what was wrong with our passing game against dallas?

[Chump Bailey]

Dropped balls obviously don't help matters either in addition to the other contributions already made...

[ZRagone]

For the people saying that we consciously chose to run the ball down their throats -

Okaaaaay, but that doesn't explain why we looked like crap on the plays where we DIDN'T choose to run it down their throats.

Griffin completed mostly slants, WR screens, checkdowns, and short throws to the sideline. Where was the 20 yard post down the middle of the field? That's the staple of our entire offense. You'd think on a day where your runningback is blowing holes through the other team's front 7, that there would be a huge opportunity for big gains in the play action passing game. Why was this not exploited? I'm going to look at the all 22 film and see if it was Griffin or was run that way by design.

Easy, it was a mix of two things.

Thing one, Griffin's accuracy was a bit off today so a few of this intermediate passes (We didn't really have any long ones) were off target.

Thing two, and the far bigger thing, was that Dallas game planned to take the passing game away, especially deep and intermediate game. RG3 in one of his post game interviews mentioned how it may’ve been a bit of a boring game in regards to passing because the defense was largely giving them reads for check downs, quick slants, etc. This was a case of Griffin taking what the Defense was giving him in terms of the Zone/Read (in terms of reading if he should hand off or pull it out to pass) and in terms of him picking his read in the actual passing game.

[NoCalMike]

Rob Ryan instructed his Safeties to never bite on the run, even if it cost them in the running game, and it did. The difference in the first game is that after Morris started gashing them the safeties tried to sneak up to help with the run, leaving the cornerbacks on islands, which Garcon/Aldrick/Moss would win their matchups every time.

Going against Seattle is going to be a completely tougher task because they have the corners who can play man to man, and allow their safeties to try and help with the run.

[RiverboatGambler]

Easy, it was a mix of two things.

Thing one, Griffin's accuracy was a bit off today so a few of this intermediate passes (We didn't really have any long ones) were off target.

Thing two, and the far bigger thing, was that Dallas game planned to take the passing game away, especially deep and intermediate game. RG3 in one of his post game interviews mentioned how it may’ve been a bit of a boring game in regards to passing because the defense was largely giving them reads for check downs, quick slants, etc. This was a case of Griffin taking what the Defense was giving him in terms of the Zone/Read (in terms of reading if he should hand off or pull it out to pass) and in terms of him picking his read in the actual passing game.

I agree with griff's analysis. He is very intelligent with his passing game and wont force them unless he has to. Romo likes to play fast and lose and may have cost dallass the game with his taking chances. Take what the defense gives you.

---------- Post added December-31st-2012 at 05:25 AM ----------

I agree with griff's analysis. He is very intelligent with his passing game and wont force them unless he has to. Romo likes to play fast and loose and may have cost dallass the game with his taking chances. Take what the defense gives you.

[Chump Bailey]

Going against Seattle is going to be a completely tougher task because they have the corners who can play man to man, and allow their safeties to try and help with the run.

Absolutely, not to mention the speed they have up-front.

[demarc007]

Rob Ryan instructed his Safeties to never bite on the run, even if it cost them in the running game, and it did. The difference in the first game is that after Morris started gashing them the safeties tried to sneak up to help with the run, leaving the cornerbacks on islands, which Garcon/Aldrick/Moss would win their matchups every time.

Going against Seattle is going to be a completely tougher task because they have the corners who can play man to man, and allow their safeties to try and help with the run.

It will be interesting our smaller WRs Garcon and Moss matchup with the huge Seattle DBs. I think we can do some damage there.

[bradboyd80]

Seattle is definitely going to be a much tougher game. They have the best secondary in the league, and their front 7 is fast as well. There will likely be a lot more pressure coming at RG3 against Seattle.

[ErffelWuerffel]

Cowboys started off keying on our pass.

Our RB was averaging over 7 yards a run.

G3 didn't have a chance to get his rhythm going until the fourth.

This. I think half of his incompletions came in the first 2 drives. If the Skins don't go away from the passing game, RG3's passing numbers even out

[USS Redskins]

Dallas's gameplan was to stop the deep passing game and let their offense score quickly... Ha!!!!!!!

I love seeing that greasy douche bag on the dallas sidelines all pissed off.... The o line deserves the MVP award this year, along with rg, Morris and the d.

[Suffolk_Skins]

So in summary.... We don't have a one dimensional offense and can still beat people when not lighting it up through the air. Damn

[Son of Gadsden]

Look man, I'm only like a chapter into "Take Your Eye Off the Ball", so I'm not X's and O's guru...so cut me some slack here lol.

But I'm not real worried about it. This was Dallas' second time facing us. They tried to make adjustments to focus on stopping RG3. However, as the point as been made all year: the biggest problem with Washington's offense is not RG3. It is Alfred Morris. Just when you focus everything to stop RG3, Morris hits you in the mouth and makes you pay. That's exactly what happened today. They pretty much successfully slowed down RG3...albeit a less than 100% RG3 but I'll get to that in a second. So when they do that, Morris can not be accounted for. Fortunately for us, Kenny Rogers over there isn't the greatest DC in the world, nor the sharpest tool in the shed...so he says "We'll make Morris beat us". And he did. I don't know if it's just idiocy that made him choose that strategy, or disrespect, but regardless...he's on the couch. Had they taken a more balanced gameplan against us, it's likely the passing game would have been like it has been all year...however Morris has been disrespected by most D's all year. That with the exception of Cleveland...they said "Cousins is going to have to beat us"...and he did. In my opinion, we have the best offense in the league...because it has been absolutely unstoppable. You can focus on one and get burned by the other, or focus on both and get burned by the big play. There are simply not enough defenders on the field to put one on RG3, double team Garcon, double team Moss, and stack the box for Al.

Now, I mentioned RG3 not being 100%. Notice I didn't say injured, because we don't really know. However, as someone who has a chronic ACL and meniscus tear, reinjured multiple times, I'm no stranger to knee braces and the like. As you can imagine, the things are not comfortable...and I can't imagine running in one. Until that thing comes off, he's not full speed...no matter how "healthy" he is. The thing could be a precaution for all we know, but regardless, he won't be 100%. That's not to say he's not still RG3, though. Notice last night he still burned them for a few big runs. He still has to be accounted for.

For Seattle, I'm not worried. No defense has stopped us all year. It won't happen this week, either. We have to concentrate on stopping Russell Wilson and Lynch...which will be difficult because I'm guessing they have a very similar O to ours, though I haven't seen them play yet. The only thing that bothers me about it is every playoff run I have seen in my lifetime has been stopped by Seattle. We gotta break the streak.

[redskins4ever28]

uh, the fact that we had a running game and didn't need to pass the ball.

Thats not what it is. I agree with the OP about Griffin not looking sharp like usual. I think it was his knee but I dont know. Either way, another week of rest will do him wonders.

[MAATopDogg]

Dallas took away our pass early in the game and played a lot of press coverage with the corners. Seattle will probably adopt the same principle. If that happens we go to the pistol using 2 TE sets and go Playaction thereby freeing up the open zones underneath for both TE’s and this would open up the run game again and take those safeties out of deep coverage. We need to do this against the Hawks if we are to win.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Yeah there were, but I don't think RG3 throwing the ball out of bounds intentionally is a ringing endorsement of our passing game yesterday. What did your eyes tell you? We were absolutely struggling to pose any sort of danger through the air. 2 or 3 intentional throwaways or a dropped pass or 2 don't change that basic fact. It seemed like we only even attempted 1 non-checkdown over the middle all game. What was the reason for that - was it well covered, was RG3 gun shy or off his game, or was it something else?

One thing that might explain it is something I read in Keim's notes about the game. Apparently, instead of leaving the outside linebackers unblocked in the running game, we were blocking them in the hopes of obscuring their vision and thus making them commit one way or the other without knowing for certain which way was correct. Maybe, in order to keep our offense from being predictable, we had to keep this extra blocker in on the passing plays in order to give the defense that exact same look. I still don't think it really explains everything but maybe it is something.

is it that crazy to think maybe RGIII just had a bad game and the injury didn't help?

That's all it was. He had a bad game but when you're a good team, your other studs step up

chill dude

[Thinking Skins]

Thats not what it is. I agree with the OP about Griffin not looking sharp like usual. I think it was his knee but I dont know. Either way, another week of rest will do him wonders.

Nah I disagree. They were determined not to be beat by us the way they were before (RG3 threw for 4 tds last time). So they were in a cover 2 most of the game trying not to get beat over the top and only had 7 in the box a lot of the game. They didn't start putting 8 in the box til we were up 10 in the 4th and trying to run the clock out.

If we needed to I'm sure we could have passed the ball, but why force it if they're giving us (the number one rushing team in the league) the run?