DeAngelo Hall's 92-yard interception for a touchdown helped the Redskins win the game
The Washington Redskins beat the Chicago Bears in a huge road win, 17 to 14. This game will go down in history for numbers of turnovers by cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who not only had four interceptions, but had one for a touchdown. Not only was this Redskins win big because it was a road win, it was also against an NFC team. And when the end of the season comes, depending on their overall record, this could be important.
If D-Hall is not MVP of the game, and perhaps NFC Defensive Player of the Week, it’ll be a surprise.
The win was not pretty for Washington offensively. The Chicago Bears dominated in that regard – especially in the third quarter, even though the Washington defense had five turnovers in the game.
A really gratifying factor for Redskins fans was watching defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. His individual stats were good – he had two solo tackles, one assist and a sack – and he used up offensive linemen like Kleenex. At one point in the first half, he started moving forward, took three offensive linemen with him and ended up shoving offensive lineman Chris Williams into Jay Cutler. All of them landed on the quarterback. Haynesworth was definitely the “force” that his teammates talked about earlier this week. One has to wonder how differently the game against the Indianapolis Colts would have been had the big defensive tackle played.
“It just felt good to out and play and get life situations off my mind,” Haynesworth said tonight after the game. “I feel like I can still play as good as I did in the past and now with being a little more settled in the defense, now I don’t really have to really play in Okie and stuff which is the run defense. All I have to do is stuff I did in Tennessee so I felt more comfortable in defense so you should see more production from me.”
With a little over eleven minutes left in the third quarter, the Bears were ahead 14 to 10 and were knocking on the door to score again. It was first and goal on the one and a half yard line and Haynesworth came into the scrum from the end zone to stop any forward movement of the Bears. He caused a fumble which the Redskins recovered to stop Chicago on that drive.
This is not to say nothing good happened offensively. Running back Ryan Torain had 125 yards on 21 carries. That is reminiscent of the days when running back Clinton Portis was totally healthy. It’s been a long time coming, having a running game like that. It’s hard to believe that with those kinds of yards, the team only converted two of 10 third-downs for first downs.
With turnovers the theme of this game, another player that was questionable earlier in the week came to make a difference in the outcome. Linebacker Rocky McIntosh, who had suffered a concussion and wasn’t a sure thing for this game, ended up forcing Bears running back Matt Forte to fumble at the Bears 25-yard line. When the Redskins offense failed to capitalize yet again – and even ended up with a fumble by Torain on that drive – it was frustrating.
However, that didn’t turn out to be a problem because the Bears gave it right back in the form of one of the most exciting plays of the day – the one-handed grab by DeAngelo Hall off of a Jay Cutler pass attempt that he ran for the touchdown. It is safe to say that today, DeAngelo Hall was in “the zone.” Between him showing how focused he was by reading what Jay Cutler was doing as well as he did, and then watching teammate Carlos Rogers blocking for him as well as he did, that 92-yard touchdown interception was a sight to behold.
The offensive line had some substitutions – Stephon Heyer went in for right tackle Jammal Brown at one point – and they had their ups and downs in this game. Donovan McNabb was sacked twice and there were plays when the Bears defensive front rushed freely into the backfield. Halfway through the first quarter, D.J. Moore grabbed a tipped pass attempt by McNabb and ran it into the end zone. By the same token, with a little over a minute left in the first quarter, there was the 24-yard pass to Santana Moss which tied the game seven all.
The Redskins trailed 14–10 when Hall made the one-handed interception and the touchdown. That made it 17-14 and with another interception from Hall early in the fourth quarter and then one when Cutler attempted a long pass to Johnny Knox, there were no more scores in the game.
Needless to say, the Redskins defense saved the game. Final stats were:
Washington’s Donovan McNabb completed 17 passes out of 32 attempts for 200 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Ryan Torain gained 125 yards off of 21 carries with his longest run being 27 yards. Santana Moss gained 63 yards off of five receptions and one touchdown. Tight end Chris Cooley logged 52 yards from seven receptions.
Chicago’s Jay Cutler completed 26 passes out of 40 attempts for 281 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions. Matt Forte gained 41 yards off of 10 carries with his longest run being 10 yards. Johnny Knox gained 86 yards off of six receptions and one touchdown. And Devin Hester logged 30 yards from five receptions.
