The Takeaways, Week 4 Edition: Redskins at Giants
September 29, 2019
by Steve Thomas
Things went from bad to worse on Sunday as the Redskins were annihilated by the sad-sack New York Giants by a score of 24 – 3. In case you didn’t make it all the way through this disaster, the only reason that the final score wasn’t much, much worse is that the Giants aren’t a good team either. There’s no sugarcoating this loss; this was really, really bad, folks. Only the Redskins could be the beneficiaries of 4 turnovers and still lose by three touchdowns. There’s no coming back from a game like this, particularly knowing that the Super Bowl champs are coming to town next week. Once again, the defense underperformed, the offense was pathetic, and the coaches seem to be at a loss and out of creative ideas. At least Tress Way continues to be awesome. The season is officially over, and the Redskins should throw in the proverbial towel at the thought of winning this season and take whatever steps as are necessary to starting moving into the future.
Dwayne Haskins was bad; keeping playing Dwayne Haskins
Dwayne’s debut wasn’t a good thing. He was holding the ball much too long, not seeing the field well, throwing passes short and off target, and generally not playing well. Three interceptions is never a positive. It was certainly not the performance he wanted to start his Redskins career. He didn’t look like a good NFL quarterback. However, it does need to be said that the team threw him into the game in the worst possible circumstances: down by two touchdowns, 6 starters out (Guice, McLaurin, Williams, Scherff, Roullier, Reed), and the team playing badly. Also, the coaches have been telling everyone who would listen that he isn’t ready to play just yet. Maybe they’re right . . . . ? Just sayin’. It wasn’t the ideal set of circumstances, for sure, but that doesn’t excuse his poor play. Haskins could and should have played better, regardless of the fact that he’s a rookie. That having been said, if you’re judging his ability to become a franchise quarterback on the basis of this one game, you’re flat-out wrong. It’s way too early for that, and this guy has entirely too much natural talent and football intelligence to not get drastically better, quickly. At this point, the Dwayne Haskins Era has begun, so the Redskins need to ride with it and let him be the permanent starter from this point on. I don’t care that the Patriots are coming next week and are going to score 45,364 points. They’ve played him now, and there should be no going back. #FreeDwayneHaskins.
The defensive front 7 got owned. Again.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the defensive front 7, in particular the defensive line, is the biggest disappointment on this team so far this season. This is a unit with two first round picks and another player on a large contract, but despite all of that talent, they’ve been a zero at best, and at worst, a sad, broken-down shell of what they should be and have allowed other teams to dominate them. Even if this group was overrated (I’ve been saying that for 6 weeks), there’s no excuse for the utter ineptitude they’ve shown at times this year. And don’t even get me started on the linebacking corps: Ryan Kerrigan has been a complete no-show so far, Montez Sweat has shown flashes here and there but has disappointed in terms of producing results, and to say that the inside linebackers have been average is being generous. Jonathan Bostic hasn’t made much of a difference and has been bad at times, rookie Cole Holcomb had his worst game today, and where the heck did Shaun Dion Hamilton go? Is he still on this team? The Giants ran for 164 yards on 37 carries today, for 4.4 yards per game – WITHOUT SAQUON BARKLEY. The front seven failed to get even one sack against a rookie quarterback, Daniel Jones, and were credited with just 4 quarterback hits. There isn’t a bigger failure on this team than the defensive front seven when compared to expectations. This was supposed to be the group that carried the team while a new offense got established, and instead they have been a big negative. Their performance against the Giants was just more of the same. Fire Greg Manusky if you want, but I’m not sure that it would make a difference right now.
The penalties are killing this team.
Is there a more undisciplined team in the league right now? I can’t wait to read the latest Hold On column from Noone from Tampa later this week (click here to read last week’s column), because the penalty situation is out of control. I counted a total of 15 penalties called against the Redskins, including several big, drive altering flags. Washington lost drives, extended Giants drives, and wiped out an 80 yard kickoff return by Steven Sims Jr. thanks to their undisciplined play. Both the coaches and the players are at fault for this. Clearly, the coaches have not effectively instilled enough discipline on the team, but at the end of the day, it’s the players who are getting a slew of holding calls, false starts, and all the rest of it. It’s to the point where all the penalties are having a profound effect on the outcome of games. Good teams don’t do this; of course, the Redskins aren’t a good team.
Adrian Peterson continues to be chronically underutilized
I’m truly not sure why Adrian Peterson remains on the roster. Jay Gruden simply refuses to effectively utilize this player. Peterson has 33 carries for 90 yards for just 2.7 yards per carry on the season, which clearly isn’t good, but he’s also played behind an offensive line that’s been mostly a shell of itself in run blocking this year. Plus, Peterson is a guy who historically needs carries in order to get rolling. The fact that Jay only called his number 11 times today ought to be considered a felony. This was your 2018 Offensive Player of the Year, Jay, the guy who saved the offense last year and looked like a much younger man. You should be leaning on Peterson, Jay, not publicly insulting him at press conferences. It’s shameful.
Firing the coaches is probably deserved, but it won’t matter
I realize that everybody is rooting for firings amongst the coaching staff, starting with the head of Jay Gruden and the rotting corpse of Greg Manusky. Certainly, this contest against the Giants didn’t help – the players looked unmotivated and the game plan was uncreative and uninspired. I’m not ignoring any of that. If the team wants to fire them, then do it. But I’m here to tell you that it’s going to make no difference for this year. I can get behind the idea that the team should make an effort to see if Kevin O’Connell is the next Sean McVay-style boy wunderkind, but just keep in mind that (1) we heard about McVay’s genius several years before he left to coach the Rams, whereas the buzz isn’t the same with O’Connell, and (2) another head coach isn’t going to improve run blocking. Washington’s already supposed to have the best offensive line coach in the game and Kevin O’Connell isn’t going to improve on that situation. Plus, the Redskins are once again the walking wounded, and that isn’t going to change either. With that having been said, sure, change out the coach if you want. It certainly can’t get worse. But it isn’t going to mysteriously make Washington become a competent football team in 2019, either.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. I’ll have another edition for you next week after the loss to game against the Patriots next Sunday.