The Washington Redskins continued to outsmart themselves in the team’s 24-17 loss to the New York Giants Sunday.
Robert Griffin III looked great early in the game when running the no huddle “turbo” offense. Washington spread the field several times while in turbo and had success. Griffin is most comfortable when the offense has tempo and spreads the field. In fact, after scoring on the team’s first drive in the second quarter, Griffin had already gone a perfect 12 for 12, 111 yards and 1 TD — hitting eight different receivers on those 12 completions. He was decisive and checked the ball down several times after scanning his options.
Griffin excels when he’s able to be the aggressor and dictate the game to defenses. But as always, the Washington Redskins got away from that formula on several occasions and instead allowed the defense to dictate the flow of their offense.
“We were gelling early on, putting points up, moved the ball really well, and in the second half we just shot ourselves in the foot and got some bad situations,” said QB Robert Griffin III. “Weren’t converting on third down and the manageable third downs and you’ve just got to make plays on those longer distances. We weren’t doing that in the second half. That’s why some of our drives stalled.”
Coach Mike Shanahan expressed his disappointment after the game: “We had a couple good drives in there, and you have to maintain. You can’t stop yourselves. We had some penalties. We had some dropped balls. We had a couple of missed assignments. You combine all those things and that’s how you lose a football game.”
Part of their inability to sustain the early success had to do with penalties and poor execution. But the Redskins also beat themselves by getting away from what worked. Washington had the Giants on their toes when in the turbo offense and spreading the field. The short passes, quick reads and checkdowns were working. But Washington wanted to get cute.
They featured the read option when they didn’t need to. Although the running game wasn’t working with Alfred Morris in the first half, Washington shouldn’t have essentially conceded in that regard. That basically played into New York’s hands because Alfred Morris was their top concern.
Shanahan didn’t have a real reason as to why Morris didn’t get more touches in the second half. “Well, he had 11 carries in the first half and he was averaging about a yard-and-a-half a carry,” he said. ”That’s one reason why you probably go away from it a little bit more.”
Morris had two of his better rushes early in the 3rd quarter — tallying 15 yards on two rushes in Washington’s first second half drive. Typically, stats like that suggests potential for more success on the ground. But after that drive, Morris didn’t receive another rush attempt. Shanahan says it was attributed to the abundance of third downs. Yet, they were able to feed Griffin the rock…
“A lot has to do with third downs,” he said. “If you don’t get the opportunity to have a bunch of plays and then it’s second down, you don’t have the opportunity to run that many plays. We’ve talked about this a number of times. You have to make third downs. We didn’t make many, and then in the second half I think in the first drive, even though we went 50 yards, I think we had 30 yards in penalties. Then, you get a couple three plays and outs. Then there’s a couple of situations where you have some penalties, and you’re in long-yard situations trying to get a first down, so that’s why you don’t get a number of carries.”
The Redskins simply struggle to find a counter attack and they never seem to identify mismatches. That’s the story of this team under Mike Shanahan. They allow defenses to dictate what they do on offense. It’s a chess match and if you’re unable to counter — defenses will control what you’re attempting to do.
Is Pierre Garcon Truly a #1 Receiver?
No, he is not. But that’s not a bad thing. He’s a number one on a Washington Redskins team that lacks quality players at the position. But he, much like the offensive scheme in general, isn’t a defensive dictator. He doesn’t dictate coverages and number one receivers do that. The past two weeks he’s struggled without TE Jordan Reed — the only receiver defenses put several eyes on. Reed is a defensive dictator. Garcon is a great receiver and will continue to be. However, his route running is limited — not a deep route guy. If you’re willing to get physical, you can cover Garcon. He’s a receiver you want to quickly get the ball to on crossing routes — giving him an opportunity to create yards after the catch. But when that’s all you do as an offense, it becomes an easy task for defenses.
Defensive Woes Continue –
No one expected the Washington Redskins’ defense to be great. Talent wise — it’s probably the worst group on the team… Although, the scheme could play a part in that too. But one of the issues they seem to have this year is communicating on the back-end and properly executing zone coverages. Every game there seems to be several plays where players simply don’t know what responsibilities they have in coverage. That’s unacceptable.
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