Week 2: Skins @ Rams | Sept 16 4 PM FOX

[Rafael122]

Not sure why this is a 4 o'clock game, but the Skins travel to St. Louis to take on Sam Bradford and the Rams.

The Rams' offensive line is ABYSMAL, arguably worse in the league, so I think the Rams will have a tough time keeping our front seven away from Bradford.

All eyes will be on RG 3, obviously. But I will keep an eye out on two guys: Alfred Morris, to see if last week was a fluke or the start of a solid rookie year and Trent Williams. Williams dominated last week, and if he keeps hsi head on straight and away from the weed, could be a top 5 left tackle in this league. He's going up against Chris Long.

[W. Unseld]

Alderick the WR is another guy. If he shows well two weeks in a row it'll start to look like we've got a real burner. I'm guessing they go with Hankerson (not as the starter but in the rotation). Rams put up a tough fight and barely lost in Detroit and Chris Long was much quieter than usual.

I can't wait to see the adjustments for RG3 now that NFL teams have some tape. I'm hoping that there is basically no way to adjust.

[LyricalRico]

Thanks for the thread, Raffy!

I'm definitely expecting the Skins defense to dominate in this game, and I think RG3 will have another nice game on the turf in St Louis. Jeff Fisher is a great coach, but not enough to overcome the lack of talent on that team. I think the Skins win by double digits.

[hands11]

So is it going to just a be jail break from the beginning ?

As big a story as RG3 is, the secondary was the bigger surprise.

I mean people expected RG3 to be good. It was just a matter of how much of that would translate into game speed and how quickly he could adjust.

On the other hand, the story was that the secondary would suck. It did not only NOT suck, they were impressive. If they can keep that up, that is a game changer. We projected to have a really good front 7 on D. Well if the secondary is going to play like they did last week, that front seven can play a lot more aggressive.

For a offensive line like the RAMs have, that could spells disaster.

So what I'm want to learn from this game is about the defense. Are they going to be a good defense or a great defense that causes ciaos with lots of pressure. Because if we have that kind of defense and RG3 and the offense can just produce at 70-80% of what they did last week, then we have a playoff team capable of making some noise.

That would be way ahead of schedule for the rebuild.

The story this week should be as much about the defense as it is about the offense.

Prediction ? I expect the Skins to be up at half time and for them to win the game. Its anyones guess if they can open up a 14 pts or more lead but I think they bring home another win and mostly control the game.

[Nivek]

I wrote a piece about this game over at redskins.sportsblog.com. (Will be shifting to a new blog there next week -- broomonthewarpath.sportsblog.com.) I hate the "should win" commentary. The Skins have been the squad other teams talk about as "should win" -- as in, "We 'should win' against the Skins." I think Washington has the better team, and that they're healthier. I think that they will win. But my guess is that it's probably going to be a close game.

[Rafael122]

One of the worse losses in the last 5 years. Absolutely HATED the way we lost this game.

[Nivek]

I don't know about that Raffy -- I can think of worse losses. This one sucked, though.

Three takeaways from this game:

1. Griffin is good, but he's still a rookie. He made some bad throws. That said, he had the team in position to kick a FG and go to OT.

2. The defense looks overrated. They got gashed in the run game by a patchwork offensive line that was already banged up, and had two more injuries during the game. And they can't cover anyone.

3. The replacement refs suck.

[Rafael122]

Haz played zone and Bradford picked us apart. All game long. Our secondary is absolute garbage, more specifically our safeties.

[Nivek]

Haslett probably figured that they could pressure Bradford with 4-5 guys rushing, especially since 2 of those 4-5 were Kerrigan and Orakpo, and that the Rams offensive line was a) not that good to begin with, and b) injured on top of that. Guess he was wrong about that.

[Higga]

Can't believe Morgan let Finnegan trollbait him like that. Unbelievable.

But we lost because Haslett is the absolute worst D-Coord in the league. Guy can not make in game adjustments at all. I know our secondary is bad but there is no reason they should make Danny Amendola look like Calvin Johnson out there.

[DMVleGeND]

Such a disheartening loss. So many dumb mistakes, yet we were still in it until Josh Morgan lost his cool.

The defense is what lost us the game though. Was Haslett being paid by the Rams to call dumb plays? Stop with the f'ng zone!

[Rafael122]

Orakpo done for the year with a torn pec, same one he hurt last year. Carriker done for the year with a torn quad.

[W. Unseld]

Orakpo done for the year with a torn pec, same one he hurt last year. Carriker done for the year with a torn quad.

Silver lining: 2-3 years ago we wouldn't have had much depth, but I really like Chris Wilson and Rob Jackson has replacements for Orakpo and Jenkins should be a good Carricker replacement.

Negative whining: That was the dirtiest, cheapest game I've seen in the past 10 years of the NFL. Call 1/4 of the after the whistle stuff on the Rams and the Skins win running away.

Agree with the complaints about the lack of any adjustments on defense. How do you not jam Amendola at the line--especially the goal line?

[Higga]

Thankfully we're strong at DL and LB, but there will definitely be a drop off not having Rak and Carriker in there.

Gonna have to rely even more on the rookie QB leading us to shootout wins like in Week 1.