#1 Passing Offense My Ass...

Much was made of the vaunted passing game of the Lions going in to yesterday's game. But when we reached gametime, the Skins shut down the Lions' entire offense. The Defense held the Lions' offense to 144 total! Only 76 of that was in the air! We held the Lions to 11 first downs. The Lions were 1-10 on 3rd down conversions. One 3rd down conversion in the whole game!! We got 5 sacks on Kitna, including 1 for a safety (not that it's really hard to sack a QB who moves slower than Tippy Turtle). We forced 4 fumbles (didn't recover any of them, though) and had 2 interceptions, one for a TD. Then, our offense finally clicked, too. In a major way. Jason Campbell was 23 for 29 for 248 yards. Despite the fact that our #1 receiver (Moss) was out with an injured hamstring and our #2 (Randle El) went out at the half with the same, Campbell spread the ball around to 8 different receivers.

Speaking of receivers, I have to follow up on my rant yesterday. On the depth chart, Brandon Lloyd is supposed to be the #3 receiver. Moss is out with an injury, so who do they put up opposite Randle El? James Thrash (not that I have anything against Thrash - I don't). But then Randle El goes out at the half, so you figure Lloyd will go in then, right? Wrong. He did actually make it into the game on one play (that I saw) and caught a pass for 9 yards. But they even passed to McCardell twice, and he had only been with the team for six days! There has to be something else going on there. For some reason, Gibbs or Saunders must be pissed off at Lloyd and they're keeping him out. I wish they would just come out and say it. They didn't seem to have a problem bashing Archuleta and Arrington in a roundabout way when they were having problems with them. But they keep saying they want Lloyd involved, but it's hard to be involved from the sideline. Even the commentators in pre-game show were noticing his lack of presence on the field. I just don't get it.

Ok. Enough. The bottom line is, we won 34-3. If we can keep up this level of play, or even close, we have a good shot at shutting down Favre & the Packers this weekend. Go Skins!!

Go Skins!

Well, it's coming up on gametime and it was just announced that Santana Moss is inactive for the game. McCardell & Caldwell will be in, though. More importantly, hopefully that means Brandon Lloyd will get some game time. I don't know why I've taken a shine to Lloyd, but I really want to see him do well. Maybe it's because he seems like such an underdog to me. He's constantly criticized for making too much money and not making enough of a contribution to the team. The problem with that is that it's very difficult to make a contribution when you're not on the field! Gibbs is always saying how much he likes Brandon and thinks the world of him and really wants to see him pulling his weight, but then Lloyd sits on the sideline! Ok, I know we have Moss and Antwaan Randle El, but shit. Put in a 3- or 4-receiver set. While Randle El and Moss are getting double covered, throw to Lloyd. But we consistently put in 2 receivers then run the ball. So much was made of the vaunted Al Saunders offense when he got here, but I've mostly seen the standard Gibbs running attack. Believe me, I understand the need to run the ball. It's like using the jab in boxing to set up the power shots -- you pound away at the line, eat up the clock, force the D to bring in players to stop the run, then you take a shot downfield. I get it. It's just frustrating for me to see Lloyd (or any player, really) criticized for not producing when he's not getting the opportunity to produce.

Ok, I'll get off the soapbox now. Key for the game today - Skins' secondary. Kitna's on a roll, Lions have the #1 pass offense in the league (though that may be a bit misleading*) and the Lions' receivers are huge. The Skins' secondary is going to have to step up and keep the Lions from completing passes. The D-Line is going to have to get pressure on Kitna. Also, the D-Line can not let the 31st-ranked run offense get any yardage against us! But the key is going to be the 1-on-1 coverage of the Resdkins' corners against the Lions' receivers.

Finally, as previously promised, here's a link to my pictures from the Miami game. I found that Photobucket allows direct links, unlike Kodak Gallery. It also allows apparently unlimited uploads, unlike flickr. Kodak does have better photo editing, though, so that remains my primary photo site.

Go Skins!!

*Thus far, the Lions' offense has been up against the 18th, 29th, 17th and 19th-ranked pass defenses (Raiders, Vikings, Eagles and Bears respectively) that have a collective 5-11 record.

Happy Birthday Julie!

We must have said about 15 times in the past 24 hours, "We have to call Julie to wish her a happy birthday." Of course, we got sidetracked by various things and didn't realize that we hadn't called her until about 10:30, at which point, it was too late to call. Ah well. Happy Birthday!

Almost Forgot

Actually, since I'm posting this the next day, I guess I did forget... Anyway, with regard to our Kentucky trip. I forgot one of the best parts. When we were on our tour, our tour guide Shaun took us to this little store called Wallace Station. There, had the most unbelievable bourbon chocolate ice cream! That's right, I said 'bourbon'! In ice cream! In chocolate ice cream! Yummy!!

Horse Porn

Well... Last Tuesday, Chrissy was looking on the web for updates on a horse named John Henry. He is a 32-year old horse (over 100 in human years) who lives at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. Chrissy had been wanting to go see him at some point and he has been having some health issues recently (no wonder!), so she turns to me and says, "What would you think about going to see John Henry this weekend?" Now, anyone who know Chrissy knows that she likes to plan things out. She's not a big fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants kinda gal. For once, we didn't have anything planned, so I said, "Why not?" So we made arrangements to leave work early on Friday and hit the road! We stayed in Charleston, WV on Friday night, got up in the morning and headed to Lexington. We went to the Horse Park on Saturday, stayed in Lexington Saturday night, and drove home on Sunday. A lot of driving, but well worth it!

At the Horse Park on Saturday, we went to the Hall of Champions, where John Henry currently resides. My wife is so cute. She made little gift bags for John and all the other horses in the Hall of Champions, as well as for the staff of the Hall. She figured that the horses get gifts all the time, and the people get ignored. She's right, too. The staff was tickled pink! Each of the horses got 3 apples, 3 carrots and some peppermints (horses love them - who knew?). John Henry also got a few bananas and a box of chocolate covered donuts. His doctor has pretty much said he can have whatever he wants, if it gets him to eat, and he loves them! The staff there was wonderful. They talked to us and answered all our questions. They even gave John some of our donuts while we were there talking to them! He's a bit of an ornery, grumpy old man, though, so we didn't get to pet him. He has a tendency to bite. After their presentation, we did get to pet Gypsy Supreme and Western Dreamer a little, though.

In the afternoon, we went on a tour of horse farms. Shaun, our guide, was very knowledgeable and very funny. He took us to several of the horse farms in the area. At one of the farms, there were several young (3-year old or so) thoroughbreds in their stalls and we got to walk right up to them and pet them! They were so sweet!! Our favorite was Fantasyafield. She was such a sweet baby. I think everyone on the bus was ready to take her home. Sean called the owner to see what they would want for her and was told that they had already turned down an offer of $150k. If we were Powerball rich, we would have brought her home.

I know, I know... What in the Hell does this have to do with Horse Porn? Ok. On our tour, we were taken to several horse farms. One of them was WinStar Farm. Some of the greatest living throughbreds alive are there for breeding. One of them, Tiznow, apparently doesn't like going in to the breeding process cold, as it were. With horses at this level, if they don't like something, it doesn't get done. So what happens when Tiznow is supposed to breed? You got it. They have to show him video of two other matings first. Ergo, the title of this post.

So, in any case, I think that's about it. I'll be posting a link for pictures of the whole thing at some point. I'm sure I've forgotten about some things, but that's the short version!

Fall TV

Heroes is back!! Yippee!! Not only is it back, but it's good! I was so worried it would suffer a sophomore slump (yay alliteration), but it sustained! :-) The first episode ended, and per usual, I turned to Chrissy and said, "I love this show..." Premiering before Heroes was Chuck, a new comedy about a computer nerd who accidentally gets a ton of government secrets downloaded into his brain (don't ask). It was decent enough to get a second look. It suffices to fill the time until Heroes comes on at 9. I recorded Journeyman, but haven't watched it. I watched the new remake of Bionic Woman on Tuesday. Again, decent enough to merit a second look. The pilot episoded seemed a little uneven, like it was poorly edited, or maybe the script was pared down to fit a 60-minute show. Again, I recorded Life, but haven't watched it yet. It has Damian Lewis, a British actor whom Chrissy and I really like. He was an excellent asshole in The Forsyte Saga. Smallville premiered last night. It was good, but not spectacular. Fairly predictable. I think the only premiere left is season 3 of Supernatural next Thursday. I think that's my most highly anticipated return after Heroes. Can't wait!

Pod People!

I was thinking about the Redskins game. More specifically, I was thinking about the second half of the Redskins game. I kept saying that it was like a different team came out of the locker room after halftime. Then I remembered the recent Nicole Kidman-starring remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It hit me. The Redskins went in to the locker room at the half, they fell asleep, and the pods opened up. Their replicas emerged, put on the uniforms and came out on to the field. It all makes sense now...

Football!!

Today is the second home game of the Redskins. We play the 0-2 New York Giants and we goin' baby! WOO HOO! It shouldn't be nearly as hot as the Miami game. Not only is it 2 weeks later in the year (happy autumn, everyone), but it's a 4:15 game. When we left the Miami game around 4:00, the sun was just hitting the back of the stadium, so we should be out of sun for the whole game today. I think we have a good shot at going 3-0. The Giants are pretty beat up, not to mention just not playing well. Manning is playing hurt, Burress is a game-time decision. Most of all, besides a win, I hope we spank Shockey. He's a punk and I want us to put him in his place.

In other football news, I have a pretty good lineup in my fantasy league. On a whim, I signed up for a league on NFL.com. Good thing, too, because my friend Keith, who has headed up the Yahoo league I've played in for the past two years, just had a baby! (Congrats, Keith!) So, needless to say, he's been a bit busy and missed something he had to do for our draft. BUT... we had an automated draft on the NFL league. I did pretty well. Both my QBs (McNabb & Favre) are iffy, but I have faith that they'll pull it together. Frank Gore, Randy Moss, Chad Johnson. Denver on defense. I may actually have a shot this year! I've done pretty well in the office football pool, too. I'm actually in 4th place overall. Don't know how long it will last.

2-0 Baby!!

Ok, so I'm a lousy fan. It took me three whole days to post on the Redskins victory over the Eagles on Monday Night Football. What can I say? Well, despite the many injuries, the offensive line looked pretty good. Campbell is doing well, though I'm sure he's still kicking himself about overthrowing a wide open Moss. Portis is looking good. Defense is kicking butt in general. Don't know what happened in the 4th quarter, though. When Philly was trying its comeback, they ran all over us. Carlos Rogers was a little sporadic in his coverage. Hope that doesn't come back to bite us on the butt. I just hope we can keep the injuries down to a minimum. That's two linemen out (one for the season, the other most likely) in two games. We can't afford that rate of attrition.

P.S. Did you see that hit by Sean Taylor?? YOW!

Hail to the Redskins!

Ok. Usually, I use Kodak Gallery, but it won't let me post a link for a photo album. I can only share photos there by sending out an email. I have, however, seen several blogs where people post a link to photo albums on flickr. So, I uploaded some of the photos of the Redskins game. Unfortunately, without a premium membership, there is a limit to the amount of pictures one can upload at once, so I didn't include all the pictures. If anyone is interested in the remainder of the pictures, either wait until I can upload the rest, or let me know and I can email you the entire album from Kodak.