With season threatening to unravel, Gruden orders a code red

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/with-season-threatening-to-unravel-gruden-orders-a-code-red/2015/10/18/1b753836-75db-11e5-bc80-9091021aeb69_story.html

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The hinges are loose now, and not even Coach Jay Gruden will try to tell you otherwise.

He will attempt a misdirection play at mounting criticism of Kirk Cousins. He will offer hope that the Washington Redskins can stop being a crummy third-quarter team, and that their front seven will figure out how to stop the run again, and that his injury-burdened team can overcome being shorthanded. But he will not, or cannot, deny a sobering reality: For all its improvement, Washington is a 2-4 team — just one win better than last season’s record through six games — and issues are bubbling that could render progress imperceptible. And as crazy as it sounds, that means the season is already nearing a breaking point.

So after the Redskins’ worst performance of the season in a 34-20 loss to the New York Jets, Gruden called next week’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — in Week 7! — “very critical.”

[Jets run over the Redskins in second half, 34-20]

“It’s a code red for us,” Gruden said.

Normally, coaches would choose being second-guessed for an eternity over having to admit that a game, especially in the first half of the regular season, was so important. But Gruden knows the deal.

Even though Washington is a play or two against Atlanta from being just fine, and a play or two against Miami from being in an ideal spot, that’s life in the NFL. Sometimes in this league, you need a microscope to decipher bad from good from great. Ultimately, you are your record, and you’ll be judged by your most recent outings.

For the sake of his job security, Gruden doesn’t need this team to revert to a disaster with a bye week looming after the Tampa Bay game. But mostly, the coach just wants to sustain progress, and that won’t happen if the team has run out of ways to mask its bad enough to reveal its good. I’m bullish on Washington’s competitiveness and improved mind-set, but I’m not sure it has advanced to having an absolute belief that won’t shatter if controversy intensifies.

At MetLife Stadium, the Redskins played their worst stretch of football during the second half, watching the Jets score 24 consecutive points before the bleeding stopped. It turned a gritty first-half effort, in which Washington led 13-10 at halftime, into a frustrating blowout. And the problems were all hot-button issues that could turn into divisive drama if the team isn’t careful.

[Redskins have no answer for third-quarter struggles]

Cousins threw two more interceptions. He has thrown two picks in each of Washington’s four losses. He’s on pace to throw 21 interceptions over a full season, which is unacceptable for any NFL starter, but especially troubling when the quarterback is directing an offense whose coaches want him to be a game manager and play it safe in a short-passing attack. Cousins is a better quarterback this season, and he has had some good moments, including the late fourth-quarter comeback against Philadelphia. But his turnover problem remains, and the more Gruden defends Cousins without honestly acknowledging the quarterback’s mistakes, the less credible Gruden becomes.

Which brings us to another hot-button issue. Washington has been a third-quarter debacle, having been outscored 46-3 in that period, and the blame for that must fall on the coach. This is a one-punch team, that it is so limited it doesn’t have too many adjustments it can make. Gruden’s team has failed in just about every way possible in the third quarter. It’s not just the offense, defense, special teams, penalties or lack of depth. Every third quarter presents a new problem, which speaks to a team’s inability to receive a halftime message and implement it. In the third quarter, the players often look like a team that went into halftime too satisfied with its performance.

It’s only a perception, much like the notion that Gruden is coddling Cousins a year after being tough with Robert Griffin III. But when you’re a second-year coach who doesn’t have a history of success to combat these perceptions, your intentions can get lost in the debate.

Move beyond the third-quarter fiasco, and the third huge concern is that the team’s early-season strength — physical on the interior, can run the football and stop the run — is fading. The past two weeks represent a stunning regression. The Falcons and Jets rushed for 397 yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry. The first four opponents combined for 312 rushing yards.

On offense, Washington’s run game has produced just 85 yards on 41 carries the past two weeks. Alfred Morris has gained only 36 yards his past 19 rushes.

No wonder Gruden ordered the code red.

“This next game is very important,” Morris said. “For team morale, we need a win. We have to find a way.”

It has been only two games, the first of which the Redskins should’ve won. But two games is a considerable chunk of the NFL season. And now that the season is six games old, trustworthy patterns are developing, several of which are concerning. It can’t wait for star players to heal or young players to mature. To keep the season healthy, to keep a season of improvement intact, Washington needs to alter momentum quickly.

“I don’t like to make excuses about anything,” Gruden said. “I just know we had the opportunity to play the New York Jets today with 46 able players, and they were better than us. They were better coached, better prepared.”

For the most part, Gruden continues to put on a positive face, but he needs this season to slow down. His team doesn’t have the ability to catch up if its problems start to run away.

It’s not the most daring thing to call a code red when the lowly Buccaneers are coming to town. Then again, the Bucs have as many victories as the Redskins.

As Yogi Berra once said, “It gets late early out here.”

This week, we’ll find out if Gruden can coach urgency better than the third quarter.