Taking Stock of Washington Redskins Ahead of Week 8 Bye
Entering their bye week, the Washington Redskins have learned they can't count on a few of the things expected to be pillars of their success this season. Specifically, the running game and defense have both deteriorated following strong starts to the campaign.
As for the team's biggest issue, the identity of the man under center, the Redskins have gotten some of what they expected from Kirk Cousins. That's both good and bad ahead of the remaining nine games.
Cousins' mixed performances through seven weeks have also served to show the good and the bad of head coach Jay Gruden. His heavy-handed approach to ushering Robert Griffin III out of the starting lineup becomes a prime target every time Cousins struggles.
Yet, quality play from No. 8 provides opportunities to laud Gruden's clever design of a playbook intended to make his quarterback's job easier. Those opportunities were ripe for discussion after Week 7's comeback win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In terms of the state of the roster, general manager Scot McCloughan gets a passing grade, but some positive endorsements are also reserved for much-maligned predecessor Bruce Allen.
Both men have seen players they drafted make significant contributions this season. Perhaps the Burgundy and Gold finally have a foundation for lasting success.
Read on for a full accounting of the 3-4 Redskins ahead of the bye week.
Running Game Not the Driving Force It's Supposed to Be
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Two weeks into the season, the Redskins could have made an excellent case they were the owners of the most dominant ground game in football. After all, they'd just managed to produce 343 yards against the Miami Dolphins and St. Louis Rams.
Veteran Alfred Morris, then rookie Matt Jones, ran over two of the NFL's most highly touted (in theory at least) defensive fronts. Having a tandem of punishing workhorse backs not only emphasized the quality of the rushing attack; it also spoke volumes of the improvements the team had made along the offensive line.
Since Week 2, though, things have been static on the ground for Washington. Currently, the team ranks 21st in rushing offense, managing fewer than 100 yards per game.
The blocking, initially lauded, has crumbled in front of Jones and Morris. But it's the latter's alarming recent struggles that stand out. A three-time 1,000-yard runner, Morris has averaged just 3.3 yards a carry this season.
Thom Loverro of the Washington Times detailed how bleak things have been for No. 46 in recent weeks:
"Morris is running his way to the bench. After the opening loss to the Miami Dolphins, when he carried the ball 21 times for 121 yards, it has been downhill. The last three weeks, he carried the ball 25 times and gained just 41 yards.
On Sunday, it was so bad — five yards on six carries — that the conversation about Morris has been about bad luck and not giving up.
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As Loverro noted, Jones already looks like a "newer, maybe better version" of Morris. Granted, the latter is struggling outside a system no longer geared to him the way Mike Shanahan's zone-stretch scheme was.
But there's little doubt Morris isn't running with the same burst and formidable power that once defined his game. After he mustered a mere 3.6 yards an attempt against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4, Pro Football Focus tweeted that Morris hadn't forced a single missed tackle.
There just isn't much shake-and-bake left in 2012's sixth-rounder.
There was a little too much in Jones during Week 7. He needs to square his shoulders more often and run north-south. That's what Gruden wants, according to Real Redskins blogger Rich Tandler.
Whether it's a revitalized Morris or a smarter Jones, Washington needs to get back to controlling the clock on the ground.
Defense Not as Good as Advertised
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When you add a trio of defensive linemen and a pair of defensive backs during free agency, you have a right to expect better results than in the past—especially when those new toys are for a new coordinator bringing fresh tactics to a unit languishing in the league's doldrums for years.
But Joe Barry isn't fairing much better than previous coordinator Jim Haslett. His defense is 17th in points allowed and 16th in yards surrendered. Those are far from solid numbers but not dreadful—not yet, anyway.
The problem is Barry's defense is on a tailspin that began in Week 3 against the New York Giants. On that day, veteran cornerbacks Chris Culliver and DeAngelo Hall couldn't cover Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham Jr. They weren't helped by a pass rush that didn't even lay a glove on Big Blue quarterback Eli Manning.
Those things have become depressingly familiar trends since. Little to no pressure even let middling journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick and rookie Jameis Winston pick apart coverage the last two weeks. Big and physical wide receivers have run riot, with Brandon Marshall and Mike Evans both getting to pad their stats.
But the one number that really stands out as an indictment of Barry and many of the new players is the 26th-ranked rushing defense. Washington is allowing 128.4 yards on the ground per game. Devonta Freeman (153), Chris Ivory (146) and Doug Martin (136) have all gashed Barry's group in the last three weeks.
Taking a closer look, ESPN.com's John Keim noted consistent missed tackles and failures in alignment and technique as root causes for the woes: "But there are definite times they don’t have a player in a gap and those breakdowns lead to issues."
These aren't isolated problems. They're part of a pattern that has potentially season-crippling consequences.
The new faces up front just haven't delivered. Terrance Knighton is supposed to be the premier run-stuffing nose guard in the NFL. But ol' Pot Roast hasn't been himself this season. As for ends Stephen Paea and Ricky Jean Francois, they might have been exactly themselves, namely soft against the run.
Washington's D-linemen aren't getting off blocks and into the backfield. They aren't keeping linebackers clean or forcing runners sideways.
The whole scheme isn't working. As a result, Barry is at a crossroads ahead of the bye week.
He can roll the dice his vanilla system, one heavily reliant on a four-man rush and basic zone coverage, will eventually come good. Alternatively, he can get creative and introduce some more complex blitz pressures and sophisticated disguises in coverage.
Consider the latter his best bet.
Special Teams Finally Turning a Corner
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Don't look now, but the Redskins are actually getting big plays from the special teams. This time they are big plays that are benefiting the team rather than harming it.
Rashad Ross ran a kick back for the points in Week 3. Jeron Johnson blocked a punt for a touchdown in Week 6. Last week's comeback against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was assisted by a well-timed and flawlessly executed onside kick.
That's a pretty good recent track record for coordinator Ben Kotwica's group. Those efforts are all the more impressive considering some of the players Kotwica is missing. Tight end Niles Paul and unit captain Adam Hayward are both out for the season. Yet, Kotwica is still finding ways for his unit to influence games.
Some new personnel have helped him. Inside linebacker Mason Foster has made a difference. So has the versatile Ross. But no new figure has contributed more than replacement kicker Dustin Hopkins. He's made 11 of 12 field goals since joining the team.
He's also been very effective on kickoffs, making them something of a weapon for Washington. It was obvious in Week 2 when he reduced the potential game-breaking impact of the St. Louis Rams' return game, according to Stephen Czarda of the team's official site.
All told, Hopkins and the new faces are helping Kotwica turn things around in football's third phase. Special teams aren't quite a strength for the Redskins just yet. But it may not be much longer before they are.
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Kirk Cousins Good, Bad and Inconsistent
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Kirk Cousins hasn't quite vindicated the decision to ditch RG3 in his favor. But he's come closer than he's often given credit for. With No. 8 at the helm, the Redskins are one game shy of .500 entering the bye. An even record would actually be a perfect reflection of his roller-coaster form.
When Cousins has been good, he's been very good. He's thrown for nine touchdowns and 1,737 yards, completing 68.7 percent of his passes. Cousins has shown a command of the Gruden playbook Griffin can only dream of.
He's also proved his mettle in pressure situations. Week 7's game-winning drive late on marked the second time this season Cousins has engineered a fourth-quarter comeback. The first came against the Eagles in Week 4.
Not much wrong with all of that.
But when Cousins has been bad, he's been dire enough to make you dread every pass attempt. That's reflected by four games with two interceptions. Yet, turnovers aren't the only part of the story.
Cousins has also displayed shaky footwork and tentative timing. "Tentative" applies aptly to 2012's fourth-rounder. He still often looks timid, even twitchy, in the face of pressure, both the off-field and in-game varieties.
Starting quarterbacks in the pros just can't be hesitant. There has to be a necessary amount of bravado to trust your arm and its ability to beat coverage. The trick is getting the balance right between foolhardy gung-ho and measured, efficient play.
The key to mastering that trick is consistency. It's what Gruden has set as Cousins' primary target for the remainder of this season, according to ESPN.com's John Keim:
"You have to see results, obviously, and he's had three wins. He's 3-4 right now. Now you're looking for some consistency. That position is all about consistency, but it's all about getting better-and-better-and-better and showing us that he has the right to be a starter. I think he's done that over the first seven games, but we still need to see more consistency from him, and everybody, for us to be where we want to be.
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He's under a fierce spotlight this season. But if Cousins can get it right, this team will be a genuine force in the NFC East race.
An offense smartly tailored to make him look good will help him.
Gruden's Playbook a Boon for His Quarterback
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There's a lot not to like about Gruden. He abandons the running game too soon, he has publicly derided his players, and his post-match press conferences are a ride on the linguistic wild side.
But one area where Gruden does deserve credit is the way he's crafted an offense tailored to make his quarterback's job easier. Sure, he didn't do it for Griffin, what he may have been hired for to begin with, but Gruden is certainly helping Cousins out.
It starts with a heavy diet of short, high-percentage passing that gets the ball out quickly and into the hands of receivers in space. Against Tampa Bay, Cousins "completed 24 of 26 passes that traveled five yards or less," per ESPN Stats & Information (h/t Keim).
For some, this is a stick to beat the Gruden-Cousins double act with. But it needn't be. The safety-first style of passing let a streaky quarterback equal a franchise record for completions in Week 7. It also meant he didn't toss a single interception.
But it's not just the type of passes Cousins is throwing. The looks he's seeing are also helping him—looks created by the clever use of formation and route concepts Gruden is calling, according to the MMQB's Andy Benoit.
In particular, Benoit highlighted a "diamond-type quad bunch" that was seen often during the comeback against the Bucs: "There are three main plays that can come from this unconventional 1x4 look: a quick slant for Reed, a fade for Reed or a screen to the four-receiver side."
Again, the pattern is obvious. Gruden is giving his quarterback options—easy ones at that.
But he's also not afraid to get a little cute with the plan and introduce a riff to catch defenses cold. In Week 7, that meant the return of the read-option, as noted by D.C. Hot Read's Chris Russell: "I may be missing a play that I can’t find in my notes, but by my count, the Redskins ran play-action or a boot-action or a read-option on every single drive in the game with the exception of the first drive of the day and the go-ahead touchdown drive."
Cousins ran well from these looks, gaining 15 yards on three attempts, including a score. But he also threw effectively from moving pockets.
There's a case to be made that Gruden should have simplified the game for Griffin the way he has for Cousins. Right or wrong, though, that ship has sailed.
At the moment, Gruden is doing an exceptional job of using "shrewd game-planning and play-calling to help—and, for the most part, hide—his quarterback," per Benoit.
Bruce Allen and Scot McCloughan's Picks Are Making a Difference
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There's no denying it anymore. The kids are doing all right in Washington. Several picks from the last two drafts are making significant and positive contributions for the rebuilding Redskins.
Their performances are making current GM McCloughan look good. That won't surprise many, given the fact he arrived at Redskins Park with a lofty reputation as a skilled evaluator of talent. It's hard to question that reputation when so many members of his first draft class are performing well.
Top pick Brandon Scherff has been a solid starter at right guard. Naturally, there's still some learning to be done, but the ceiling is certainly high for the ex-Iowa stalwart.
The same is true for fourth-round pick Jamison Crowder. He's shown plenty of promise as a diminutive slot receiver (5'8") with a knack for getting open. Meanwhile, Jones will likely have made the starting tailback job his own before this season is through.
Even a late-rounder such as flexible defensive back Kyshoen Jarrett is regularly contributing.
McCloughan's expertise being borne out on the field may be the cue to shout "I told you so" for many. But how about a word of praise for McCloughan's often derided predecessor?
Allen has become a comic-hate figure at Redskins Park in recent seasons. But take a closer look, and you'll see his lone draft in charge, 2014, has borne some fruit.
Cornerback Bashaud Breeland is a regular source of turnovers and a player with an exciting future. That was obvious last season. But it's the players who struggled early on who are now looking more at home in the pros.
Right tackle Morgan Moses, one of two third-round picks Allen used on the O-line, enjoyed himself in Week 7. According to Pro Football Focus (h/t Scout.com and Breaking Burgundy's Ben Standig), Moses was the highest-rated player at his position in the league last week.
Moses has taken a problem position, one originally reserved for Scherff, and offered a good degree of stability.
Elsewhere, Ryan Grant, Allen's fifth-rounder a year ago, has shown potential as an outside receiver. Filling in for DeSean Jackson, Grant has averaged 11.4 yards off 17 grabs. He even got his first touchdown reception last week. Grant is no burner, but he understands routes and coverage and boasts excellent hands.
With so many young players producing promising performances, the future suddenly looks a little brighter in Washington. Whether Gruden and McCloughan are the right men to fully maximize this young core remains to be seen.
But for the first time in a long while, it looks like there's really something to build on for the Burgundy and Gold.
All statistics and player information via NFL.com unless otherwise stated.
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