Another week, another crappy showing from the first team offense. You hear that? That’s the sound of Jack’s fantasy team comprised solely of redskins receivers bursting into flames. All offseason we heard how wonderful Pryor was and how much of an upgrade he is. In the words of the late great Chris Farley “well la dee freaking da”. Thanks for nothing training camp hypers. Pryor suddenly can’t catch a pass that’s above his head and Cousins can’t seem to hit this giant receiver in the numbers. Oh, and the running game still stinks on ice. Let’s dive in.
Takeaways & Grades:
The running game: Christ where do I even begin with this turd of a performance. How about Rob Kelleys stat line of 9 attempts for 9 yards. Longest rush was for 4 yards (granted it was on a 3rd and short good for you offense!). Wrote last week about seeing whether or not the skins can run when the other teams knows it and they have proven, in fact, no they absolutely cannot run the football when the other team knows they are running the football. Honestly, I don’t blame Kelley nearly as much as the o-line. The line was exposed again for poor run blocking technique and Kelley was met in the backfield constantly. Don’t even get my started on the tight ends run blocking. Might as well just run the ball out of four wide instead of letting Vernon Davis block again. This play on the redskins 4th drive of the game, against the Packers 2nd teamers.
Just an unbelievable missed block here. Literally, the run is coming your way and you miss the guy who is at the point of attack. Nyles Paul appears to be signaling to Davis that he needed to pick up #24 as #24 stuffs Kelley for a 3 yard loss. This is a simple zone read left but for some reason Davis decides to go right leaving a huge hole for #24 to squirt through untouched. The breakdown appears to be caused by the Packers DE shifting down a gap right as the ball was snapped causing Davis to pick him up and drive him to the right. Davis has been in the league for too long to be making these kind of mistakes. Again, this is against the Packers 2nd team defenders. Later on that drive our first team o-line couldn’t move the Packers 2nd team d line on a fourth and 1. You might as well just forget about running the ball this season. Get ready for a long year of Gruden “testing” the offensive line on 3rd/ 4th and shorts in the 1st half then abandoning the whole running game in the 2nd half (as he should).
Luckily, there appears to be hope on the horizon. Perine rushed well in the 2nd half and showed flashes of the player they thought they drafted in the 4th round. He finished the day with 49 yards on 8 attempts and caught a nice wheel route for 29 yards as well. However, unless we see some kind of progress from the o-line, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Grade: F
Fabian Moreau:
Have yourself a day young fella! First play in the burgandy and gold, first forced fumble, first turnover. The dude looks unstoppable from the gunner position on punt team, something I didn’t realized the redskins lacked so much until now. I mean, look at the separation he got on this play:
Can’t teach speed and Moreau has it in spades. He also held his own out wide against the packers 2nd teamers. Excited to see more of #31 in the coming weeks.
Grade: B+
Kirk Cousins:
Cousins started slow again this week which is starting to make everyone nervous. Cousins doesn’t necessarily need a clean pocket to operate but it’s becoming apparent his weakest throws come from when he’s flushed to his left. 2nd drive of the game, it happened twice and both times Cousins missed his open receiver. Here’s the first play:
Cousins does a nice job of avoiding the sack but then lackadaisically throws it at Kelley’s feet as he’s moving to his left. You can also see how he doesn’t get his shoulders turned around in the 2nd photo which most likely led to the inaccuracy. Not a game changing miss here but definitely one that he’d like to have back. Cousins responds nicely with a ball to Vernon Davis that looked like a sure TD before the defender got his hand in there:
In a perfect world, Davis get his hands up and catches the pass at its highest point and scores an easy TD. Still, can’t fault him completely here, defenders make plays too. Third play of the drive was another inaccurate ball to Pryor.
Cousins appears to be looking for Vernon Davis on the deep out route off the snap but the Packers had him double covered. He does a great job of going through his reads all the way back to Pryor (might have checked off Chris Thompson in the flat early) but again, as he’s moving away from the front side pressure he misses his receiver. Now Pryor could’ve came down with this ball and probably should have after what everyone has seem him do in camp. Yet, he wasn’t going to make the first anyways even if he did. Bad play call, bad execution, kick the stupid field goal.
Cousins worst pass of the day came on the 3rd three and out drive on third down. He appears to be staring down Crowder on a skinny post that should’ve been pick sixed.
Cousins made up his mind pre-snap that he was going to Crowder if it was man to man. It was and he let it rip. Give the safety credit for diagnosing this play and jumping it from the start. If Cousins waits a moment, Grant gets wide open on the comeback route at the top of the screen which would’ve been a nice first down. These are the kind of plays that Cousins detractors love to point out when denouncing Cousins. Cousins is clearly frustrated with his start and got hit the play before. This play cannot happen and hopefully Kirk focuses on his keeping his frustrations in check next game.
Luckily, Gruden kept him in there the whole first half and let him work his way out of this funk. His next drive he seems to settle down and start hitting his receivers before we get stuffed on a 4th and 1 (which was caused by Grant not getting the first down before he stepped out the previous play UGH Ryan Grant). Cousins misses Crowder on a deep out route later on that I’m too lazy to comment on but overall he seemed to get his swagger back at the end on the half. I hate the starters had to play that long to get their confidence back in a meaningless game but it was more than needed.
Grade: D+
Matt Ioannidis:
Ionanidis looks like he belongs on the roster after this week. He did a great job up front against both the starters at the backups Saturday. His highlight was his near sack on Huntley that forced him to make a bad throw.
This play appears to be a screen to the running back. Matt has a great swim move off the snap that screws up the timing but almost getting to the QB before he can dump it to the RB. Great show of athleticism here but #98. He did well enough this week to be considered for a starting role in the defense in my opinion.
Grade: B+
Jonathan Allen:
Allen didn’t make any plays but was overpowering his man opposite of him on each rush. When against the first teamers, Allen subbed in on third down. Rodgers was just too elusive and made dicing up our defense look easy. His only tackle came on the Ioannidis play where he hustled over and smashed the running back after he stuttered. Solid performance but unfortunately not much to show from it.
Grade: B
Samaje Perine:
I touched on how good Perine was earlier. Perine was the only running back that was able to do anything all day. He looked explosive, quick, and ran with some great balance while glancing off tackles. Complete 180 from last week. You could tell this game was going to be different right from his first touch. Here’s one that stood out:
Perine’s second carry is a stretch play to the left. He gets hit in the back field but is able to shake off the tackler, stay in bounds and cut it up for a gain of 6. This is the kind of plays you saw him make at Oklahoma. Great balance and control to glance off the linebacker and stay on his feet.
Perine also showed off a little speed catching a wheel route for 29 yards on the very next play. Honestly, if McCoy hits him in stride he could’ve had a chance for 6.
This is a draw play with fullback lead. Similar to last week, Perine jump cuts away from defender right after he gets the football. However, he holds on this time and rumbles up the field for a solid gain. I don’t know how I feel about him trying to use the stiff arm here going to contact. RBs are taught to put two hands on the football when you expect contact but here he uses a stiff to almost throw Derek Carrier (#89) into a would-be tackler and keep his feet pumping. It works for him here but I’d rather see secure the football.
Here is another stretch play, this time to the right. Again, he gets hit by a linebacker once he clears the tackle and again he rumbles right through him and cuts it up for a big gain. It’s worth noting that Doctson does a fantastic job clearing out his CB from the play and giving Perine some room.
This is how the running game is supposed to look. Perine bounced back in a big way this week. You may see some first team looks next week for Samaje.
Grade: A
Josh Doctson:
Josh Doctson made his first appearance of the preseason (first since week 2 of last year to be fair) spelling Pryor late in the 2nd quarter. To summarize, he looked good. He only had one catch on two targets but his catch certainly gives you an insight into his talent.
Doctson runs a great route, getting separation from the DB. Kirk stares him down a bit and puts the ball right on the money. Doctson makes the catch and almost uses the balls momentum to drive himself up field for an extra 5 yards. What struck me on this play was how easy Doctson made it look. He made it look effortless. For a play designed to make 6 yards, it’s impressive that Doctson can lean into the catch and dive for an extra 5.
Like I said in the Perine review, Doctson can block too. He took his man clean out of some of these runs. Sky is the limit for #18.
Grade: B+
Junior Galette/ Ryan Anderson:
Two of my “ones to watch” missed the game! Neither seem to be badly injured but might be worth looking into if they miss another game.
Grade: INC
Preston Smith:
You haven’t heard much about Preston Smith this off season but he still appears to be the guy starting across from Kerrigan. Smith had a few solid rushes and ended up with a sack and a big hit on Rodgers in his limited playing time. He looks leaner and faster than last year. Hopefully he can regain his rookie form and contribute to this pass rush.
Grade: B
Chris Carter:
With the redskins down some pass rushers, #55 exploded on the scene last night grabbing two sacks and three tackles against the backups. Carter was signed to contribute on special teams but impressed everyone with his tenacity rushing the passer. Hell, he sacked the QB after he had his helmet ripped off. He did get caught offside on a drive but give that man a spot on the team, Jay!
Grade: B
Montae Nicholson:
As expected, Nicholson got a lot of playing time on Saturday and he looked like he needed it. Nicholson took poor angles and missed some open-field tackles. Yet he batted down a pass and was in the right position in run pro. Overall he did okay. Not sure if you can expect him to push for a starting job anytime soon but with his size and athleticism he should carve out a role on special teams.
Grade: C
The Skins Skinny 
