Your Daily DC Pro Sports Report

With the Washington Wizards and Capitals about to start their seasons soon, we will be shifting the emphasis of the site somewhat. You’ll still get all the great Redskins coverage you want, but we’ll also be covering the other big pro teams in the DC area in greater detail and depth. Henceforth, look out for the Daily DC Pro Sports Report, which will cover all the DC pro teams. The Redskins portion will be called Smoke Signals, the Wizards part will be called Speeding Bullets, the Capitals part will be called Slapshots, and the Nationals part will be called Nats Notes. Hope you like it.

The Redskins offense didn’t handle the 3-4 defense of Eric Mangini’s New York Jets in the preseason. This weekend, they face a tougher 3-4 defense when they travel to Dallas to face the Cowboys. The 3-4 definitely poses some matchup issues, as well as the fact that most teams just don’t face it that often and are not as accustomed to playing against it. On the other hand, Washington moved the ball well against Dallas last year. They should be able to do so again.

QB Jason Campbell sees some improvement in rookie WR Devin Thomas. Glad to hear it.

The Washington defense will have its hands full with the high-scoring Dallas offense. WR Terrell Owens burned the Redskins for 4 TD catches in a game last year. Although CB Shawn Springs covered Owens well in the first half, the Redskins went to a zone defense in the second half and S Reed Doughty got burned repeatedly for long touchdown passes. My view: Stick Shawn Springs on TO and let it go at that.

WR Santana Moss is playing so well that Head Coach Jim Zorn has him running deep patterns, crossing patterns over the middle, even wide receiver screens that force the tiny Moss to run through rugged linebackers. Don’t be surprised to see Moss back deep as a punt returner soon. Moss is playing great and the Redskins need him all over the place.

Former Redskins great Joe Jacoby is enjoying his new role as volunteer assistant coach at Shenandoah University.

Former Redskins DB Vernon Fox has signed with the Denver Broncos, where the entire secondary, apart from CB Champ Bailey, is awful.

Moving to the hard courts, injured Wizards PG Gilbert Arenas blogged last month that he’d like to see Juan Dixon back in DC. Well, as DC Pro Sports Report reported last night, Gil got his wish. Dixon is back in DC to provide some much-needed bench scoring for Washington.

Said Dixon: “I’m excited to return to the area and to resume my career with the Wizards. I’m looking forward to the start of training camp and I’m ready to step in and contribute wherever Coach Jordan and the team sees fit.”

Washington now has a full complement on the roster, but will go into the season with 14 players, since Gilbert probably won’t be able to play until 2009.

Over to the ice, the Caps have good news for their fans who want to follow the team during the preseason. [And you should want to do that if you're a real fan!]

Washington Capitals fans can listen to all seven preseason games this year on WashingtonCaps.com, and fans in the D.C. market can watch the three preseason home games live online. The Capitals will take the ice for their first preseason game at 7 p.m. Sept. 24 against the Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Center :PlaceType in Raleigh .

Washington’s final four preseason games will also be available on WFED 1500 AM and WWFD 820 AM, starting with the Sept. 29 road tilt against the New Jersey Devils. Steve Kolbe , the radio voice of the Capitals for the past 11 years, and WashingtonCaps.com senior writer Mike Vogel will call the road preseason action. Kolbe and former Capital Ken Sabourin will call the action at home games.

Here is what tonight’s lineup against Carolina should look like, according to Tarik at the Post:

Fleischmann-Nylander-Kozlov
Giroux-Perreault-Fehr
Laing-Steckel-Bradley
Osala-Beagle-A. Gordon

Cutta-Jurcina
Alzner-Schultz
Lepisto-Carlson

Machesney-Varlamov

Finally, the Nationals’ heroic quest to avoid 100 losses this season got a boost last night with a 9-4 victory over the Florida Marlins. Pitcher Shairon Martis got his first big league win, 3B Ryan Zimmerman hit his 14th home run, and backup SS Alberto Gonzalez got 4 hits, including 2 doubles, scored three runs, and drove in 2 runs.