SP: Reactional Observations on the Week 5 Loss to Atlanta

[RedskinParadigm]

I'm a day late, but figured some people would still like to see it:

• Kyle Shanahan must have taken the criticism about Griffin’s hits to heart, because he did his best to protect the rookie QB on Sunday. Griffin rushed only one time during the game, and that rush came on a QB scramble. The play in which Griffin got injured was also a designed pass. Unfortunately, the protection from Shanahan did not matter.

• Shanahan called a very balanced game: 24 passing attempts vs. 21 rushing attempts; however, four of those passes came during the 2-minute drill when the Redskins were attempting a comeback. Prior to falling behind with 2:46 left in the 4th quarter, Shanahan had called 20 passes vs. 21 rushes.

• Alfred Morris‘ 115 yards on Sunday brought his season total up to 491 yards (3rd in the NFL as of Monday night). That puts Morris on pace to reach 1,571 yards on the season, which would be the single-season franchise record for the Washington Redskins.

• Morris is either tied for or outright ranked #3 in yards per game, #4 in first downs earned, #2 in 20+ yard runs, #11 in yards per attempt for running backs, #1 for fumbles, and #1 for touchdowns in the NFL.

• Pierre Garcon came into Week 5 #1 on the team in efficiency, catching 83% of the passes thrown in his direction. Against Atlanta, Garcon struggled, catching only 3 of 7 passes in his direction. That brings his season total to 66.7% pass-catching efficiency.

• Garcon’s drops mean that Josh Morgan has taken over the mantle of being the most efficient Redskins WR. Morgan has now caught 13 of the 16 passes attempted to him (81.3%). Morgan was 1-for-1 against Atlanta.

• For the first time this season, the Redskins were destroyed in time of possession, 37:01 to 23:59. Third down conversions had a lot to do with that, but another subtle factor is being overlooked; on the Redskins’ two touchdown “drives”, the offense took a grand total of 53 seconds off the clock. With the Falcons sustaining drives like they were, quick strikes from the offense/defense heightened the time of possession for the Falcons and contributed to the Redskins defense wearing down at the end of the game.

• Perhaps the most indicative statistic of how the game went: Atlanta earned 28 first downs; Washington earned only 12. That allowed Atlanta to run 81 plays to the Redskins’ 48.

• It appeared that the Redskins went bend-but-don’t-break defensively at the same time they went read-and-react on the defensive line. This accomplishes two things: prevent the big plays and contain the run. For the most part, both of those goals were achieved.

• However, for my money, the read-and-react philosophy does not work in concert with the bend-but-don’t-break philosophy. Read-and-react is, by design, a less-aggressive pass-rushing scheme because it requires that the defensive linemen maintain gap discipline before penetration. The bend-but-don’t-break philosophy almost requires an aggressive pass-rushing scheme because you are sacrificing numbers on the pass rush (by virtue of eliminating the blitz). If you drop 7 or 8 into coverage and instruct your defensive linemen to sacrifice penetration for gap control, it gives the offensive line a big opportunity to provide an inordinate amount of time for their quarterback to sit in the pocket. This is what happened with Matt Ryan, and it allowed him to find the open receiver underneath all game long.

Read more here.

[s0crates]

Some useful info in that synopsis. Reading through these observations gives a pretty good idea of how the game went. Thanks for posting it.

It is somewhat surprising we struggled in time of possession as much as we did when you consider how effectively we ran the ball. The third down inefficiency really hurt us.

Also, I like that you put this observation first:

Kyle Shanahan must have taken the criticism about Griffin’s hits to heart, because he did his best to protect the rookie QB on Sunday. Griffin rushed only one time during the game, and that rush came on a QB scramble. The play in which Griffin got injured was also a designed pass. Unfortunately, the protection from Shanahan did not matter.

Some folks are still saying that reckless play calling is what got Griffin hurt, and it simply isn't so.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Also, I like that you put this observation first: ......

Some folks are still saying that reckless play calling is what got Griffin hurt, and it simply isn't so.

And you could well argue that if Ryan and his receivers had been in sync, keeping the reigns on RGIII could well of cost us the game early. We looked a completely different offense without the option runs. (Which can also be a pass.). And far more predictable and less effective because of it.

Playing to one of Roberts strengths, that he's comfortable with, isn't reckless play calling. It's smart game planning, And with each passing game, he'll become smarter in how he takes the hits too when he's on the move.

Hail.

[Jumbo]

..... Josh Morgan has taken over the mantle of being the most efficient Redskins WR. Morgan has now caught 13 of the 16 passes attempted to him (81.3%).....

This would be the thug with a history of trouble-making (on Bizarro World) that's been useless here according to our sizable and frequently featured Pinhead Contingent.

[s0crates]

This would be the thug with a history of trouble-making (on Bizarro World) that's been useless here according to our sizable and frequently featured Pinhead Contingent.

Never thought he was a thug or a trouble-maker. His penalty did cost us a game though (as much as any one play can cost a team a game).

He does look to be a pretty good player though, and hopefully that penalty was a one-time occurrence, as we need all the legit weapons we can get. I was unhappy with him after his mishap, but some of the fans did admittedly take it to far. I'm hoping he makes some big plays in the near future to erase the misdeed from memory.

[SkinsGuy]

Good stuff, RP.

It seems the Redskins had a pretty smart game plan to deal with the Falcons, and it is my belief that had RG3 not gotten hurt, they could've won.

[s0crates]

Good stuff, RP.

It seems the Redskins had a pretty smart game plan to deal with the Falcons, and it is my belief that had RG3 not gotten hurt, they could've won.

I feel the same way. The defense looked a lot better, and the running game was working.

I think RG3 would have won the game for us. Cousins did as well as can be expected of course, but losing RG3 probably cost us the game. Hopefully he is okay and will be back on the field soon (and as soon as the doctors are sure its safe to put him back out there).

[Gurgeh]

The way we played defense simply limited our losses. We just have to live with the fact that teams are going to feast on the secondary one way or the other; we can be aggressive and give up big plays, or reactive and give up lots of small ones. I suspect Haslett will switch back to aggression next week as the Vikings passing attack isn't close to the same level as the Falcons.

I'd like to see more analysis of why we have problems on third downs. I have a feeling (but no stats) that we end up in 3rd and long quite a lot, but no idea how that compares with other teams who are more successful on 3rd downs.

[NewCliche21]

Great OP!

I also wonder if people can't just, you know, have a bad game. The then-undefeated Packers lost to the Chiefs last year. The Packers should definitely fire everyone, right?

You look at our offensive stats, and we're top-ten or top-five or top-one in a lot of things, so we should fire Shanahan because he didn't protect Griffin enough on a scramble. Makes sense.

[Murphs56]

With our Running game and ability to rarely turn the ball over on offense, we should never lose the time of possession battle by that much. In fact, we should dominate it more weeks than not

[RedskinParadigm]

And you could well argue that if Ryan and his receivers had been in sync, keeping the reigns on RGIII could well of cost us the game early. We looked a completely different offense without the option runs. (Which can also be a pass.). And far more predictable and less effective because of it.

Playing to one of Roberts strengths, that he's comfortable with, isn't reckless play calling. It's smart game planning, And with each passing game, he'll become smarter in how he takes the hits too when he's on the move.

Hail.

I tend to agree with this. The offense does look different with the option in the gameplan. I don't want Griffin to get hit, but as we saw against Atlanta, he gets hit just as badly in the traditional offense. It's such a valuable weapon that it pains me to see it eliminated from the playbook. In all aspects (dropbacks, scrambles, rollouts, designed runs), Griffin needs to better understand the risks vs. rewards of gaining a few extra yards at the expense of a big hit. Sometimes, it's better for him to take a 7-yard run on first down to set up a 2nd and 3 instead of a 10-yard run to get a first down. Yes he wants to win at all costs, but now he got the reality check that he has to stay on the field in order to help this team in the long run.

[DogofWar1]

Going bend but don't break with gap control was probably the best set up for the defense honestly. Prevent the run and the big plays, and force them into long drives on the ground. We were able to hold them to 24 points doing that, unfortunately our offense couldn't put up 30 points.

However, if we get Griffin back at 100% and are able to move the ball and score 30 points most weeks from here on out, bend but don't break + gap control might be our best option. After all, if we score 30, and we're holding the other team to 24, we win. It's certainly not ideal, I'd prefer the defense to attack more, but we did hold the Falcons to a season low of 24 points, so there's perhaps something there. More importantly, if we face teams with less competent WRs and TEs we might be able to limit them even further.

[Aghar]

Agree with what many have said here. Atlanta is just a better team right now and the Skins did the best they could with what they had. Believe me, I hated watching the "bend don't break" defensive game plan with absolutely no pressure on Ryan for most of the game but they only scored 24. Our inability to covert on 3rd downs concerned me even more against a defense that isn't all that great imo. I did shake my head on some of the play calls on offense. The direct snap before RGIII got hurt. The two consecutive run plays that get you 2 first downs and 25 yards only to abandon it for the rest of the series and punt. Etc, etc. But that's really just being critical for the sake of being critical. All in all this(the first 5 games) is only a small sample in the RGIII era and I am certainly not shaking my head in disgust which is a step in the right direction for a change.

[RedskinParadigm]

I referenced this in another thread, but here's my issue with the bend-don't-break + gap control philosophy: it allows the opposing team to keep RGIII off the field.

Lost in the hoopla surrounding our defensive quandary coming into the game was that the Redskins' offense was/is actually more explosive than Atlanta's. Beyond the explosiveness, it was also known that the Redskins have struggled on 3rd down all year long. If I was Mike Smith going on the road, my gameplan would have been (1) control the clock, (2) keep Griffin off the field, and (3) force them to sustain drives by consistently converting on 3rd down. They executed that gameplan perfectly, in large part because our defense allowed it.

IMO, it's not as simple as saying this defense will work with a healthy Griffin scoring 25-30 pts per game. When the opposing team has 10+ play drives series-after-series, that limits the amount of times Griffin sees the ball, which in turn limits the amount of points we can score per game. This defensive philosophy directly impacts our offensive output.

If we do coverage-heavy schemes, I would at least like to see an aggressive front. That would put pressure on the QB and potentially force mistakes, similar to a Tampa-2 philosophy. Take the risk of losing some battles on the ground. I'm okay with that. What I don't want to see is teams consistently keeping the ball from Griffin, which this past week's gameplan allowed all too easily.

Just my .02

[santana_4_prez]

It is somewhat surprising we struggled in time of possession as much as we did when you consider how effectively we ran the ball. The third down inefficiency really hurt us.

When you have a pick 6 and a 77 yard TD pass, your TOP is going to suffer quite a bit. But, I agree one would think we would have faired a little better.