The Redskins lost their season opener, and in doing so, they gave us plenty of ammunition.
If the game had ended after the first half, then the Washington Redskins would have entered Week 2 with sparkling reviews. They’d shoot up the power rankings nationwide for their victory over the Eagles, and they’d bask in their own glory, now fit to take on the defending division champs in Dallas.
That’s how the Redskins wanted it. So much so, that perhaps they already believed it at half time.
The problem is, NFL football games are four quarters long, and Washington only showed up for two. In the second half, issues were aplenty, and in the coming weeks, the Redskins have a lot of things to work on, if they want to avoid a demoralizing second half collapse like this one. To ensure that this never happens again, the Redskins can use our Ingredients for Improvement, if they so please.
No. 5 – Use the short passing game more often
The passing game as a whole isn’t always going to be the most consistent unit with Case Keenum at the helm, but there are ways to mitigate inconstancies from Keenum and help him hone in on what he does best. We saw some of that on Sunday, and then we saw the Redskins stop doing it.
The Redskins short passing game has potential. With Josh Doctson out of the building, Washington now has three starting receivers who can all get open quickly in the short and intermediate ranges with quickness and route nuance. Keenum doesn’t have the arm strength to fit the ball into tight windows, but when he can get into a rhythm and hit guys in stride, he’s at his best. The short passing game gives him that opportunity.
This isn’t to say that the Redskins shouldn’t dial up shots occasionally. They most certainly should, at logical times. First and ten. Second and short. But as we saw on Sunday, Keenum isn’t the best deep passer, so those plays aren’t going to hit every time. The best way to run an offense is to do something one’s players are comfortable doing, and Keenum looks most comfortable commanding a quicker attack, where he can utilize play fakes and separation.
In terms of the offense as a whole, the Redskins should utilize the quick passing game more. Play action, rollouts, drag routes, comebacks. It was in that state where the Redskins were most efficient on Sunday, and it’s perhaps the best way for them to cut down on negative externalities in the coming weeks.
No. 4 – Implement the running game the right way
After Derrius Guice carried the ball for 18 yards on 10 attempts in Sunday’s loss, fans lambasted Jay Gruden for his decision to sit Adrian Peterson, as if Peterson would have done any better.
I’ve got a hot take for you. He wouldn’t have. It would’ve been nice to have Peterson available to take pressure off Guice, and the team would’ve avoided all the subsequent drama. But the statistical outcome would have been the same.
It’s not the personnel that’s the problem for the Redskins running game, although in hindsight, Guice did not look one-hundred percent on many of his reps, and the blocking could have been better. But if the running game was implemented with more logical sense, then perhaps Guice would have found more space at the line of scrimmage.
Jay Gruden has a fatal flaw, where he tries to rely on the run when he has a substantial lead. It was this foundation on the run that began the stalling of the offense in the second half, and it was persistent stubbornness that allowed the Eagles to so thoroughly dominate time of possession in the third and fourth quarters.
Gruden can’t rely on the run game situationally, anymore. The modern NFL isn’t built like that. There are still ways to run, and run well, but a team has to run the right way. That means running at the right times. Not on second and long. Not if there’s a heavy box on first and ten. Gruden also runs a very diverse ground game; he could stand to improve by simplifying things, and honing in on a couple schemes his players are best at. As analyst Mark Bullock pointed out on Twitter, the Shanahans had running success by mastering the zone scheme. Gruden could follow suit, and simplify his scheme.
Whatever the case, the Redskins can’t run the way they did on Sunday. Something needs to change. Gruden likes to stick to his guns, and focus on perfecting his own way, rather than modifying it when necessary. That’s a trench he can’t dig again, with his job security dwindling.
No. 3 – Have more situational awareness on defense
Just as coaching and play calling catalyzed the Redskins offensive collapse on Sunday, the defense lost a lot of ground when Greg Manusky started playing it too safe in the second half.
It was a common theme last season for Manusky to use his players in ways where they weren’t as comfortable, or in ways that minimized their chances of success. There were times when he assigned 3-4 outside linebackers to slot receivers and tight ends, and it was a common occurrence for him to line defensive backs up in soft coverage, when the offense only needed a short gain to keep the chains moving.
We saw some of that lack of play calling common sense on Sunday. Manusky again frequently lined his defensive backs up off the line of scrimmage, allowing immediate separation for Eagles receivers. He also used nickel alignments for much of the second half once Jonathan Allen was gone, limiting the team’s ability to fill space at the line and stop runs.
It was these little inconsistencies that caused the threat of an Eagles comeback to balloon until it was no longer a threat, but instead reality. The Redskins have the talent to field a very good defense, and flashes of that were noticeable on Sunday. But Manusky’s lack of situational awareness once again limited the unit’s potential, and it’s a trend that doesn’t bode well for future success.
Avoid drive-killing penalties on offense
Drives are already on life support when Jay Gruden runs on first and ten, then again on second and long. But there were a couple instances where, when the Redskins did have a successful play, penalties brought them back.
The Redskins, in total, had ten penalties on the offensive side of the ball, with most of them coming in the second half, when they were already stalling from play calling alone. Case Keenum had one penalty credited to him, but the other nine were holding and personal foul calls on other players.
Donald Penn and Morgan Moses accounted for six of those nine penalties, and Moses in particular was picked on by defensive linemen when his hands got him in trouble.
Penalties only compound offensive inefficiency; they dig the hole deeper, and that’s just one of the momentum-killing problems the Redskins ran into on Sunday. The line needs to cut down on penalties if they want to maximize their chances of winning.
Don’t relax with a lead
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who played with the Redskins and Jay Gruden from 2014 to 2016, had this to say about his former team after Sunday’s game, per NBC Sports Washington’s J.P. Finlay. No vitriol, no pointed words. Something worse.
"We came out and started off slow and struggled, but not one moment in that game I didn’t think we were going to come out and win that game. I kept stressing to the boys when we came in the locker room that I have been over there [with the Redskins] before in that locker room and I know how they are. I just stressed to my teammates that I felt that at halftime, they probably thought they had the game sealed and won. Regardless of the score and how many points you are down, there is always a chance you can win the game. Being in that locker room, I just know how they are, not saying anything bad about them, that is just how they are."
“I know how they are.”
“They probably thought they had the game sealed and won.”
“That is just how they are.”
If this isn’t an indictment of Jay Gruden, then no such things exist. This speaks to a deeply-rooted cultural malfunction in D.C., perhaps emboldened by the man with the headset. Jackson, speaking from experience, knew Gruden would take his foot off the gas pedal in the second half. The entire Eagles team knew it. And they were able to capitalize when it did happen.
It’s ultimately up to Gruden to change this perception, although five years in, the fabled saying likely rings true: Old dogs don’t learn new tricks. Of all the team’s Ingredients for Improvement, this one deserves the most attention. And ironically, it will go unchecked, just like it always has.