Washington Redskins: 9 Things To Work on During the Bye Week

The Washington Redskins are a surprising 3-1 heading into the bye week, and are one blocked kick away from 4-0. Considering most experts pegged the Redskins as a team destined for the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, a winning record after two division games is great news.

Rex Grossman's prediction isn't looking so foolhardy now that the Redskins are sitting pretty atop the NFC East.

No team is perfect, and the Redskins are further from it than is made apparent by their record alone. The bye week will give Washington some time work out some of the problems they've faced in the first four weeks of the season. Here are some of the things the Redskins can work on during the bye week.

Creating Turnovers

The Redskins defense is currently ranked fifth in the NFL, which is a tremendous improvement over last season's 31st-ranked unit. They've gotten to the quarterback, they've kept opposing offenses from scoring and they've stopped opponents on third down.

Washington's defense has not created enough turnovers to consistently win close games.

Considering that Rex Grossman can become a turnover machine on any given day, the defense needs to make up for the expected losses by creating turnovers of their own. To date, the Redskins have only intercepted three passes and recovered three fumbles, which only makes up for Grossman's five interceptions and one lost fumble.

DeAngelo Hall and Josh Wilson have great ball skills, but have not been in position to make use of those skills. 

Defensive Pressure

The Redskins are tied with the Eagles for the NFL lead in sacks with 15. Seven of those sacks came against the St. Louis Rams, which means they haven't been as scary with their pass rush as predicted.

Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo have been close to a lot of sacks, but have been held, chipped and doubled on numerous occasions.

Beyond just sacks, pressure is an integral part of creating turnovers. Pressure gets the quarterback out of his rhythm and can force him into bad throws. Stephen Bowen, Barry Cofield and Adam Carriker were great against St. Louis, but they need to bring that pressure every week if Kerrigan and Orakpo are going to get theirs.

Against the Cowboys, the Redskins didn't hit Tony Romo enough and finished with just one sack. That isn't going to cut it against the better teams in the NFL

Punt Returns

The Redskins have 15 punt returns on the season, a total which is second only to the Cincinnati Bengals with 16. They're averaging just 9.7 yards per return, and returner Brandon Banks has let a few punts slip out of his hands.

Banks has incredible speed, but doesn't set up his blocks or display any vision during his returns.

Though he is a threat to break one anytime he touches the ball, Banks is impatient and single-minded as a returner. He looks to lose his pursuers with speed alone, instead of reading the coverage team and using controlled bursts of speed to get through holes and keep opponents from getting a clean hit.

Terrence Austin is just as capable as a returner, and should be given some reps returning punts to give the Redskins special teams a shot in the arm.

Pass Protection

Rex Grossman has only been sacked eight times this season, which is good considering how awful the Redskins offensive line has been in the last five years. However, Trent Williams has looked bad on too many pass plays, and could become a liability if he doesn't calm down a bit.

With four division games left and some of the best pass-rushers in the NFL set to line up opposite Williams, the Redskins better get him back on track for Grossman's sake.

Williams owes some of his luck to Grossman moving away from pressure against the Rams, and the early bootlegs the Redskins called to get the rushers moving laterally. The offense can't rely on keeping a tight end or running back in on every play to chip on Williams's man, and defenses will start stunting if they slide Kory Lichtensteiger over for help.

Grossman has been getting rid of the ball when he feels he is in trouble, but that can't be expected to last if his bad habits continue to be an issue as the season progresses.

Red-Zone Play-Calling and Execution

The Redskins have had very little trouble moving the ball up and down the field on their opponents. It is their red-zone attack that regularly falters, and ends up leaving points on the board.

If Washington can't score touchdowns in the red zone, the teams that can will eat them alive as the season goes on.

There is very little difference in what the Redskins run between the 20s and inside the red zone. For a team that has three playmaking tight ends, they don't utilize them very well. The New England Patriots used Mike Vrabel, a linebacker, to better results than the Redskins use any of their receivers.

Though the play-calling has left a lot to be desired, it comes down to execution and it has been shaky for the Redskins. Rex Grossman is lucky that more of his red-zone passes haven't been intercepted and Tim Hightower hasn't been as dynamic as he showed himself to be in preseason.

Offensive Balance

When you think of Mike Shanahan-coached teams, you think of a strong running game complemented by a solid passing game. When you think of Kyle Shanahan, you think of an offense run through receiver Andre Johnson in Houston and occasional runs to keep the defense honest.

The Redskins do not have an Andre Johnson, and need to find a happy medium between what each Shanahan does best.

Against the Rams, the Redskins offense was timid in the passing game and would have been dead in the water if not for Ryan Torain's outburst. The first two games showed an earnest effort to stick to the ground game, but there is no variety in the calls.

Torain's performance gives the Redskins more reason to go to the run, but they are not a team that can thrive on 15 to 20 runs and 35 to 40 passes per game.

The defense has afforded them a lot of extra possessions, but they haven't done much with them in terms of mixing it up and making defenses fear them on the ground or through the air. Kyle may be the offensive coordinator, but Mike is the head coach and has the years of experience to do what is necessary.

Running Back Rotation

Before their victory over the Rams, it looked as though the Redskins were in for a long season with Tim Hightower proving inconsistent in the run game. After the victory over the Rams, it looks like the Redskins have to figure out who will be getting touches and how they're distributed as the season continues.

Ryan Torain made his season debut in grand fashion, and very likely saved the Redskins from a slow descent into offensive futility.

Hightower hasn't been making those violent cuts that got him on preseason highlight reels, and that takes away from what he can do in the stretch run game. Roy Helu has been a great change-of-pace back, proving to be both elusive and strong through the hole.

Torain looks like the real deal, and should get more carries each week, but that means it will either force Kyle Shanahan to call more runs or cut into either Helu's or Hightower's workload.

Pass Distribution

Against the St. Louis Rams, the Redskins only completed passes to five different receivers. Santana Moss, Jabar Gaffney and Fred Davis are the names you hear week in and week out, but Washington needs more players to get involved.

If the Redskins intend to keep their hot start going, they will need to utilize their depth at receiver to keep teams on their toes.

After Davis broke out, he was shut down against Dallas. Chris Cooley stepped up to fill the void, but Donte Stallworth and Terrence Austin have been invisible this season. Anthony Armstrong has been hurt over the past two weeks, but he is just one player.

What happened to the receiver screens we saw to Austin in preseason? Why not run some three-tight-end sets to really burden defenses with stopping all three capable receivers? Teams can get comfortable if the Redskins consistently throw to just two or three receivers each week.

Rex Grossman

No one expected Rex Grossman to win the quarterback battle heading into the season, but he did. No one expected the Redskins to be 3-1 with Grossman under center, but they are.

As surprising as it has been thus far, Grossman has stopped a few hearts with his hot and cold performance.

On ESPN's Monday Night Countdown before the Redskins/Cowboys game, Steve Young said "I think by the end of the season, we’ll be viewing Rex Grossman as a top-10 quarterback." After four weeks, Grossman has completed just 58 percent of his passes and thrown six touchdowns to five interceptions, with a 78.7 quarterback rating.

Young's claim isn't looking very astute two weeks later.

Grossman has made some questionable throws already this season, and could easily have twice as many interceptions if defenders had caught them. The Redskins can't put the game in Rex's hands if he is going to cough up the ball under pressure.

Whether it means giving him more options on offense, or getting him in more shotgun formations to survey the defense, something needs to be done before his turnovers counteract the tremendous job being done by the Redskins defense.