Pictured: How NOT to treat your franchise QB.
In their home opener, the Washington Redskins came out looking like a pre-Shanahan team. It was an ugly first half on both sides of the ball for the Skins and it took some risky play from RG3 to get them back in the game in the second half.
From blown coverages and missed tackles to whiffing completely on routine blocking assignments, the Bengals looked like world beaters in the first half. It was as if they could do nothing wrong. Well, except for the interception thrown by Andy Dalton that was caught for a touchdown. Take that away and their first half was amazing.
It’s sickening to think that a team with so much potential can play so horribly overall. I’d really like to blame the officiating for this loss, but the fact of the matter is, they weren’t awful in this game. Sure, they made mistakes and marked off too much yardage on penalties, but that didn’t contribute to the overall piss-poor effort put in by the Redskins.
Will Jim Haslett get to finish the season as Defensive Coordinator or will Rahemm Morris step in to try to salvage this season at some point? Having never been a fan of the 3-4 defense, I can’t say I would miss Haslett at the helm. Being a realist, however, it’s a severe lack of talent on that side of the ball that’s contributing to their awful performance.
No amount of coaching or scheming can simply make bad players better. You can give them every opportunity to succeed but if they’re incapable of success, they will fail you. And boy did they fail yesterday in Landover.
Putting RG3 out there to run around like a mad man got the Skins back in the game through the second half, but he took a pounding. Long term, that’s a bad idea for your franchise quarterback. It’s a desperate solution to lackluster performance by the rest of the team.
The only true bright spot in my mind from Sunday’s game was Alfred Morris continuing to prove he deserves to be the go-to guy in the backfield.
If only we could get some offensive line help. And some defensive secondary help. And a decent defensive coordinator. And an owner who isn’t batshit insane and completely oblivious to the way a football team should be built.
Oh, and half-decent referees. Other than that? This is a championship team in the making.
