As a team, the Washington Redskins have a colossal task in front of them as they face the New York Giants in Week 14 with a quarterback that’s only been in coach Jay Gruden’s system a couple of weeks. Even as experienced as new starter Mark Sanchez is, most don’t expect the offense to move the ball very well. That means the defense will be under enormous pressure to try and contain a New York Giants ballclub with the likes of wideout Odell Beckham, Jr. and RB Saquon Barkley that has won three of its last four games and probably should have won the contest it lost.
If Washington’s defense had been performing in the past five weeks like it did the first eight, the upcoming Giants game would not keep fans up at night. But over the last month-and-change, the run defense has regressed, the tackling has been non-existent and defensive line hasn’t found its push. If the Redskins want any chance at the postseason (many now scoff at the idea), defensive coordinator Greg Manusky must figure out the causes of the problems and fix them.
“Yeah, I think it just comes down to better angles and trying to hone that guy in,” Manusky said this week of improving the tackling of his guys. “Playing good running backs, we’ve got to make sure that we hone them in and we’ve got to get them down to ground. That’s the biggest thing… coming to balance when you’re about to take a shot.”
There were a couple of times in the Redskins recent loss to the Philadelphia Eagles when it appeared that players were too focused on punching the ball out of an Eagles player’s hands than actually bringing said player to the ground. While there is always the hope of a defensive turnover, the first order of business is to make the tackle, then worry about causing a fumble or stripping the ball.
Manusky addressed this as well.
“I think you always try to get the ball out,” he said. “I mean, that’s what we’re trying to do from a possession standpoint. Teams have them, 12, 13 times and if we can get as many as we can, that’s the biggest thing. But I think that it’s usually that second person that comes in should be the one that’s being able to strip the ball and try to get it out compared to the first guy.”
Another recent issue has been the seeming lack of adjustments made by Washington’s defense. Manusky was asked about this as well.
“Yeah, I think everybody, they have a game plan and they’re going to go through it,” the coach said. “We have to make adjustments on the sidelines, which we do, but every team is going to be a little bit different here and there. But we’ll work on things that maybe have hurt us in the past and we’ve got to work on those and get better at them and just got to make sure we make tackles in the open field and we’ve got to make sure we get the ball carriers down.”
Finally, there is new safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. It had been hoped that, as a Pro Bowler and veteran, he would make an impact in the secondary quickly, especially with the injury to CB Quinton Dunbar and playing alongside safety D.J. Swearinger.
He has not. An especially troublesome example of this is the times he has been out of position when he has been needed.
“I think just trying to be on the same page with everybody from a call perspective,” Manusky said of the 2014 first-rounder. “Sometimes there are little things that we do and I think that it’s very important that he gets it and he’s been growing the last couple of weeks.”
The game against New York is going to be tough and the offense is going to need all the help it can get from its counterpart across the line of scrimmage. Hopefully, another week of practice will have helped the defense return to the stout unit from earlier in the season that stopped the likes of Carolina Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey (held to 20 yards rushing), Dallas Cowboys RB Zeke Elliott (held to 33 yards in the first game) and even Barkley in the two teams’ first game (held to 38 yards). Or what about the unit that sacked guys like Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Eli Manning; and intercepted the ball multiple times in one game (like Swearinger has done a couple of times)? That’s the defense that needs to be on the field Sunday.