The Redskins fell to the Cowboys 21-31 at home on Sunday, and they now reside in the back of the pack for the playoff race.
Getting back into contention isn’t impossible at this point, but for the Washington Redskins, it’ll likely prove challenging to get back into the mix. Several of the team’s duds this week were duds in Week 1, suggesting a trend of ineffectiveness.
This week’s Studs and Duds segment features both new and familiar faces, and while there was some good from the Redskins on Sunday, they ultimately need to be better, in some of their most crucial team facets. Here are the Studs and Duds from Week 2.
Stud: WR Terry McLaurin
Despite the passing game’s inconsistency, Terry McLaurin himself is on a torrid pace to start the season. He followed up his electric debut performance with another solid outing, catching five of nine targets for 62 yards and a score.
Don’t look now, but McLaurin has ten receptions for 187 yards and two scores in his first two weeks. He’s currently twelfth in the NFL in receiving yards, and he’s on pace for 80 receptions, 1,496 yards, and 16 touchdowns.
Playing the pace game after two weeks is irrational (saying this as I play the pace game), and McLaurin obviously isn’t going to catch 16 touchdowns in 2019. But still, it speaks to how McLaurin has produced thus far. He’s the team’s No. 1 receiver, and he appears to have a bright future at that position.
Despite only carrying third-round pick status in the offseason, McLaurin has had the biggest impact of any draft pick so far. He has the speed and acceleration to gain separation off the line, and he has the strength and focus at the catch point to win contested battles. With his amalgamation of traits, the Redskins are in good hands at wide receiver moving forward. He’s part of that young core that provides potential future promise.
Hopefully you picked McLaurin up in fantasy.
Dud: The rushing offense with Adrian Peterson
In the season debut, Derrius Guice ran the ball 10 times for 18 yards. In Week 2, Adrian Peterson ran the ball 10 times for 25 yards and a goal line touchdown. The touchdown is a nice add-on to the stat sheet, and it vaulted him into the top five all-time in NFL rushing touchdowns. But in a game where the Redskins were never exactly competitive, Peterson didn’t get them closer. You could say he didn’t change a thing.
That’s not all Peterson’s fault, but for as good as he is, onlookers must accept that he’s limited at this stage of his career. He no longer has the burst and speed to compensate for bad blocking, and while he can still shake off tackles, his one-dimensionality prohibits him from being a game changer against controlling teams.
Bad blocking was mentioned, and it does need to be elaborated on. The Redskins offensive line, for two weeks now, has been subpar at run blocking as a whole. There have been some good moments, and the pass blocking, especially in Week 1, has looked better than expected. But the run blocking is bad, and the running back is limited. That’s not a recipe for success.
It’s also worth bringing to light that Jay Gruden is implementing the running game in an inefficient way. His first-down runs are willful sacrifices of real estate to the defense, and by playing it safe in close games, Gruden effectively takes his team out of the game.
But enough about Gruden. We’ll get to him later, after all.
Stud: FS Montae Nicholson
For all their flaws, the Redskins can at least take credit for this: They haven’t had any trouble jumping out to leads early this season.
In Week 1, Washington exploded out to a 21-7 lead against Philadelphia, on the back of a surprisingly stellar passing attack, which later stalled. In Week 2, it was a turnover that helped tip the odds in Washington’s favor: An interception nabbed by free safety Montae Nicholson.
It was the first turnover generated of the season for the Redskins, and it came at an opportune time. The Redskins had just 24 yards and two punts in their first two drives. Dak Prescott was starting to find his groove. He eventually found it anyway, but on this particular drive, the pressure got to Prescott, and on third and one, he threw a pass behind Randall Cobb in the middle of the field.
Cobb tried to corral the ball, but he couldn’t catch it cleanly, and so instead, in bounced into the air off his fingers, a pop fly waiting to be snatched. With his range and focus, Nicholson stepped forward, plucked the ball out of the air, and ran it back 23 yards. That interception return set up Adrian Peterson’s rushing touchdown, and it helped the Redskins take control early.
It didn’t take long for the Redskins to forfeit their control, but credit must be given where it’s due. Nicholson is showing flashes of his 2017 self this season, and at just 23 years old, he has more time to keep improving. He was out for a good chunk of the second and third quarters on Sunday with a foot injury, and the secondary didn’t quite look the same without him.
Dud: CB Josh Norman
The secondary might’ve still looked the same without Josh Norman. Either way, it didn’t look very good.
The Dallas Cowboys offense is a tier above what they’ve been in years past this season, but they enjoyed picking on the Redskins short-handed secondary. Often times, however, they didn’t even single out the temporary starters. Instead, it was the veteran Josh Norman with a target on his back.
Norman’s lack of speed was magnified by the Cowboys’ attempts to scheme plays toward him. It led to one big touchdown, and could’ve led to another. Devin Smith scored against Norman, and Michael Gallup let a long pass fall through his arms when he has separation.
Norman has long been known to be a zone cornerback. He doesn’t thrive in man coverage; rather, he’s best when he can read, jump underneath routes, and use his length to make plays on the ball. The Cowboys took Norman out of his element on Sunday. Even when lining up in soft zone, Norman could gear up fast enough to cover Dallas’ pass catchers. The Cowboys exploited a weakness against the Redskins. And that weakness will likely be in the starting lineup for fourteen more games.
Stud: DL Daron Payne
We talked about Montae Nicholson’s interception earlier. Part of what led to that sequence of events was the pressure provided up the middle by Daron Payne. Payne got in Prescott’s face early, and he threw the signal caller off balance. Prescott made an inaccurate throw as a result, and Nicholson took hold of the opportunity.
The Redskins defense was insufficient all-around on Sunday, but there were still individual players who flashed promise in spite of the unit’s overall failure. Cole Holcomb was one of them. Jimmy Moreland was another, although he was more inconsistent. But Payne ultimately stood out the most, as a disruptive lineman surrounded by mediocrity.
Payne didn’t have any sacks on the day, and he only had three assisted tackles to show for his performance. But all through the afternoon, he was strong at the point of attack, and he continued to bolster his status as one of the better up-and-coming defensive linemen in the league. Payne reminds us that while the defense as a whole isn’t what many thought it would be, individual players are living up to their potential. Hopefully, Jonathan Allen will be back soon, to help the position group return to full strength.
Dud: DC Greg Manusky
It’s not necessarily a matter of if, but when Greg Manusky loses his job as the Redskins defensive coordinator. Two games have passed, and Washington has allowed 63 total points. The defense, meant to be the crown jewel of the team, has been inconsistent and ineffective as a whole.
Part of that is on the players. The defensive front hasn’t been as menacing as it was supposed to be from a talent standpoint, and big names like Josh Norman and Landon Collins, among others, aren’t providing the expected impact.
But it’s a defensive coordinator’s job to put his players in the best position to succeed, and to keep the offense guessing with creativity and deception. Manusky’s defense shows none of those traits. There are no stunts, no feigned coverages. Blitzes are timed almost at random, and in times when offenses are running ball control offense, with short passes and such, Manusky often has his cornerbacks playing off the line of scrimmage, giving up space by default. The lack of situational awareness is striking, and it makes an appearance every week.
It must be brought up in this conversation that Manusky may simply stick around due to the lack of quality DC candidates around him. Rob Ryan has a considerably bad track record there. Ray Horton has never sustained success in that position. Jim Tomsula is best served in the role he has now. Ultimately, the Redskins either need to dig deep on their coaching staff, or wait for the opportunity to add an outside hire, if they want to improve. But whatever the future yields can’t be predicted just yet. For now, all we know is this: Manusky isn’t getting it done.
Stud: Jet sweeps to Steven Sims Jr.
In the modern NFL, a play caller needs to add new wrinkles every week, in order to keep opposing defenses on their toes. We caught a glimpse of that on Sunday, when the Redskins showed impressive creativity by using undrafted rookie Steven Sims Jr. on a couple of jet sweep concepts.
There was one particular play, on a second and long, where Case Keenum faked the handoff to the back behind him, waited for a guard to set a pick for Sims, then handed off to the receiver who streaked inside from the left. Sims proceeded to turn on the jets, and he sprinted down the middle for a nice gain. The play stood out for both its creativity and for the flawlessness of the execution, something that wasn’t so prevalent for the rest of the game.
Still, the inconsistency of the offense’s personnel shouldn’t be an excuse for Jay Gruden to withhold those new wrinkles. At 0-2, with the season slipping away, there’s nothing to lose. Keep being innovative on offense. Start being more aggressive. Abandon the traditional running game and find ways to be more efficient with reps. With all the ground Gruden needs to make up, showing adaptability might be his best bet.
Dud: HC Jay Gruden
Some were surprised the Washington Redskins kept Jay Gruden as the head coach past the 2018 season. His team went 7-9 in 2018, constituting a second-straight 7-9 season, and Gruden’s individual flaws, while shrouded by the team’s injury issues, were very prevalent.
Still, Washington’s front office gave Gruden a tepid vote of confidence by keeping him in 2019. It was assumed, however, that Gruden would have a short leash. With a young core developing and a structural turning point for the roster on the horizon, it seemed as though a change wasn’t just expected, but eventually necessary, if Gruden wouldn’t be able to flip the script.
So here we are, two weeks into the season, and Gruden is 0-2. His first game featured a devastating second-half collapse at the hands of the Eagles. His second game, a home opener, was marred by poor execution and inconsistency on both sides of the ball. Perhaps the Redskins wanted to see Gruden take this opportunity and run with it. Perhaps they wanted to see him adapt, with the weight of an occupation on his shoulders. But it’s becoming clearer and clearer that such a thing isn’t going to happen.
The sooner the Redskins accept that 2019 is a losing season, the sooner they can prepare to turn the page from Gruden, and set their young core off on a positive note to close out the year. There’s no guarantee the next era brings anything better. But at this point, there’s little sense in prolonging the current one past the bye week.