Washington Redskins’ Week Five In the Rear View Mirror: Defense Stops the Big Play by Diane Chesebrough

Of the four games that the Washington Redskins have played since their win over the New Orleans Saints in Week One, the loss to the Atlanta Falcons this past Sunday was especially difficult because all three units turned in quality performances, especially the defense.

When rising star quarterback, Robert Griffin, III was hit hard enough to give him a concussion, the offense was getting ready to score. They were right there in the red zone on a third-and-goal play, setting themselves up to take the lead, 14-7. At that point in the third quarter, Griffin was 10 of 15 for 91 yards and running back Alfred Morris had already rushed for most of his 115 yards. It had been a tough game, low scoring and very defensive but the offense was moving the ball.

The special teams unit did some nice things. Punter Sav Rocca made up for that 33-yard punt that went out of bounds at the Redskins 47-yard-line by booting a 53-yarder that was subsequently downed by Niles Paul at the Atlanta Falcon two-yard-line. Brandon Banks scampered for 135 yards on kick and punt returns. Lorenzo Alexander made a head’s up tackle on Falcons’ returner Jacquizz Rodgers after a 64-yard Cundiff kick that Jacquizz ran out from the one-yard-line. Admittedly, the decision made by (head coach Mike) Shanahan & Co. to use Santana Moss on a punt return – wherein he gained one yard – is another article for another day.

But the bigger story is that the defense – and especially the secondary – turned in an effort this Sunday that basically nullified the “Big Play” by the opponent.

Other than the first game against the New Orleans Saints (who, despite the good play by the defense did rack up 459 yards), the defense has been sporadic in its efficiency. The secondary has been burned by the likes of St. Louis’ quarterback Sam Bradford and receiver Danny Amendola for 160 yards in the air, the Cincinnati Bengals’ Andy Dalton and wide out A.J. Green for 183 yards; and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Josh Freeman and his guys, Mike Williams and Vincent Jackson for a combined 215 yards (although the Redskins won that game). In those games, the defense has allowed over 300 yards of passing offense by its opponents – except against the Bucs, who were only seven yards shy of that, gaining 293 yards in the air.

While the defensive line has held their own, holding four of their first five opponents to under 100 yards rushing, there hasn’t been enough of a pass rush. In the first four games, there have been just seven sacks total. Only Barry Cofield had one Sunday against the Falcons. In the five games, the sacks were made by six different guys. By contrast, there are guys in the league – J.J. Watt (Houston Texans) and Clay Matthews (Green Bay Packers), for instance – that have eight and a half and eight sacks (respectively) alone. Geno Atkins (Bengals) comes in third in the league with six solo sacks. One of those was against the Redskins.

But yesterday against the Atlanta Falcons, the Redskins defense did some really good things. The most obvious result of their efforts is that they held the undefeated, high-octane Falcon offense to seven points through three full quarters. While Matt Ryan had plenty of time to throw the ball much of the time – and throw he did – he and his receivers did not torch the secondary like other teams have. Ryan’s lone scoring pass was an 18-yarder to Julio Jones. He passed a lot – 52 times – but only completed 34 of them. Passes were defended on a regular basis. The longest pass Ryan made was 29 yards to Julio Jones. Tony Gonzales’ longest catch was 21 yards. Compare that to the long passes that the other five big-time receivers the Redskins have dealt with have made and you have:

Lance Moore (Saints) – 33 yards, Danny Amendola (Rams) – 56 yards, A.J. Green (Bengals) – 73 yards and Mike Williams (Bucs) – 65 yards.

The secondary never let Ryan’s receivers get behind them and it kept the Falcons honest. They did not “big play” the Washington defense all day like four other teams have. Ryan dinked and dunked all day long but just never really torched Redskins’ cornerbacks Josh Wilson or DeAngelo Hall; or the safeties or the linebackers. Kudos to Washington’s defensive coordinator, Jim Haslett, for his scheme.

Asked about how well Haslett’s scheme worked against Atlanta, Redskins’ lineman Barry Cofield was pretty happy about the way things worked out.

“Yea… that gave us a chance,” he said after the game. “If we can eliminate those huge plays like we did today, it’ll give us a chance. We still need to make a couple more plays here and there but as long as we don’t give up those long bombs and things like that, then we can keep our team in the game.”

The front seven did some really good things as well. Think Ryan Kerrigan and his ball-batting interception for a touchdown – the second of his career – plus Perry Riley’s fumble recovery and Barry Cofield’s sack of Matt Ryan. For whatever reason – the way the Falcons lined up perhaps, because of the threat that Tony Gonzales is or just the plays that were being called – Kerrigan played back more against the Falcons than usual…. But he knows there were things that they needed to do differently.

“One thing I know from my perspective, we didn’t get nearly enough pressure on the quarterback,” Kerrigan said.  “Matt Ryan had way too long to throw and I didn’t have any hits, any sacks or anything so… I mean, we really gotta amp it up for next week and get pressure on the quarterback.”

Which echoes what my biggest complaint with the defense was and that is the fact that they only really got to Matt Ryan the one time while letting the Falcons convert nine of 17 third downs. Matt Ryan is not a mobile quarterback but he stood in the pocket too long. At times, he could have written thank you cards in the time he was back there waiting to find the perfect time to toss the ball to Tony Gonzales.

But overall, the defense played as well as any team could have against a really, really good Atlanta Falcons team.

“We did some good things, we did some bad things,” linebacker London Fletcher said after the game. “Not enough good things. I think we did some things in the first half when we were going more coverage-wise and three-man rush, stuff like that. Matt Ryan had a lot more time to hold the football and we were looking more from a coverage standpoint. Third down, they were able to convert a couple times even with our four-man rushes, so those are things that were disappointing. I thought we stopped the run pretty well. [We] came away with two turnovers and Ryan [Kerrigan] scored a touchdown. We did some good things, but not enough to win the game.”

The Minnesota Vikings are up next at home which, of course, represents another chance at redemption for Washington to defend its home turf and win a game. I feel sure that, had Robert Griffin not gone out of the game, with the way the defense was playing, the Redskins could have gone head-to-head with the Falcons and even won the game. Let’s hope Shanahan will fine tune the problems that are causing the bit of inconsistency that is keeping this team in the basement of the NFC East and that they can get to .500 once more by beating the Vikings.

Hail.