With injuries to Trent Williams, Laron Landry, Kareem Moore and Clinton Portis, our Redskins struggling air defense and offense will most likely be all the more anemic come Sunday against the Colts. Although it is not certain that Trent Williams, Laron Landry and Kareem Moore will not play on Sunday, they would not be at 100% while playing either. The Colts defense is ranked 29th against the run, but our offense is ranked 25th running so we will not likely exploit this weakness without Trent Williams and Clinton Portis. While the Colts passing defense is ranked 13th, our passing offense is ranked 7th, but without the threat of the run a strong passing attack is unlikely to develop. The biggest scary statistic I came across in preparing for this entry is the ranking of the Colts passing attack compared to the ranking of the Redskins' pass defense. The Colts passing offense is ranked 4th in the NFL, our defense is ranked 30th and that was with Laron Landry and Kareem Moore providing our corner's with air support. I shudder at the thought of the gashes we can expect through the air with a Peyton Manning passing attack. Though the one silver line here is that they will not be at 100% running effectiveness without their first and second string backs so I hope Jim Haslett can find the balance of committing to the air and not to the run without letting the run get away from us.
Additionally, I am a fan of Donovan McNabb I think his heart and commitment are with the Redskins now, but he was off last Sunday in our win over the Packers. He missed some key passes to Anthony Armstrong, Chris Cooley, Joey Galloway and even Mike Sellers at times throwing the ball into the ground or overthrowing our guys when they were wide open. I have faith he will pull it all together during the second half of the season, but that won't help us against the stampeding Colts on Sunday night. Furthermore the Colts still have many of their playmakers on Defense and I have learned watching the Dan Snyder version of the Redskins that we never really seem to have answers for other team's playmakers. For instance I am almost convinced that if Clay Matthews had not gotten hurt in the second half, he would have continued to reak havoc on our already struglling offensive line and an inconsistent Donovan McNabb. He will be okay but I am glad he was not a factor in the second half because truthfully I don't think we could have pulled off the win had he not been removed from the game.
I would love to say we have a good chance of winning on Sunday night, but I really just don't believe that right now with the matchup being as it is. I hope I'm wrong and Jim Haslett and Kyle Shanahan have answers for the disparities on offense and defense.
