The Takeaways, Week 1: Redskins at Eagles
September 10, 2019
by Steve Thomas
Welcome to the 2019 Redskins football season! For those of you who weren’t with us last year, The Takeaways is a regular feature we started halfway through the 2017 season in order to cover some of the big-picture items that came of the Redskins game – the things you’ll need to know when you’re talking about the most recent Redskins game around your workplace watercooler in the coming week, whether they are good, bad, or otherwise. So, without further ado, let’s get into The Takeaways for this week.
This game didn’t go well, but it’s still great to have real NFL games back on the air, and really, did you expect a win on Sunday? If you did – if you really, truly did expect a “W” – you just haven’t been paying attention to the Washington Redskins football club over the past 5 years. Outside of last year’s Cardinals game, this team has made a habit of not playing well in week one. They had a Sunday of schizophrenic effort, which is something that has been far too common. This result doesn’t mean that the season is over, or that the team doesn’t have time to turn things around, so let’s all not overreact, but all the same…this wasn’t what we all wanted to happen.
Terry McLaurin is legit
One good thing is that the preseason mystery man, Terry McLaurin, announced his presence to the NFL in a big way, courtesy of 5 receptions for 125 yards and 1 touchdown. McLaurin got behind the defense – way, way behind – on two separate occasions, including one in which Keenum simply missed a sure touchdown, and made several other big-time NFL receptions. I doubt the NFL really knew much about McLaurin heading into week one, principally because Jay Gruden didn’t play him almost at all before today, probably intentionally so. Well, the Cowboys are on notice – McLaurin is for real. He’s a serious threat, and week one was his coming out party. Did the Redskins finally draft a legitimate receiving threat? I’m going to cautiously say yes.
A tale of two halves
How many times have we seen the Redskins play one complete half but look terrible in the other half? That’s what happened against the Eagles. Washington surprisingly came out with everything except the run game firing on all cylinders – the passing game, run defense, pass defense, trench warfare – the Redskins dominated nearly every facet of the game in the first half. Then, the expected happened and they completely died in the second half, getting dominated by over 200 combined yards and surrendering 25 points to the Eagles while earning just one late garbage-time touchdown. This sort of thing has happened entirely too many times in Gruden’s tenure in Washington. This coaching staff has a real problem with halftime adjustments and keeping players motivated for four full quarters. Desean Jackson was quoted after the game saying that he told teammates that the Redskins “would think they’d won with the 20-7 halftime lead” (quote reported by Les Bowen from the The Philadelphia Inquirer). That’s pretty damning, as Jackson was in this locker room and knows Jay Gruden and this team.
Secondary failures
I truly don’t place too much blame on Josh Norman for Jackson’s first touchdown. Norman was caught in single coverage against Jackson in a zone with no help over the top at all, and that scenario was only going to end one way. Regardless, the secondary as a whole had a bad game, particularly in the second half. Quinton Dunbar was weirdly out of place far too often, Montae Nicholson arguably misplayed that first Jackson touchdown, they played too soft in their zones, and made no game-changing plays or stops when they absolutely had to have them. The bottom line is that this group gave up two big-play touchdowns and a crucial long play to Zach Ertz. The secondary did not have a good day.
The run game was an absolute zero
The run game sucked in every way, all day. The offensive line lost the battle of the trenches in run blocking for the entire game, even in the first half when everything else was going right. Derrius Guice at times showed his talent to some degree, but ultimately did not achieve productive results. Granted, he didn’t have any rushing lanes to speak of, and Gruden pulled a Gruden and, as is his way, abandoned the ground game too early. Plus, the fact that the team chose to bench last year’s offensive player of the year, Adrian Peterson, was just flat-out idiotic and one of the worst roster decisions Gruden has made during his time with the Redskins. I really don’t care that Gruden thought Wendell Smallwood could be used on special teams coverage; you don’t bench your best healthy offensive player. The bottom line is that, as I said above, the running game was a zero, and Washington isn’t going to win many games if they can’t get this aspect of their offense to start clicking, fast. #PlayAdrianPeterson.
The lack of discipline from years past continued
By my count, the Redskins had a total of 13 penalties against the Eagles (12 accepted; two came on the same play), including 6 holding penalties. Good teams simply aren’t as undisciplined as the Redskins. For example, the Eagles, who most view as a contender, only had 5. The holding calls, in particular, are game killers, and against Philadelphia they eliminated multiple quality gains and stopped drives. On a related note, somebody needs to do something about Morgan Moses and his never-ending stream of holding calls; he’s a primary culprit and was last year, too. The penalties are an unfortunate hallmark of Gruden’s teams, and it appears as though the trend will continue in 2019.
That’s it for The Takeaways for week one. I’ll be back with another edition next week after the battle against the hated Cowboys.