The Takeaways, Week 5: Patriots at Redskins
October 6, 2019
by Steve Thomas
A game for which the headline reads “Patriots at Redskins” isn’t going to ever end well, at least if the year isn’t sometime in the 1980s or early 90s. The Redskins never, ever had a chance to win this game, even if they had played a full four quarters well, which they didn’t. Everything was fine and dandy for a few minutes when Washington jumped out to an unexpected lead in the early going thanks to Steven Sims Jr. Beyond that, things quickly went from bad to worse, and eventually fell back to the expected norm, which was a dominating Patriot victory. I certainly didn’t expect a victory in this game, but I did have hope that the Redskins would show a little bit of heart, play a complete game, and go down with their heads held high. That most certainly didn’t happen. The Redskins went out meekly, as pathetic quitters.
You shouldn’t have been surprised by this
My hope of a productive game was clearly misguided optimism. To their credit, Washington’s defense did look good for awhile in the first half, better than they’ve looked since the early going of week 1 against the Eagles. The team and the fans were buoyed by an early lead thanks to the Sims’ 65 yard touchdown on a jet sweep that was the Redskins’ only score, and probably their only significant offensive play. But really, what happened the rest of the way is what was supposed to happen. The Patriots are in the midst of the most successful run in NFL history, and the Redskins are one of the dregs of the NFL. If you were like me and hoped for a legitimate competitive game for a full 60 minutes, your hope was misguided. The Patriots weren’t going to panic just because they were down by 7 early, and they also weren’t going to pull a Redskins and relax when they had a lead. This game was simply the universe keeping karmic balance intact – the Patriots are an elite franchise, and the Redskins are one of the worst in the league. This is the way it was supposed to go.
Colt McCoy looked bad, but it was never going to go well
Certainly, McCoy didn’t have a good game. He missed several reads, look rusty, threw multiple bad balls, and generally looked like a backup who hasn’t been healthy and has only practiced 4 times in 10 months. It was not a successful outing by McCoy, even considering that the opponent was the Super Bowl champion Patriots. That having been said, the Redskins were going to get about the same results from both Case Keenum and Dwayne Haskins, probably worse from Haskins. Washington just isn’t a good enough team in any way to complete with New England, and a different quarterback was still going to mean something close to 33 – 7. An argument could certainly be made that Haskins should’ve played, particularly since he got into last week’s game – in fact, I made that argument on this week’s game preview show. But what’s also true is that when Haskins inevitably posted around 76 yards net passing and a quarterback rating of 50, as did McCoy today, it would’ve been worse for his confidence, which is ultimately probably more important than one game’s worth of experience, and would’ve had some (mostly ignorant) fans again calling him a bust and for the team to draft Tu’a from Alabama next year. At least that’s the story I’m going with now that the game is over.
The defensive game plan uninventive and poorly executed
The Redskins didn’t seem to try and do much different than they ever do, which is to say, get pressure via the front four and mostly a soft zone shell coverage to guard against the big plays. This worked for about half the game, before the Patriots figured out that they could also run the ball effectively. The defensive line actually did put a significant amount of pressure on Tom Brady for awhile, at least by Redskins standards. The problem was that the pressure resulted in only one turnover and didn’t stop New England from taking a lead into halftime. Furthermore, the incredibly poor play by Washington’s secondary continued. The defensive backfield has regressed from a pretty quality unit in years past to a bunch of guys who look like they’ve never played together before. If someone can explain how this happened, I’m all ears. Also, the Patriots adjusted to the Redskins’ scheme by running the ball quite a bit more in the second half. You know, adjustments.
Finally: seriously, whoever on the coaching staff thought it was a good idea to let Ryan Anderson, Montez Sweat, and Ryan Kerrigan drop back in coverage needs to turn in their playbook, immediately.
The entire team and the coaches quit in the second half
The second half of this game was a complete humiliation. The Redskins players quit, showed little effort, and no heart once things got tough. The coaching staff seemingly didn’t have a clue about how to adjust to the Patriots’ change in their game plan in the second half. The players were once again sloppy and unprepared, and the truth is that without Sims’ touchdown, the offense would essentially have done nothing in the first half either. It’s one thing for a bad team to get beaten by the Super Bowl champs, and it’s another thing entirely to not even bother trying to play the game of football in the fourth quarter. The entire organization should be embarrassed about what occurred in this game, particularly in late in the second half. The lack of effort was an indictment of everyone involved in football operations. I’d say that the team finally hit bottom out in the fourth quarter tonight, but the Miami Dolphins loom, and losing to that team in the similar fashion would be a failure of exponentially bigger proportions.
Steven Sims looks like a playmaker
Probably the lone bright spot for the Redskins was the play of Steven Sims Jr. Granted, he had only one major play, but that’s where we are with this team, folks. The point is that Sims is just as electric in the NFL as he was in college, and one of the things Washington coaching staff is actually doing a pretty good job of is exploiting his talent. He’s a threat to take it to the house every time he touches the ball. If you want a non-Terry McLaurin positive about the 2019 Redskins, Sims is it.
That’s enough negativity for one day. I’ll be back with another edition of The Takeaways after next’s week’s Battle for the Bottom in Miami. That one’ going to be a barnburner, folks.