By Rich Tandler
The Redskins did very little right on offense in losing to the Bills 23-0.
Fred Davis caught eight passes for 94 yards. Other than that, well, not much. On the negative side were the nine sacks they gave up, the most since they started officially keeping the stat in 1982. The rushed for 26 yards, 2.2 yards a carry.
They were not stellar defensively. The Redskins hard particular difficulty stopping running back Fred Jackson who rushed for 120 yards and caught three passes for 74 more. He easily outgained the Redskins on his own as Washington posted just 178 total yards.
In reality, the defense did not play that badly. The Bills came into the game averaging 31 points a game so holding them to 23 is hardly an embarrassment. They got two takeaways, one of which could have set up points for the Redskins, the other at least temporarily prevented a Bills score.
But the Redskins didn’t score after Brian Orakpo recovered a fumble at the Buffalo 31. And a London Fletcher interception in the end zone at the two-minute warning was followed by a three and out, a punt, and a Bills drive to a field goal.
Simply put, the offense needs to do its part. Injuries don’t help. However, offensive line injuries are not really an excuse for the nine sacks. The Bills were playing with Redskins reject Chad Rinehart at left guard and their third-string left tackle, were playing against the team leading the league in sacks and Ryan Fitzpatrick got sacked just twice.
When things aren’t working, coaches face a choice. They can keep on doing what they have been doing, believing that repetition and better execution will eventually help things click. Or they can scrap when they have been doing and make major adjustments, hoping that the fresh approach will click and things will start moving.
The first approach can be called being patient or it can be called being stubborn. The latter approach can be called flexible or it can be called panicking.
The only way to come out of it looking good is to find something that worked.
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