Washington Redskins Week 10 Stock Report
Week 9 proved to be predictably tough sledding for the Washington Redskins. Their rebuilding roster was challenged at every level by the unbeaten Super Bowl champion New England Patriots on the road.
Yet even in a 27-10 defeat, there were one or two silver linings for the NFC East club. Among them were the takeaways forced by a defense needing a healthy streak of opportunism to compensate for more basic flaws.
Then there was the performance at quarterback. Kirk Cousins was far from spectacular at Gillette Stadium. But for a rare time this season, No. 8 was at least efficient. He just got no help from his receivers. Lost in all the talk of dropped passes, though, are the signs of increasing comfort with the playbook exhibited by Cousins up in New England.
Sadly, one more thing the man under center lacked in Week 9 was the support of a credible ground game. The Redskins are continuing to get precious little from the men tasked with lugging the rock.
Read on for a full account of the Burgundy and Gold's stock headed into a Week 10 matchup with the New Orleans Saints.
Stock Up: Will Blackmon and Keenan Robinson
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As it does in most weeks, Washington's defense played hard through four quarters against the Patriots. The unit still struggled to stuff the run or generate any significant pressure, but coordinator Joe Barry's group also did some good things.
In particular, his players were active in the takeaway department. Cornerback Will Blackmon forced a Julian Edelman fumble, while middle linebacker Keenan Robinson snared a Tom Brady pass.
That the Redskins got no points off these thefts serves as an indictment of the problems on offense.
Still, two more turnovers is a positive sign. Takeaways are supposed to be the foundation of this defense. Barry wants his players to operate in a simple scheme based on a heavy diet of zone coverage. He wants eyes on the ball and 11 bodies swarming to it and taking it away.
Blackmon and Robinson duly obliged in Week 9.
For Blackmon, forcing a turnover was just further proof of what an under-the-radar gem he's been this season. With so many injuries at cornerback, Blackmon has stepped off the league's scrapheap to stabilize this secondary.
Thanks to his performances, Washington has hardly felt the spate of injuries across the defensive backfield, as Real Redskins blogger Rich Tandler proved with this stat: "Tom Brady passed for 299 yards. That means that the Redskins—just barely—remain one of three teams that have not allowed a 300-yard passer this season, joining the Broncos and Vikings."
That's a testament to the work of new secondary boss Perry Fewell. His group of patchwork fill-ins is rolling with the punches more effectively than last season's injury-hit unit ever did.
While Blackmon has impressed, Robinson has remained a steady figure at the heart of the front seven. He's survived the man next to him changing most weeks, as well as playing behind a defensive line consistently failing to keep blockers from reaching the second level.
Robinson hasn't been as good as last season, but it's a mistake to think he's suddenly become a weak link.
Stock Down: Perry Riley Jr.
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If Robinson is still an active force, Perry Riley Jr. is certainly a spent one. In fact, the downward trajectory of his career may have reached its nadir in New England.
Riley was burned for a key touchdown by Pats backup running back Brandon Bolden. The latter was in the game as a replacement for cheetah-fast mini marvel Dion Lewis.
While Bolden possesses some receiving skills, being a mismatch in space is hardly something the tough inside runner is usually noted for. But you'd hardly have guessed that judging by the way Bolden easily bypassed Riley in coverage to haul in an 18-yard scoring pass during the final quarter.
The Patriots saw what every team sees when Riley splits out wide in one-on-one coverage. Namely, easy passage to a big play.
Worse still, issues in coverage were far from Riley's only problems in Week 9. He just couldn't get his hands on anybody in Patriots blue, as CSNWashington.com's Tarik El-Bashir detailed: "Riley, meantime, failed to record a tackle for the first time since becoming a full-time starter in Week 10 of the 2011 season."
Now, El-Bashir suggests coaches are considering awarding backup Will Compton extended playing time over the team's 2010 fourth-round choice.
Based on Riley's now lengthy streak of below-par performances, it's hard to argue against the decision.
Stock Up: Jamison Crowder
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While his fellow receivers struggled to understand the concept of a catch, rookie Jamison Crowder proved very productive against the Pats. The former Duke ace paced the Redskins pass offense in receptions.
His outing keeps this year's fourth-rounder on course for a franchise record, according to Rich Tandler of Real Redskins: "Jamison Crowder led the team with six receptions, giving him 38 at the midway point of the season. If he continues at his current pace, he will end the season with 76 receptions, which would shatter the Redskins rookie record of 58 set by Art Monk in 1980."
Being in close proximity to the great Art Monk in any receiving category means you're in pretty select company. It's also one more endorsement of Crowder's growing significance in this offense.
He's the tiny burner (5'8", 185 lbs) who is tough to track at every level of the defense.
Specifically, Crowder has already established a niche as this team's premier over-the-middle target on third downs. The more head coach Jay Gruden and offensive coordinator Sean McVay can design in-breaking routes to free Crowder underneath, the better Cousins and this passing game will be.
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Stock Down: Matt Jones
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For a guy being handed every chance to take Alfred Morris' job away from him, Matt Jones sure is leaving a lot of important plays on the field. The rookie's growing number of missed opportunities is undermining the explosive qualities he can add to this season's limp rushing attack.
Against the Patriots, a costly drop of a pass was followed by an even costlier fumble to start the third quarter.
The Redskins had deferred the kickoff for the express purpose of getting this drive. Jones wrecked the plan in just two plays.
Ball security is now a growing concern with the ex-Florida power back. Jones isn't helped by his natural running style. Any back who is most effective between the tackles and loves to fight through contact for extra yards is always more susceptible to having the ball stripped loose.
The catch-22 for Jones is that he can't modify his style as a means to cut back the mistakes. He's already done a little too much ad-libbing as it is this season.
This is a back who is most effective whenever his shoulders are square and he's running north-south.
Morris' performances have been poor for most of this season, but Jones has hardly made anyone forget about No. 46.
Stock Up: Kirk Cousins
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Cousins is a dangerous player to predict. His penchant for self-destruction means we must apply an asterisk to every good thing he does.
Despite the need for caution though, the good things Cousins is doing are steadily growing in number. For instance, those pesky turnovers have been reduced—at least in recent weeks. In his Real Redskins column, Rich Tandler broke down Cousins' improving efficiency:
"Has Kirk Cousins broken out of his propensity to throw the ball to the other team? He has just one pick in his last nine quarters of play and even the most ardent Cousins skeptics admit that that one was on Pierre Garcon for having a very catchable pass go through his hands. The Bucs and Patriots aren’t among the league leaders in interceptions; New England is 11th with 2.9 percent of the opponents’ passes picked off and Tampa Bay is 21st with 2.2 percent. So it’s not like Cousins has been facing a group of ball hawks. The Saints are even worse at interceptions with 1.2 percent of opponents’ pass attempts, 28th in the league.
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Cue the application of a giant asterisk.
While it's too early to believe Cousins has completely shed the turnover-prone label just yet, it's easier to see his growing comfort with the playbook. In Week 9, he routinely knew where his best matchups would be against the Patriots. He knew which areas to attack and did so with better accuracy than he's shown at other times this season.
ESPN 980 analyst Chris Cooley (h/t ESPN.com's John Keim) broke down many of the good things Cousins did in New England:
"For the first two-and-a-half to three quarters, he was a playmaker. He puts a money ball to Pierre Garcon on the first play of the game. He puts a ball on Derek Carrier off boot action. ... They weren’t outcoached; they had good plays. A 3rd-and-8 where he hits Garcon on a deep corner route. A 3rd-and-7 early in the game where he’s working Jordan Reed on a corner route and he gets jammed up and he has nothing so Kirk comes backside to Garcon running an in and he puts a money ball on him. Later in the game Crowder ran a deep cross and Devin McCourty is coming down late and he puts the ball on his outside hip, out of contact. A perfect ball. Those are big plays a quarterback is making.
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But for all the good plays Cooley saw, the ex-Redskins catch-machine had a caveat. He chided Cousins for not taking enough shots vertically.
This has become a common complaint of No. 8 in this season's offense. It's certainly something Cousins must improve now that marquee deep threat DeSean Jackson is back in the fold.
Overall, though, Cousins showed a pleasing number of positive signs in Week 9. He's got an excellent command of this offense and is growing in confidence as a quarterback who knows how to exploit favorable matchups.
Yet this progress has to show up in more places than just the film room. Cousins' strides on the field need to start leaving their mark in the win column as well.
Stock Down: DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon
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Armed with two high-profile wide receivers against a secondary littered with young cornerbacks, the Redskins still couldn't stretch the field against the Patriots.
A big part of the problem was DeSean Jackson's inability to separate himself from Malcolm Butler. It said a lot that the Patriots were willing to trust second-year man Butler to lock up Jackson one-on-one so often.
Unfortunately for Jackson, it said No. 11 may be losing his fear factor as a receiver who can take the top off a defense on any given play.
In fairness of course, Jackson was seeing his first playing time since the season's opening week. But even with making an allowance for natural rust, three catches for 15 yards against a player in his first year as a full-time starter still rates as a major disappointment.
Jackson's lack of production on the field wasn't as galling as his me-first comments off it. When interviewed by NBC4's Jason Pugh about his meager numbers, Jackson appeared to question both his coach and quarterback.
They were hardly the words of a player putting the harmony of the team before his own interests. Jackson's desire and commitment are an ongoing question, according to Breaking Burgundy's Chris Russell:
"Another issue reared its ugly head in some way on Monday. There are some that feel (myself included) Jackson would rather be making rap albums and reality shows, rather than being with his team at certain times of the year. Jackson was not at a large part of the Redskins on-field voluntary organized team activities.
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Keeping one of the best sources of big plays in the NFL motivated is a challenge worth mastering for Gruden and his staff. Yet it shouldn't come at the expense of tailoring the passing game exclusively to Jackson and ignoring Washington's many other weapons.
Among them, veteran Pierre Garcon will be on a mission of redemption against the Saints this week. He was guilty of failing to reel in a well-thrown Cousins pass in the first quarter, instead deflecting it into the hands of Pats corner Logan Ryan.
Garcon played his part in a season-worst effort catching the ball from the Burgundy and Gold, as noted by ESPN 980.com's Craig Hoffman: "The Redskins had seven drops by six different players Sunday. ESPN research says that is tied for the most drops by any team in a game in the last seven seasons and is the Redskins’ most in the last 10 seasons."
As a normally sure-handed outlet this team relies on, expect Garcon to make amends in Week 10.
Stock Down: Pass Rush
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Washington's defensive scheme is never going to work as long as the team's core pass-rushers struggle to create pressure. Those struggles were vividly depicted against the Patriots.
Citing ESPN Stats & Information, ESPN.com's Mike Reiss detailed how few times Brady found himself under duress against the Redskins:
"Brady also wasn't sacked. According to ESPN Stats & Information, he was under duress on only three of his 39 dropbacks (7.6 percent), his second-lowest pressure percentage in the last three seasons (5.7 percent vs Bears in Week 8 of 2014) and the fifth-lowest pressure percentage for any quarterback in a game this season.
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Those are the kind of numbers that make a mockery of what Barry is trying to do with this defense. His scheme is not particularly daring at either the conceptual or philosophical levels. But it looks downright vanilla when his D-line can't pressure the pocket and harass quarterbacks into mistakes.
What's frustrating is how the Burgundy and Gold should have all the weapons they need to do those things on a regular basis.
Ryan Kerrigan is a normally prolific edge-rusher, one coming off a career-best 13.5 sacks in 2014. Trent Murphy and Preston Smith are both former second-round picks given plenty of responsibility. Along the interior, Jason Hatcher and Stephen Paea are supposed to be strong and effective inside rushers.
But none of the talent is delivering. When so many are failing, it suggests problems with basic technique.
The Redskins' line looks in need of more read-on-the-run principles, as in linemen playing the run only on their way to the quarterback. Whatever the issue, Barry needs a quick fix ahead of facing Drew Brees and the points-binging Saints in Week 10.
There are positive elements Washington can take into that game. The passing game is conceptually strong and benefiting from some more confident execution. While the defense still has fundamental flaws, a growing opportunistic streak is more than welcome.
Speaking of welcome developments, strong performances from some of the roster's high-profile names on both sides of the ball certainly would be.
Statistics and player information via NFL.com unless otherwise stated.
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