The Redskins’ reeling defense suffered a devastating blow Monday when it was announced that star linebacker Brian Orakpo will miss the remainder of the season with a torn left pectoral muscle.
Orakpo, two-time pro bowl selection, suffered the injury early in Sunday’s 31-28 defeat in St. Louis while wrapping up Rams’ quarterback Sam Bradford for his first sack of the season. It’s the same pectoral Orakpo tore in the 2011 regular season finale and aggravated in the preseason. This tear, though, in a different spot.
Tough losses; however, this is the one big difference of this year from previous years is that we have more depth. Jarvis Jenkins will get more time at Carriker's spot. Jenkins was competing for the starting job with Carriker so I don't think there will be much dropoff there. In fact, I think Jenkins is the more talented player but Carriker is the more experienced so he understands how to play the position better but this will be a good opportunity for Jenkins to shine.
As far as the LB spot, Rob Jackson will become the starter but we'll probably see a good amount of Chris Wilson as well. Both these guys played well in preseason and I think they will surprise us with their play.
Great opportunities come from adversity and it's time for these guys to show what they have.
Shanahan also confirmed what most had suspected: Defensive end Adam Carriker will also miss the remainder of the season. He tore a ligament between the quadriceps and knee.
4 comments:
Tough losses. I think the loss of orakpo will really hurt the team. Less pass rush with a weak secoondary will allow other teams to score and require skins offense to try to keep pace thus changing the offensive gameplan each week significantly. I think youll see the redskins trying to establish the run more and maintain possession longer to keep their liable defense off the field. Or they will let it fly as they try to keep pace with other teams that will score easily. Which means great chance fo us to see RG3 exhaustively.
I like Orakpo and it certainly hurts to lose a Pro Bowler but he hasn't performed as well as people would expect. I think the combination of Jackson and Wilson will surprise folks.
Secondary hasn't been that bad. Problem is the media has created the secondary concern and people buy into it. If you watched the Rams game, it looked like it was defensive coaching that resulted in the poor pass defense. We played a soft zone coverage and the Rams WRs found the soft spots and took advantage. Coaches needed to make adjustments and either move to a man to man scheme or tighten the zone coverage and send extra pressure to get Bradford to release quicker. I may be wrong on this but it certainly appeared to be scheme more than personnel.
The offense has been balanced. Last game was 29 pass attempts to 29 rushes. I expect more of the same. No reason to change it unless the score is not even (if we are down big, we will obviously pass it and if we have a big lead, we will run more). We've proven that we can do both effectively so I don't expect that to change.
I def think it had to do with the coaching. They were sitting back in a soft zone. I dont know how talented the corners and safeties are though. Maybe hasslet wonders the same. In any case the front 7 has to get after the qb to have a shot at stopping the pass. And with Orakpo gone itll be harder. Itll be interesting to see how they handle dalton to green this sunday.
I think going into the season the secondary was definitely suspect but they have been okay when they have been put into position to be successful. We'll see how that holds up.
No question the front seven for any team needs to get pressure on the QB because I don't care if you have Deion, Champ Bailey, and Revis all in their primes as CBs, if you give the QB enough time to throw the ball, he will complete it.
I agree that this weekend's game is interesting for both teams. Both teams are young and on the rise so will be interesting to see how it pans out.
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