***Official*** Washington Redskins 2014 Thread (In-Season) (2 Viewers)

[dgreen]

Shockingly, Chris Russell is doing whatever he can to defend the defense (Haslett) on Twitter.

 

[Sebowski]

7 in a row, or we don't go!

 

[MattFancy]

Thought Griffin played about as I expected. He did look better early in the game. Believe at one point he was 8/8 or something close. The INT was not good, but overall, I thought he played well. I'f give him a B. Definitely played well enough for this team to win. You don't score 26 points in a game very often and lose. In fact, every team that scored 25+ yesterday won, except for the Redskins.

The defense was awful all game long. Haslett has to take the fall for this. How did the defense look so good against the Cowboys top offense and look so bad against a bad Vikings offense that over the last month hasn't even averaged 2TDs a game? It seemed like the crappy zone defense we were playing wasn't working at all. If it wasn't for Bridgewater missing some open WRs early in the game, we would've lost by more. Just a pathetic defensive effort from Haslett after what he did last week.

 

[Marvelous]

There were a number of times that Minnesota WRs were just not covered. There was a lot of confusion on the secondary on who was supposed to be covering who and when they were supposed to have help.

 

[fatness]

If the defense doesn’t blow it in the second half, we’d be talking about a third straight game where all three phases did a solid job -- and how this team was starting to look pretty good and how Robert Griffin III showed some rust, but made enough big plays to lead a win. Yes, the offense could have driven down to either tie the game or take the lead late. Yes, the turnover was a killer right before halftime. But you know why? Because the defense failed to cause any turnovers. But the special teams was solid, the offense scored 26 points, which should be good enough to win.

John Keim

 

[fatness]

Gruden qualified himself by saying he needed to watch the film to figure out why they couldn’t get pressure. But that doesn’t mean he was going to let it go.

“Got into some third-and-longs, their guy standing back there for 10 minutes and he throws a deep out and gets the first down,” Gruden said. “They run inside zone and it’s like we don’t have anybody there. We’ve got to look at film and find out what’s going on, if it’s schematic or they just out-physicaled us, outworked us, out-prepared us, I don’t know. We’ve got to find out because that was unacceptable football.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/12592/redskins-defense-fails-in-loss

 

[MattFancy]

Gruden qualified himself by saying he needed to watch the film to figure out why they couldn’t get pressure. But that doesn’t mean he was going to let it go.

“Got into some third-and-longs, their guy standing back there for 10 minutes and he throws a deep out and gets the first down,” Gruden said. “They run inside zone and it’s like we don’t have anybody there. We’ve got to look at film and find out what’s going on, if it’s schematic or they just out-physicaled us, outworked us, out-prepared us, I don’t know. We’ve got to find out because that was unacceptable football.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/12592/redskins-defense-fails-in-loss

Gruden does not sound happy at all with how Haslett called that game yesterday

 

[Sidewinder16]

Gruden qualified himself by saying he needed to watch the film to figure out why they couldn’t get pressure. But that doesn’t mean he was going to let it go.

“Got into some third-and-longs, their guy standing back there for 10 minutes and he throws a deep out and gets the first down,” Gruden said. “They run inside zone and it’s like we don’t have anybody there. We’ve got to look at film and find out what’s going on, if it’s schematic or they just out-physicaled us, outworked us, out-prepared us, I don’t know. We’ve got to find out because that was unacceptable football.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/12592/redskins-defense-fails-in-loss

I was baffled by this as much as the wide open receivers. It's like the defense had never seen a ZBS.

 

[Sebowski]

How did the defense look so good against the Cowboys top offense and look so bad against a bad Vikings offense that over the last month hasn't even averaged 2TDs a game?

We sucked against the run against the Cowboys, and that's how Minnesota kept scoring on us. You are right re: or pass D though. That was an inexcusable performance.

 

[Da Guru]

Looked like Griffin hurt himself without getting hit on that last run. Kept looking over to the sidelines like he wanted out. Then he short hopped the next pass. Griffin is going to have a tough time staying healthy in this league.

 

[MattFancy]

How did the defense look so good against the Cowboys top offense and look so bad against a bad Vikings offense that over the last month hasn't even averaged 2TDs a game?

We sucked against the run against the Cowboys, and that's how Minnesota kept scoring on us. You are right re: or pass D though. That was an inexcusable performance.

I just don't understand how you let a team lead by a rookie QB to score 22 points in the 2nd half (15 of those in the 4th qtr). Seriously, Haslett has to go either this week or at the end of the season. He has shown me nothing over his 5 years here except that he knows how to play Dallas well. That's about it.

 

[fatness]

Gruden, who delegates the defensive schemes to coordinator Jim Haslett, said he’d have to study film of the game before he could speak to what, exactly, went wrong.

Liz Clarke

It was an unbelievably bad performance by the defense. The Skins had the lead 3 times in the second half, and lost it every time. If Bridgewater was more accurate on deep throws the Vikings would have had 2 or 3 more TD's.

 

[VaTerp]

Looked like Griffin hurt himself without getting hit on that last run. Kept looking over to the sidelines like he wanted out. Then he short hopped the next pass. Griffin is going to have a tough time staying healthy in this league.

No, it looked like he was gassed. The 7 week layoff may have affected his conditioning.

 

[MattFancy]

Gruden, who delegates the defensive schemes to coordinator Jim Haslett, said he’d have to study film of the game before he could speak to what, exactly, went wrong.

Liz Clarke

It was an unbelievably bad performance by the defense. The Skins had the lead 3 times in the second half, and lost it every time. If Bridgewater was more accurate on deep throws the Vikings would have had 2 or 3 more TD's.

Vikings were 8 for 15 on 3rd downs.

 

[dgreen]

Gruden qualified himself by saying he needed to watch the film to figure out why they couldnt get pressure. But that doesnt mean he was going to let it go.

Got into some third-and-longs, their guy standing back there for 10 minutes and he throws a deep out and gets the first down, Gruden said. They run inside zone and its like we dont have anybody there. Weve got to look at film and find out whats going on, if its schematic or they just out-physicaled us, outworked us, out-prepared us, I dont know. Weve got to find out because that was unacceptable football.

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/12592/redskins-defense-fails-in-loss

I was baffled by this as much as the wide open receivers. It's like the defense had never seen a ZBS.

I think it was Mark Bullock who tweeted that the defense keeps sliding on OLB over the slot receiver and that's opening up a lot of space for opposing teams.

 

[Swing 51]

Got into some third-and-longs, their guy standing back there for 10 minutes and he throws a deep out and gets the first down, Gruden said.

Gruden's sarcasm is so refreshing

 

[fatness]

Here's what Bullock said:

The Redskins have to stop lining up their outside linebackers over slot receivers. It is killing them in the run game. They line up the linebacker well outside the box, but still give him the assignment of backside contain. That’s an extremely tough assignment to get all the way over and catch up to the play. The offense just needs to wash out the front side defenders and the running back can sprint up the middle for a free five yards before either Ryan Kerrigan or Trent Murphy can catch up. It’s been happening all season, and it happened at times last year too. Washington needs to bring down their safety and put him over the slot receiver, or play more man and allow the corner to follow the receiver to the other side.

http://hail22.com/2014/11/02/redskins-lose-29-26-vikings-10-thoughts-observations/

 

[fatness]

Bullock also said this, the first hint in the press that Haslett might be in trouble.

Jay Gruden absolutely blasted his defense in his post-game press conference. You have to think defensive coordinator Jim Haslett is on thin ice, given how poorly the defense has played all season outside of the Cowboys game. If Haslett wants to keep his job and find success on the defense, he needs to dial up the blitzing more. I’m not calling for Cover 0 every play, but he needs to be much closer to the Cowboys game plan than any other game plan he’s had this season. The Redskins face another poor offensive line after the bye in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, so it will be interesting if Haslett sticks to four and five man rushes, or if he sends the house more often. He has to find a way to get pressure, because his front four aren’t doing it, and the back seven cannot hold up in coverage

I realize that's just one reporter's opinion, but reporters have private opinions for quite awhile before they mouth them aloud. If he's thinking it it's likely that other beat reporters are thinking it as well. They all see the same things.

Chris Russell's different. He's paid by the Skins, so part of his job is to defend them.

 

[Sidewinder16]

But Washington kept their own point total down as well, with stupid playcalling that had Griffin standing in the pocket all second half, with the O-line constantly being collapsed toward him.

For me, the jury is still out on this. Right now, I'm more of the opinion that Griffin bears a lot of the responsibility for this problem. He still seems really indecisive and uncomfortable in the pocket. There were so many plays this week, that we saw just last week, that a decision should be made and the ball should be in the air by the time the QB hits the top of a 3 or 5 step drop (1 to 3, if in shotgun). You can see it in the replay of his first sack on the nfl.com highlights. Shotgun snap, 2 steps and boom, the ball should be gone (ahead of the sack). Hit Jackson on the 5-yard in, where he was wide open (DB giving a cushion and moving backwards). Much more wide open than the TD pass he gave Jackson later.

I'm certainly not saying I want McCoy in instead of Griffin, but McCoy showed much better pocket awareness and timing (Cousins shows it at times, but loses it too easily). I'm not sure why Griffin can't do it at this point, and I'm starting to fear he'll never be able to.

 

[RGIII HTTR]

RGIII was out for 7 weeks and so many want to blame him, let's place the blame where it really is...Jim Haslett. We scored 26 pts and let the the 5th worst offense in the league score 29 pts. 26 pts with a QB who hasn't played in 7 weeks should be more than enough to win it period, but its worse. Twice we had scoring lead drives to only have the Defense (accordingly to Haz that Shanny held him back from running his way) allow not one, but TWO 80 yard drives by again....THE 5th WORST OFFENSE with a rookie QB drive right back down and take the lead.

Hey, but lets talk about RGIII instead. Absolutely RIDICULOUS!

 

[RGIII HTTR]

On another note, I love me some Jay Gruden...can't wait till this guy gets a real Defensive Coordinator that can run a average to good defense. I say WATCH OUT if that happens because we might win and win often then.

 

[HittinHard]

Much as i want my Skins to win ,i almost hope for more crappy D performances because we so NEED to get rid of Haslett and start a new era for the D.

Please NO MORE haz.

 

[fatness]

But Washington kept their own point total down as well, with stupid playcalling that had Griffin standing in the pocket all second half, with the O-line constantly being collapsed toward him.

For me, the jury is still out on this. Right now, I'm more of the opinion that Griffin bears a lot of the responsibility for this problem. He still seems really indecisive and uncomfortable in the pocket. There were so many plays this week, that we saw just last week, that a decision should be made and the ball should be in the air by the time the QB hits the top of a 3 or 5 step drop (1 to 3, if in shotgun). You can see it in the replay of his first sack on the nfl.com highlights. Shotgun snap, 2 steps and boom, the ball should be gone (ahead of the sack). Hit Jackson on the 5-yard in, where he was wide open (DB giving a cushion and moving backwards). Much more wide open than the TD pass he gave Jackson later.

You're looking at it in different terms than I am. The offense was working pretty well in the first half without repeated dropback passing plays. A lot more of them were called in the second half. I don't understand why the change was made; I don't understand why it was stuck with when it wasn't opening things up as the first half offense had; I don't understand why Helu constantly had to be on the field either. Why the changes, and why were they stuck with by the coach when they were counterproductive?

 

[fatness]

On another note, I love me some Jay Gruden...can't wait till this guy gets a real Defensive Coordinator that can run a average to good defense. I say WATCH OUT if that happens because we might win and win often then.

I think Gruden's going to keep losing player support if the team keeps losing and a first year head coach keeps telling the reporters what players did wrong. That happened to Zorn. It'll happen to Gruden. That type of criticism is something players need to hear, but it should be in private like Gibbs did.

 

[fatness]

Silas Redd got an MRI and had no structural damage from the bus crash. The same can't be said for the bus.

I guess we'll look back on this as the Bus Crash Game.

 

[fatness]

Gruden blames the players more than Haslett for the defensive suckage on Sunday.

All these years of Haslett, and all we ever hear is that it's the players' fault.

 

[fatness]

Very good article by Mike Jones, who echoes some of what Sidewinder said about Griffin, and what a lot of us said about the defense.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/football-insider/wp/2014/11/03/five-observations-from-the-redskins-loss-to-the-vikings-2/

Mike Jones's Skins coverage has gotten pretty good.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

But Washington kept their own point total down as well, with stupid playcalling that had Griffin standing in the pocket all second half, with the O-line constantly being collapsed toward him.

For me, the jury is still out on this. Right now, I'm more of the opinion that Griffin bears a lot of the responsibility for this problem. He still seems really indecisive and uncomfortable in the pocket. There were so many plays this week, that we saw just last week, that a decision should be made and the ball should be in the air by the time the QB hits the top of a 3 or 5 step drop (1 to 3, if in shotgun). You can see it in the replay of his first sack on the nfl.com highlights. Shotgun snap, 2 steps and boom, the ball should be gone (ahead of the sack). Hit Jackson on the 5-yard in, where he was wide open (DB giving a cushion and moving backwards). Much more wide open than the TD pass he gave Jackson later.

I'm certainly not saying I want McCoy in instead of Griffin, but McCoy showed much better pocket awareness and timing (Cousins shows it at times, but loses it too easily). I'm not sure why Griffin can't do it at this point, and I'm starting to fear he'll never be able to.

I think he can learn this though. What you cant teach is that ability to make big plays when needed. And he showed that yesterday and has shown it a number of times. He still has a lot to learn and i am hoping to see him progress by the end of the season. Now, if he can get through this season, and another offseason, i see no reason he shouldnt be able to execute next season. Im willing to wait.

 

[RGIII HTTR]

On another note, I love me some Jay Gruden...can't wait till this guy gets a real Defensive Coordinator that can run a average to good defense. I say WATCH OUT if that happens because we might win and win often then.

I think Gruden's going to keep losing player support if the team keeps losing and a first year head coach keeps telling the reporters what players did wrong. That happened to Zorn. It'll happen to Gruden. That type of criticism is something players need to hear, but it should be in private like Gibbs did.

Uhh, he doesn't sugarcoat or anything else. He calls it like he sees it, but does not disrespect the players. Just plain old honesty...he had a mistake or two and needs to get better. He doesn't do it nasty or snide and surely not like Shanny where they are placed in a doghouse and never can come out of it.

 

[fatness]

That only works if

1. they're winning

or

2. he's got an established record as a winning coach

For a rookie head coach it's just blaming players. Not the front office who chose them. Not the coaching staff who coaches them. Just blaming players. Gruden could use a little more self-criticism for some of his ####ty playcalling, ####ty challenges, ####ty choices of personnel to have on the field.

I see yesterday that after further review, he defended Haslett. That isn't calling it like he sees it.

 

[fatness]

This is the first thing that has sounded like giving up on the season.

http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/12615/jay-gruden-on-qbs-jury-is-still-out

“The jury is still out on that position,” Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. “We feel good about Robert’s progress so far and we’ve just got to continue to build and see how he does from week to week. Hopefully we can see that here at the end of the season. That’s what we have to see and what we have to find out.”

That's training camp talk, or end-of-a-failed-season talk -- the stuff about evaluating players. The regular season is time to win games.

 

[MattFancy]

One thing I've noticed about Gruden is he doesn't seem to compliment guys often in his press conferences.

Hatcher has been one of our best defensive players and yesterday Gruden was basically saying he's not playing hard enough.

Then you have his whole thing with RG3 and he's got alot of work to do and the jury is still out on the position and we're evaluating him week to week to week.

I think Gruden is a good guy, but damn he seems to bash players more often than not in the media.

 

[dgreen]

Agreed that Gruden is too open and honest with the media. Fans and media tend to hate it when a coach says nothing, but I think there's likely a pretty strong correlation between openness and success.

 

[fatness]

Dysfunctional locker room, led by some of the veterans.

What matters most is that the franchise continues to be crippled by the leadership vacuum in the locker room, which is among the biggest hurdles Coach Jay Gruden faces in his attempt to rebuild the team.

Last Friday, many players showed their immaturity by shouting as Griffin attempted to speak with reporters in the locker room, ignoring a high-ranking team official’s repeated requests to tone it down. And even after Griffin and reporters moved into a hallway, players continued shouting, prompting the official to leave Griffin and address the ringleaders.



Griffin appeared embarrassed by the unprofessionalism of his teammates, who clearly demonstrated a lack of respect for Washington’s supposed franchise quarterback. You think Peyton Manning or Tom Brady have to flee their own locker rooms to conduct interviews? Griffin isn’t universally beloved — few players are on any team — but his popularity had little do to with the clown antics.

For weeks, players have been openly hostile toward reporters, largely in response to the team’s decision to open the locker room for interviews after practice. A day prior to the Griffin interview fiasco, a team official had a contentious exchange with a player who refused to turn down loud music while reporters attempted to work.

Generally, I don’t write about the challenges reporters often face; work-related problems come with most jobs. This season, though, what has occurred in the Redskins’ locker room is more than the typical boys-will-be-boys stuff.

About a month ago, the Redskins were way too upbeat just minutes after losing for the 12th time in 13 games. Privately, some players have expressed concerns over the lack of focus demonstrated by some top-of-the-depth-chart veterans in practice and meetings. For a 3-6 team in last place in the NFC East at its bye week, the Redskins don’t appear to be serious about trying to turn around their season, at least not in the presence of outsiders.

The Redskins appear to be speeding toward their sixth last-place finish in seven seasons and eighth in 11. To end the free-fall, the Redskins need better players and strong leaders. As team management could attest, they’re hard to find

 

[fatness]

Great. Now Gruden's criticizing Hatcher publicly too.

Nine games into the season, however, Hatcher has yet to provide the consistent impact that the team needs, coach Jay Gruden said on Monday. The coach said the defensive end’s effort and locker room leadership have pleased him, but he wants and needs more from Hatcher.

“He’s not playing at the dominant level we need him to play at,” Gruden said when asked to assess Hatcher’s production and the struggles of the pass rush as a whole. “When we have we have third down and five, six and seven, need to get pressure in the quarterback’s face consistently, and that hasn’t been the case.”

Gruden gets a whole season at least to show he's got what it takes to be a head coach. Nobody walks into a complicated job like that and just cruises smoothly from the beginning. I get that, and I'd like him to succeed.

But when your locker room is in open rebellion, when team officials are arguing with players, when the veterans are part of the problem, and all the head coach is doing about it is stepping up his public criticism of the play of his better players, that coach looks pretty clueless and ineffective.

If they had beaten the Vikings this would be small stuff. But they're just losing again, like they do almost every year. And vets in the locker room and on the coaching staff who are part of the problem are not held accountable while the HC spends his attention elsewhere.

 

[fatness]

Gruden said that perhaps Haslett could have done better on some of his decisions on Sunday, but that in his mind, the defensive letdowns were execution related.

The defense outright loses the game, the DC basically gets a pass, and Gruden goes out of his way to be critical of his QB and his best defensive player.

Does anyone see any leadership on Gruden's part here? I don't.

 

[Sebowski]

All cured by winning. I've moved on to Tampa.

 

[Sidewinder16]

Dysfunctional locker room, led by some of the veterans.

What matters most is that the franchise continues to be crippled by the leadership vacuum in the locker room, which is among the biggest hurdles Coach Jay Gruden faces in his attempt to rebuild the team.

Last Friday, many players showed their immaturity by shouting as Griffin attempted to speak with reporters in the locker room, ignoring a high-ranking team official’s repeated requests to tone it down. And even after Griffin and reporters moved into a hallway, players continued shouting, prompting the official to leave Griffin and address the ringleaders.

That piece seems to be more about Reid complaining about his working conditions than about whether the locker room has serious dysfunction, or not (it may, but that piece makes a poor case, IMO). After the false report that those locker room antics were aimed at Griffin, it was pretty well established that the so-called "high-ranking team official" Reid references was Tony Wyllie.

I'm not sure I'm going to sweat too much over the players acknowledging that Wylie is a tool, or that they show their displeasure with an increased media presence in the locker room (undoubtedly instituted by Wyllie).

"No means no!"

 

[MikeApf]

oy vey.

I thought Robert did fine for his first game back after missing all those games in a row. Not perfect but showed he belongs in there and definitely something to build on.

Defense. SMH. What happened?

:-(

 

[fatness]

oy vey.

I thought Robert did fine for his first game back after missing all those games in a row. Not perfect but showed he belongs in there and definitely something to build on.

Defense. SMH. What happened?

:-(

Cooley did his film breakdown today and gave Griffin pretty high marks. 8.7 I believe. I lost reception before he got to the O-line's performance though, which I wish I could have heard. I was overall pretty happy with how the QB did after 7 weeks off.

 

[fatness]

That piece seems to be more about Reid complaining about his working conditions than about whether the locker room has serious dysfunction, or not (it may, but that piece makes a poor case, IMO). After the false report that those locker room antics were aimed at Griffin, it was pretty well established that the so-called "high-ranking team official" Reid references was Tony Wyllie.

I'm not sure I'm going to sweat too much over the players acknowledging that Wylie is a tool, or that they show their displeasure with an increased media presence in the locker room (undoubtedly instituted by Wyllie).

"No means no!"

Reed describes it pretty much the way Keim, Jones, and other beat reporters described it. Either they all woke up that day and decided to be whiners, or they're reporting a locker room problem.

If Wyllie being in the locker room is a problem (and I'm sure it is -- he's an ###) that's on Gruden to address.

More and more Gruden seems in charge of nothing.

 

[Sebowski]

I'm on to Tampa

 

[RGIII HTTR]

I love me some Gruden!!!

 

[VA703]

http://nflspinzone.com/2014/11/04/washington-redskins-bring-terrelle-pryor-workout/

The Washington Redskins are working out former Oakland Raiders QB Terrelle Pryor

 

[Swing 51]

^

wtf

 

[Ted Mullins]

That piece seems to be more about Reid complaining about his working conditions than about whether the locker room has serious dysfunction, or not (it may, but that piece makes a poor case, IMO). After the false report that those locker room antics were aimed at Griffin, it was pretty well established that the so-called "high-ranking team official" Reid references was Tony Wyllie.

I'm not sure I'm going to sweat too much over the players acknowledging that Wylie is a tool, or that they show their displeasure with an increased media presence in the locker room (undoubtedly instituted by Wyllie).

"No means no!"

Reed describes it pretty much the way Keim, Jones, and other beat reporters described it. Either they all woke up that day and decided to be whiners, or they're reporting a locker room problem.

If Wyllie being in the locker room is a problem (and I'm sure it is -- he's an ###) that's on Gruden to address.

More and more Gruden seems in charge of nothing.

The Skins beat reporter from 106.7 was on the Junkies on Monday talking about the players interrupting the media and he sounded really mad about it. He declined to say which players were involved. He did say it has been building for a few weeks.

 

[dgreen]

^

wtf

From what I've heard, it's very common to bring in a lot of guys during the bye week. It's the only time during the season that team's have time to do a good evaluation of a lot of free agents. According to Chris Cooley, this doesn't mean much and it's more about keeping guys on your radar for the offseason than right now.

 

[fatness]

Cooley did his film breakdown of the defense today, and few of them got decent grades. Robinson and Kerrigan did. Riley again was graded poorly for reacting far too slowly to plays, and Cooley describe plays where Robinson had to run past Riley to get to the ballcarrier. He said Riley was actually more like a blocker on those plays.

Cooley has also made the point several weeks in a row that when the Redskins play zone pass defense, they're slow to react because (he believes) they're instructed to watch the QB instead of watching who comes into their zones. He said that's what's slowing them down in zone coverage, and that either they should instruct the players differently or just stop running zone coverage because they're so bad at it.

He also said Stephen Bowen wasn't ready to be playing football, or couldn't play football any more, and didn't belong on the field.

 

[dgreen]

Four good posts at http://hail22.com of both the good and bad from Griffin last Sunday.

 

[fatness]

Four good posts at http://hail22.com of both the good and bad from Griffin last Sunday.

Those are good, thanks. Interesting stuff.

I had to chuckle (instead of cry) when I read these:

"But Helu fails to maintain his block,"

"Chris Chester is beaten off the snap but Helu picks up the block, at least initially. Chester leaves the block to Helu, who also gets beaten and allows the pressure to reach the backfield"

"Running back Roy Helu has to pick up the blitz off the edge. Just before Roberts breaks to the sideline, Helu losses control of his block."

"By that time, left guard Shawn Lauvao gets driven back into Griffin."