a former teammate of Kitna's on the Seattle Seahawks.
Either way, the win seemed to give the Redskins a boost as they dressed and left the locker room. Next weekend, their stiffest challenge to date looms in the form of Green Bay, which is experiencing a renaissance with quarterback Brett Favre, who will turn 38 on Wednesday. And as good a quarterback as Kitna has been, Favre is one of the all-time greats. Complicating matters is an ever-growing list of injured that includes the Redskins' top wide receivers (Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El) and linebacker Marcus Washington.
But such concerns were for another day. Yesterday was left to savor yet another victory over Detroit, the franchise's 21st straight in Washington against the Lions.
A day when the Redskins made the best passing offense in football suddenly turn cold.
