Mondays are never fun for NFL fans when their home team loses but the level of “not fun” can vary. If a team loses in the last seconds of a game (even after heroic levels of play), there can be an “Oh well. It’ll be okay” kind of feel to the loss.
If the defeat is more of a throttling that begins in the first quarter by a powerhouse team and continues without abatement throughout the contest, there can be a “Let’s just move on and get to the next game,” feeling.
When the home team starts out playing well, however, and then simply falls apart, it’s especially difficult to digest. While sometimes, the reasons for a second-half collapse are easy to diagnose, many times they are not and this can be particularly frustrating. Those kinds of losses can completely take the wind out of a team’s sails.
The Washington Redskins Week 1 loss (32-27) to the Philadelphia Eagles falls into the last category regardless of the fact that it’s only Week 1. The Burgundy and Gold completely controlled the first half of the game, racking up 20 points to the Eagles 7 and 278 total yards to the Eagles 134. Redskins QB Case Keenum spread the ball around to seven different pass-catchers and RB Derrius Guice ran the ball with energy and explosion. The offensive line was effective even for all the pearl-clutching that has gone on since All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams has been holding out on his contract. And the defense held a dynamic Philly offense in check.
The second half of the game was the complete opposite.
Defensive lineman Jonathan Allen left the game late in the first quarter and did not return but that is not an excuse for the way the defense became basically ineffective once the second half started.
It was as if Philadelphia remembered they had a guy named DeSean Jackson on the field and the Redskins had no answer for the wideout. The former Eagle-then-Redskin-then-Buccaneer-then-Eagle-again caught two huge touchdown passes (51 and 53 yards) and was instrumental in Washington blowing a 17-point lead.
On the other side of the ball, the Redskins could hardly convert a third down, nor run the ball for the most part. They were like a different team.
Fans were already upset with the team for having All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowler RB Adrian Peterson inactive for the game against the Eagles. Now it has come to light that RB Derrius Guice — the team’s 2018 second-round draft pick that was out last year with a knee injury — has injured his other knee.
And now players have spoken up about the deactivation of the veteran. Right tackle Morgan Moses said that he felt like the move was ‘a slap in the face.’ Obviously, discord in the locker room is not good.
All-Pro LT Trent Williams is still in a contract hold-out and there is some feeling out there that it is the fault of the organization rather than the player. And while sources have indicated Williams will return, until he does, the offensive line doesn’t have one of the best left tackles in the league.
There is fan discontent about the way the team was coached in the second half of the game — or ‘outcoached’ some have said — and that makes a Monday after a loss like yesterday’s worse.
Here’s the question: how much air is gone from the Redskins’ sails? What will bring it back? Can the ship sail again?
There are a few things that could help. Williams could return, in shape and ready to go. Head coach Jay Gruden could do or say something to show that he and Peterson are okay. Peterson is a pro and will behave like a pro. But if Gruden doesn’t have the locker room, there isn’t much hope for the season.
News that Guice’s injury isn’t major would go a long way toward positive feelings about the season. The same goes for Jon Allen. They’ll both miss the next game (or two) but for them to have sustained serious injuries would be terrible news.
What would go an extremely long way to putting the wind back into the Redskins sails would be a sound, thorough and complete beating of the Dallas Cowboys Sunday. Winning cures a lot of ailments. For the feelings circulating around Washington, D.C. right now to go away, beating Dallas would be just what would get that sailboat going.