LANDOVER, MD
There were no happy Redskins in the locker room following their 30-27 overtime loss to the Houston Texans. It doesn't get any tougher to stomach than blowing a 17 point lead. However, the Redskins did just that when Neil Rackers hit the game winning 35-yard field goal in OT to complete the comeback for the Texans who were down 27-10 in the third quarter.
Quarterback Donovan McNabb passed for 426 yards, but it wasn't enough as the Redskins squandered a three score advantage and gave up 497 yards passing to Matt Schaub.
"They made plays on the ball and we had them in a couple fourth down situations and let them convert," said linebacker London Fletcher. "Good defense is a defense that makes the play-offs and wins championships; [we] can't allow that. We wasted a great offensive performance by Donovan [and] our team in general. You know, you give us 27 points; that's more than enough to win a football game. It's very tough because it's on us as a defense. We didn't get the job done today."
The Texans were able to get it done on a key fourth down late. With the game on the line and Houston down seven, Schaub threw up a jump ball for star receiver Andre Johnson. Johnson pulled it in over the outstretched Reed Doughty to tie the game and send it to overtime.
LaRon Landry, who had another strong performance with 11 tackles and a sack, expressed his frustration afterwards.
"It's a tough pill to swallow," Landry said. "We were up the whole game and blew it at the end. I wish it didn't happen, but we've got to move on."
It will be hard to shake this one off, but the Redskins travel west to St. Louis for a game against the Rams next Sunday. Sitting at 1-1, the players are aware they must stay focused and forget about today's nightmare.
"It's hard to come back, but at the same time it's a game," said DeAngelo Hall. "It is just one game, and we had this game won. It's not frustrating that we lost, it's frustrating that we had the game won and then lost. We just have to come in Monday, watch what we did wrong and try to correct those things."
Fletcher agreed wholeheartedly. "Come Wednesday, we have to be past this," he said. "It's just the nature of the NFL. We've got another game next Sunday. We've got to come in tomorrow, correct our mistakes, talk about it, and work on it in practice and go from there."
While the defense was at loss for words at what had happened, the offense was disappointed they couldn't score when it counted most.
"As an offense if they score 27 then we have to score 28," said receiver Anthony Armstrong. "We just feed off each other. They (the defense) can't really take full blame because we have to finish. There were times when we went down there and we have to score. It goes both ways."
The offense can certainly take away some positives, but when it comes down to it, the team as a whole was unable to come through in key situations. Be it the missed field goal in overtime, the blocked field goal in the second half, or Joey Galloway's dropped touchdown pass, the Redskins did just enough to blow what would have been a key, confidence building victory in just the second game of the Mike Shanahan era.