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Washington beats St Louis 20-17    [ Rants ]

The Redskins beat the Rams in front of nearly 80 thousand fans on Sunday - woohoo!   It was a hell of a game, I nearly yelled myself hoarse at FedEx field.   Jessica was lucky enough to buy tickets to the game from her former boss, who has season tickets in section 112, row 21.

Looks like Danny Wuerfful's a pretty good QB after all, he got the fan's respect after pushing through against the Rams' defense to set up 3 TD's from Stephen Davis and scrambling for a critical first down in one drive.   The 'Skins kicking game, for lack of a better term, absolutely sucked.

We got there about an hour early with PJ (Jessica's 12 year old younger brother), so we got to watch the stadium fill up and see the whole pregame hoopla.   Had beautiful weather for the game, 55 degrees and sunny, almost no wind.

The Redskins received the ball, managed to get some distance down the field, but then killed their drive with two poorly executed throws and a flea-flicker (bet Sonny, Sam and Frank were yelling about that one) that went nowhere.   The Rams got the ball, but didn't get far before Washington got another chance.   That didn't pan out when James Tuthill hit the uprights on a 40-yard field goal, so the Rams got the ball back.   They promptly ran up the score to 10-0 by the first few minutes of the second quarter.

Washington started to turn it around in the second quarter, driving back down the field with a solid running game from Stephen Davis.   Unlike earlier games, they kept the drive going - no 3rd-down crises, and when push came to shove, they went for the first down on 4th and short rather than punt or try for a field goal.   "Big Country" took it into the end zone to make it a 10-7 game.

The Rams started their drive down the field, with Kurt Warner showing why he's such a great QB by keeping the ball in the air and finding open receivers.   The 'Skins defense was mixed on the pass rush - there were a lot of plays where Warner had all the time in the world to toss the ball, but as the Rams got closer to the end zone, the pressure came down heavy.   Washington got a critical interception inside the 20 yard line, forced by a blitz on Warner, to take the game back from St Louis.   The half ran out before the 'Skins could do anything with the possession, though.

Washington's defense held the Rams in the third quarter, showing for the second time their ability to stop a strong offense, and made St Louis punt on fourth and long.   Champ Bailey took the return and blazed down the field, bringing the fans out of their seats as he took the ball down to the Rams' side of the field.   Danny Weurffel and Stephen Davis pushed down the board, and put in another touchdown for the 'Skins to make it 14-10.   The rather loud St Louis fan behind us in the stands started clamming up as the rather loud Washington fans asked him what the score was now, and would he like to comment on it?

The defense pushed strong against St Louis on the next possession, taking them back to the 3 yard line and nearly getting a safety on Kurt Warner, making him eat dirt in the end zone.   LaVar Arrington and Fred Smoot kept up the pressure on the St Louis offense, and it started to wear on the Rams.   They punted, and Washington took it into the goal again, setting up for a missed kick hold that cost the 'Skins an extra point, making it 20-10.

The Rams came back in the fourth quarter, driving for another touchdown, but ate up precious minutes off the clock.   There were 6 minutes left when Washington got the ball, but it ended up back in St Louis' hands with three and a half minutes left.   They drove down the field, and were on the 'Skins 6-yard-line with 17 seconds left.

The Skins defense prevailed when LaVar Arrington smashed Kurt Warner, knocking the ball free, and turning the game back to the Redskins.   A looong official review of the play returned in Washington's favor, and the contest was over, 20-17 in favor of the home team.

We had a long drive back from the game - we parked at the crumbling building and parking lot formerly known as USAir arena and took the shuttle bus over and back.   It was only 5 minutes on the way over, but over an hour on the return trip after the game.   Then we got to slog through the inner loop of the Beltway to the Wilson Bridge with about forty thousand of our closest friends from the game (the other forty thousand were on the outer loop).   Took about 3 hours to get home, all told, but it was a fun day on the field.