Eagles Redskins Post Game Assessments

[RyansRangers]

7 minutes ago, campbellcooleyconnection said:

Junior Gallette BLOWS!!!!!!

This is true!

[Dissident2]

The more I think about Gruden's decision-making last night, the angrier I get. Refusing to run on 2nd and 2 and various 3rd and 1 plays was bad enough, but what I absolutely couldn't believe was taking the knee before the half with 22 seconds and 2 timeouts in your pocket. Absolutely GUTLESS. That was completely conceding when there were legitimate possibilities to take some of the momentum back. At the very least, try something simple and see if you you can break some big yards. Call timeout, take another shot and see if you can get into FG range. The odds are against you, sure, but it's not like throwing a Hail Mary from your own 30 yard line. The fact that he completely gave up there was so disheartening. 

 

And does this team ever practice the hurry-up? Because they suck at it. 

[50yrSKINSfan]

Eagle backups on their O line and no holding calls on those Wentz scrambles? Common man!

[Gregpeck99]

1 hour ago, Dissident2 said:

 

 

So yeah, we should have more of an identity by now. A lot of that is on our coach, but a lot of that is also on our clown-show front office who seems to have no understanding or concept of how to nurture the intangibles that build strong teams. 

Yup ... but most of it is on our QB!

[skinfan2k]

This team is 3-3 and exactly what I thought they would be after 6 games.  This team will be 4-4 in 2 weeks.  Losing a top 3 corner and a top 5 DL will hurt anyone. 

[dyst]

If Pryor and Doctson suck, why are we not starting Grant and Quick or some other random in there. Could those other guys be that much worse?

[CTskin]

The massive overreaction on this board is just disappointing. Most of us knew we were in a rough place and that this would be a tough one to pull off, so I really can't comprehend why everyone's calling for the heads of Gruden, Cousins, Manusky, etc. Wake up amigos, the Eagles are the best team in football right now. Just threw up in my mouth a bit. Our three losses have come against the best teams in football and now we want to fire everyone for losing to them? Effing relax. We're not too special at the moment, but this certainly doesn't disqualify us from the opportunity to improve, get healthy, and make a playoff run.

 

-The play of the game was Wentz David Blaining the sack where he was under a pile of 7 men. Would have been 3rd and forever, a likely punt, but instead they turned that drive into a TD.

-Nothing worse for us than receiving the opening kickoff. Our 2 minute drill offense and defense is so disturbingly bad that it's become our normal routine to give the opposition the ball at the end of the first half, let them score, and then let them score again on their opening drive of the 2nd half. We've ruined, or almost ruined, every single game this year using that recipe. 10-10 became 24-10 before our offense could touch the ball.

-More injuries. Good grief. Really would have liked to see this game with Norman, Allen, Scherff and Moses.

-Kerrigan got held on just about every play, he owned Lane Johnson, but the refs decided that they wouldn't call penalties on the Eagles for the final 57 minutes of the game. 

-The Eagles are the better team right now. We knew this before the game and now it's not debatable. All we can do is rebound, improve, and hope to get another shot at them in the playoffs when things may be different.

 

[RyansRangers]

20 minutes ago, CTskin said:

The massive overreaction on this board is just disappointing. Most of us knew we were in a rough place and that this would be a tough one to pull off, so I really can't comprehend why everyone's calling for the heads of Gruden, Cousins, Manusky, etc. Wake up amigos, the Eagles are the best team in football right now. Just threw up in my mouth a bit. Our three losses have come against the best teams in football and now we want to fire everyone for losing to them? Effing relax. We're not too special at the moment, but this certainly doesn't disqualify us from the opportunity to improve, get healthy, and make a playoff run.

 

-The play of the game was Wentz David Blaining the sack where he was under a pile of 7 men. Would have been 3rd and forever, a likely punt, but instead they turned that drive into a TD.

-Nothing worse for us than receiving the opening kickoff. Our 2 minute drill offense and defense is so disturbingly bad that it's become our normal routine to give the opposition the ball at the end of the first half, let them score, and then let them score again on their opening drive of the 2nd half. We've ruined, or almost ruined, every single game this year using that recipe. 10-10 became 24-10 before our offense could touch the ball.

-More injuries. Good grief. Really would have liked to see this game with Norman, Allen, Scherff and Moses.

-Kerrigan got held on just about every play, he owned Lane Johnson, but the refs decided that they wouldn't call penalties on the Eagles for the final 57 minutes of the game. 

-The Eagles are the better team right now. We knew this before the game and now it's not debatable. All we can do is rebound, improve, and hope to get another shot at them in the playoffs when things may be different.

 

However........ The game was never out if reach and the game was winnable. But the SAME MISTAKES over and over and over haunt this team.. horrible redzone performance, fumble pint returns, indecisive QB play, horrible playcalling.  If we had just gotten flat beaten it's fine but watching a team kill itself is brutal

[London Kev]

A few ramblings in no particular order.

 

Jordan Reed isn't a TE, he's a (very good) big receiver. He can't/won't block, so why risk injury to him and others by lining him up next to a tackle and asking him to do so?

 

Gruden can be so frustrating, it's like he's trying to be ultra clever and ends up out-thinking himself;

Let's not run on third and short because that's what they'll expect us to do!

Let's not put our number 1 and 2 receivers on the field at the same time, 'cos everyone does that!

Hey, we've got a lead, let's play really conservatively, they won't expect that!

 

Breeland has got his confidence back. He makes a few stupid penalties (as does Norman), but he is an excellent corner when his head is right.

 

It's time for a change at Punt returner.

 

Deuce Gruden has got big arms and is a power lifting champion??? I did not know that, it's never been mentioned before.

 

Why can't Cousins make more pre-snap reads. He's an intelligent guy who obviously knows the game, but he often seems to just run the play even though it's doomed to fail. And what's up with the hurry up offense, has he ever got everyone up to the line quickly to catch the opponent out of position or with 12 men on the field?

I like Kirk and think that he's the best QB we've had for ages, but he seems so mechanical sometimes. He seems unable to improvise or go off-script consistently. I'm not saying that he never does it, he just doesn't do it enough.

 

Also,What's happened to the deep ball. It's like we tried it on the first play of the season, it didn't work so we thought **** that, DJax has gone so we ain't doing that again. Maybe a slight exaggeration but there sure haven't been many.

 

Injuries suck. Wentz sucks. **** the cowboys, HTTR.

[Unbias]

7 hours ago, NoCalMike said:

It's funny because we are so down on our WRs and rightfully so, but watching the game tonight, the Eagles managed to put up 34 points with what....1 big catch by a WR?  Their WRs are mediocre too.  Alshon Jeffery seems to be a shell of his former self. 

 

I can't really point any blame at the defense. They contained the Eagles for plenty of time to give the offense to put more than 10 points on the board.

 

For me, I think the game swung when the 'Skins had 2-3 drives in a row where they ended up in 3rd & 3 and then 3rd & 1 twice, and couldn't convert due to some of the most mind boggling play calling I have witnessed.   It felt like they were handing the game back to Philly.

 

Really, this game didn't feel much different than any other game this season.  The 'Skins come out strong, score early. defense is balling out.  Then suddenly the offense goes into a shell, defense is forced onto the field over and over, tires out......you know the rest.

 

The way this team plays, they are destined for .500 because there is no consistency.  Whether it's the 49ers, Eagles, Rams, etc etc.....the results are the same.  It looked worse against the Eagles because they are obviously a cut above the other teams, but the trends in the game were still the same.  Even the beatdown the Raiders received.  Reading the stats, you'd have though it was some kind of 45-10 sort of game, but the offense really sort of faded in the 2nd half of that game too, it just didn't matter on that night.

 

I forget where I saw this and it could have been an opinion piece, but to my understanding when looking at the All 22 Jeffery has been getting a lot of attention in terns of safety help over the top. There was reference to the years that Ertz and Agholor having was largely due to favorable coverages and Wentz taking what the defense is giving. I'm not saying Jeffery is even good, but teams appear to be giving him some respect and Wentz is just taking what the defense is giving. He only had 2 catches, but of all is targets I always remembered a second defender being over top, so that's consistent with that logic. 

 

IMO the game swing happened at the end of the 2nd period. We went from being up 10-3 to down 10-17 with them getting the ball to start the second half and going down to score a TD it was a 21 point swing within ~10 minutes of game time that really turned the tide. 

 

I think we hammer the offense for getting conservative, but here's what we have to know about Kirk - He's taking what the defense is giving him. The difference between Kirk's 5 yard dump offs and Wentz' big plays is comfort in the pocket. Kirk wants to get the ball out fast and keep things moving. This makes sense especially considering that the Eagles were fairly consistently getting pressure and that Kirk needs to step into his throws to ensure they have velocity on them. Wentz on the other hand just stood in there. Guys were inches away from him and he still had his eyes downfield and he could sling it with his arm alone. That's just not normal for most QBs, let alone some guy almost half way through his second season. Wentz also took some bad sacks, but the difference I see is that he took them trying to hold out and make a big play. At least there's a reward component to taking on that type of risk. 

 

What I fear is that teams have somewhat figured out Gruden/Cousins. If they always give up that quick read knowing Cousins will take it then come up and tackle trying to limit the gain to 4-5 yards then you just wait for a drop to happen. When it does the Skins will get in a 3rd down situation you have little fear of getting beat deep, so you can send extra defenders on the blitz.  

[LavarArringtonMachine]

1 hour ago, 50yrSKINSfan said:

Eagle backups on their O line and no holding calls on those Wentz scrambles? Common man!

 

We got away with holding a couple times that I've seen with my own eyes, it happens.  Everybody holds at times.  Let's toss the excuses out the window.

[madden lot]

We must absolutely beat the hated cowboys ?

[PotomacGator]

The failures on 3rd and short are inexcusable because they were ****ty play-calls. Had we not failed on the one near the end of the first half, Philly probably doesn’t have the time to go down for a TD. And if we had converted we could have been the ones to score before the half ends.

 

Anyway, bottom line is we played a good team and got spanked in the second half.

[Zazzaro703]

Are people serious in here? Not running on those short downs didn't mean anything, we all know Rob Kelley would have gotten destroyed for -2 yards and we wouldn't have converted. Our WRs and TEs can't block and our line is crippled as well. Reed ran a terrible route on that 3 and 1 which was inexcusable, the playcall wasn't the problem. Also, looked like everyone was covered and not getting separation causing Cousins to hold the ball way longer than he likes to. Happened both games. Eagles are the better team right now.

[NoCalMike]

For me the game swung when the 'Skins were up 10-3, driving the ball still on every drive, but couldn't convert three straight 3rd & shorts.  Even very good defenses will tire out, not to mention a squad as banged up as ours relying on young inexperienced players in the secondary.  

Once the offense stalled out, the game was bound to swing, because it's happened in every single game so far this season.

[KDawg]

Beyond the fact Kirk isn’t a closer and sprinkles are for winners...

 

-We didn’t get out of the exclusive man scheme defensively once Philly figured out how to stone wall the rush and it left our DBs covering WAY too long. 

 

-Niles Paul and Jordan Reed are wide receivers. And they both might be in the top 5 receivers on our team: Reed, Grant, Crowder, Doctson, Paul... in that order. Yes. I left Pryor off. 

 

-Vernon Davis is the only TE on the roster that can both block and catch.

 

-Gruden is entirely too safe. We get a lead and he’s deathly afraid of losing it.

 

-Beyond the fact that we flat got beat by a better team who ALSO had injuries, every starting OL on the team except Lauvao missed time yesterday. 

 

-No Allen and the pass rush from inside wasn’t very productive aside for Ioannidis straight up bullying people when he was in.

 

-Galette is not any better than Trent Murphy right now. Granted he hasn’t played in two years, so it makes sense he’s taking some time, but I never thought he’d be a world beater. On that note: I saw 52 out there last night but the guy has had zero impact. We miss Murphy in a rotation with 94. Significantly. 

 

-Zach Brown is solid. Just okay in coverage but an absolute animal and relentless. Need him back.

 

-Josh Norman. We miss him. More than anyone. He changes the whole dynamic of the football team. 

 

-I said one of the keys was establishing the run. We didn’t. Even when it was working. 

 

-Sorry but I’m going to ask again: Did any of Cousins passes travel more than twenty yards in the air last night? Except for the fourth down throwaway? 

 

-I don’t think Philly is all that much more talented than the Skins. And they dealt wih injuries, too. It came down to Wentz. And he delivered.

[LavarArringtonMachine]

1 minute ago, madden lot said:

We must absolutely beat the hated cowboys ?

 

I have no doubt we will beat Dallas.  The Cowboys offense is playing decent, but I dont fear them.  Their defense is inexperienced, they still have injuries on that side of the ball, they're just pure bad, period.

 

A very important injury that Dallas has that may be the biggest asset to us is the injury to their Kicker Dan Bailey.  He is arguably the best Kicker in the game and he wont be easily replaced.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

1 hour ago, CTskin said:

-The Eagles are the better team right now. We knew this before the game and now it's not debatable. All we can do is rebound, improve, and hope to get another shot at them in the playoffs when things may be different.

 

Hey - it happened in 1990 (they even showed highlights of the game). They whipped us in October/November and we came back and beat them in Philly in the playoffs. I don't know who will be left standing in January or which direction we'll go, but it would be fun to get another shot at them because both games seemed a play or two away from a different outcome. 

[Darrell Green Fan]

3 hours ago, FrFan said:

96 Barnett

 

 

 

I'm not ready to call that a cheap shot, it looked like an INT and he was just trying to make a block. How that was not called a penalty is hard to believe, the back judge was looking right at the play. 

[ILikeBilly]

We can't change "no calls" by the refs, but there were 2 that would have completely flipped the game.  The first was in the 2nd qtr when we failed to convert on 3rd down.  Kirk was hit and ball was almost intercepted.  Brandon was slammed from behind right in front of the ref.  Ref was too busy signalling no INT to notice.  If he makes the call, we get 15 yards and are over mid-field.

 

Second one, was on the non-sack of Wentz where he scrambled for the 1st down.  If a rusher is grabbed around the shoulder pads and tackled as he rushes the QB, it is called holding every time.  So, why don't they call holding when our rusher was tackling Wentz and their lineman grabs our rusher around the neck and shoulder pads and tackles him off of Wentz?  If this is called holding, it goes to 3rd and 29.  We hopefully hold them and have the ball.  can't remember the score at the time, but pretty sure we were tied or winning.

 

Bad calls go both ways, but to me, both of these "fouls" occurred right where the ref should have been looking. 

[Darrell Green Fan]

I didn't notice the hold on the Wentz escape, I'll have to look again. What I did notice is the refs giving an undeserved critical first down on a third down scramble by Kirk that kept a drive that would eventually lead to a TD that cut the lead to 7.  That was as big of a missed call as any we had called against us.  

[Burgold]

1 hour ago, Unbias said:

 

 

 

I think we hammer the offense for getting conservative, but here's what we have to know about Kirk - He's taking what the defense is giving him.

I'm going to take issue with this only because we had other posters who have been to games and said they saw receivers running open and Kirk ignoring them to check down to the easier/safer play. We saw that at least once when the camera caught Doctson running uncovered into the endzone. Luckily, Cousins completed a much tougher throw to Reed so it didn't matter.

 

The question is twofold: Are the receivers not getting open and is Cousins missing them when they do. More importantly, how often does Cousins miss seeing guys who are open? We know both Garcon and Jackson voiced displeasure with him about that, but that's in the nature of a good wide receiver (they always think they're open). Finally, the other question is, has the definition of "open" changed? The advantage of big wide receivers is that they are supposed to be able to win some contested throws and they can jump to get throws the smaller receivers can't.

 

Now, all QBs miss receivers. I remember being in RFK when Rypien threw a first down eight yard pass to Art Monk and the fans erupted in boos because everyone except Ryp saw Sanders with no defender within 20 yards of him for what should have been an easy, easy touchdown.

[Unbias]

Regarding Barnett - His block on Scherff should have been a penalty (block in the back), but I don't think it was a cheap shot. It wasn't like a blind side, decleating type hit (think Baker on Foles). As for Barnett jumping at Scherff's legs I'll have to see the play again. It looks like he was making an inside move and was blocked down into Scherff's knees. Scherff's knee looked more like a hyper extension and it also seemed like Barnett held back a bit. He could have just jumped forward and totally destroyed Scherff's knee. If he was being cheap and wanted to hurt him worse there was ample opportunity on that play to do so.   

[50yrSKINSfan]

1 hour ago, LavarArringtonMachine said:

 

We got away with holding a couple times that I've seen with my own eyes, it happens.  Everybody holds at times.  Let's toss the excuses out the window.

Yes we did get away with a FEW holding calls but on that play where Wentz came out of the pile and ran for 15 yards, instead of a sack, that was a 25 yard turnaround and our LB that was behind Wentz, when he was cornered, got HEADLOCKED to his back! WTF. Add holding to it and the Birds most likely do not score. Big play. R. Karragan was held on every play. Not excuses, it was reality.

[Unbias]

2 minutes ago, Burgold said:

I'm going to take issue with this only because we had other posters who have been to games and said they saw receivers running open and Kirk ignoring them to check down to the easier/safer play. We saw that at least once when the camera caught Doctson running uncovered into the endzone. Luckily, Cousins completed a much tougher throw to Reed so it didn't matter.

 

The question is twofold: Are the receivers not getting open and is Cousins missing them when they do. More importantly, how often does Cousins miss seeing guys who are open? We know both Garcon and Jackson voiced displeasure with him about that, but that's in the nature of a good wide receiver (they always think they're open). Finally, the other question is, has the definition of "open" changed? The advantage of big wide receivers is that they are supposed to be able to win some contested throws and they can jump to get throws the smaller receivers can't.

 

Now, all QBs miss receivers. I remember being in RFK when Rypien threw a first down eight yard pass to Art Monk and the fans erupted in boos because everyone except Ryp saw Sanders with no defender within 20 yards of him for what should have been an easy, easy touchdown.

It's tough. Typically the short pattern running WR will be open before the deep one is. If he's already throwing to the short guy you will never see if the deep guy gets open. 

 

I think the issue is:

 

1 - Kirk doesn't trust his deep WRs to get open (can't blame him)

2 - Kirk doesn't feel he has the time in the pocket (yesterday, can't really blame him for that)

3 - A combination of #1 and #2

 

Why would he pass up on a completion so he potentially get sacked hoping a deep WR (like Pryor) can get open deep? 

 

We might be able to slam the progressions built into the play design, where Kirk is being asked to look short first then deep second. If that's the case it's on Gruden, not Kirk. 

 

Finally you mentioned something that might be significant. Jackson and Garcon would loudly lobby for more looks. That doesn't mean Kirk just does what the WR tells him, but it helps build confidence. Right now Pryor is playing like he's afraid to drop the ball and you can't really expect Doctson to be demanding more looks in what is effectively his rookie season. I'd go one further saying Reed and Crowder, with being banged up, probably are not asking for the ball either. Maybe without anyone campaigning the QB for looks he's defaulting to the 'safe' completions? Just a thought.