Redskins Halftime Takeaways: Defense, blocking letting team down
The Washington Redskins are playing very poorly against the second worst team in the NFL. What else is new?
Well, this is awful. The Washington Redskins were supposed to manhandle the hapless, beat up, and controversy stricken Giants in the final week of the 2017 season. Instead, they find themselves down 15-10 at halftime and they haven’t played well at all.
The defensive effort in this game has been virtually non-existent. On the second play from scrimmage, the team allowed Orleans Darkwa to run straight up the middle for a 75 yard touchdown. Martrell Spaight, D.J. Swearinger, and Josh Norman all missed tackles and allowed him to get the score.
As the quarter went on, nothing really changed. The team allowed massive gains to the Giants on easy plays. The touchdown to Hunter Sharp was a nice throw from Eli Manning, but the coverage wasn’t near him off his break. Later, Kendall Fuller took an awful angle on a bubble screen and that allowed another big gain for the Giants. They just haven’t looked good at all and they need to try harder if they want to stop their opponents.
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On the bright side, Preston Smith did have a nice interception that saw him stop rushing on a screen play and drop back a step to tip a ball to himself. That set up the Redskins first score that helped stop the bleeding early on.
Additionally, Ryan Kerrigan has totaled two sacks in the first half. Currently, he sits at 13 and his career high is 13.5. With one more, he will set a career high in sacks.
The offense hasn’t been particularly great either. When given good field position, they have done well. Kirk Cousins had a really nice touchdown off a read option play that saw him outrun the defense to the pylon. That said, the blocking for Washington just hasn’t been there. Ty Nsekhe left the game with an injury and that has allow the Giants to get pressure on Cousins. With so many backups in, the Redskins are going to have a tough time moving the ball.
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Kapri Bibbs has been pretty good thus far. Bibbs has generated some running yards in the absence of Samaje Perine, who limped off early with an ankle injury, and he has done well in the passing game as well. He’s doing a lot to win himself a roster spot for the 2018 offseason.