The Takeaways – Week 3, Packers at Redskins
September 25, 2018
by Steve Thomas
It’s a pleasure to be able to write about a solid home win over a quality opponent. It makes writing The Takeaways much easier and a far more pleasant experience. No team plays sixty minutes of perfect football, and the Redskins didn’t on Sunday, but there’s no discounting a win like this, Aaron Rodgers’ bad knee notwithstanding. Washington made fewer mistakes than did Green Bay and had a solid effort in all phases today. Alex Smith is Alex Smith, Adrian Peterson continues to drink from the fountain of youth, the line play was much better on both sides of the ball, and overall it was a great day of football for the fans. Let’s hope that this causes a few more folks to want to make the trek to Fed Ex Field when the Panthers come to town in three weeks. I can’t believe I have to say this, but let’s help the Redskins get a sellout! Without further ado, here are The Takeaways for this week.
This game was won in the trenches
The offensive line – complete with Tony Bergstrom at center and the regular starting center, Chase Roullier, at left guard in place of the injured Shawn Lauvao – had a mostly outstanding day against the Packers. This group consistently opened up rushing lanes and mostly kept Alex Smith upright. As I’ve been saying for what seems like years, Jay Gruden’s offense (like almost every offense outside of the Patriots and the Packers) runs much better with an effective running game, and that’s what happened today. This game should make everyone wonder, including the coaching staff, if the five best offensive lineman might just be the group that we saw Sunday, meaning without even a healthy Shawn Lauvao.
On the opposite side of the ball, the interior defensive line – Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, and Matt Ioannidis – should’ve made even skeptics take notice. All four sacks Sunday came from the inside, two from Allen, 1 by Payne, and 1 by Ioannidis. They put significant pressure on a clearly hobbled Aaron Rodgers, which was exactly what needed to happened today. To be fair, if wasn’t all sunshine: setting aside Rodgers’ two scrambles, the Green Bay running backs actually gained good yardage, averaging 5.8 yards per carry, but the Packers (a) don’t win that way, and (b) were too far behind in the second half to dedicate a significant amount of the offense to the run game. But overall, well done defensive line.
Adrian Peterson was incredible
Peterson’s 120 yards were not just due to the fine performance by his line – he created a good amount of that yardage by himself. He may be older now, but it’s pretty clear, to me at least, that he still has his fast ball. Peterson’s vision, agility, and burst were all on display against the Packers, and while he certainly made the most of what the offensive line gave him, Peterson also did significant damage on his own in the second level. The main question for this season is whether Peterson can keep up the pace without suffering injury. Through three games, he’s on a pace of roughly 300 carries over a 16 game season, which is quite a bit for any running back, let alone one who is 33 years old. I submit to you that the Redskins should try. Ride this horse as far as he can go, and worry about what to do if he falters when and if it actually happens. The team has Derrius Guice waiting in the wings for 2019 and doesn’t necessarily have to count on Peterson for next year. It’s very likely that this will end up being a one year thing, so the Redskins should allow him to do as much as he can. Peterson has proven to be very resilient; plus, it’s not like Washington has something great behind him on the depth chart this year.
The passing game continues to play inside out
As I mentioned on our game recap show (listen here), the passing game continues to play from the inside out. The tight ends – Vernon Davis and Jordan Reed, had 6 receptions between them, and the slot receiver, Jamison Crowder, had 4 more. The two outside receivers, Josh Doctson and Paul Richardson, combined for 1 reception for 46 yards. This isn’t wholly surprising for an Alex Smith team; after all, Smith didn’t throw a touchdown to a wide receiver during the entire 2014 season when he was with the Chiefs. It’s hard to say what will happen during the rest of this season, but thusfar at least, it appears that this is what we can expect from the Redskins in the air. We’ll see.
Alex Smith is exactly who we thought he’d be
Since we’re talking Smith, let’s also say that he’s doing exactly what we all should have expected him to do; that is, make a slew of high percentage passes and very few mistakes. Smith is thusfar proving to be a quality quarterback who can win with an otherwise effective offense. He is clearly a quarterback who is very willing to take what the defense gives him and not take too many chances pushing the ball into tight windows. He did take more risks with the ball this week in terms of ball placement, but it largely worked out, and no (without having the benefit of the All-22 film yet) I don’t blame him for the interception on the ball to Reed. It was clearly a timing route and Reed, for reasons unknown right now, wasn’t there. Overall, though, Smith guided his team to a win and that’s all we can ask.
The Redskins didn’t do well trying to ice the game in the second half
Because I just can’t allow myself to be 100% positive, I think it’s only fair to say that the Redskins offense did a poor job in the second half. The playcalling became very run-centric, and Washington failed to really take charge and put this game away until far later in the fourth quarter than they should have done. The truth is that Green Bay’s various mistakes played a key role in the Redskins win. Washington needs to do a better job of playing learning to effectively play with a lead, and part of this is the playcalling. It’s a problem we’ve seen before with this team, and something that needs to get better. It was a great win, no doubt, but what we didn’t see was four quarters of great football from the Redskins. Give Aaron Rodgers a healthy knee and the Packers a couple fewer mistakes and this game would have been far different.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. Outstanding job, Redskins. The team is now 2 – 1 and tied for first place heading into its far too early bye week. We’ll be back with another edition after Washington’s Monday Night Football battle with the New Orleans Saints on October 8th.