The Washington Redskins (3-7) had ten days to prepare to face their division rival Philadelphia Eagles (6-5). Yet, they played flatter than Kyle Shanahan’s playbook for over three quarters. Washington scored 16 points in the fourth quarter after being down 24-0, but ultimately fell to the Eagles 24-16 at Lincoln Financial Field — a place where the Eagles haven’t won since Sept. 30, 2012.
But before we get to the core storylines, I’ll acknowledge the fact that Robert Griffin III was inaccurate a lot on Sunday. He never truly was able to get into a rhythm for several reasons. The offensive line played horribly, as they have all season. Receivers had trouble getting open — Eagles took away the passing game. In fact, Washington only had four passing yards in the entire first half. Although the Redskins had success on the ground, Philly essentially gave that to them — forcing the team to beat them through the air. Washington was still unable to get a spark on special teams after promoting rookie Nick Williams from the practice squad. Not to mention, the Redskins’ defense continues to struggle mightily.
The issue is, however, the Washington Redskins entered this game unprepared. They played unmotivated and simply flat for much of the game. They were once again, out-coached and out-executed.
The Washington Redskins had success in 2012 because they were running something that NFL defenses never had to prepare for prior to that season. Hence, their ability to keep defenses playing a guessing game. This season, defenses know what’s coming. And the Redskins know that those defenses know what’s coming. Yet, there’s no answer from the staff. There’s no counter. I read a quote from SBNation that summed this up well last week — “Good offenses can do something so well that defenses have to adjust their systems to stop it. Great offenses can punish defenses for that adjustment.”
Kyle and Mike Shanahan talked all off-season about how they knew defenses were going to study their offense, but flexed their scheme claiming to have a counter for those adjustments. Through 10 games, it hasn’t been seen for a full four quarters. The frustration is obvious and it became a little more blatant Sunday when Robert Griffin III had his post-game presser: “Players make plays, coaches have to coach,” he said.
Now, I may be taking this for more than what it is, but I’ve never heard Griffin word that phrase the way he chose to word it Sunday. That’s been one of his favorite phrases all year and even recently during his weekly Wednesday presser, Griffin said — “Players make plays, coaches coach.” Again, it’s just two additional words, but he’s never said — “coaches have to coach.”
Griffin later said, “Philly did a good job. Let’s give credit where credit is due. They did a good job coming out in the beginning of the game and shutting down a lot of the stuff that we were trying to do. Obviously we ran the ball well, but when it came to the passing game, a lot of times they were tit for tat. They were there where they needed to be; they were taking away the routes we were trying to run. That’s disheartening, but we have to make sure we come up with something to counteract that.”
Come up with something to counteract that… Players aren’t responsible for drawing up something to counteract how defenses defend them. They’re just supposed to make the plays. So that was interesting. He didn’t stop there:
“Like I said, you have to give credit where credit is due to Philly. They did a good job of scheming us up. Obviously, we were able to run the ball effectively, but in the passing game; they kind of had us. They kind of knew what was coming before it was coming and like I said, that is disheartening. But we still have to find ways and that’s what I told the guys—no matter what’s going on out there, we’re the players, we have to make the plays work. We just weren’t able to do that during that first half.”
So let’s recap, Griffin said that coaches have to coach. He went on to say that they have to find a way to counteract how defenses are playing them. Now he’s saying the defense “knew what was coming before it was coming.” And of course, he had to add, “we’re the players, we have to make the plays work.” Okay.
Griffin went on to talk about how they can’t make excuses, how they’re all family in the locker room and that they go to war for each other. Then the “predictability” question was rendered.
His response, “I don’t think it has become predictable. [LB] DeMeco [Ryans] is a pretty good linebacker and they do good things with him and the other guy— his name is [LB] Najee Goode. They allowed DeMeco the play-pass first. A lot of times they were trying to hit those play-pass holes behind him and he can run to those holes. I think on the back, he did a good job of running to the holes as well, kind of scheming stuff and knowing what type of holes we’re trying to hit on those three level holes, or whatever you might want to call it. I don’t think we’ve become predictable. I just think they had the right call in the right situation and they lucked into some pretty good recoveries.”
Great way of saying your offense is not predictable while saying your offense is predictable, Robert.
Now, I will say again that Robert Griffin III didn’t have one of his better games. His accuracy was erratic. However, there were many times he went through full progressions and even checked twice, yet no receiver was able to get open. He’s checked the ball down more the past two games than I’ve seen him do all season. Griffin is a rhythm based QB. He comes from a tempo oriented Baylor offense that keeps their QBs in rhythm with outside the number passes, shallow crosses and then beats you downfield. The Washington Redskins have no tempo and I don’t think Griffin is used to that. They spend weeks in training camp running tempo plays that they really don’t even touch during the season. If he’s not in a rhythm, I believe that stunts his ability to be accurate and make plays. Griffin has been at his best this season when the Redskins have spread the ball around outside the numbers, worked the edges, thus opening up area to work the middle.
Of course, not only is the Washington Redskins offense getting the predictable tag, the defense is too. “I knew what they were going to take away,” Chip Kelly said of Washington’s defense. If I had a dime for the amount of times opposing coaches or players have said that… It literally has happened after just about every game since Jim Haslett has coached that side of the ball in Washington.
Eagles’ running back LeSean McCoy even got in on the game of “calling out Washington Redskins’ coaches” when asked about his long wheel route catch in the first quarter — “We gave them a run look and the defensive end played with me which I guess they thought was a good idea and Nick found me and threw it. It was a great read.” The player he is referring to is actually outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan.
It’s not just play calling. In fact, while that’s a part of it, that’s not the main issue. The Redskins continue to get out-coached and out-executed because they continue to enter games unprepared. They refuse to adapt and adjust to what the opposing side of the football is doing. The don’t find mismatches on offense and they create mismatches on defense. Yet, every week they say practice is better than the week prior. In fact, Jim Haslett said in his presser last week that “3-6 teams don’t practice like this.” For some reason it’s not equating to success on the football field. It took 3 1/2 quarters to even see traces of it in this particular game. Again, these players have to execute and play a lot better — the blame is universal. However, at the end of the day, preparation is key. The Washington Redskins just have not consistently been prepared for football games.
Follow us: @Manny_PPI | @PlayerInsiders
