CINCINNATI — As the Washington Redskins’ once-sure playoff hopes slipped away Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium, the players the team selected first in the 2005 and 2006 drafts, cornerback Carlos Rogers and linebacker Rocky McIntosh, were mostly spectators.
The players were held out for what defensive coordinator Greg Blache called “totally different” reasons, but the result was that two of the players who started the first 13 games for Washington’s defense were basically nonfactors in the most critical minutes of a season that now is all but lost after Sunday’s 20-13 defeat.
Blache benched McIntosh at halftime for poor play and replaced him with journeyman Alfred Fincher, who had never played so many snaps in his four seasons as a special teamer.
“You watch guys as the game goes, and you see if they’re on top of their game or they’re not,” Blache said. “A guy’s not on top of his game, you gotta be smart enough to recognize what you have to do. We had given up [195] yards, 79 of them on a screen [to running back Cedric Benson], and I made the decision.”
The ever-reserved McIntosh didn’t go off on Blache, but he also didn’t understand why he had been benched for the first time he could remember.
“I just do what they tell me,” said McIntosh, who came to Cincinnati second on the team with 95 tackles after blowing out a knee last December. “I was told to sit down, and I sat down. Of course, I might want to throw a chair, but I’m a professional.”
McIntosh said neither Blache nor linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti told him why he had been yanked, but he expects he will get an explanation Monday.
Rogers, who had seemed on track for his first Pro Bowl after shutting down top-notch receivers in Washington’s 6-2 start, played sparingly Sunday behind former Pro Bowl corners DeAngelo Hall and Shawn Springs because Blache didn’t think he could hold up physically after fighting a stomach bug last week. In fact, Rogers even played behind rookie safety Kareem Moore in some nickel packages.
“Carlos has been sick,” Blache said. “He practiced Thursday and Friday, but he went to the doctor Wednesday to get blood tests. He hadn’t had anything solid [to eat]. Carlos was going to come in on nickel. He came in early on, but he’s been a little under the weather. Last week, we pumped him with IVs to get him through the game.”
However, Rogers never mentioned his health as a factor for his changed status. He said he didn’t know he wasn’t starting until he was heading onto the field before the game. It was the first time he hadn’t started when healthy since Nov. 27, 2005, when he was a rookie. Like McIntosh, Rogers rebounded well from reconstructive knee surgery.
“It’s Coach Blache’s decision,” Rogers said. “All I do is take my snaps when I get them and just go with it. I don’t know. Maybe I need to evaluate myself and see what I been doing wrong. Can’t sit there and weep about it or pout. I’m not going to worry about it.”
Nor did Rogers worry about getting beaten by Chris Henry for the 12-yard touchdown catch that made it 14-0 in the first quarter. Blache didn’t blame Rogers on that play even though the same thing had happened on Baltimore’s clinching touchdown last Sunday.
“The touchdown pass wasn’t on Carlos,” Blache said. “We should have had pressure in [quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick’s] face. That didn’t happen, so [Henry] ran a double move on [Rogers].”
Despite not starting against the Bengals, Rogers is suddenly the lone sure thing among the wreckage of what was the Redskins’ strength seven weeks ago, when they were all but a postseason lock.
London Fletcher and Marcus Washington are ailing linebackers on the wrong side of 30, while McIntosh is baffled. Neither November signee Hall, a free agent-to-be in March, nor Springs knows whether he will be back in 2009, and fourth corner Fred Smoot has been struggling.
“I don’t feel good about giving up 20 points to a team that doesn’t score 20 points [in its previous three games combined],” Blache said. “I didn’t feel good about anything.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.