After two Redskins games this season, I got to thinking – who’s to blame for the Redskins woes?
In my mind it is everyone – certainly you can’t lay blame on any one person. I have heard many Redskins fans blaming Robert Griffin III, some even suggesting that we take RGIII out and put Kirk Cousins in – I could not disagree more.
With this young franchise quarterback it is important to let him get back to game shape and into his style of play that we were becoming accustomed to. Again, we can’t point the finger at any one person but the team as a collective.
Now, could RGIII have played better? Yes, he could have, but so could many of the 50+ man roster. He started slowly and as a result we couldn’t move the ball to score. But a lot goes into a poor quarterback’s performance. Are the receivers making plays and running routes well? How about the running back – is he making good cuts, finding holes and picking up necessary blitzes? And speaking of blocking, how about the offensive line?
There were times in both games that the line broke down and Griffin didn’t have time to plant his feet and throw the ball. Not all the time mind you, but it’s just one more sub-par performance that has lead to the poor start. The receivers are not without blame as well. They were not finding open spaces and running clean routes, and there were enough dropped balls that should have extended drives and changed fortunes. But the receiving corps, including the tight ends, are one of the strong points of this team as Garcon just had a 100+ yard reception game, Jordan Reed is showing a lot of promise and I like what I saw from Leonard Hankerson.
What about coaching? What about the offensive plays called by Kyle Shanahan? In the first half and most of the third quarter the play calling was too conservative and I believe they ran the ball too much. I understand that we had the best rushing offense in the NFL last year, but you should not be running the football when we are trailing in the first half – at least not as much as they did. We were out-scored in the first half of each game a combined 50-7, why are you choosing to run the ball when you are being outscored by that much?
Eventually Shanahan realized he couldn’t run the ball anymore but by that time it was too late. Also we need to remember that Robert Griffin III, arguably the team’s best weapon, is much more effective when you let him roll out of the pocket on play action and read option. I realize that he’s just getting back from a major knee reconstruction, but if doctors have cleared him then he needs to makes plays happen beginning with his excellent movement.
Let’s fact it – he’s just not a pocket quarterback. There are many times when he is in the pocket and you can tell that he is uncomfortable. Kyle Shanahan is clearly trying to protect RGIII by keeping him in the pocket but please, for the sake of the season, let Robert Griffin III do what he does best.
So having alluded to being down by huge deficits early in games, let’s talk about Jim Haslett, the man who runs this defense. At the beginning of the season I thought that our defensive backfield looked like it had improved but that optimism has since dissipated. I did not think that our defense could be any worse than it was last year but this group has proved me wrong. Our only strength of our defense last year was how well we could stop the run, but somehow it became our weakness and might be worse than our pass defense. Too many times over these past two games I’ve seen running backs have their way with our defense, rushing at fatiguing the front 7.
I have heard many fans argue how the defense can’t do it on their own and that the offense needs to score points and get into games earlier. While I do agree with that statement, the defense should still not give up fifty points in the first half of both games. How can the offense stick to a game plan when also they should not be giving up seventy one points in the first two games you just cant do that and expect to win.
So, who’s to blame? Everyone, from the top, down.
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