Washington Redskins Defense a Concern

After seeing this past weekend’s Hall of Fame game, it appears the offense is doing what it needs to do. They looked quick and efficient and when you break down the stats, the Redskins QB’s went a combined 19 of 21 passing and were able to establish a solid running game using only their back-up runners through the whole game.

While many applauded the Redskins as “looking sharp on both sides of the ball,” I have to disagree.

The defense did not look that sharp to me.

If anything, the defense resembled the realization of my biggest concerns for this team. It looked like they were playing a Gregg Williams’ style of zone-coverage with the added inability of stopping the run.

Many have criticized the Redskins’ front-four for not getting enough pressure on the QB, but I have always believed that was by design; not lack of ability. I believe the front four were ordered not to rush the passer so they could stay at home and stop the rush.

This lulled QB’s into waiting a little longer and trying to throw the ball into the heart of the zone-coverage versus trying to hurry up and dump the ball off to the open short route.

The defense rarely got beat deep, and kept the plays in front of them, but the downside was that teams were able to string together drives on short passing plays and drive into the red-zone.

This also caused their defense to stay on the field for long periods of time. Williams’ compensated for this by rotating out players so they could get a breather, but by the end of most games, the defense was exhausted. This shows itself clearly when you realize that their opponents scored more points in the fourth quarter than in the first and second quarters combined.

My biggest concern for the Redskins this year was at corner. With Rogers coming off a particularly nasty injury (and having not played in a year) and Smoot not playing anywhere near what he was back when he was paired up with Bailey, I just don’t see much to be thrilled about at that position.

Blache has said he believes that the defense starts with the corner position, and I couldn’t agree more. Here are the things I think the defense will need to do to be competitive this year.

Three-and-out

The defense needs to get away from this “bend; don’t break” philosophy and focus on forcing the other teams to punt.

The best defense is a good offense, so in this case I would mean that the defense needs to be more aggressive. Play tighter to the line of scrimmage and trust your safeties and defensive backs to handle the deep pass threat when it happens.

Man-up

The corners need to get closer to the line of scrimmage, especially on third-and-short. If the Redskins are going to blitz the QB, they have to take away the short routes first; otherwise the opponents will simply dump off to the wideout coming in on the short slant.

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