Redskins’ missed opportunities, especially on offense, are ‘frustrating’ to Jay Gruden
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Version 0 of 1. In a Washington Redskins performance riddled with missed opportunities, DeSean Jackson’s fumble on a punt return with less than two minutes remaining stands out as the defining blunder from Monday night’s 19-16 loss to Dallas at FedEx Field. But it hasn’t landed the featured wide receiver in Coach Jay Gruden’s dog house. Far from it, with Gruden saying Tuesday that he won’t hesitate to tap Jackson for punt-return duty in the future, whenever the Redskins need a big play. “Anytime we think there’s a spark to be had, we’ll put him back there,” Gruden said during a conference call. With a day to study video and analyze why his offense failed yet again to capitalize on turnovers, Gruden provided only generalities and gave no hint that any player, unit or coach deserved reprimand or demotion for a performance that fell short in so many ways. Nor did he suggest that the offensive play-calling, which increasingly appears designed to manage risk rather than exploit the big-play potential on hand, warranted an overhaul. “We’re in Week 12 or Week 13 and still a fairly young football team, and we’re trying to find our way, really,” Gruden said. “We’ve just got to keep grinding, [doing] what we’re doing, keep preparing and protect better, throw better, run better routes, block better in the running game, run harder, you know, all those things. I just think it’ll come. We’ve just got to stick with what we’re doing.” [Brewer: NFC East is there for the taking, but Redskins need to grab it] Monday’s crucial division game represented a golden opportunity for the Redskins to strengthen their tenuous spot atop the NFC East standings, bringing the struggling Cowboys, who hadn’t won a game all season without quarterback Tony Romo, to the supportive confines of FedEx Field. Instead of seizing the moment, the Redskins dithered. The offense gained just 266 total yards and scored only three points off three turnovers forced by the defense — two of which handed quarterback Kirk Cousins drive starts inside Cowboys territory. Cousins threw for just one touchdown, and that didn’t come until 44 seconds remained. The 28-yard strike was Washington’s only big offensive play. Cousins was under fire from the start, sacked on two of the game’s first three plays and thrice overall, while getting hit three more times. In an effort to shore up protection, Gruden enlisted tackles Tom Compton and Ty Nsekhe as extra blockers. But the coach conceded the grouping wasn’t effective, nor was much of what the Redskins tried against the Cowboys’ blitzes and stunts. “We were kind of hodgepodge last night with the substitutions,” Gruden said of the efforts to find the best pass-protecting lineup, with tight end Derek Carrier sidelined by injury. “So we didn’t really get in the flow of the game.” With the Cowboys’ offense also struggling, the game was as tedious as the dripping of a leaky faucet through 58 minutes, consisting of 17 penalties, 10 punts, seven field goal attempts and not a single touchdown. Jackson’s misguided attempt to break the 9-9 tie with a splashy punt return backfired in epic fashion. He fielded the punt at the Redskins 16-yard line, then proceeded to run every direction but forward in search of an unimpeded lane. The misadventure ended with three Cowboys converging, the 178-pound Jackson ducking for cover and the ball squirting free. After Dallas scored the go-ahead touchdown off the turnover, Jackson acquitted himself by outrunning single coverage for the touchdown catch that tied it with 44 seconds remaining. Instead of forcing overtime, it only forestalled defeat. [Insider: Five observations from the loss to the Cowboys] Jump-started by a 46-yard kickoff return, the Cowboys drove just far enough for place kicker Dan Bailey to drill the 54-yard field goal that clinched it, keeping alive their slim playoff hopes alive while relegating the Redskins to a three-way tie, at 5-7. While Gruden praised the defense’s performance, he conceded that the offense’s struggles were “frustrating.” The Redskins gained just 2.8 yards per carry in the loss. Veteran Alfred Morris carried just six times for 12 yards and wasn’t used at all after the first quarter. Nonetheless, Gruden said that Morris, “moving forward, is still our number one back,” though it’s unclear what that means beyond mere words. The offense converted just 6 of 16 third downs (38 percent), with Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee a one-man third-down wrecking crew, snuffing out would-be conversions by Pierre Garcon, Jamison Crowder and Cousins. Asked why he didn’t call more deep balls for Jackson, Gruden intimated that Cousins didn’t necessarily see all the chances to hit the wide receiver that were available to him or, in other cases, was stymied by defenders. “He’s a part of every pass pattern we run, whether it’s a short ball or a deep ball,” Gruden said of Jackson, who had a game-high six catches for 80 yards and the lone touchdown. “It’s just a matter of sometimes, coverage dictates where the ball goes. They did a good job of taking him away, for the most part.” And the inability to turn the defense’s takeaways into points remains a “major, major issue,” the coach said. “We feel like we have a very good system in place,” Gruden said. “We don’t need to panic, but we do have to have a sense of urgency about us, get everybody on the right page and keep playing.” |