Redskins flop in Week 3, lose to Broncos by a score of 29-17

In preseason, it’s the little victories that matter more than the final score. The Redskins didn’t win in either department on Friday night.

No game of preseason should be considered anything close to full speed, regular season football, but the third week of preseason is the closest thing to full speed, regular season football we’ve had in eight months. And the Washington Redskins looked like they were picking up the ropes all over again.

The game started off bad, and it didn’t get any better as the backups got their chance. Alex Smith was inept with the first-team offense, with the only glimpse of hope being veteran running back Adrian Peterson. With a strong performance, Peterson should be a roster lock and a likely No. 1 back at this point. He showed the Redskins what they needed to see, and on such a bad night for everyone else, Peterson stood out.

On defense, there wasn’t much more to get excited about. The run defense was inconsistent. The pass defense was unreliable. It was a very incomplete performance by the Redskins, who lacked polish through all four quarters. After entering the half down fourteen points, no tangible adjustments were made, although it was hard for the second-team offense to get anything going with a patchwork offensive line. Kevin Hogan played well late with the third-teamers, but it was far from enough, and far too late.

Peterson’s performance will be a popular buzz point in the coming days, but overall, the Redskins were very bad in their surmised dress rehearsal. Hopefully, the team will respond positively to their negative performance, and work to get better in the coming days. Preseason is for teams to gauge their own progress and work toward making adjustments. The Redskins will have a clear focus in practice this week. It’s only preseason. But it’s alarming that they looked so ill-prepared against the Broncos, nonetheless.

The Redskins didn’t get the little victories or the big ones tonight. No one was seriously injured, but the team as a whole was seriously out of sync. Improvement is a necessity ahead of Week 1 of the regular season.