The Washington Redskins finally got the monkey off their backs at home; after eight straight losses at home, the Redskins used a strong defensive outing and strong play from their rookie quarterback to beat the Minnesota Vikings 38-26. The win was a strong combination of effective offensive game planning by Kyle Shanahan and the fact that the defense stepped up in key situations.
RG3 Leads Redskins Past Vikings
The announcers in the game talked from the onset about the fact that Jim Haslett had spoken about his defense needing three key turnovers to get the victory against the Vikings. Ask, and you shall receive; Madieu Williams had an interception he returned for a touchdown, Lorenzo Alexander was able to recover a fumble by Christian Ponder on a sack, and DeAngelo Hall intercepted Ponder as well in the last seconds of the game.
The game looked like it was playing well into the Vikings’ hand early on as they jumped out to a 9-0 lead behind three field goals by Blair Walsh. From that point, the Redskins scored 24 answered points to take control.
Alfred Morris rushed 16 times for 47 yards and a touchdown but wasn’t much of a factor as RG3 was the main focal point on offense. New kicker Kai Forbath was successful on his first and only kick of the day, a 50-yarder, which was also his first NFL kick.
Robert Griffin III had one of the best games in his short career; he was 17-22 for 182 yards, one touchdown, and one interception and rushed the ball 13 times for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns; the last one was a 76-yarder (video below). Griffin showed no bad signs from his “mild” concussion of a week ago; after his long TD run, the crowd at FedEx Field all chanted…RG3…RG3…RG3!!!
The win improved the Redskins to 3-3 on the year and dropped the Vikings to 4-2.
Happy birthday to @RGIII 🎉
His 76-yard touchdown run for the @Redskins in 2012 was UNREAL 🚀 pic.twitter.com/Ix6zXOcWsD
— NFL UK (@NFLUK) February 12, 2018
