The 1998 Season

Note: 1998 was the second season that I wrote down thoughts the entire year. Therefore, the 1998 season summary will come in multiple additions to my blog. Unfortunately, my hard drive crashed after 1998 and with no backups, some of the 1998 season is basically recaps. Today's 1998 entry will be Week 7, Washington thoughts.

(Week Six: Bye)

Week Seven: Washington; Vikes 41, Redskins 7

If the Green Bay Packers couldn't stop Randall Cunningham and the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field, did anyone think the winless Washington Redskins could at the Metrodome?

Cunningham continued his impressive season with two first-half touchdown passes as the Vikings overcame an early special-teams gaffe by rookie Randy Moss and scored 41 unanswered points in a 41-7 demolition of the Redskins, remaining unbeaten.

The 35-year-old Cunningham, who has been playing since starting quarterback Brad Johnson went down with a broken leg in Week Two, completed 20-for-34 passes for 259 yards. Since taking over, Cunningham has thrown for 1,237 yards and 12 touchdowns without an interception.

"Give a lot of credit to Coach (Dennis) Green, we don't get proud or overconfident," said Cunningham. "And he prepares us for the finer things we need to do. I want to cherish this win today and wait until tomorrow to start thinking about Detroit."

Robert Smith added 103 rushing yards while fullback Leroy Hoard scored two touchdowns on short runs for the Vikings (6-0), who are off to their best start since winning the first 10 games of the 1975 season.

"(It) doesn't matter what your record is at the start of the season," said Smith. "Six-and-oh is nice, but you remember Tampa started out last year 5-0."

Minnesota owns a two-game lead in the NFC Central over Green Bay, which lost at Detroit on Thursday night. The Vikings complete the road portion of their division schedule in the next two weeks with games at Detroit and Tampa Bay.

"Detroit has already been working on us, they're an outstanding team at home," said Green. "We have had our share of problems in the Silverdome, so we have a lot of work to do to catch up."

The Redskins (0-7), who only scored on a two-yard run by Terry Allen after Moss' miscue, took another step toward their worst start in 37 years. Washington, which went 0-9 to start the 1961 season, showed no offensive continuity under quarterback Gus Frerotte, who was starting for the first time since Week Two.

"That's as poor a performance as I've been involved with," fumed Redskins coach Norv Turner, whose job grows more tenuous with each loss. "Defensively, we have a chance to be a decent team. Offensively, we are totally inept. We can't snap off two consecutive plays. This is not acceptable."

Frerotte went 10-of-24 for 117 yards while Allen, a former Viking, added 62 rushing yards for Washington, which allowed 30 or more points for the fifth time this season. The Redskins have been outscored, 227-93.

"Those are harsh words, but they're true," Frerotte said when told of Turner's comments. "We couldn't get it done. The effort's there, we're not staying focused."

Turner also implied there will be changes made when the Redskins come back following their bye week.

"Maybe we can get some things corrected, we have a couple of days off. We're going to find the guys who really want to compete and put them on the field."

"This is the lowest. I've never felt like this," said Redskins cornerback Darrel Green, a 16-year veteran and member of three Super Bowl champions. "We've lost some games before, but this one hit me."

The teams traded empty possessions to start the game, but Moss, who was on punt coverage, accidentally touched Matt Turk's punt with his hand while his back was to the ball. Cornerback Darryl Pounds scooped it up at the Minnesota 2 and Allen promptly scored off right guard on the next play.

But it went downhill for the Redskins after that. Cunningham completed his first four passes as the Vikings went 68 yards on seven plays. After an offensive interference penalty on Cris Carter negated a one-yard TD pass, Cunningham hit tight end Andrew Glover over the middle from 11 yards on the next play.

The Redskins went three-and-out and Cunningham again went to work. After hooking up with Carter on a 36-yard pass, Moss atoned for his error by drawing a 35-yard interference penalty on Darrell Green, who tried to overcome his eight-inch height disdvantage by climbing on Moss as he ran a post pattern.

Hoard bulled up the middle on the next play as the Vikings took a 14-7 lead with 3:40 to play in the first quarter. By the end of the period, the Vikings held a 156-19 advantage in total yards.

Late in the first half the Redskins threatened, but Cary Blanchard hooked a 49-yard field goal wide left. Cunningham found Moss on consecutive plays for 38 yards and the pair hooked up again for a 12-yard pass to the 11 with 54 seconds to play.

Smith ran for five yards and Cunningham floated a pass to Hoard two plays later, converting a 3rd-and-4 to the 1. After Hoard was stopped with 21 seconds to go, the Vikings called timeout before Cunningham zipped a pass to Carter, who reached high for the TD.

Corey Fuller ended Washington's first second-half possession with an interception at midfield, and Gary Anderson booted a 49-yard field goal to make it 24-7 with nine minutes left in the third quarter.

Smith extended the margin to 31-7 on a 19-yard scamper 2:12 into the fourth quarter. Anderson drilled a 46-yarder before Hoard capped the scoring with a one-yard dive with 1:51 left.

"We really feel great. Anytime you have a week off and a bye, and you're able to take off where we left...," added Green. "The key today was our defense, our guys were focused and on the same page. We had a good game going into the bye and came out strong today."

Carter had five receptions for 109 yards and matched Anthony Carter's team record by catching a pass for the 105th consecutive game. Cris Carter moved within four catches of 700 for his career.

Posted by maasx003 at November 19, 2004 06:18 AM