Redskins-Buccaneers: 4 Keys To The Game

[ExtremeSkins Staff]

Redskins.com’s Andrew Walker breaks down the key players and matchups to keep an eye on during Sunday’s Redskins-Buccaneers 2014 Week 11 showdown at FedExField.

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[TheyAreBack]

The keys to the Redskins winning is to drop the drama and losers.

I am disappointed in this year's team, like most of the others over the past 20 years, and as a result a deservedly negative fan.

Disappointments this year - Gruden, Cousins, D, and RG3.

[Acworth skins fan]

Wow nothing but crickets in here, no offence TAB.

Key to this game is defence defence defence and give the ball to the Butler.

TAB: you have every right to be disgruntled with this team of the last 20 years as we all do.

I havent seen any reason to think that they will get better this year but I, as i'm sure that most of us , will still be routing for them.

I believe that Gruden needs more time and also needs Snyder and Allen to just get out of the way and let him coach. But also believe that he needs to give up the play calling. One more thing, hopefully Haslet will be looking for imployment in the coming months. As always jmo.

HTTR

[manchild157]

I understands people's disappointment/frustration with this yeam. I remain a big fan of Jay Gruden and his straight talk. I'm hugely disappointed in Griffin and Haslett. I seriously think that Gruden is going to replace Haslett after this year. His main thing about keeping was 2 things- he had head coach experience which could help indoctrinate him as a rookie head coach and that Shanahan had tied his hands regarding the defense. Well, so much for unleashing the wrath of Haslett's defense and Gruden can manage being a head coach without him next year, doesn't need anyone to hold his hand. I love it that he's not 'spinner' of excuses, he gets pissed when they lose and takes his share of the fault, he's a man about it. I'm always reading people comment about Lauvao and wanting to get rid of him but he's going to be good when we start a power blocking oline scheme, he will change people's minds.

[goskins10]

The keys to the Redskins winning is to drop the drama and losers.

I am disappointed in this year's team, like most of the others over the past 20 years, and as a result a deservedly negative fan.

Disappointments this year - Gruden, Cousins, D, and RG3.

 

I am totally with you in terms of being frustrated. Most of on here right now are with 5 to 15 yrs of each other so we lived through the good years and now have suffered through the entire lull.

 

I am a little surprised about is your list of who you are disappointed in.

 

--> I get the D, but that should not be a surprise, just confirmation of all our earlier concerns that Jim Haslett needed to go.

 

--> Cousins - I kind can see that one. I believe most of us felt like he was a  solid NFL starting QB when he was drafted and maybe even going into last year. But at least to me it was clear who he was the last 3 gms last year. Yea, the team had quit, but that does not make you throw picks. I was just as happy as anyone that he played well against Jacksonville, but I was very persistent that he played out of his mind and even pointed out that his 2nd half was  actually pretty bad after his 12-12 start.

 

--> This is where I start to get a little puzzled. Gruden has had exactly 9 games. Yea, we want him to run more. But he has actually started doing that, I think he handled the RGIII injury like a true HC. He  has been willing to be critical of himself, the team, and even individual players, but has done so with professionalism. I like his leadership and am willingto give him some time to work into this job.

 

--> RGIII  - I am really confused about this one. Are you angry at him for being injured? He has actually played pretty well. Even the media that likes to trash him has admitted as such. Colt McCoy beat dallast, But he could only score 17 regulation points against a not very good Def. Meanwhile the Def  out of no where held dallast to 17 regulation pts. And that is a very good off. RGIII came in and scored 26 against the #8 Def in the league. However the D lets a rookie QB on a bad Off score 4 Tds in the last 5 drives. That loss was on the D, period. He was playing very well against Jacksonville. I was at the game. Against Houston he threw for almost 300 yds with a 78% comp %!  STs and some really bad mistakes (Niles Paul fumble, and Licht stepping on RGIIIs foot) kept us to6 and let Houston escape with a win. He has all but stopped talking to the media.

 

I am really not trying to be an ass, I am really interested in why you are disappointing in him. Help me out here.

[manchild157]

Griffin has been a huge disappointment to me . 0-2 against teams this year. He hasn't improved in reading receivers past the intended target. Holds the ball waiting for receivers to come open instead of throwing it to where they will be. Still too quick to bail on the pocket. He dislocated his ankle because he bailed on the pocket instead of throwing it away, he contorts his body and comes down awkwardly making him miss a bunch of games(yeah, I blame him for getting hurt, he did it to himself). His branding and commercialism has worn out, mugs for the cameras too much in pregame talks, he has or at least should have convinced fans that he is too delicate and fragile to play the position as he is trying to do. What's he won? 3 games in 15 over the last 2 years? That's horrible!

[TheyAreBack]

@go -

I like Gruden's talk to the fans. I am disappointed with his emphasis and the play calling part - him doing it. The head coach needs to emphasize mistake free football and hold people accountable, and that is not what I have seen. He also reminds me of the hope I had for Zorn, maybe that is my problem.

 

RG3's inability to find the quick openers that permit the development of a short passing game that coupled with a running game eats up the clock is my problem with him. In the first year he was able to win with speed and surprise, he still has some of the speed but the surprise part is gone. He needs to become a NFL QB and develop the part of the game that will make him a winner, short passing game.He also needs to be a scrambler like Fran Tarkenton and WIlson - use his speed to get time but always get down 2 yards before he gets hit, because no one wants a QB that cannot play a full season.

 

The record of 0-2 for RG3 and the 2-0 for McCoy is a disappointment for both Gruden (playing RG3) and RG3 winning. McCoy football smarts and skills remind me of Brees, RG3 is smart but doesn't seem to be progressing correctly - I will let you and Dorrell work on the why.

 

Don't worry about me, I have lost hope for this year, but as all Redskins fans appear to keep doing will be back next year with a new set of hopes.

[603skinsfan]

Great analysis Gentleman. When we hired Gruden I admit I was upset. Our offense was our strength and has been for 4 years. I felt we needed a defensive minded coach to work on our biggest weakness DEFENSE. That didn't happen. Although I think some of Gruden's play calls are suspect at times he has been a good addition to the team. Our offense is still our strength but my fears at the beginning of the year have come to life our defense sucks. I'm not sure what they thought would change, playing Meriweather again and signing a safety who is well past his prime would do for us. As far as RGIII goes I agree with both sides of this equation. He still can't find his 3rd option or his check down receiver. He does hold on to the ball to long and his hits are extremely violent. However he has a pretty good completion percentage and if he can learn to read defenses then I can't imagine how good he can be. He does need to be smarter with the slide because a QB that can't play is no good to any team. I do like that he is making high percentage throws though which was one of the things I thought he needed to work on. THE DEFENSE IS AT FAULT FOR THE LOSS TO THE VIKINGS not RGIII. His throw at the end sucked bad but when your defense looks like it couldn't stop a peewee team the fault needs to be shifted a little. GO SKINS!

[manchild157]

Gruden has tailored the passing game for Griffin...short quick passes and hopefully the run after catch will get us yards. Gruden is smart, because of Griffin's inability to hit receivers on check downs he took it away from Griffin for the most part. The long ball that Griffin has thrown wasn't 3rd or 4th option, I believe it was called by the oc. One of Griffin's sack against the Vikes when he was bent over backwards like a pretzel gave me the realization that him as our qb isn't going to work, he will get seriously hurt again, possibly this year, and then where are we? So far, it has shown that it was a huge mistake that Snyder made to give up so many picks for this guy. It coupled with Snyder dumping salaries during the uncapped year has set this franchise back a long time. No wonder we are pathetic, our owner is a moron who has no business in the business of football matters except to write the checks. I don't care if people say''oh but no one cares about winning more that Dandy Snyder''. If he cared he would stay out of it. He's the near same person as Jerry Jones but at least Jerruh breaks even and this year is winning.

[manchild157]

Yeah, I too am bitter towards the team and ownership.

[goskins10]

I am sorry, but I just have to respectfully disagree about RGIII. He is indeed getting through his reads. But he is not asked to too much and that is not a bad thing. Gruden is starting to shape his Off around what RGIII does best, which is what a good coach should do.

 

As for the 2-0 vs.  0-2 records is way too simplified. Lets look at their two games:

 

RGIII

1. Houston - He threw for almost 300 yds  with a 78% comp%. Yes. many were very short passes, but that was the game plan. Houston has a great pass rush. The idea was for WRs to get some separation and YAC. The Houston secondary played really well. Also, Niles Paul fumbled a sure TD, Kory L stepped on RGIIIs foot causing a fumble and the STs gave up a punt return for TD. IMO RGIII played well enough for us to win but the rest of the team let him down.

 

2. Minnesota - Again he threw for a high comp % and good yards. He made basically two mistakes - the Int (just a bad pass) and the short arm late in the 4th. But realize he was playing against the 4th ranked pass Def and i believe 8th overall and led the team to 26 pts, scoring on 5 of 10 drives. Again, he played well enough to win the game.

 

Colt McCoy

1. Tenn - He came in at the half and had a tremendous game. There is no other way to describe it. He had the same day as Cousins had against Jacksonville. But remember TN is not a very good ball team, but OK he played great.

 

2. Dallast - He beat our arch rival. However lets look at the data. He scored only 17 pts while our pathetic D decided to actually play  and keep the dallast Off to 17 pts.

 

For RGIII there was great improvement from Houston to Minn. For Colt, he went the other way. Remember Cousins started off nice. Once people got some film on him. they confused him badly. He looked progressively worse as the games went on. Colt has a lifetime passer rating of 73. I am certain he would settle back to that rating.

 

As for injury, remember that RGIII was not injured last year. Until this freak ankle injury, he had missed exactly 1 gm due to injury.

 

I will agree that if he gets any kind of injury the rest of the year then it's time to move on. I am of the mind that I want to see how he finishes the year (if he does) before making any kind of decision about him. Maybe I am just too optimistic.

 

 

Either way - HTTR!! 

[manchild157]

I want Griffin to succeed as much as the next fan, not because I like him but because his failure will set the team back for more years to come. Gruden shaped the offense for Cousins and McCoy as well as Griffin. Pass completion percentage wise Griffin has been pretty good but there was 8 sacks in the 2 games he's played. What the sacks does is gives the other team good position and takes the life out of our team. It's not all the oline, our second and third string qbs didn't get plowed under like Griffin has and now that he is noticibly slower than 2012 he's not running away from anyone. Even in the Texans game their dline was running him down. I hope he gets on a roll, not looking for a 7 game win streak like some but just show us you are making progress. 2012 Griffin got hurt 3 times against Atlanta, Baltimore, and Seattle, then started a campaign ''all in for game 1'' or whatever and Snyder put the pressure on Shanahan to play him. 2013 was a dumpster fire and Griffin shouldn't have played till mid-season but part of his ''branding'' it was more about him than the team. I get a little caustic when I haven't posted anything in a while..haha! HTTR!!!

[TheyAreBack]

@go

I WAY overrate QB winning versus all other stats and potential - the Drew Brees thing. However, that is a 100% a personal thing about the QB finding a way to win and I do appreciate the opinions of others.

 

With the Redskins of the past 20 years my rating system is not a fun thing. Anyway, I hope all have a good weekend and we win a game giving us a little hope once again.

 

@man

That caustic thing is going around big time, I have found myself getting taken in.

[goskins10]

@ manchild - I totally agree RGIII should not have been started until after the bye last year, but that's the HCs call, period. You can say he lobbied to get in the game, but the HC makes the call. And MS led with an iron fist. He made that call. I just can't hold it against a 23 Y/O kid who just wants to play. I promise you, if MS didn't want to play him, RGIII would not have played.

 

 

@ TAB - Being a Purdue grad, I was actually hoping Joe Gibbs would bring him here from San Diego. I had season tickets and watched Bree's live fro 4 yrs. he is great to watch.

 

I actually have a picture of my son getting Drew's autograph on a football. Right after he graduated he came to a local bank opening and signed autographs.

[Canadianfanforlife]

HAIL GOSKINS10!

 

  Gruden is starting to shape his Off around what RGIII does best, which is what a good coach should do.

 

 

 

Forgive me, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, but remind me what exactly RG3 does best. Once upon a time I thought I knew but now I'm not so sure. I thought his best skill set was running but that got his ACL & LCL torn + it got his ankle dislocated. Then I thought he was going to be a good pocket passer but all I see is him holding onto the ball WAY too long & IMO making the wrong decisions more times than not . Now....I just don't know what he does best. To me...so far...he's an average QB AT BEST.

 

HTTR!!!

[manchild157]

@Goskins and TAB-

 

                          I so wanted the Redskins to sign Brees as a free agent when he hurt his shoulder with the Chargers. I kept telling my Redskin friends that would be a great move even if we had to wait a year for him to rehab that shoulder. Have to think it could have solidified our qb situation for years.

                          It's not so much that Griffin was campaigning to play last year but more about Stinking Snyder making Shanahan play him for marketing gains.

[TheyAreBack]

@man & go - I live in the Austin Westlake area and watched Drew play at Westlake, he won a 5A state championship and that is big thing in Texas, he finds ways to win. The same high school that Drew went to also graduated Nick Foles of the Eagles and they have a Sophomore QB this year that is in front of those 2 with stats.

I also go to the UT games and watched McCoy find a way to win for 4 years. I was disappointed when he was at Cleveland, but that was a terrible team and he had no way to win.

It is the QB finding a way to win that intrigues me. I also like winning, the 1st Gibbs era was fun and he had QBs that found a way to win. Ever since, not so much.

 

In any case, you folks have a great weekend.

I am out of likes so everybody give their self one for me.

[Canadianfanforlife]

I gotta tell you fellas that Brees wouldn't have done a F'ing thing here. Not behind our sieve of a O-line & the $hitty coaching that we've had the displeasure of witnessing. Not to mention that at the time we didn't have much of a running game to speak of. The D was the strength of the team back then. The almighty himself would've gotten killed playing QB for the Washington Redskins.

 

HTTR!!!

[TheyAreBack]

@Canada - I think you may have a bit of that caustic thing that man and myself caught. Have a great weekend.

[goskins10]

HAIL GOSKINS10!

 

 

Forgive me, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, but remind me what exactly RG3 does best. Once upon a time I thought I knew but now I'm not so sure. I thought his best skill set was running but that got his ACL & LCL torn + it got his ankle dislocated. Then I thought he was going to be a good pocket passer but all I see is him holding onto the ball WAY too long & IMO making the wrong decisions more times than not . Now....I just don't know what he does best. To me...so far...he's an average QB AT BEST.

 

HTTR!!!

 

 

I had a response written with data and facts, but I have shown them many times before so I am not going to waste my or anyone elses time anymore. You guys have made it very clear, you don't like RGIII. No matter what he does unless it turns into a win, the entire thing is his fault, despite all the facts and data in the world showing he is playing at a pretty high level. And even if he wins, one bad play, and it's "See I told you he sucks, we are winning despite him."

 

His only crime is playing too well in 2012. No one could live back up to that.

 

I will say one thing because it's a major pet peeve. He has yet to get injured running the ball from a called run play. Each time has been from a broken pass play. And the ankle was while was in the act of passing to keep a play alive. The kid gives 100% every play and we want to **** and moan about him.

 

So peace out. Hate the guy all you want. I am done for a while. I clearly need a break.

[TheyAreBack]

@go - I think you have a little of that caustic thing as well.

I want RG3 to win and was really happy when we got him and had great hopes for him. However, he is in his 3rd year and does have some problems with holding the ball too long and getting injured. I think he can fix his problems, but would prefer he do it in the pre-season.

In any case, you have a great weekend and hopefully RG3 will win big time this weekend and that caustic thing will go away from all of us.

[manchild157]

Goskins, we aren't attacking you and clearly you will take up for him as long as the stats are good, but stats are only part of it and you seem to be on an island defending him. Peace out, take a little break if you need it, I've done the same thing.

[Canadianfanforlife]

HAIL GOSKINS10!

 

You guys have made it very clear, you don't like RGIII. No matter what he does unless it turns into a win, the entire thing is his fault, despite all the facts and data in the world showing he is playing at a pretty high level. 

 

 

 

To begin with I NEVER said I disliked him, but I do expect A LOT more from him. We mortgaged our immediate future to draft him & he has yet to live up to expectations.

 

I know what he's done statistically. I'm a stats guy. But stats don't mean Jack $hit if we have more L's than W's. He was drafted to win & we're not winning. Period. He's the face of the franchise. He knows he's the face of the franchise so he gets the fame when we win & get's the blame when we lose. Plain & simple.

 

HTTR!!!   

[Johns Bass]

How about Keys 4 the rest of the season?

 

Score a few more points a game - give up a few less. Duh...

 

Skins aren't a team that are going to run up the scoreboard and there are a few teams that are near the top in scoring who are not doing so well in the record department - so not piling on a ton of points really is OK provided -

you get a little help from your defense holding their foot down on the opponents throat.

 

How many points a game from each really aren't many. 

 

If you compare them against Az (not an offensive machine) - the Cards score about 3 points a game (25) more than the Redskins (22). And that's pretty much the difference between a team scoring in the bottom half of the league versus one in the upper third. 

 

On the other hand, Skins give up 25 a game while Arizona only allows 19. The Redskins don't have to match that number but about 3 fewer points a game gets them out of the bottom 10 and closer to the upper third. While scoring a lot of points doesn't always translate into success, giving up fewer points does.

 

Just taking baby steps here - 3 points improvement from each group. Would it have made a huge leap record wise so far this year? Not really - maybe would only be worth 2 more wins so far. But 5-4 versus 3-6 sure would feel a whole lot better going into the last 7 games.

 

 

[hailyeah1]

keys to the game artices are getting to be a joke just win the game by any means possible .plain and simple!!!!