Washington Redskins: Trying to Find Solutions

The Washington Redskins must put last week’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals — as well as the four defeats before that — behind them and get back to the business of trying to win football games… which they will attempt to do this Sunday when the Tennessee Titans come to town. The team worked all this week in the indoor practice bubble and the practices have been spirited. While it’s been said that good practices usually mean good games, this has not been the case recently with the Burgundy and Gold. And so, even as they go about the routine of practices, meetings, rehabbing sore muscles/injuries and the like; the Redskins, as collective unit, must try to find solutions to the problem of continued losing.

If Washington is going compete with their NFC East rivals, several things have to happen and it’s going to take every person on this team to get it done. The players and the coaching staff have, no doubt, spent the week trying to figure out how to get out of the 1-5 rut into which they have dug themselves.

One thing being brought up again and again is the fact that head coach Jay Gruden needs to commit to the run and stay with it. Like a lot of rushers, Redskins’ running back Alfred Morris has said that the more he carries the ball, the better his rhythm gets. Even if he’s only getting 2.6 yards per carry early on in a game, he’s the kind of player who will likely improve as he continues to be fed the ball.

Another fix could be continuing to use tight end Jordan Reed the way Washington did last week against the Cardinals, i.e. as a pass catcher and in the run game (he is a decent blocker). The tight end’s return to the field last week was everything fans and the coaching staff had hoped it would be. He caught the ball eight times for 92 yards and Arizona’s defense had a hard time stopping him. He ran over guys, around guys and past guys. Reed moves like a basketball player and is a nightmare to cover for linebackers and cornerbacks alike. The fact is that defenses have to plan for him. The Redskins need to give him the ball often on Sunday to test Tennessee’s 18th ranked passing defense. The Titans rank ninth in interceptions but anything they might get on Sunday will likely not be against the 6’3” tight end (unless quarterback Kirk Cousins throws it right to them).

The issues Washington faces are many and varied. There is no special teams “game” to speak of and big mistakes are consistently being made by the squad. There are not enough running plays and there is not enough yardage gained on first and second downs. This causes Gruden to reduce the number of run plays resulting in more passing… which seems to cause Cousins to lose some of his poise because it increases amount of pressure put on him by the opposing defense. This causes a lack of third-down conversions which, in turn, appears to cause more turnovers by the QB. The result of this series of events is that the defense is on the field too often and for too long which tires them out, keeping them from putting pressure on the opposing quarterback which results in a lack of turnovers and/or sacks. There are also some very young players now starting on that defense who will make young-player mistakes as well. And so-on and so-on.

Rookie cornerback Bashaud Breeland is one of those players thrust into the starting position with the injury to starting veteran DeAngleo Hall. The youngster showed a lot of potential during training camp and in the preseason but he was supposed to have more time to develop before starting. Obviously things have not worked out that way.

Fortunately, he is a rangy, strong, long-armed cover-type corner who is physical and aggressive. He is young and he knows he’s making rookie mistakes. This fact is a good sign and defensive coordinator Jim Haslet insists that the mistakes he is seeing Breeland make can be fixed with coaching.

The young defensive back was one of the players that talked about mistakes in last week’s game.

“My eyes weren’t in the right place at that time,” the rookie said this week in the locker room when asked about a 3rd-and-13 play by Arizona on which he whiffed. “I was looking for another route concept instead of that route concept and I really didn’t play aggressive [enough] on that play. I wasn’t guessing… I just had bad eyes. I didn’t play what I saw.”

It should be no surprise then that the burning question all week long, both in open locker room sessions and to the coaches, were all about how the team can fix the issues that have brought them to a 1-5 record. It’s a dilemma, to be sure. This week would be a good time to fix them what with the problem that Washington has defending their home turf. The team needs to do something… anything… to get back on track. There’s no easy answer.

“It all starts with one win,” linebacker Ryan Kerrigan said this week. “We’ve just got to get that first win and we’ve got to get it this week. We can’t keep digging ourselves into this hole. We’ve got to pull ourselves out of this rut.”

It’s not as if they’re not having good, hard practices. The effort is there both during the week and on Sunday. It’s just not coming together during games. It’s a bad step here… a missed assignment there… a great play by the opposition somewhere else.

“I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to it,” Kerrigan went on. “I mean, I know up front it’s about guys winning one-on-one matchups. We can talk about scheme all day but up front where we are it’s about beating the guy across from you. We need to do that more quickly and more consistently.”

Since he arrived in Washington Kerrigan has been one of the “core” guys on this roster. He works hard, he’s smart and he’s pretty much the one guy in the defensive trenches that consistently makes big plays. So far, in 2014, he’s logged six-and-a-half sacks, two forced fumbles and, has had at least 13 quarterback hurries (not including the Arizona game).

“We need to start making those [big plays] happen,” the linebacker continued his explanation of a fix, “and that starts with us up front. If we can get some pressure up front that can force quarterbacks to make bad throws and maybe that will allow our DB’s to step into a passing lane and make an interception or we can get there and force a fumble maybe. We’ve got to take it upon ourselves up front to make those plays happen.”

A lot of what the Redskins aren’t doing well is a matter of focus but a lot of it is also inexperience with the young players that are learning to play in the NFL in a “trial-by-fire” state of affairs. Second-year cornerback David Amerson has gotten much better and is a good defensive back. He will become an excellent one. That has come with experience. But he has also reaped the benefits of working alongside Hall during games. Even with the growing pains that are part of the process, being on the field is what will make these youngsters better.

“I just think that you have to preach that every day is a great opportunity for everybody to show what they can do and play football, coach football, have a positive outlook moving forward,” Gruden said during his Wednesday session with the media. “We just have to take all the things that have happened so far and learn from them but we got to move on and understand that every day is a new opportunity for us to get better and show why we are here, play with a great passion for the game that we have and play a lot better. I know we can play better. We haven’t proven that yet, but I still have total faith in this team, this coaching staff that we will turn this thing around and we will play better. That is the only way we can coach. We can’t just hang our heads and [say] ‘You stink, you stink, I stink, everybody stinks.’ You guys can say that but around here we are going to be very positive and I know that we have a lot of talent in this room and all the guys want to play hard. And we are going to get the most out of them, I promise you that.”

“Obviously it’s difficult but we just have to keep working and try and be better each week,” tight end Logan Paulsen answered when asked what can be done about the losing. “It’s probably cliché but it’s really all we can do. While we’ve had some success, we’ve got a lot of areas we need to improve on so hopefully this weekend and in the upcoming weeks we can do that.”

Running back Roy Helu, Jr. was asked what could be done to fix the running game and, while he initially didn’t really have an answer, he ended up finding a good one, going through sort of an internal brainstorming session with himself as he talked.

“I don’t have a good answer,” he said at first but then went on. “I mean, we can build on the players that we have. We have a track record with the guys that have been here and with Alfred running the ball that we do well. So that’s something we can go into each game with confidently. We just have to execute better, that’s all.”

Good idea, that execution. That means good blocking in the run game, a good pass rush, good protection for Cousins when passing and actually just making a few big plays offensively, defensively and on Teams. Speaking of special teams, flipping the field would be hugely helpful. Gruden needs to continue to feed Morris the ball even if the first few plays don’t yield long yardage, continue to call the read-option and coach Cousins to manage getting the ball his play-makers: Reed, fellow tight end Niles Paul; wide outs Pierre Garçon, DeSean Jackson and Andre Roberts, and Helu. Linebacker Brian Orakpo, as well as his fellow defensive linemen, needs to find that “fire in his belly” and get to the quarterback. And, as Kerrigan said, if they do that, it will take some pressure off of the secondary, leaving them to be the ball hawks both of those young men can be.

None of this will be easy. But there have definitely been flashes of what is possible this season even with the losing. Just for once, it would be nice if it all — or even just some — of these events came to pass this Sunday against the 2-4 Titans.

Hail.