We lost due to weaknesses we knew about going into Season AKA Why I'm not too upset!

[Destino]

This team got outplayed on every single level. Passing, rushing, o-line, defense, pass rush, special teams, and coaching. This game was a complete abortion, and could have been a whole lot worse had the officials called it properly.

I'm not sure this game was that bad. The officiating may have been the worst I've ever seen in a pro sport (not exaggerating). The offense left some points on the table but were fairly efficient otherwise. The defense, as bad as they were for most of the game, did manage three turnovers and a TD themselves. The problem today was almost entirely the redskins secondary in pass coverage, I doubt Sam Bradford has had as many easy throws since college.

[KCClybun]

I also really want to see more of Fred Davis. He didn't play perfect, but I feel like for his skill level, especially without Garcon this week, we didn't dial him up enough.

Oddly enough, I don't know if emphasizing our tight ends is as big a deal as others have said it is. Robert didn't throw to the tight end a whole lot in college, which kind of makes me wonder if he's...I don't want to say used to it, but if we're trying to make him comfortable, I wonder if it's one of those things where Fred will be better later in the season when we continue to expand the playbook than he will be earlier in the season.

I noticed the same thing with Andy Dalton, who came from a similiar-ish offense.

ETA: Also noticing it with Cam; used the tight ends a lot last year, but Greg Olsen has been invisible these first two weeks.

[Destino]

Right, and as guys like NLC have been saying around the site, that goes back to the defensive scheme we were running.

As for our O, I really hope this was just a product of Garcon being out. I really want to believe that if Garcon was in the game that 2-3 of those broken plays would have ended in Garcon's hands.

I also really want to see more of Fred Davis. He didn't play perfect, but I feel like for his skill level, especially without Garcon this week, we didn't dial him up enough.

Davis was targeted 5 times and caught 2 passes for 14 yards. No redskin was targeted more. Davis, for whatever reason, doesn't look as good as last season. If Robinson catches tht deep ball tht hit him in the chest the passing offense has a great day.

[Murphs56]

Davis was targeted 5 times and caught 2 passes for 14 yards. No redskin was targeted more. Davis, for whatever reason, doesn't look as good as last season. If Robinson catches tht deep ball tht hit him in the chest the passing offense has a great day.

That was embarrassing. Great pass by Griffin

[DogofWar1]

Davis was targeted 5 times and caught 2 passes for 14 yards. No redskin was targeted more. Davis, for whatever reason, doesn't look as good as last season. If Robinson catches tht deep ball tht hit him in the chest the passing offense has a great day.

I'd have to go back and look at the game and see specifically what those 3 non-catches were, but my point is that 5 targets, if he's playing at a similar level to last year, is still too low, especially with our #1 WR out. If Garcon was in then I'd be fine with it, since our O likes to work the X WR anyway, but we clearly struggled to find open targets, and Davis should be up against linebackers most of the time, who he should be beating.

I dunno, maybe he has been off his game. I really would like to re-watch the game and just watch Davis (and then do it a half dozen times watching other things), but I'm not going to have time.

And yeah, that Robinson drop was big. We need him to catch that ball in the worst way.

[BleedBNG]

The problem today was almost entirely the redskins secondary in pass coverage...

Yep, the basic nail. All of a sudden Amendola is the next Wes Welker.

[phishisthegreatstuff]

No, I think we lost because of Jim Haslett. Instead of making it tough on the rams we played some bush league zone coverage. We should have been all over Amendola bumping him at the LOS but instead played off. Makes zero sense...

The guy needs to be fired yesterday.

Obviously Josh Morgan's penalty was a killer and so was that drop by Aldrick Robinson, but defensively it was truly an abomination to make the rams look like the best offense in the league.

[KCClybun]

I'd have to go back and look at the game and see specifically what those 3 non-catches were, but my point is that 5 targets, if he's playing at a similar level to last year, is still too low, especially with our #1 WR out. If Garcon was in then I'd be fine with it, since our O likes to work the X WR anyway, but we clearly struggled to find open targets, and Davis should be up against linebackers most of the time, who he should be beating.

I dunno, maybe he has been off his game. I really would like to re-watch the game and just watch Davis (and then do it a half dozen times watching other things), but I'm not going to have time.

And yeah, that Robinson drop was big. We need him to catch that ball in the worst way.

Rewatching it, it was a touch underthrown; Aldrick kind of had to come back and adjust to it, turned around a little too late and the ball was on him. Robert has to learn that Aldrick's the kind of dude where you can probably feel like you're overthrowing it and Aldrick will run underneath it. Gotta give him a shot to make the play.

Drop sucked, but it's part of having a young group of receivers.

---------- Post added September-17th-2012 at 02:08 AM ----------

I'm not sure this game was that bad. The officiating may have been the worst I've ever seen in a pro sport (not exaggerating). The offense left some points on the table but were fairly efficient otherwise. The defense, as bad as they were for most of the game, did manage three turnovers and a TD themselves. The problem today was almost entirely the redskins secondary in pass coverage, I out Sam Bradford has had as many easy throws since college.

I said this in the Haslett thread, but I don't think people realize how badly the Rams probably should've beaten us in 2011.

Bradford picks apart zone coverage with zero pressure. He did it in 2010 when we lost. In all honesty we should've lost in 2011; Bradford had an ungodly amount of drops, but his receivers were often wide open. And we played mostly zone coverage. Then we come back and do the same **** again, when the whole ****ing league knows the Rams receivers struggle against man coverage.

I thought our players did the best they could considering the circumstances; they forced three turnovers. But their coaches, or one coach in particular, just didn't put the in position to win.

[Destino]

I'd have to go back and look at the game and see specifically what those 3 non-catches were, but my point is that 5 targets, if he's playing at a similar level to last year, is still too low, especially with our #1 WR out. If Garcon was in then I'd be fine with it, since our O likes to work the X WR anyway, but we clearly struggled to find open targets, and Davis should be up against linebackers most of the time, who he should be beating.

I dunno, maybe he has been off his game. I really would like to re-watch the game and just watch Davis (and then do it a half dozen times watching other things), but I'm not going to have time.

And yeah, that Robinson drop was big. We need him to catch that ball in the worst way.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "clearly struggling to find open targets". RG3 was sacked once. He had one grounding call which was as goods aback so let's say twice for sake of argument. He ran insanely efficiently so his scrambles weren't bad decisions. Passing he finished 20/29 (69%) which is damn good. One of those incompletions was a deep pass that Robinson bungled that if caught would have turned the game into a very good passing performance.

[s0crates]

I agree with the OP to some extent. The secondary is certainly struggling mightily. Amendola looked like Jerry Rice out there. I thought I was having flashbacks to the greatest show on turf. We expected this.

I also disagree with the OP about some stuff. For one, I actually think the offensive line is playing pretty well, considering how much they were expected to struggle.

More importantly, I would like to point out that some of the reason we lost have little to do with what we expected. I did not expect Josh Morgan's brain to stop working at the most critical point in a game. I also did not expect us to give up a blocked punt every week. So I am actually quite a bit upset.

[Gurgeh]

I said this in the Haslett thread, but I don't think people realize how badly the Rams probably should've beaten us in 2011.

Bradford picks apart zone coverage with zero pressure. He did it in 2010 when we lost. In all honesty we should've lost in 2011; Bradford had an ungodly amount of drops, but his receivers were often wide open. And we played mostly zone coverage. Then we come back and do the same **** again, when the whole ****ing league knows the Rams receivers struggle against man coverage.

I thought our players did the best they could considering the circumstances; they forced three turnovers. But their coaches, or one coach in particular, just didn't put the in position to win.

If there's one thing that kills me about this team is that we seem to ignore our opponent's weaknesses. It's almost like we're second guessing ourselves.

"We know they struggle against man coverage, but they know we know that. Therefore they will expect man coverage, so we will play zone. It's the last thing they'll expect"

[Zemongoose]

The galling thing about the loss was that we lost stupidly. We're not quite there yet as a team, and going into the season I was expecting a lot of games like this one (minus the Turner era stupidity embodied by Danny Smith and Josh Morgan). I agree totally what the OP that our Oline and secondary are our weak links. I just hope we can keep RG3 unmaimed while we get through the cap hell caused by our refusal to participate in the Goodell/Mara criminal conspiracy.

[HailToTheRedskins14]

Hey, I just tweeted Morgan some positive thoughts. I'd recommend everybody do that. The game wasn't completely on his shoulders, and realistically yall think ANY Redskins kicker is gonna nail a 49 yarder in crunch time? Pffft. Morgan seems like a good dude, if you got the time, send him something positive.

[FrFan]

The galling thing about the loss was that we lost stupidly.

That says is all, and explains the general frustration. We've been beaten by a team that was no better than us.

[thebluefood]

If there's one thing that kills me about this team is that we seem to ignore our opponent's weaknesses. It's almost like we're second guessing ourselves.

"We know they struggle against man coverage, but they know we know that. Therefore they will expect man coverage, so we will play zone. It's the last thing they'll expect"

Sometimes I feel like we're going a step beyond that and intentionally trying to make things easier for our opponents, like the 'Skins want to make those ho-hum games more interesting or something.

Of course, that's a ridiculous assumption to make, but I can't for the life of me understand why we let our weaker opponents off the hook year after year, coach after coach.

[Thinking Skins]

I get what you're saying but it still stings the way this team always manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Like Lavar said last week, I'd much rather win and have some things to work on than lose but have a moral victory. I'm a lot more confident in RG3 and the future of our offense now, but what does that mean? I mean last week I was confident in our defense and look where that got us. Truth is that if we're afraid to blitz because our secondary is too weak, then we're going to be abused all year.

[steve09ru]

I think everyone was too high on the win against the Saints, but the Saints do not look to be that good this year - they were handled fairly easily against the Panthers. Our defensive gameplan was aweful and RG3 has zero time to throw the ball

[redskindan07]

The Morgan play definitely did not lose the game. You have to look at the other side of the ball

[Skinz4Life12]

spot on. O-Line and secondary need to be addressed over the coming years

[Bang]

Morgan didn't lose the game.. he made a very bad decision based on a day full of frustration with the officials not controlling the game, and a Rams team that was playing dirty.

Still, no excuse. He has to keep his head

But this is a case of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

~Bang

[HailToTheRedskins14]

I have been critical of the D too.

But think about it, the D had a touchdown and a pick in the endzone, and a forced fumble in crunch time that set us up with about 3:30 left in the game at around midfield.

Sure, they were frustrating, but a 14 point swing from your defense should win a game. I think this was a perfect storm with a lot of the little things hurting us in a big way in the end.

[RVAbrendan]

I think this was a perfect storm with a lot of the little things hurting us in a big way in the end.

This sounds like par for the course for the Redskins. Luckily, I do see light at the end of the tunnel.

[KingGibbs]

I laughed at the notion that the defense played well against the Saints last week so the play of the defense this week was no surprise to me.

[pjfootballer]

great post..agree with everything. 8-8 is very much a possibility. Also the rams played a very good game

No they didn't. They turned the ball over 3 times to our 1. They only committed 3 less penalties and should have had a ton more. They were sacked 2 times to our 1. They scored 24 offensive points to our 28.

They won because their gameplan was to bully us. And it worked. They were not the better team, not a better team today and will not be a better team this season. I know that sounds bitter, but damn, they did not play a good game.

[justice98]

Great post. I was disappointed with Trent Williams today. He played poorly and is the best OL we have. The secondary is a mess. Expect Green to have a monster game next week.

He didn't look nearly as agile as he normally does. He looked a step slow against those faster rushers, quite frankly.

---------- Post added September-17th-2012 at 10:16 AM ----------

The Morgan play definitely did not lose the game. You have to look at the other side of the ball

But don't be the last guy to screw up, you'll get the blame.