Washington Redskins Week 5 postgame Reality Checks

No. 5 – Reality is, we don’t know how good the Redskins’ defense is yet.

I said we should not expect the Redskins to hold the Saints scoreless in the first half like they did the Cardinals. I said we should not expect this defense to make Alvin Kamara look pedestrian like they did to David Johnson, nor to harass Drew Brees into a similar line as what Aaron Rodgers put up against them. But I felt we should expect them to be able to make life difficult for the Saints for stretches in the game and come up with a few key stops or turnovers.

Prediction: The defense will do enough to support both sides of the argument this week. They will hold Kamara under 100 total yards, and they will force the Saints into less than 50 percent conversion on third down. However, they will give up a few key penalties, and a few key conversions, including at least one trick play for a big gain. I expect mixed reviews for the defense this week.

Reality Check:  The game was lost on the first two Saints possessions, when the Redskins managed to give them three third down conversions via penalty, while also failing to recover a fumble. We’ll never know if they could have held up, had those drives had gone differently. They did hold the Saints to 98 yards rushing as a team, which was encouraging, but the pass defense looked unprepared, un-athletic, and uninterested. This was a good old-fashioned beatdown. The Redskins defense still has potential… but they haven’t arrived yet.