About those defensive players.  All London Fletcher’s done is lead the league in tackles with 71.  40 were unassisted; 31 were assisted.  He also has a quarterback sack.  Yea, he deserves to go.  Let’s see that he does.

Andre Carter is tied with Trent Cole among the league leaders in quarterback sacks.  They both have been credited with 6 1/2.  As for the NFC, they’re tied for second behind Jared Allen who has 7 1/2.   Carter also has made 34 tackles, which is second among defensive ends in the league.     Cole has been credited with 27, while Allen has made 29.  Clearly, he is among the elite players at his position.  Let’s vote him in.

DeAngelo Hall has a case for being elected, but he needs to keep up the good work.  He’s tied for 6th in the league with 3 interceptions.  Seven defensive backs are tied with him.  He’s tied for 17th in passes defensed.  Nine players are tied with him in that category.  He’s made 30 tackles, which isn’t a lot when you count safeties, but is a lot when you only consider the top 12 pass interceptors in the league.  Among the latter, he’s tied for 1st with 30.  If you compare him to the other cornerbacks in the conference, only Charles Woodson and Asante Samuel have more picks, and they only best Hall by 1.  He deserves to go to the Pro Bowl.  Let’s hope he keeps producing so enough Redskins’ fans will take notice.

Last but not least is Albert Haynesworth.  Only 4 defensive tackles and 2 nose tackles have recorded more tackles than Haynesworth.  Only one of those is in the NFC.  And, Haynesworth leads all interior linemen in the league with 3 sacks.  How can he not be voted to the Pro Bowl?

I’d love to vote Santana Moss in.  Hopefully, he’ll have a few more balls thrown his way before voting is over.  Right now, there are 8 receivers in the conference who have caught more passes than him.  That’s not his fault of course.

I’d also love to vote Clinton Portis in.  At this time, six backs in the conference have greater yards-per-carry averages than CP.  Half of them have broken off twice as many long runs as CP.  I hope he’s able to break lose for the next few games before the voting period ends.

For now, I figure Fletcher, Carter, and Haynesworth would have to be robbed not to be selected for the Pro Bowl.  Hall is on the bubble.  Both Moss and Portis need to have a couple good games before the voting period ends in order to be in the running, no pun intended.

Let’s get behind these guys.  Go Skins!

Mosley stated that Albert Haynesworth is an underachiever.  Chris Mottram did a masterful and thorough job of dissecting Mosley’s argument, piece by piece:  (http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/1409166?widget=true)  Say what you want, but Mottram’s logic is hard to argue with in my book.  The bottom line on Haynesworth is that you can’t measure his effectiveness strictly in terms of tackles and sacks.  You have to look at his role and ask “Is he tying up two blockers and freeing up the defensive ends and linebackers to make plays?”  I agree with Mottram that he is doing precisely that. 

The fact is, there are plenty of negative storylines to cover in regard to the  Washington Redskins.  And, there’s no shortage of talking heads covering them.  Maybe Mosley wanted to write something unique.  Maybe he has no imagination.  Maybe Greg Blache wouldn’t agree with his assessment anymore than Mottram does or I do.  Later in the season, if the empirical and visual evidence supports the idea that Haynesworth isn’t playing at the level expected, dump on him.  For now, I don’t think Mosley has an argument, and I don’t think his analysis is worth the paper on which it isn’t written.

Go Skins!

My second Just Shut Up goes to Albert Haynesworth.  You don’t run off the field by yourself before the game has officially ended, slip out of the locker room before the doors are opened to the media, and yet pretend to be a leader.  Giving an emotional speech about being better and being accountable is great.  I’m sure it was well deserved.  But, leadership by action means much more than leadership by words, and leaders aren’t as selfish as Haynesworth was a couple times today.  Granted, he did lead on the field.  But, so many others on the Redskins’ defense played hard, as well.

In Cerrato’s case, he sounded incredibly out of touch with reality.  In Haynesworth’s case, he seems out of touch with certain aspects of a pro football player’s reality.  To both I say: just shut up!