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Each Friday Hogs Haven will travel back in time to recap a previous game against this weeks current Redskins opponent.
A Peyton Manning/Edgerrin James/Marvin Harrison led Colts team facing a Shane Matthews/Kenny Watson/Darnerien McCants Washington Redskins squad sounds like a match up the Colts would win 99 out of a 100 times. On October 27, 2002 at FedEx Field the Redskins pulled off an amazing upset, defeating the Colts 26-21 in front of a Sunday Night national audience. The Redskins actually led this game 23-7 going into the 4th quarter before holding off a late rally by the Colts.
The Redskins were able to shut down the high powered Colts offense. Manning would throw for only 214 yards and threw 2 INT’s, 1 each to Fred Smoot and Ifeanyi Ohalete. The Redskins were also able to sack Manning 3 times with LaVar Arrington registering 2 sacks and Jesse Armstead picking up the other. James would gain just 33 yards on 14 carries and Harrison was a non factor with 77 yards receiving. So, the Redskins were able to beat the Colts by neutralizing the Colts big 3.
Offensively the Redskins would score 23 points in the 1st half before being shut down until their final possession of the game. Matthews returned to the starting QB position after a 3 game benching during which Danny Wuerffel and Patrick Ramsey were both ineffective. Matthews had a decent game throwing for 210 yards and 2 TD’s while not turning the ball over. Matthews also had a -13 yard reception…I’m not sure how that happened but it sounds like something that would come out of a Steve Spurrier playbook. Stephen Davis had 80 yards on 16 carries while Watson added 67 yards on 15 carries. The Redskins actually ran the ball 37 times…very un-Spurrier like. McCants had a TD reception and another former Gator, Chris Doering had the other TD reception. A kicker by the name of James Tuthill added 3 FG’s.
The Redskins would also win the following week against the Seattle Seahawks to bring their record to 4-4 and give Redskins fans hopes for the playoffs. Of course, those hopes would be crushed like they so often have been over the last couple decades. The Redskins would lose 5 out of the next 6 games on the way to another 6-10 season.
Cheers and Hail