The Takeaways: Week 3 Edition, Bears at Redskins
September 24, 2019
by Steve Thomas
The Redskins once again played their worst when the lights were brightest, losing to the Chicago Bears by a score of 15 – 31 with the entire football world watching on Monday Night Football in a game that was not nearly as close as the score indicated despite the Redskins getting a couple of second half touchdowns to make things appear somewhat respectable. Washington exhibited the same problems that have plagued this franchise since the preseason, with poor defensive play and a lackluster offense, only this week, they added the additional wrinkles of terrible pass protection and multiple soul-crushing turnovers, including what seemed like 8,461 fumbles by quarterback Case Keenum. The Chicago Bears are what the Redskins hoped they’d be this year: a monster defense that is able to put a boot on the throat of their opponents to enable a ball-control offense to get just enough points to win. Alas, the Redskins are closer to a disaster than a team that can play like the Bears. These are my Takeaways for week 3.
The game was lost in the trenches
The Redskins offensive line was humiliated tonight by the Bears’ defensive front 7. Inexplicably, Washington didn’t seem to take All-World defensive end Khalil Mack seriously until it was way too late, with Mack running virtually untouched into the backfield on multiple occasions. Mack beat Donald Penn, Morgan Moses, and others, and generally created massive havoc and turnovers, getting 2 sacks in the process. This unit’s performance in the first half, in particular, was flat-out embarrassing and was the root cause of the offensive disaster in the first two quarters. For his part, Keenum was certainly terrible as well, missing reads, making bad passes, throwing 3 interceptions, and fumbling three times, but in his defense, the offensive line allowed him to be harassed and abused the entire game and threw him completely out of sync. The defensive line was no better, putting almost zero pressure on a Bears quarterback who is known for playing badly under pressure. As a matter of fact, the generally poor play of the defensive line has probably been the biggest disappointment in a season full of disappointments. Both units played their worst game of the season tonight, and it gave the Redskins essentially no chance to win right from the start.
The defensive gameplan stunk
I haven’t been one to scream “MANUSKY!!!!!!!” like most of the fanbase has been doing for the past week, namely because the fact that most of the starting defense have been regularly losing their individual battles is more the players’ fault than the coaches, but I really have to say…this week, the defensive gameplan wasn’t up to snuff. Mitchell Trubisky is a quarterback with a history of panicking and playing poorly under pressure, yet the Redskins failed to blitz him much, especially in the first half, and allowed him to get comfortable. They should have blitzed Trubisky relentlessly early on to prevent him from getting established, and they failed to do that. In addition, the Bears repeatedly torched the Redskins with a variety of underneath routes – multiple shallow crossers and screens – set up by deep clearing routes. Washington’s linebackers, in particular, got beat by these plays over and over and over again, and generally acted like they didn’t know these plays were coming. What’s worse, this is what the Bears offense does, yet the Redskins weren’t prepared, and for that, I blame the defensive coaching staff. Coaches: if I can see what’s coming before it happens from my couch, you guys certainly should have known.
Once again, the Redskins had very little running game
Washington was eventually was able to get some small semblance of a running game going in the second half when the game was well into garbage time, but when it mattered early on, Adrian Peterson once again had essentially zero rushing lanes at all against a fearsome Bears defense. As I’ve been saying, the Redskins aren’t a team that’s going to win to any great degree without being able to successfully run the ball. A total of 69 yards rushing on 21 carries isn’t close to being good enough. The Redskins now have 145 yards rushing on the season, and that isn’t going to translate into wins. This is something that the team needs to figure out one way or the other. Paging Mr. Williams, Mr. Trent Williams.
The turnovers were downright embarrassing
Case Keenum threw 3 interceptions and had multiple fumbles. I realize that the horrible performance of the offensive line played a big role, but Keenum had more than his share of poor reads and stupid plays. Regardless of fault, the bottom line is that in the NFL, you can’t win with that many turnovers. The Jay Gruden Redskins generally aren’t a team that gives the ball away very much, so tonight was out of character for this team.
Terry McLaurin and Steven Sims Jr. were the lone bright spots
Terry McLaurin continually proves, every week, that he’s a receiving god. This guy is a classic big-time, #1 receiver. It’s simply amazing how much he’s accomplished as a rookie in his first three games of an NFL career. It’s high time that the Redskins hit on a wide receiver draft pick, and it looks for all the world that they finally have. McLaurin is legitimately the Redskins’ principal target in absence of Jordan Reed. For his part, Steven Sims continues to demonstrate his versatility, with multiple good kickoff returns, passes caught, and a variety of different uses. Sims was a multi-skilled playmaker in college, and that’s exactly what he’s done in the NFL.
That’s it for the Takeaways for week 3. We’ll be back for another edition after the Redskins face the New York Giants in week 4.