Against Ravens, Gruden Focuses on Physicality not Griffin

When the Washington Redskins starters take to the field this weekend up in Baltimore against the Ravens; many, many, MANY eyes will be on quarterback Robert Griffin, III. This is a big game for him in part, because last week’s game against the Detroit Lions was such a disaster. After what some might call a “miraculous” recovery from an alleged concussion sustained in that game, Griffin will be playing with his entire starting offensive line and most of his starting weapons, save wide out DeSean Jackson… fortunately.

Many fans, reporters and analysts feel that this third preseason game is a huge one for Griffin, feeling that he absolutely must show improvement in his pocket awareness, ability to read defenses and willingness to stand tall in the pocket and find open receivers. Some have said that this is a make-or-break game for the fourth-year signal-caller but Head Coach Jay Gruden feels like this game is bigger than just a test for Griffin. In fact, his main emphasis was on physicality. Probably the type of physicality that General Manager Scot McCloughan is talking about when he says, “teams are going to know they’ve played the Redskins.”

“You know, first of all, it’s not about him,” Gruden said this week. “It’s about that unit, the first team unit. We’ve got to have better protection out of all of them. As soon as we start to make it about one guy, that’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make this about the first unit. Against Cleveland they did OK. We got a field goal and missed a big play. Obviously against Detroit we ran into our fair share of problems. So we’d like to get something positive going with the first unit, period. With Robert in general, same thing, just get the ball out of his hands, move the ball and make good, sound decisions. Everything else… let the players around him help him.”

The entire first team has a lot to prove this weekend.

“Obviously points,” he said when asked what would deem this upcoming game a success for the first unit offense. “You know, we’d love to get a touchdown, no doubt about it. We’d like to move the ball, be precise, no penalties, no turnovers obviously and just be good in and out of the huddle and be fundamentally sound. Assignment sound… and whatever happens, happens. [The Baltimore Ravens] have got a great defense… a Pro Bowler, a Hall-of-Famer there in outside linebacker Terrell Suggs. They bring Elvis Dumervil who’s one of the top pass rushers in the league the last five, six years. So it’s going to be a great challenge for us but hopefully our guys are up to the physicality the Ravens bring to the table and that’s what I’m looking for. I said yesterday we’re looking for a physical offense and we’re playing against a very physical team and I just want to match physicality and see what happens.”

The defense and the special teams have some things to do as well as the offense. With the sudden loss of linebacker Junior Galette, second year man Trent Murphy and rookie Preston Smith will have to step up. Getting to the quarterback, controlling their gaps and, in particular, pass coverage in the secondary will be big. The better defensive line should help with this and Terrance Knighton, Stephen Paea and Jason Hatcher have been very physical so far in 2015.

Special teams has to improve in 2015 and this game will be a good indicator of whether or not that will be the case. Losing tight ends Niles Paul and Logan Paulsen; and teams captain Adam Hayward is huge for this squad. Fortunately, bringing in special teams players was big on McCloughan’s list of things-to-do and Gruden is counting on them all to lift up the unit’s play.

“Not bad, not bad… we’ve got a little work to do,” the head coach said when asked to assess the unit, “but I’ve been impressed, especially with our punt team. Tress [Way] has been… the other day against Detroit; he had some punts that were outstanding. Sometimes he kicks them far and high and out-kicks our coverage a little bit but that coverage was outstanding. [On] kickoffs, we really want to give an opportunity to see our kickoff team cover so we we’re basically kicking it, giving them a chance to return… seeing what guys run down there. And you can see a lot between how guys are running down, how tough they are, if they’re avoiding blocks, staying in their lanes and all that stuff and the tough ones and the ones that aren’t quite ready for the collisions. But we’re getting a lot of quality work and we have gotten a lot of quality work and will get it the last two weeks. But a lot of guys need to step up there because we know firsthand the importance of special teams here. The year before I got here we were last and last year I think we were in the bottom quarter of the league. So, we showed some improvement but we have a ways to go.”

Probably a majority of the people that get the broadcast of Saturday’s game between the Ravens and Redskins will be mainly watching Robert Griffin, III. And of course, his head coach will obviously be focused on what his starting quarterback is doing. It would be ludicrous to think he is not. But it will also be interesting to see if the Ravens wake up Sunday morning really knowing who they played.