The Takeaways, Week 16 Edition – Giants at Redskins
December 24, 2019
by Steve Thomas
Our beloved Washington Redskins played fairly well against the New York Giants, at least on the offensive side of the ball, but nevertheless dropped their 12th game of the season by a score of 41 – 35 in the final home game of the season. Plenty of both good and bad came out of this contest, even for you draft order obsessives, although a win certainly would’ve made me happier. At this point, I’m almost numb to these losses. One thing that came out of this game was a truckload of stories for this week’s edition of The Takeaways, so let’s get on with it.
The injuries were the big story
The Redskins saw some key starters go down with injuries, including starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins and right tackle Morgan Moses, with star receiver Terry McLaurin also going out but later returning to action. Haskins’ injury ended up being a high ankle sprain that will keep him out of next week’s game against Dallas. It think it’s safe to say that, while everyone would like Haskins to get the experience of another start, we’ve all seen enough to know that the Redskins won’t be in the market for another starting quarterback in the 2020 draft, so from that perspective, having him miss the last game, meaningless to the team, is fine. As to Moses, we don’t have any more details about his injury except that it was a knee problem. Moses has had a tough year, so one has to wonder if it’s possible that we just watched his last game as a Redskin.
Dwayne Haskins continues to get better and better
The most important development from this game was that Haskins was on fire prior to his ankle injury. He really got into a rhythm in this game in a way that we haven’t seen from Haskins since his college days at Ohio St. It was a fine way to end his 2019 season. Haskins has looked far move comfortable in the pocket recently than he did in the early part of the season, and truth be told, Bill Callahan and his staff have made significant progress with Haskins in the post- Jay Gruden era, slowly going from an uber-run heavy gameplan that barely looked like an NFL offense to a fairly balanced operation that emphasizes Haskins’ strengths. I’m excited about what we’ll see from Haskins next year. Dare I say it: have the Redskins actually found their first franchise quarterback in a generation??
The defensive front 7 embarrassed themselves
I’ve been preaching all season about how disappointed I’ve been in Washington’s front 7. This group drastically underperformed against the Giants, allowing second year sensation Saquon Barkley to gain 189 yards on the ground. This is a completely unacceptable result for a unit that at one point was looked at – at least by the fanbase – as a potentially elite unit. They’ve definitely proven otherwise this year, and Sunday was no exception. The inside linebackers, Jonathan Bostic and Cole Holcomb, both had bad games and each played big roles in Barkley’s huge day. I expect the Redskins to look hard at the linebacker market in free agency and in the draft for help, particularly given Reuben Foster’s knee injury. Even the defensive line of Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, and Matt Ioannidis had repeated failures of their own this week. Irrespective of the failures of the secondary, the front seven is going to have to be dramatically better against opposing ground games next year if the Redskins as a team expect to rise up to the level of respectability.
The secondary embarrassed themselves
Understanding that all of the team’s top corners were out due to injury, to include starters Quinton Dunbar and Fabian Moreau, and slot corner Jimmy Moreland, this unit still wasn’t nearly good enough. Once again, we had to watch multiple instances of major coverage miscommunications and missteps that directly led to Giants points. The situation has been a bit better since Josh Norman’s benching, but not by much. The truth is that many of the problems with this unit have continued without him. We saw the weaknesses in the depth at corner and at safety against the Giants, particularly in the run game. If the likes of the sad New York Giants stuck it to the Redskins secondary, Washington will need to spend some significant resources this offseason (which starts in 6 days!) in order to gain a measure of respectability.
All of you people are freaking out about draft order are probably going to get your wish
The Redskins are mostly likely going to end up with the second pick in the draft as a result of this loss to the Giants, so all of you folks who’ve been doing nothing but rooting for the team’s draft order are most likely going to see your prayers answered. At this point, only the Miami Dolphins beating the Patriots can change the draft order. I personally have never been one to get overly stressed out about draft order, but obviously the lowest pick (meaning, lowest in number, which I suppose is technically the highest pick) possible is better for the team. I’m already utterly sick and tired of having to read and listen to people fawning over Chase Young and it’s only December, so I’ll have to try and remind myself to stop trolling our audience about it for my own amusement. Attitude problem, meet Hypocrite.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. The big season finale is next week, so I’ll be back next Tuesday with the last edition of the 2019 season.