It didn’t take long to see the way the matchup was going to go but that didn’t remove the surprise about the way the Indianapolis Colts offensive line — missing its starting left tackle — held off the Washington Redskins talented defensive front in the Redskins 21-9 loss to the visiting Colts. After the dominating performance the home team gave the previous week on the road, most thought the game would go much differently. But mistake after mistake, on both sides of the ball, caused a lackluster showing by Washington and a defeat in its home-opener. After the game, it was obvious how frustrated the players and coaches were by this.
Dropped passes by wideouts, apparent inattention to technique detail along the offensive line, a lack of communication in the secondary and maybe an unwillingness to deviate from the original (offensive) game plan seemed to be at least partial causes for the failure. There were times when both the offense and the defense looked OK and head coach Jay Gruden did call a few genius plays. The defense was not terrible either for the most part. But both units made too many mistakes.
For instance, early in the second quarter Colts QB Andrew Luck threw a great deep pass to wide receiver T.Y. Hilton on which Redskins CB Fabian Moreau drew a pass interference penalty. Before the snap, the Colts obviously liked the defensive look the Redskins were giving them. Once in play, safety Montae Nicholson wasn’t where he needed to be and fellow safety D. J. Swearinger was distracted by a shorter route. Moreau was left by himself to cover one of the better wideouts in the league.
Better communication would have helped there.
As well, while Gruden is an offensive genius, he couldn’t consistently come up with answers for what the Colts were doing defensively. They certainly keyed in on RB Adrian Peterson with the determination to stop him which forced Washington to hit the air. But this wasn’t successful either.
Early there were the two dropped passes, one each by Josh Doctson and Paul Richardson, Jr. that would have been tempo-changers. And while tight end Jordan Reed was his customary nightmare matchup for defenders, Washington’s offense just couldn’t get into a groove. QB Alex Smith was unable — or perhaps unwilling — to take many shots downfield.
Finally, Indianapolis simply played better than most thought they would or could.
Fortunately, most of the mistakes the Redskins made are correctable but one must wonder why they were made in the first place by a team with so much talent.
Timing/chemistry between Smith and his pass-catchers will be something the team continuously seeks and the skill position players will continue to work on their craft. But execution by the players must improve. The team has talent. The players just need to use it. Doctson and Richardson should catch those passes that they dropped early in the game… especially because of the way that game already looked to be headed.
Defensive coordinator Greg Manusky and the defensive backs coach, Torrian Gray, will coach communication. The Redskins have a young secondary and they must learn to exchange information back there.
Redskins left tackle Trent Williams was not happy after the game and he and his teammates — and of course, OL coach Bill Callahan — will go to work with a vengeance this week.
Fans will hope Gruden will live and learn from this game. He acknowledged after the game that he had trouble getting into a play-calling groove so he knows the issue was there. Knowing him, he will watch a lot of tape, talk to his players and coaches and try to get better.
“I don’t know,” the coach said after the game. “We had no chemistry at all today, and it’s myself as a play caller. Really, it’s my fault. I couldn’t give any rhythm calling plays. The inside zone wasn’t working, the outside zone wasn’t working, our read options weren’t working very well. We became one dimensional. And our play passes? We got sacked on two play passes for goodness sake. So, they did a nice job, credit defense, they helped execute.”