The Takeaways, Week 14 Edition: Redskins at Packers
December 9, 2019
by Steve Thomas
The Washington Redskins went down in flames Sunday against the Green Bay Packers in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score suggests. Nobody with rational thoughts, including all of us on The Hog Sty as well as this week’s guest interview on the show, gave the Redskins much of a chance to actually win this game, so the big hope was for them to at least appear competitive. Washington simultaneously accomplished that goal in some ways and failed in others, with some quality performances and some atrocious showings. Washington predictably fell to 3 – 10 on the year, and while this week certainly wasn’t what could be called a success, the team probably learned a little something about itself this week. In that respect, it really wasn’t all that bad.
Good god; that sounds like a bad ‘80s sitcom. Okay, look, the Redskins mostly got their butts kicked by a better team that didn’t feel obligated to turn in more than a “B” level performance, and while that wasn’t particularly fun to watch, the game had some moments and made for a solid week of Takeaways. Let’s get on with it.
The injuries mount
This game came with a heavy toll from an injury perspective. Washington lost both of its starting corners in this game, with Quinton Dunbar and Fabian Moreau succumbing to hamstring injuries. To his credit, Moreau did try to come back briefly, but the Redskins ended up with Jimmy Moreland and Simeon Thomas for most of the second half, with Josh Norman remaining on the bench. Derrius Guice went down with a left knee injury suffered on a 23 yard run and did not return. He appeared to be walking normally afterward, but had an MRI on Monday afternoon, with the results still pending as of publication. Ryan Kerrigan suffered a calf injury and sat out a large portion of this game. The big story, though, was Dwayne Haskins and his sprained ankle. Haskins played through the problem despite limping around for a good chunk of the game and generally bringing back nightmares of Robert Griffin III’s playoff game against the Seahawks in 2012. I was somewhat conflicted about this situation, as the team should’ve definitely taken every precaution to keep Haskins from suffering a serious injury, but on the other hand, pulling him from the game could be viewed as a lack of faith in the young rookie. Plus, we don’t know the opinion of the medical staff. For his part, Bill Callahan said after the game that the Redskins never considered taking him out.
Dwayne Haskins was playing poorly before he hurt his ankle
While I admire Haskins’ grit for toughing out an ankle injury, and for that matter being treated mostly like a punching bag by the Green Bay pass rushers, the fact of the matter is that he wasn’t playing well in the beginning of this game either. This contest was a setback in his development – he just didn’t throw the ball well at any point. The ankle injury only made him worse. I’ve said in this space and on the air that a rookie quarterback’s developmental journey will by its very nature come with highs and lows, and that’s okay. This game counts as a low, although again, playing through injury definitely tells us something about his toughness. At some point before this season is over, I’d like to see Haskins have a day in which he has a completion percentage in the 60s and passes for 250 yards. The honest truth is that Redskins fans have been subjected to flat-out bad quarterback play for essentially the entire season, and it’d be supremely neat-o if that could change at least once this season.
The defensive front seven had a “Tale of Two Cities” kind of day
There’s no doubt that the Redskins were able to put some significant pressure on Aaron Rodgers at times; however, there’s also no doubt that the Packers consistently gashed Washington’s front 7 on the ground throughout the entire game. Without comparing the stats, I think this game might have been the defense’s worst performance against the run all year. The Packers were clearly willing to take what was given to them by using a run-heavy offensive gameplan and limiting the need for Rodgers to do his usual superman imitation in the passing game. So, forgive me if I don’t heap loads of praise on this defense. They gave up 6.2 yards per carry on Sunday, a number that at one point in this game was up close to 9. For as good as the pass rush was, the run defense was that bad or worse. Green Bay’s running backs were treated to wide-open running lanes and missed tackles all day long. It was not a great defensive performance, despite what others have been saying, and I suspect that if the Redskins offense had been able to pose any threat at all, the Packers’ gameplan might have been different. As it was, the Packers were happy to eat up the clock by running for a good chunk of the game.
The Redskins’ putrid and pathetic offensive performance continues, although they can run a bit
The Redskins have the worst offense in the league. There. I said it. Seriously, is there any team in the league less able to consistently drive the ball downfield and score touchdowns than Washington? They actually ran the ball fairly well, which was to be expected against the weak Packers’ run defense. Overall, though, the season-long lack of ability to actually score points, regardless of who’s at quarterback, continued against Green Bay. The Redskins’ lone real bright spot is the continued improvement of the run game. Both Adrian Peterson and Derrius Guice had strong games (Guice before his injury), so at least that’s fun to watch. If this offense could do literally anything very well, the fact that this defense is far more mediocre (to be generous) than first hoped wouldn’t be as big of a problem as if seems.
The tight end group officially adds nothing
Hypothetically, the Redskins have a tight end group on the active roster, although nobody’s seen a tight end in burgundy and gold all season. The Green Bay game was no exception, with the tight end contribution being absolutely zero in the passing game and to provide generally poor pass blocking. The Redskins need to start over from scratch with this position group for next season, including dumping Jordan Reed if he doesn’t retire. The lack of any sort of remotely credible threat at tight end is a big reason why Washington has been atrocious on third down all year, including in this game.
That’s it for The Takeaways for this week. The Redskins next face the division rival Philadelphia Eagles at home in Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in a Sunday noon start.