Redskins Halftime Takeaways: Efficient drives, inefficient finishes

One half is in the books, and the Redskins have remained surprisingly close to the Minnesota Vikings. But they’ll need to close a drive if they want to win.

After two quarters of play in U.S. Bank Stadium, the Washington Redskins trail the Vikings by a score of 13-6. Neither team has been able to pull away from the other, and although we’ve had a fair share of big plays, capitalizing on those plays has been another story.

The Redskins put together a relatively complete performance in the first half, compared to other games they’ve had this season. On defense, the interior defensive line routinely made Kirk Cousins uncomfortable, and both Jonathan Allen and Matt Ioannidis notched sacks. On offense, Case Keenum was generally efficient, aside from two fumbles, and Kevin O’Connell’s passing attack spread the ball around from playmaker to playmaker. Seven different players caught passes in the first half.

That said, while the Redskins found it surprisingly easy to move the football down the field, they couldn’t close drives. They were forced to kick a field goal inside the ten-yard line twice, and while the defense was able to negate that loss of opportunity by inflicting a similar result on the Vikings offense, settling for three isn’t a sustainable strategy for Washington’s offense. Minnesota’s unit has more firepower, and if the Redskins don’t take control, the Vikings eventually will.

That said, the Redskins have done a good job of keeping this game close. In the second half, they’ll have to aim to cut down on the mistakes, and finish long, efficient drives with touchdowns instead of field goals. If they can do those two things on offense, then they can at least keep up with the Vikings, and potentially steal a win from the NFC’s current 6-seed. If they fail to adjust, as they’ve done may times before, then this one could get away from them.

The first half is over, but the second half will be underway shortly. Stick with us, as we’ll be on Twitter with live updates, and we’ll follow up the game with a recap and a piece highlighting the game’s studs and duds!