Washington Redskins: Shanahan Needs to Protect His QB by Diane Chesebrough

The Washington Redskins lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 38-31 in their 2012 home-opener in a confusing but high-scoring game. Here are some observations from the contest:

● Griffin Needs to Be Protected by More Than Just the Offensive Line

If the Cincinnati Bengals came to FedEx Field yesterday, having game-planned only for getting to Robert Griffin , III as their goal, they might have still have won the game. Forget exposing the weaknesses of the secondary. Forget their wildcat/trick plays. Some might say that if head coach Mike Shanahan and his offensive coordinator (and son) Kyle don’t play-call for the use of Griffin’s weapons more, Washington is not only going to lose more games, it’s going to lose their quarterback. Even if RGIII does “know when to slide” as the head coach says, he’s a competitor. He’s going to do what he thinks needs to be done to get the yards.

The official number of times that RGIII went down was 18. Not only is that too many times, some of the hits he took were vicious and a few times he got up too slowly for comfort.

The Shanahans are excited about the plays available to them because of Griffin’s athleticism and brains. But in many of these plays, the opportunity for defenses to hit Griffin legally – even at the end of the play – is going to be there. He is willing to run and/or take at hit so the Shanahan’s need to be careful how much of that they expose him to. It was interesting that one sportscaster doing a post-game show yesterday said that the Shanahan’s were being lazy by not designing more plays that use Griffin’s talents to get the ball to his other weapons.

Griffin’s coaches need to protect him as much as the offensive line needs to protect him.

● The Secondary Needs Help Even As Hard As They Play

Stating the obvious doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be stated. The defensive line was supposed to be the strength of this team going into the season and it is certainly talented. Putting pressure on the quarterback should be freeing up the secondary to do what they do. But whether it’s a bad game-plan or something else, it has become apparent that pressure by the line not enough for this secondary to stop opponents. The good news is that the coaches know it and the players know it. They just need to figure out what to do about it.

“It’s something we’re going to keep on working on,” Shanahan said after the game when asked about the big plays given up. “We have to get better at that area. Obviously, we gave up some big plays. It’s an area that we need to work on and we will.”

The front seven made some plays yesterday. Outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan is proving each and every game that he was worth that first round draft pick. Chris Wilson and Rob Jackson came in for the injured Adam Carriker and Brian Orakpo and, as advertised, the unit barely missed a beat. Both guys made plays and defensive captain London Fletcher was everywhere all at once like always. But DeAngelo Hall missed tackles and Richard Crawford – and granted, he is still a rookie – totally fell for a double move. The absence of safeties Brandon Meriweather and Tanard Jackson are becoming an issue. Somehow, between the work being done during the week in between games and the scheme used against opponents, something is not working. But this is who the Redskins have on the roster and they need to be better if this team is going to stop any offenses. It’s hard to believe yesterday’s defense is the same one that contained the New Orleans Saints so well in Week One. The Saints are 0-3 right now but are they really that bad?

● The Redskins Will Always Be In the Game With Griffin

At a total of 99 points over three games (40, 28 and 31), the Redskins have scored the most of any team in the National Football League. Most of the credit for this goes Griffin. It was good to see some of his weapons (other than injured wide out Pierre Garçon) make plays because of his ability to get the ball to them.

Tight end Fred Davis – who has not been targeted enough even though he presents serious matchup problems for opponents – caught seven passes for 90 yards yesterday (12.86 ypr average). He did have a false start penalty, but the tight end was integral in the rhythm that the offense got into when it came out to start the second half. After a five yard gain by Alfred Morris and then a run stuffed by the Cincinnati defense, Griffin dumped off to Davis for 14 and then 12 yard yards to get the offense restarted after a sputtering first half. The combination of Davis and Morris in that second-half opening drive earned the Redskins a touchdown to get them back into the game with a resulting score of 24-17 (Bengals).

With  Griffin at the helm, Washington will always be in contention as long as the Shanahans let him use the weapons he has. The Redskins can now score when they get to the red zone. If Robert can stay healthy, gone are the days when fans roll their eyes and go for a beer when the team gets close, thinking that they’re not going to advance any further. Now, Washington has a signal-caller that gives the team a chance any time they get close.

“There are a lot of different options you can do”, Shanahan said about Griffin’s success in the red zone. “You never want to put him in a situation where everybody is lined up ready to get you. We’ve got a game plan on when to run him and hopefully it’s a very safe situation. As you could see today, when we got in the red zone, he really took advantage of the defense and him being able to do a number of things, really gives us a leg up in that area. Hopefully we can keep getting better at that.”

Yesterday Griffin gave the ball to Alfred Morris, Brandon Banks, Evan Royster, Fred Davis, Leonard Hankerson, Josh Morgan, Aldrick Robinson, Santana Moss and Roy Helu, Jr. It is good to know the team can score even without Garçon and left tackle Trent Williams (length of time out unknown) IF the Shanahans will call the plays that let their quarterback also use his talents to get the ball into the hands of his weapons.

● Mike Shanahan Needs to Manage the Game Better

Using up all three time outs before the fourth quarter has barely begun is unacceptable… especially when one of them is used on a challenge that, even if won, would not make that big of a difference in field position.

Shanahan called a challenge for what he thought would result in the Bengals starting the series around the one-inch yard-line and it backfired on him. Punter Sav Rocca booted a punt nicely just outside of the goal line. Washington’s Crezdon Butler’s huge effort got the ball pitched back to special teams captain and linebacker Lorenzo Alexander and it looked like they two of them might have kept the ball out of the end zone. However, the officials ruled the play a touchback, which Shanahan challenged and lost. By then, the team had already used two of their time outs (in the third quarter) and here they lost their last.

“I probably saw what everybody else saw,” Shanahan said after the game. “When we went back and they showed it a little bit later on, I couldn’t tell that the ball did hit the line. It looked from my perspective looking at the screen, that it did not hit the line. I thought it was worth a challenge. Then obviously, when we went back – I don’t know if it was in HD – but you could clearly see that it was on the line. I thought it was worth the challenge at that time.”

The fact that not challenging this call would simply mean that the Bengals started their series on the 20-yard-line rather than close to the end zone was not enough to possibly lose a time-out. That is bad enough. What makes it even more unacceptable is that Washington had already used up two time outs – in the third quarter.

● The Replacement Ref’s Mistakes Have Reached Epic Proportion

One can hardly blame the Cincinnati players that came running out on the field before time had actually run out since at least one of the confused officials had signaled an end to the game.  During the ensuing chaos in which coaches and other officials were trying to get people back off of the field to continue the game, an unsportsmanlike conduct flag was thrown on Washington’s offensive coordinator. Kyle Shanahan’s name was never called but he was out there during the time that the field was filled with people and the yellow flag was thrown. Shanahan tried to explain it during his post-game press conference.

They threw the flag on us,” the head coach said. “They called it unsportsmanlike conduct. At the end of the game, there were two officials on the sidelines who said the game was over, and you saw most of their coaches and players on the field. They thought there was a 10-second runoff. Two of the officials said the game was over on our sideline – or one of them. I heard one. I shouldn’t say two. Supposedly, the other person said the game had expired. Obviously, when you kill the clock, which we did before that, it’s a five-yard penalty, and there’s no loss of 10 seconds. They threw the flag at us and there was half of the football team on the field. I was disappointed with that.”

If it turns out that the younger Shanahan did in fact pull a flag, look for a statement from him or the team early on. They’ll want to nip this is the bud.

Early in the game, it looked as if the officials were sharper than they’d been the previous week but it soon became apparent that there is a lot yet left to be learned.  Not only was there blatant holding on linebacker Ryan Kerrigan many times, the time-clock management was hideous – they were supposed to take 10 seconds off of the clock at the end of the game and never did – they did not take the right amount of yards in key penalties, spotting the ball 25 yards on flags that should have been 20 and the like. It’s one thing to make a bad judgment call.  It’s another thing entirely to be taking off more yards than the rule book calls for and shorting teams’ time on the game clock.  Also, the fumble that Josh Wilson looked to have recovered was hardly given a second glance – either by the television or the officials.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is – week by week – making his beloved product the laughing stock of the sports world by not handling the situation between the league and the NFL Referees Association. Pay the men, Roger.

One additional item: Credit must be given to the Shanahans for the adjustments made during half-time that had the offense in a rhythm immediately and scoring. Better luck next week to all involved.

Hail.