What a disgrace.  Redskins were showing so much promise in all these training camps then went up to Baltimore and laid a big fat egg.  Where do I even begin? Starting offense and defense both looked like white dog crap.  Special teams need some work (as usual).  Rookies were meh. Let’s dive into the first few drives by the starters.

Opening Drive Offense:

Play one was bad. Cousins play-actions and misses Pryor over the middle. Pryor gets his hands on it but can’t hold on. However, play two really set the tone for the rest of the day.

Here’s a simple fullback lead dive you learn in little league. Right off the bat you can see that Trent Williams (#71) is already beat. Scheriff is getting his butt kicked at RG and Lavou/ Long can’t move the NT.  #55 blows up the whole run and its a loss of a yard.

This play was particularly sad because Niles Paul got to the linebacker and locked him up. If Trent gets a better block here, Kelley is off to the safeties.

Next play – sacked lunch.

Gruden dials up the “Four Verts/ Everyone Go”, aka everyone’s going deep. Long and Scheriff are the apparent weak links on the offensive line. Right as Kirk hits his drop back, Long is already falling over and Scheriff is on skates.  For some reason, Kirk has no hot routes on this play.  His only option is to try and dodge the onslaught. The pocket collapses and he has no where to go.

PUNT.

 

Opening Drive Defense:

First off – crappy punt.  Not even our punter could get his act together for this one. Defense got a three and out but only by the skin of their teeth. Ravens first play was luckily a dropped pass.  Second was an end around that looked to have a lot of space.

Defense is playing man to man here. Kerrigan diagnoses the play but is somewhat in no mans land here trying to get up field.  He does enough to get the back off track. Compton (#51) still hasn’t even noticed it’s an end around and is staring in the backfield flat footed. Mason Foster does a good job of closing down and making the play. Otherwise this is an easy 1st down or more.

Third play is another man to man look where Fuller (#29) gets beat off the line and leaves the slot WR wide open. Luckily for Fuller, Mallet overthrows him.

2nd Drive Offense:

Skins offense trots out one more time this time backed up at the 1 yard line.  They start with an easy zone read left that Kelley does a good job of pushing ahead and getting 3 yards in a cloud of dust.

Finally, something positive! Next play, play action pass that gets blown up by a blitz. Cousins does a good job of getting it to his check down Kelley for a gain of 6.  Now for the 3rd and 1 debacle.

Appears to be a inside zone right towards the right guard. There is a clear miscommunication between Mosses (#76) and Davis (#86) on who should block the DT #96 who proceeds to fly into the backfield UNTOUCHED and blow up Kelley as soon as he gets the ball for a 5 yard loss.

These kind of plays give me nightmares of last year. The Redskins red zone, 3rd and short/ 4th and 1 woes all stem from this ineptitude to run the ball when the defense knows you’re going to. Also, it’s good to note here that Scheriff gets beat AGAIN! He looks like a shell of his Pro-Bowl self from last year.

This play was doomed from the start and capped off the starters afternoon with a -1 net yards total. Fantastic.

2nd Drive Defense:

Ravens get good field position (again) and look to start pounding the ball. However, the defense did well.  Rookie OLB Ryan Anderson (#52) made a good couple of run stuffs in his first outing.  Here he is on the 2nd play blowing up a counter tray look that looked to have some space.

Anderson diagnoses the play and takes on not one, but two pulling guards to expose the RB. This play was exactly why the skins selected him in the second round. Worth noting that Zack Brown #53 did a great job of reading the play and getting through traffic to get the RB in the backfield (as well as beating strong side LB Compton #51 to the play).

The final play was an incompletion over the middle that was close to being picked. Another 3 and out for the defense.

That would be all she wrote for the first team players. From here the backups took over. Here are some standouts.

Studs/ Duds:

Dud: Samaje Perine #32

Our first look at rookie RB Samaje Perine was not great. Matter of fact, he was a disaster. His first run he misses a clear hole off tackle and gets stuffed at the line of scrimmage.

Perine gets another chance on a 4th and 1. Its a clear power/ gut up the middle but Perine stutter steps looking for a hole and almost gets stuffed in the backfield.

Not the kind of run you want to see from a power back. You cannot stutter step on 4th in 1 in the NFL. Redskins get a good surge off the line but Ravens #51 comes free off the edge and catches Perine in the backfield before he can hit the hole.  He seemed to clearly be behind the first down marker but the refs gave it to him anyways.

He did have runs like this a Oklahoma that he broke into big gains but he will need to make quicker decisions here in the future. That play, unfortunately, would be the ‘highlight’ of his day. Next series out, he did this:

This is the kind of fumble that would get you cut if you were an undrafted free agent. For starters, he has the ball in the wrong arm. My guess is he was shifting it as he took the handoff which is a cardinal sin.  The pulling guard is late getting to his man and Perine had the awareness to juke him as he took the handoff. However, you have to secure the ball first. This cannot happen at this level. Thankfully he was able to hop on it.

He followed this up with a dropped check down pass that earned him a seat on the bench for the rest of the half. His pass blocking was downright dreadful on that series as well.

He was able to settle down a bit in the second half against lesser opponents. He had a few nice gains and squared up a blitzing linebacker in pass pro. He’ll need to bring that kind of play next week or his 3rd team spot is in jeopardy.

Grade: D-

Stud: Zack Brown #53

Newly acquired ILB Zack Brown had a good game. He looks far and away the best ILB on the roster and is going to be an asset in the run game. And he’s not to shabby in pass pro either.

No reason for him to be running with the twos anymore.

Grade: B+

Stud: Jonathan Allen #95

Welcome to the league Jon Allen! Allen didn’t get very much play time but looked like the top 5 talent he was supposed to be. His first sack wasn’t for much of a loss but was the kind of hustle play you look for in a top talent.

The Ravens left tackle was no match for Allen and the QB wasn’t fast enough to get away. Allen would follow that with 3 more QB hurries in his short work. He, like Brown, needs to be working with the ones from now on.

Grade: B+

Stud: Nico Marley ILB #46

Marley gets the game ball this week.  The 5’8″ linebacker stands out because of his lack of size but makes up for it with his tenaciousness. He clearly has a nose for the football and some solid instincts to boot. If he didn’t make the tackle, he was buzzing by or piling on  Here is his sack.

Marley times up the blitz on the snap count that swim moves the foot taller guard and immediately penetrates the back field. The QB hadn’t even finished his drop before he was flushed out by Marley. This truly was the play of the day.  The undrafted FA finished the day with 4 tackles and a sack.  Not bad at all.

Grade: B

Dud: Kendall Fuller #29

One of my “ones to watch” this week in the preview did little to excite.  He blew his coverage on the first drive and was bailed out by a bad pass. After that, he held his own in the run game. Unfortunately I don’t have access to a wide enough view of the DBs in my film. Yet, his mistake against a backup slot receiver is something to be concerned about.  Fuller looked elusive in the punt return game however. Will be interesting to see how he fares the next few there.

Grade: D+

Dud: Matt Ioannidis #98

Ioannidis has been receiving rave reviews this offseason and he certainly looks the part out on the field. However, he hardly made an impact and seems to be a one-trick pony when it comes to pass-rushing. It’s either bull-rush or run-set. He held his ground well against the interior of the ravens offensive line but that’s about it. They may be grooming him to take the nose tackle position soon.

Grade: C-

Dud: Colt McCoy #12

McCoy looked about as bad as ever.  Here is his day in summed up in one picture:

Who the hell was he throwing to? The line was doing him no favors but the pick he threw at the end of the first half is a nice reminder of life without Kirk Cousins.

Grade: F

Dud: Rookie Receivers?

What rookie receivers, right? Robert Davis #19 caught one pass for 31 yards. James Quick caught 3 balls for 20 yards toward the end of the game. Everyone else, crickets. Matt Hazel (newbie, not a rookie I know) had one chance over the middle that was overthrown by McCoy. Its hard for me to be critical of the WRs since the QB play was so poor but this was a golden opportunity squandered for these bubble players.

Grade: Incomplete

TEAM GRADES:

Offense: D

Defense: C+

Special Teams: D

Next Week:

The Redskins take on Green Bay this Saturday at Fedex. Hopefully this lousy opener will be a wake up call to everyone.

Injuries:

Trent Murphy: ACL- Out for Season

Josh Docston: Hamstring – Day to Day

Jamison Crowder: Hamstring – Full Participation

Fabian Moreau: Shoulder – Full Participation

Jordan Reed: Toe – Day to Day