Game Recap: Unpacking the Skins’ 21-9 Loss to Indianapolis
At the end of my last recap I described the 2018 Redskins as a suped-up sports car ready to floor it through the rest of the season. This week, that sports car hit a brick wall, rolled six times, and then exploded in front of a paltry 57,000 witnesses. Let’s discuss.
I want to start with receivers. The Redskins’ inability to stretch the field and present a legitimate deep-threat was a snake in the grass last week that reared up and bit against Indianapolis. For the second week in a row, Washington’s top receiver was a running back (Chris Thompson this week, AP last); this is not a long-term strategy, and Thompson’s longevity is threatened every time he takes a huge open-field shot.
One good thing you can say about the passing game, which Alex (Zeese) pointed out last week, is that Smith is trying to spread the ball around. Gruden obviously likes hitting the RBs with short passes, but outside of that clear tendency the targets for Crowder, Doctson, Reed, Richardson, and Davis are pretty even. Guys like Crowder, who got less targets against the Colts, got opportunities to produce in the rushing game instead (in fact, Crowder out-rushed our RBs this week. Yay?). This is an offense with a lot of weapons they’re trying to utilize, and that’s a great thing. Problem is, it’s not working.
Why? First of all, the Skins were sloppy with a capital S on Sunday. As Mark Bullock, WaPo expert and friend of The Hog Sty, noted on twitter, Alex Smith was making a lot of pre-snap corrections to get guys in the right position against the Colts. This is an obvious sign of unpreparedness, and that’s on Gruden…inexcusable for the home-opener against a team virtually every analyst had us beating. Secondly, the Skins lost in the trenches. Smith was routinely pressured, and instead of calling up some bootlegs or play-action passes that might have alleviated some of that pressure, Gruden seemed stubbornly committed to 3 and 5-step drops that depended on time we didn’t have. Compounding this problem, the dump-offs we used to great effect last week just weren’t available this time. And as if that wasn’t enough, I lost count of how many times a Skins RB was met behind the line of scrimmage by an Indy lineman or linebacker. They clearly had our snap count down, knew our strategy better than we did, and capitalized. The RBs had no interior gaps or lanes to work with, and edge runs were smothered by surging Colts defenders. With nothing working, Gruden refused to get creative.
The Redskins offense scored no touchdowns on Sunday. It has now been six quarters since they did, and they rank 27th in the league for 4th quarter points through two weeks. It’s clear at this point that the offense is going to run through Thompson and Peterson – that’s not a ringing endorsement, considering one wasn’t even on the team until last month – and that’ll spell disaster if the running game stalls.
Defensively, things were better. Not good, but better. I’ve heard a lot of talk about defensive failure this week, but I don’t think that’s fair. Shockingly, the Redskins won in total yards, time of possession, turnovers, and, somehow, first downs. Mason Foster was all over the place, and Swearinger had two heads-up INTs. The defense did what they needed to do to keep this game in reach. For context, 17 teams scored 21 points or more this week, and there are two more playing tonight. 21 points is a winnable point total. It has to be. You have to answer. No excuses.
One strategy the Colts used successfully on offense were short crossing routes, or “picks”, designed to confuse and tangle Washington’s LBs and DBs in coverage. Some defensive adjustments were made to limit the Colts’ effectiveness here, and I view that as a major positive, although it wasn’t enough to prevent another 4th quarter short-pass TD to Hilton that broke Washington for good and sealed the game.
And that’s how this one will go down. With the door still cracked for a late-game comeback, the Redskins couldn’t do what they’ve let so many opponents do in recent years; hang around and eke out a win.
It’s early in the season. Teams are still showing just who they are and what they’re made of. Let’s hope we have more substance than we showed on Sunday. A return to week-one form would do a lot to rekindle hope in a franchise struggling, now embarrassingly, to fill seats.
Field goals ain’t gonna fix it.