Washington Football Team: Gregg Williams’ zero blitz reminiscent of Jim Haslett
By Jonathan Eig
The aftermath and how it impacted Washington
After the game, DeAngelo Hall criticized Haslett’s play call. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist. The end result was a first down.” It was not the only time the outspoken Hall took issue with his coordinator’s decisions.
After the Jets loss, safety Marcus Maye took a more diplomatic shot at Gregg Williams. “I thought we could have been in a better call at the stage of the game.”
Haslett did not lose his job. He stayed with the team for several more years with very mixed results. But it’s fun to imagine an alternate history had he made the more conventional call on that Monday night.
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Obviously, Dallas could have still won the game, though the odds would have strongly favored Washington. And if Washington wins that game, they would have been 3-0, with 4-0 just around the corner. Perhaps they still would have fallen into the abyss after that. Perhaps newfound confidence would have turned a few close losses into wins.
Even it that didn’t happen, a win over Dallas in Week 3 would have given them a 6-10 record at the end of the season. They would have fallen at least one draft position, and perhaps as many as four spots. Instead of drafting sixth, they would have been drafting somewhere between seven and 10.
And if that were the case, maybe they would not have had enough draft capital to make the franchise-defining trade with Los Angeles, giving up multiple high draft picks for the chance to select Robert Griffin III.
If they were drafting eighth, perhaps they would have taken Ryan Tannehill, as the Dolphins did. Or perhaps they would have waited on a quarterback and drafted a defensive player. Four consecutive future Pro Bowl defenders were drafted after Tannehill – Luke Kuechly, Stephon Gilmore, Dontari Poe, and Fletcher Cox.
Perhaps they would have traded down from that point, content to wait on a quarterback until the later rounds when Russell Wilson and Nick Foles were selected. Perhaps they would have waited until the fourth round and chosen Kirk Cousins – as they did. Only in this scenario, Cousins would have entered as the QB of the future, sitting behind Grossman for a year or two before being expected to take over.
We could play this game all day. But Jim Haslett blitzed and Washington lost.
dark. Next. Potential injury fill-ins for Antonio Gibson
Apparently, Gregg Williams wasn’t watching.