D14 MCNABBONTHERUN


Quarterback Donovan McNabb was the Redskins’ leading rusher Sunday, gaining 45 yards on four carries, including a 36-yard jaunt that was his longest since 2007.


EZ SU Lions 37, Redskins 25 BANKS’SRETURNS


Brandon Banks had a franchise record 271 return yards Sunday—58 on punt returns and 213 on kickoff returns. He returned one kickoff for a touchdown and had another score nullified by a penalty.


NEXTUP


The Redskins have a bye Sunday, then take on the Philadelphia Eagles Nov. 15.


KLMNO


MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010


PHOTOS BY TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson opens the scoring in the first quarter on a 13-yard score fromMatthewStafford as DeAngeloHall defends. Johnson had three touchdowns among his nine catches for 101 yards. Redskins replace McNabb, fall in Detroit redskins from D1


throughout the game, which Washington led by five points midway into the fourth quarter. Detroit capped the high-scor-


ing quarter when Grossman, who replaced McNabb with 1 minute 50 seconds remaining because Coach Mike Shanahan believed he gave Washington the best chance in its hurry-up offense, fumbled while being sacked. The Lions’ standout rookie defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh (two sacks) returned the ball 17 yards for a touchdown. The Redskins’ secondary often


has been burned for big plays in the first season of the defense’s transition to a 3-4 base, and Sun- day was no exception. Lions second-year quarterback


Matthew Stafford continued his success against the Redskins, throwing a personal-best four touchdown passes — including three to star wide receiver Calvin Johnson — to help Detroit (2-5) rally for the win. Stafford — the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft — played in his first game since suffering a separated pass- ing shoulder in a Week 1 loss to the Chicago Bears. Stafford, who received an ovation to start the game, struggled for long stretch- es, but threw for 212 yards in improving to 2-0 against the Red- skins.


The Redskins (4-4) had only


one healthy running back in the second half. Third-string back Chad Simpson, who has been slowed the past two weeks by a hamstring injury, was inactive. Starter Ryan Torain, promoted after Clinton Portis was sidelined by a severe groin injury, sat out the second half with a hamstring problem of his own, leaving rook- ie Keiland Williams to shoulder the load in the running game. Washington committed costly penalties, extending drives that resulted in points forDetroit.The Redskins wasted an outstanding performance from rookie return specialist Brandon Banks, who averaged 35.5 yards on six kickoff returns. Banks had a 96-yard touchdown and another long score was nullified by a penalty. And then there’s the McNabb


situation. Obviously, the 12-year veteran


has struggled during his first sea- son in Shanahan’s West Coast scheme. And last season with the Houston Texans, Grossman worked under Redskins offensive coordinator and play-caller Kyle Shanahan in the offense Mike Shanahan designed. Still,Shanahanstirred surprise


along the sideline when he re- placed the six-time Pro Bowler in favor of Grossman to run the two-minute offense. “I felt with the time, and no timeouts, he was


Redskins Insider Excerpts from washingtonpost.com/redskinsinsider


Torain’s injury puts Williams into action Redskins running back Ryan


Torain strained his left hamstring on the final play of the first half of Sunday’s 37-25 loss to Detroit, an injury that left Keiland Williams not only as the featured back in the second half, but as the only healthy back active for the game. “When you come in on this


level, you know things happen real quick,” Williams said. “Just throughout the process of the week, you just prepare yourself for situations like this. For any position, you’re always one play away from being the guy.” With 11 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Torain took a


pass from quarterback Donovan McNabb and gained 13 yards along the left side, getting out of bounds in time for the Redskins to kick a field goal that put them up 13-7 at the break. But he felt something pull on the play. “I was just striding out the


last play of the half, and just strainedmy left hamstring,” Torain said. To that point, Torain – coming


off of back-to-back 100-yard games—had been ineffective on the ground, gaining just 10 yards on nine carries. When Torain couldn’t loosen the hamstring by riding an exercise bike at halftime, Williams took over, gaining 25 yards on six carries in the second half, including a five- yard touchdown run that put the


Redskins up 19-14 early in the fourth quarter. “I was just running to daylight,” Williams said.


A time for several to heal With a bye week coming up,


the Redskins have a much- needed break to nurse several bumps and bruises. Safety ChrisHorton left


Sunday’s game in the first half and appeared on the sideline in the second half wearing street clothes and a protective walking boot on his right foot. Coach Mike Shanahan saidHorton hurt his ankle. “I think he’s sore,” Shanahan


said. “I’mnot sure. It should be okay in a couple of days. I don’t


think it’s a high sprain or anything like that.” Tight end Chris Cooley also


missed significant time in the second half, though he eventually returned. The team announced that he had back spasms, and trainers were stretching his back on the sideline. Shanahan said after the game Cooley was slowed by a sore ankle as well. Both of the Redskins’ right


tackles—Jammal Brown and StephonHeyer—were limited in practice last week. Despite a sore ankle,Heyer got the start over Brown, who has been slowed by his hip. Heyer played the team’s first


three offensive possessions and Brown played the next three.


They rotated in and out for the entirety of the game.


Hall adds an interception


With his first-quarter interception offMatthew Stafford, cornerback DeAngelo Hall tied his career high with six interceptions on the season— and the Redskins have barely reached the midpoint of their 16- game schedule.Hall also leads the league in interceptions. Hall spent much of the day


covering the Lions’ Calvin Johnson, who caught a career- high three touchdown passes. “We had some good coverages


called,”Hall said. “We just didn’t execute.We had a couple coverages where we wanted to


put a couple guys on him, but it just didn’t work out that way.” Hall has five interceptions in


two weeks.His sixth on the season is the most by a Redskin player sinceMatt Stevens in 1999. The franchise record of 13 was set by Dan Sandifer in 1948. ButHall said players will


spend the next couple of weeks dwelling on Sunday’s final score, not his interception numbers. “We’ll get in the film room tomorrow and try to figure out what went wrong,” he said. “It’s definitely frustrating, especially before a bye week.We don’t get to go out, strap it up next week in practice and prepare for a game. We basically have to have this feeling in our gut for two weeks.” —Barry Svrluga and Rick Maese


the best chance to win in that scenario,” Shanahan said. “Just knowing the terminology of what we’ve done, how we run it, puts a lot of pressureonthe quarterback that hasn’t been used to that terminology. I thought that was the best scenario for us to have a chance to win.” McNabb and Torain teamed on


a short touchdown pass, but Mc- Nabb had only a 75.7 passer rat- ing.He also had a costly intercep- tion late in the fourth quarter. On the possession after McNabb’s turnover, Stafford and Johnson (nine receptions, 101 yards) teamed on the go-ahead touch- down. But McNabb did not question


Shanahan’s choice. “Well, he makes the decisions,” McNabb said. “I just continue to go with it and just cheer formy team.” Some ofMcNabb’s teammates,


however, expressed surprise about the move. “I walked up to [wide receiver]


Santana[Moss], I said, ‘Is Rex in?’ He said, ‘I guess,’ ” tight end Chris Cooley said. “Yeah, I was sur- prised.” Informed of Shanahan’s com-


ments about Grossman being more familiar with the offensive terminology, cornerback DeAn- geloHall supportedMcNabb. “It had nothing to do with terminology, it looked like we couldn’t protect our quarterback.


Redskins fullbackMike Sellers is animated on the sideline. “It’s frustrating.We just need to stop playing down to our competition.”


That’s the bottom line,” saidHall, who had his NFL-leading sixth interception in the first quarter. “Rex got out there . . . I don’t care if he knewthe terminology or not. Sack, fumble, touchdown. I don’t care who’s back there, if we can’t protect them then we can’t win. We gotta get better.We gotta stop making mistakes.” Hall paused, said the defense


alsoneededto play better, himself included, and then continued on the decision to benchMcNabb. “It ain’t that complicated as far Rex being able to know the sys-


tem in the two-minute better than Donovan,” Hall said. “I mean, that’s a surprise to me. I thought we prepared everybody. . . . I don’t know what to say about that. I thought he [McNabb] was banged up.He was in the training room with me. . . . You’d like to have your starter out there, obvi- ously.” Both Shanahan and McNabb describe McNabb’s development in the offense as being “a process,” and Shanahan “maybe in a way is putting it on himself a little,” Cooley said of the surprising deci-


sion. “He’s taking the responsibil- ity himself, as far as saying, ‘I’ll take the responsibility of making that choice.’ Like I said, I’m sur- prised. . . . I remember a lot of games, getting beat, or him [Mc- Nabb] taking it all the way down the field to the very end when he was on the other side of the ball.” The offensive line did not do its


part to help McNabb, players said. “They [the Lions’ defensive


line] changed it up,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “They didn’t come out there with the same look that we had seen before. Some of that goes to them. But then again,wegotta pick it up.We didn’t do a great job.” Now, the Redskins have time to


reflect. Although they could have been in a better position as their break begins, there still is, poten- tially, much for them to accom- plish in their final eight games if they can find some answers – especially on offense. “There’s ways to look at it, but


yes, I thought we would be able to kind of get things rolling by now,” McNabb said of the offense. “But it’s a long season ahead of us. We’re not in the position, which wethoughtwewouldn’t be in, but it’s not a bad position. We just have to focus on these last eight games and make sure we come outonthewinningside of things.” reidj@washpost.com


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