The Washington Redskins defense was abused for the last seven minutes of the 2nd quarter and in the end, they held the Rams to an attempted field goal – which was blocked for no score.
After the field goal scored by Gano at the beginning of the quarter, the Redskins defense came out and immediately got the ball back on running back’s Steven Jackson fumble that safety Reed Doughty caused and H.B. Blades recovered on the St. Louis 21 yard line. Donovan McNabb’s 21 yard pass to Santana Moss was good and the Redskins were in the game with a score of 14 -10.
Graham Gano’s kick off was great and the Rams wide out Mardy Gilyard brought it out to the 23 yard line. The Redskins defense was focused and Sam Bradford only got off one short pass to Danny Amendola for eight yards. After another incomplete pass due to pressure from d-lineman Kedric Golston, on the next play, linebacker Brian Orakpo sacked Bradford and the Rams punted.
In the next series for Washington, running back Ryan Torain was finally on the field and had a good 36 yard run to the St. Louis 47 and the Redskins had good field position.
Torain got the ball a few more times – he had a three yard run, he lost a yard and a seven yard run. Penalties killed the series for Washington though. A Delay of Game cost the team five yards and a short pass to Cooley wasn’t enough for the first down. Gano’s 24 yard field goal was good.
The Redskins were in the game with a score of 14 – 13 Rams.
The next series might be one that Sam Bradford never forgets. The Rams got the ball with 7:12 seconds and never gave it up. Between Steven Jackson’s runs and his passes, the Rams moved the ball from the 19 yard line to the Redskins 3 yard line.
The Washington defense put good pressure on Bradford but he still managed to move the ball. He passed to Daniel Fells who, on a good spin move sent LaRon Landry to the ground.
With a short pass to Darby, running past Rocky McIntosh and DeAngelo Hall, the Rams got to the Washington 13. Then Bradford passed to Mark Clayton and DeAngelo must have stumbled because he was burnt when Clayton got to the one-yard line.
The Washington defense made a great goal line stand. St. Louis tried six times to get into the end zone but between pressure on Bradford and the line closing up the gaps, they could not get it in. A defensive holding call on Brian Orakpo hardly made a difference because St. Louis was within five yards of the goal line.
There was a false start call on St. Louis that backed up the Rams and gave them some passing space but after getting back to the three yard line, Phillip Daniels, Albert Haynesworth and Lorenzo Alexander made a stand and the Rams actually lost a couple of yards.
In the end, the Rams had to go for a field goal and Josh Brown’s 21 yard attempt was blocked by Phillip Daniels.
Washington had 10 first downs, 258 total yards, 138 passing yards, 120 rushing yards, 6 penalties for 45 yards, one turnover and held the ball for 17:01 for the half.
The Rams had 12 first downs, 146 total yards, 86 passing yards, 60 rushing yards, 5 penalties for 63 yards, 2 turnovers and held the ball for 15:20.
McNabb completed 10 of 14 passes, Clinton Portis ran the ball seven times for 44 yards and Ryan Torain carried it five times for 50 yards, his longest being 36 yards.
Santana Moss had four receptions for 105 yards, one touchdown and his longest was 56 yards.
Chris Cooley had two receptions for 12 yards and Fred Davis had two receptions for 11 yards.
