Two minutes into the 33-27 loss by the Redskins to the Philadelphia Eagles, the nation was wondering what the heck was going on. There was some imposter in on the field in Robert Griffin, III’s jersey. Where was the elusiveness? Where was the accuracy? Where was that silky-smooth movement and 4.3 speed of Washington’s quarterback?
Despite a difficult first half, the Redskins scored 20 unanswered points in the second and could have taken this game. In the middle of the fourth quarter, already at the final score, Griffin and the offense settled down and got into a rhythm. There were two big catches by receivers Leonard Hankerson and Josh Morgan, and running back Roy Helu provided a break for Alfred Morris. But a two-point conversion attempt failed and an onside kick didn’t pan out.
“Yeah, it got a little hairy there in the end,” Eagles’ linebacker Trent Cole said about the way the Redskins came back. “Like I said, we got to start strong and finish strong. There is some room for improvement. They got on us for a little bit but you have to win. A win is a win.”
Griffin summed up the way the game went nicely in his post-game presser.
“I’m proud of the way the team fought back,” he said. “You know we can’t put our defense in those kinds of situations – having them on the field the majority of the game, but everybody fought back real hard in the second half. You know we got it within six, and that’s all you can ask for. You don’t want your team to come out in the second half and just fold, so I’m proud of the way we fought and that’s what I told them in the locker room.”
Not only did the offense settle down, the defense did as well and was able to keep the Eagles from scoring in the second quarter. The adjustments made during half-time were key.
“Just the way our front line was aligned, we changed that,” linebacker Brian Orakpo said after the game. “Guys playing more in the box. What they try to do, they try to spread you out and kind of leave the box wide open, so we just made a few adjustments to get more guys in the box so we could play the run a little better. Then, we had some very successful third downs where we were finally able to start getting off the field.”
It was obvious early in the game that the Redskins were not prepared. Perhaps, had it been any team besides the new-look Eagles, talent alone might have turned things around enough for Washington to pull off a win. But it was too much to come back from the deficit of 26-7 at the half against a team of which they know so little.
Philly’s main advantage in the game last night was the element of surprise. No team in the NFL could have known much about what to expect from a team with a new head coach, new coordinators and new schemes on both sides of the ball. It could have been the San Francisco 49ers’ defense out there getting moved on by Philadelphia.
What could have been done to help the Redskins with so much going against them was to have the quarterback better prepared for the game. There were ways Washington head coach Mike Shanahan could have done that:
1) Start backup Kirk Cousins — who’d had actual game reps up to that point — and hold RGIII out until after the bye or;
2) Give Griffin at least a few reps in the preseason to better prepare him physically AND mentally for the regular season and start him from day one like he did.
Last night, the fact that Griffin hadn’t had any real game-play experience since his injury was glaring. Who would have thought he could be so rusty… so out of sync… so inaccurate? Not many. But what happened happened — in part — because all of the things that made Griffin who he was last season, were left out on the practice fields in Richmond and at Redskins Park.
Granted, Redskins’ head coach Mike Shanahan is human. But he’s paid to make good decisions. The ball got dropped on the one he made to hold his quarterback out of any preseason time at all. Of course you want to keep Griffin safe. But plenty of players, former players and analysts have spoken to the issue of how important preseason play is.
Perhaps the coach was hoping that the first half of the Philly game was enough for Robert to “shake off the rust.” While in theory this could work, any other game than one against an NFC East division foe in which to do this would have been preferable. One hopes this loss doesn’t come back to bite the Redskins in the backside come the end of the season and the time to count in-division wins.
Robert said last night that neither staying off the field in the preseason nor rust were excuses for not playing well. Good for him.
“I’m responsible for the way I play” he said during his post-game press conference. “I didn’t play very well in the first half so that’s just the way it is. You move on from it. I’m not going to sit here and say I was rusty. I have to be accountable, I’m going to be accountable for that – didn’t play well in the first half. We came back and played better in the second half. We just have to do it for 60 minutes.”
While there were so many instances when the Redskins in general didn’t look prepared for the game early, they got better. By the end of the game, it became clear that adjustments had been made during half-time and the Burgundy and Gold was competing. They were IN the game. Certainly, the coaches still had the talent of the Eagles and new schemes to contend with, but the team had settled down and had a chance.
Regardless, Griffin just never really seemed right. Was he adjusting to the excessive game speed while having to wear that brace? Was he worried about a hit? Was he uncertain about the stability of his knee? Could he plant his leg and move the way he wanted to move? In the first quarter of this game, play was choppy and chaotic and difficult to watch and Washington logged zero first downs. The second quarter was a bit smoother and they were able to at least get three.
And it wasn’t just Griffin. Alfred Morris fumbled on the first possession of the game when Eagles’ linebacker Trent Cole knocked the ball out of the running back’s arms.
“We didn’t play well in the first half at all,” the quarterback said. “We had a serious case of the ‘can’t-get-rights,’ just penalties, hurting ourselves – you know, I don’t throw picks, [running back] Alfred [Morris] doesn’t fumble and [kicker] Kai [Forbath] doesn’t miss field goals and all three of those happened tonight.”
Griffin didn’t have much timing with his receivers in the first half either. He was intercepted twice (and fumbled once). The offensive line had penalties and receivers dropped both badly and well-thrown balls. At one point, Griffin ran out-of-bounds, straight into wide out Pierre Garçon and bumped heads pretty soundly with him. Fortunately, the receiver was alert and he caught Robert before he could take a bad fall.
“We’ve got to clean it up one play at a time,” Redskins’ center Will Montgomery said after the game. “As far as the line, I think we did good at times and there were also times that we let some plays go, so we’ve got to clean it up. I think we fought hard, but we’ve just got to clean it up. I don’t think anything surprised me. I think we just have to execute better and I think we were a little sloppy today.”
It is notable that Griffin never kept the ball once on any of the read-option plays called. This is bothersome. Did he simply not see an option out there or was his knee just too uncomfortable or unstable for him to run hard? Has it been so ingrained in his mind that he should not run that he no longer trusts himself to do so safely?
Much of the success of the offense last season was the threat of Griffin running down the field. The Redskins will not be as successful in 2013 if he doesn’t feel he is either prepared — or allowed — to do so.
A good indicator of the difference in the beginning and end of the game are the stats. In the first half, the Redskins’ offense had 47 passing yards and 28 rushing yards. They held the ball for 9:40 as opposed to the Eagles’ 20:20. The second half was a different story, with Washington gaining 261 passing yards and 46 rushing and holding the ball for 17:81 to the Eagles’ 12:19. The team looked a bit more like what we’ve been seeing on the practice field. By the end of the game, the Eagles had amassed 443 total yards and the Redskins 382. That’s not nearly as bad as one would have thought it would be 10 minutes into the first quarter of this game.
Griffin and his teammates will be fine. Surely the coaching staff did they best it could with the information it had in preparing them for the new schemes of the Philadelphia Eagles… right?
Hail.