Redskins Halftime Takeaways: ‘Skins defense holding their own against Patriots

The Washington Redskins have been able to slow down the New England Patriots offense so far on Sunday. Here are the halftime takeaways from the game.

Everyone expected that the Patriots would blow out the Redskins. Well, that wasn’t the case. At least in the first half. After two quarters against the Patriots, the Redskins are trailing the Patriots just 12-7. Here’s how they’ve been able to keep it close.

The Redskins have been great on defense so far against New England. So far, they have been able to slow down the Patriots offense.

On their first drive and found a way to pressure Tom Brady. Montez Sweat got some heat on Brady but couldn’t bring him down. However, on a third down later in the drive, the ‘Skins held up well in coverage and did enough to make Brady move. He was a bit off-balance and fell to the ground as Matt Ioannidis and Ryan Kerrigan converged on him.

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That pressure continued for most of the first half. The ‘Skins sacked Brady a total of three times. For context, Brady had only been sacked three times total in his first four games combined. They also pressured him into a key red-zone interception where Montae Nicholson made a nice leaping catch. So, the Redskins’ ability to get pressure was certainly had a positive impact on their defense overall.

While the Patriots were able to carve up the middle of the field with their passing offense at times, the Redskins were still able to come up with key stops. Landon Collins and Kerrigan came together to stop the Patriots on a fourth-and-1 after Quinton Dunbar had a key tackle to make it a fourth time. At the time, that preserved a 7-6 Washington lead.

The Redskins also were able to hold the Patriots to a field goal by tackling a pass-catcher short of the sticks on multiple third downs to get the ball back. Those timely defensive plays characterized why the ‘Skins kept things close.

Offensively, they didn’t do quite as much, but Steven Sims Jr. had an excellent touchdown run off a jet sweep. It looked like he was going to be stopped after a gain of 10 or so yards, but he was able to squeak through a couple of Patriots defenders and turn on the jets to get the score. Sims provided the team with a burst of energy and it proved that he could certainly be a weapon for the squad moving forward.

As for Colt McCoy, he has struggled to move the ball with his arm and has had issues avoiding sacks. Overall, McCoy went 9-for-12 for 59 yards and threw a horrific interception to Jason McCourty with under a minute left in the first half. He’ll need to step up a bit without taking too many risks against a very strong defense. Because aside from the Sims touchdown, the Redskins have only 60 total yards.

Also, the team has to avoid turnovers. Trey Quinn had a key fumble but got bailed out by Nicholson’s pick. If they’re going to have a chance to beat the Patriots, they can’t make key mistakes like that, especially when they’re backed up so much.

This half was much better than many expected it to be, so at least that is a positive. But the Patriots are bound to make some halftime adjustments. If the Redsksins don’t adjust too, things could get away from them in the second half.