Skins' Lessons From Game No. 2

Lots went right, but so much looked bad

When Jason Campbell's first pass of the game fluttered past the hands of Malcolm Kelly, who had broken past the defense, you knew it was going to be a long day.

The 9-7 win over the St. Louis Rams satisfied nobody, even as there were plenty of things to be happy about -- like that big ol' No. 1 in the win column.

It was a game where the team played less than the sum of its parts, and they narrowly beat a team they should've blown out.

Good teams pound the snot out of bad teams.  They kick sand in the eyes of the 90-pound weaklings.  It seems like forever since the Skins have done that, and yesterday's booing was as much a reflection of that as it was a comment on the state of the franchise.

Lesson Learned: A win is a win, but not all wins are the same.

Jim Zorn still doesn't get it.  His idea of cutting loose is asking for an extra olive in his dry martini.

He called plays yesterday as if there were two different games being played.  Between the 20s, he opened things up.  Campbell lined up in shotgun -- where he excels -- and fired pass after pass, driving the team down field.

But once they got close, Zorn puckered up.  We can't be taking any risks, boys!  Let's run it in like a power-running team!

Nevermind that Clinton Portis isn't really much of a power runner, and that the offensive line still hasn't figured out how to run block effectively.

In the third quarter, the Skins had first and goal. After attempts to run the ball in got them nowhere on the first two plays, Zorn went wacky: He called a passing play for Clinton Portis. Gee, the defense will never see a pass play coming on third down.

Rather than putting the ball in the hands of the highly efficient QB and taking a chance at a fade pattern with some of the big receivers, Zorn called a gadget play in a situation where nobody was going to be fooled.

He thinks he's avoiding charges of conservative play-calling by calling wacky (and ineffective) plays, but he's missing the point.  If Campbell had had the ball in his hands more in the red zone, the Skins might've scored a few more TDs.

Of course, had Mike Sellers not dropped an easy TD catch, they'd have scored more points too.

Lesson Learned: Jim Zorn really needs an experienced play-calling offensive coordinator.

At least the defense played well, holding the Rams (thanks to a few lucky bounces) to just a single scoring drive.  They didn't hit Mark Bulger much, but they rushed a few of his throws.

Other than the one big play (and that's a heck of an "other than"), the Skins pretty much shut down the Rams running game.  Haynesworth really does free up space for other players: nine more tackles for London Fletcher and Rocky McIntosh was all over the field.

Lesson Learned: If the Skins secondary can ever figure out how to pick balls off, this defense could be among the best.

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