The Takeaways, Week 6: Panthers at Redskins
October 16, 2018
by Steve Thomas
Much to our collective relief our beloved Washington Redskins had a much-improved effort in all phases of the game Sunday afternoon against the Carolina Panthers, posting a victory at home over Cam Newton and company. Nothing’s perfect, of course, but without a doubt I’ll take 11 more of these games this year. Nothing’s perfect, of course, but the Redskins seemed to have learned from the disaster in New Orleans last week and came out playing a game without significant soul-crushing mistakes and refusing to allow the Panthers run game to get control of the affair. Most stunningly enough, the defense even did just enough to keep Cam Newton and company out of the end zone for what would have likely been a game winning touchdown. We’ve seen too much of that sort of thing in DC over the past many seasons, and it was a pleasure to watch some other team come out on the bad end of things for once. All of that is to say that The Takeaways – which is our version of the Redskins watercooler talk for the early week – is a much more pleasant experience today than it was for week 5.
An effective running game earned the Redskins a victory
It’s no accident that the Redskins have rushed for more than 130 yards in each of Washington’s three victories this year; specifically, 182, 166, and 130 yards, respectively, whereas in the two losses, the team only had 65 and 39 yards rushing. Here’s a truism about the 2018 Redskins: this is a running team. This team needs to run well in order to galvanize this offense and make it successful. This week, the offensive line opened up significant holes for Adrian Peterson, who took full advantage to the tune of 97 yards at a 5.7 yards per carry pace. That total would have been 15 yards more but for a Morgan Moses holding call. Jay Gruden is an Arena League guy at heart, for sure, but I continue to believe that he has learned that NFL teams who are not the New England Patriots need to run the ball at least competently in order to have success. Peterson continues to look years younger, and while I do wonder how long he can keep up this pace without succumbing to injury, I’m perfectly happy watching him do his thing for now. And as a bonus, Kapri Bibbs looked good in limited action as Peterson’s backup. The point is this: the Redskins need to run the ball to be successful, and they did that against Carolina.
Josh Norman redeems himself
Josh Norman was the resident whipping boy for the Washington fanbase this week, because the natural state of Redskins fans is to always have at least one player strung up on the DMV Native Hater’s Guillotine[1], and it was Norman’s turn this past week. Norman had his first interception of the year (which was his first in twenty games), a strip that resulted in a turnover after Mason Foster recovered the ball, and generally played tight coverage all day. Look, all corners, no matter if they’re Darrell Green or Shlepy the Wonder Boy playing for the Podunk, Indiana, High School freshman team[2], blow coverages, and Norman is no exception. We can have a reasonable debate over whether he’s been worth his weight in platinum, literally, which is just about the value of his contract, but hopefully today Norman put aside the calls for his head, at least for a little while. Spoiler alert – he actually did a pretty decent job last week with the exception of the highly visible bust on the Brees record breaking pass. Here’s my point: Norman’s good game played a pretty darn big role in the Redskins victory on Sunday. He deserves a head nod and a friendly, non-objectionable butt slap for his solid effort against the Panthers. Play like that every time and the fans will move on to a new target, trust me, Josh.
The defensive front 7 did its job against a powerful rushing attack
We told you in our pregame materials that a major key to the game was to slow down the Panthers run game, or at a minimum make it inefficient. The defense front seven did exactly that. They didn’t get a ton of pressure on Cam Newton, but they more or less sealed the edges and didn’t let Christian McCaffrey, or Cam in his running mode, go crazy and start to dominate the game with a never-ending series of ground and pound touchdowns. The interior guys – Ioannidis, Allen, and Payne, didn’t have highly visible game breaking plays that the TV broadcast team was able to seize on, but they did a fine job in their designated roles. With another huge rushing team coming up next weekend, the Dallas Conor McGregors, errr…the Dallas Cowpukes, or rather the Cowboys, who only know one way to rock[3], so to speak, and that’s the Zeke Elliott way, this performance this week gives us hope that next week won’t end in disaster.
The Redskins discovered that the franchise employs wide receivers
Hey, newsflash: the Washington Football Club does actually employ players who consider themselves wide receivers. Perhaps they finally got the memo that the games are played on Sundays and the occasional Monday. Not sure. In all seriousness, the Redskins very clearly made expanding the scope of their passing game a major part of the gameplan, and while it didn’t result in any big game-breaking plays, actually using the receivers, finally, helps diversify the offense and opens up other aspects of the gameplan. Paul Richardson, Jr., Josh Doctson, Maurice Harris, and Brian Quick, all had receptions against Carolina, and Michael Floyd had a target as well. Let’s hope that this situation not only continues, but gets even better in the coming weeks. It took a deliberate effort on the part of the coaches, but at least it happened.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. I’ll be back with another edition next week after the Redskins face off with the Cowboys next Sunday.
[1] I’ve trademarked that phrase, so don’t steal it.
[2] My apologies to the fine residents of Podunk, Indiana. I love you guys; great little town.
[3] My apologies to Sammy Hagar for co-opting / stealing his lyrics.