Sunday, September 9, 2012

Robert Griffin III is Looking Great in the Season Opener


I'm watching the Redskins' season opener against the Saints, and Robert Griffin III looks quite good.

There are eight minutes left in the third quarter, and the Skins lead 30-14

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Griffin completed his first 9 passes. A bunch of the completions were the old Joe Gibbs sideline swing pass, but one of them was an absolutely beautiful lead across the middle of Pierre Garcon -- it turned into a 91 yard touchdown when Garcon outran the CB.

Alfred Morris looks solid at RB (he's a rookie, 6th round draft pick from Florida International), and WR Aldrick Robinson has had a couple of nice catches (including a touchdown on another beautiful pass from Griffin). 

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Griffin looks confident (a significant change from Rex Grossman last year in this respect). He has a range of touches on his throws: he's zipped a few (including the touchdown to Robinson, which was not a lead), but he has also made a couple of softer touch passes. 

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Also, our defense has forced the Saints into 4 three-and-outs!  Drew Brees threw one beautiful touchdown to Jimmy Graham (he went high in double coverage), but the Saints' other score was a blocked punt and they have not gained much yardage.  The secondary must be covering the Saints' receivers pretty well, although DeAngelo Hall is the only name I recognized when they showed the starters.

Stephen Bowen has played particularly well on the defensive line.  He batted down a Brees pass on their very first third down, and he just got through the line on a run play to enable DeAngelo Hall to tackle Pierre Thomas for a loss. Bowen went to Hofstra and is in his seventh season.

Let's hope that we can grind out some drives to burn the clock and get the season started with a "W"!