The Takeaways, week 9: Falcons at Redskins
November 6, 2018
by Steve Thomas
This Redskins team sure does have a “’Yin/Yang” quality to it, doesn’t it? Great performances one week, awful the next. There’s so little consistency to them that it’s just maddening. Washington can’t just play well in a losing effort against a good team; they need to lay a rotten, gross, stinky egg. There was very little redeeming about this game, so I’m warning you now that this is going to be a fairly negative edition of The Takeaways. The Redskins didn’t do a whole lot that was good against a high-flying Falcons team that looks to be finding its footing after a rough start to their season. For Washington, the team missed a chance to grab a full two game lead over the Eagles in the NFC East, which would’ve put them in the driver’s seat going into the second half of the season. Instead, the Redskins will find themselves in a dogfight that, in a best-case scenario, will most likely last until the end of the season. All the same, though, this loss – the beatdown that it was – still just counts for 1 “L” in the standings, so all is not lost. Yes, the injury situation is pretty devastating, but all the team can do is move on to next week. Here are the week 9 Takeaways.
Jay Gruden’s team was poorly prepared and he was out-coached
This game wasn’t Jay Gruden’s finest hour. The Redskins looked wholly unprepared for the Falcons’ running game and to deal with Atlanta’s depth of talent in its wide receiver corps. The Redskins looked surprised that the Falcons were trying to run the ball, and the defense looked to be off-kilter all day as a result. The Falcons’ scheme was creative in that, among other things, they continually moved star wide receiver Julio Jones around in order to keep Josh Norman from traveling with him as much as possible, and they structured the run game so that Tevin Coleman and Ito Smith principally ran to the edges away from the strength of the Redskins interior line. The Redskins once again failed to make halftime adjustments to account for the Falcons’ successes, the lack of adjustments being an unfortunate hallmark of Gruden’s tenure in Washington. On offense, Gruden failed to adapt his gameplan after the injuries to the offensive line caused the protection to crater and the running lanes to not materialize. Gruden still called slow-developing pass plays despite the bad protection, among other things. Overall, this was an extremely poor effort by the Redskins coaching staff.
The offensive line’s severe injury woes caused havoc
The massive injuries to Redskins’ offensive line caused a serious problem for the offense, obviously. Having Ty Nsekhe playing left guard, Tony Bergstrom at right guard, and Geron Christian at left tackle is obviously sub-optimal. The effect of the upheaval was that quarterback Alex Smith was continually running for his life on passing downs. Adrian Peterson not only didn’t have running lanes, but he was hit in the backfield by multiple Falcon defenders on almost every run. Geron Christian is a rookie who will develop and get better as time goes on, but right now he looked as though he did not belong on the field. If you want to blame any one thing as the biggest contributor to offense’s overall lack of effectiveness, blame the offensive line. When a running back can’t even get out of the backfield and the quarterback is continually harassed, not much is going to go well.
The Falcons should not have been able to run like they did
Tevin Coleman and somebody going by the name “Ito Smith” should not have been the duo to gash the Redskins’ defense for 148 rushing yards. Washington’s defensive front seven had a poor day overall, rarely making quarterback Matt Ryan uncomfortable, and in terms of Coleman and Smith, linebackers Mason Foster and Zach Brown continually failed to be in the right position and were easily blocked. Coleman and Smith had huge, gaping rushing lanes, many of which were outside the tackles, all day long, with Foster and Brown out of place on numerous occasions. The interior defensive lineman, Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, and Matt Ioannidis, were largely ineffective, frequently blocked, and mostly did not make an impact on the Falcons’ rushing game. I recognize that Coleman is fast and has some talent, but Washington made him look much better than he’s otherwise been this season. This should not have happened, and it’s the first time this season that the Redskins’ front seven have let opposing running backs have their way with them. If the Redskins are going to be successful this year, this sort of performance can’t happen again.
The Falcons’ receivers were just too talented for this secondary
There wasn’t a scenario in which Julio Jones wasn’t going to gain significant yardage. He’s too good to just be shut down. 121 yards isn’t ideal, certainly, and the team should’ve been better than that, but the real problem was that the combination of Mohamed Sanu and Calvin Ridley behind them was just too much for the Redskins’ secondary. The talent level on both teams was too imbalanced, particularly after starting corner Quinton Dunbar went out of the game with his injury. The Redskins were unable to match up with the Falcons’ receiving corps, even with zone defense, even dropping 7 into coverage, and even with the addition of new safety Ha Clinton-Dix. How many times did we witness both Sanu and Ridley making tough catches in traffic, and then – certainly in Ridley’s case – adding significant yards after catch? The secondary was utterly unable to cope with a monster today. The good news is that Redskins probably won’t face such a deep opposing receiving corps again this season.
The grim reaper returns to Washington
Watching four-fifths of the Redskins’ starting offensive line, and then some of the backups, all go down with injuries, was tough to watch. Throw in injuries to Quinton Dunbar and Paul Richardson, Jr., and it was a disaster reminiscent of 2017 on Sunday. Yes, this team can’t catch a break in terms of the grim reaper, but who in the front office honestly believed that Shawn Lauvao was going to get through 16 games? That’s roster management negligence. The man has been a non-stop injury since the day he arrived here, and he’s not the only one. The Redskins are once again at the point at which they’ll have to scrap together an offensive line off the street, and that’ll have a long-lasting effect on the Redskins ability to become more effective – meaning, score more points – on offense. Losing Brandon Scherff, Lauvao, and Paul Richardson, Jr. for the year in just one game, as was announced Monday, is a very tough pill to swallow.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. I don’t have the stomach to slog through more negativity, although Lord knows there’s enough material. The Redskins will try to rebound next Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.