Here are my observations from Saturday’s Redskins practice, their first since playing their preseason opener in Buffalo.
—Trent Williams (bruised foot) and Jarvis Jenkins (flu) were not present. Morgan Trent (shoulder, knee) and Maurice Hurt (inflamed knee tendon) were riding the stationary bikes at the start of practice and observers for the rest of it.
—With previous injuries forcing other changes along the line, the first-team offensive line was, from left to right, Jordan Black, Josh LeRibeus, Will Montgomery, Adam Gettis, and Tyler Polumbus. Three of those players, Black and rookies LeRibeus and Gettis, had a combined zero games on NFL rosters in 2011.
—Alfred Morris had a good game on Thursday. Today he took a handoff, disappeared into a crowd and then popped into the open on the other side. He must have found a tunnel through there or something. He’ll probably keep the coaches awake at night trying to figure out a way to keep him on the roster.
—Dez Briscoe played on Thursday night but didn’t get targeted for a pass. But he continues to make a case for himself in practice. In a red zone drill he got to the back of a crowded end zone and caught a TD pass from Kirk Cousins. A good job by Cousins, too, who was able to find his receiver in the back of the crowd.
—Cousins had a couple more nice passes. Both of them came when he was rolling to his right. On one, he stopped and threw all the way back to the other sideline and found Samuel Kirkland free for a long touchdown pass. A while later he launched a nice pass down the right sideline and Aldrick Robinson ran under it and gathered it in for another long TD. To be sure, both plays may have been blown dead but Cousins still launched a couple of nice, long passes.
—Maybe things are beginning to click for Robinson. He caught two passes for 28 yards against the Bills. Before the bomb from Cousins he and the rookie QB connected on another, shorter pass where Robinson made a nice grab. Robinson has to make up for a slow start to camp if he wants to make this team but he still has time.
RG3 report
We’ll start out with the bad and the ugly and then move to the good. In red zone work he tried to fire a pass through a crowd of defenders to Leonard Hankerson. London Fletcher was having no part of it and he easily picked off the pass.
And he threw a sideline pass. No, not to a receiver on a sideline pattern, just to the sideline stripe. There was not a receiver or a defender anywhere near it, just the chalk.
There certainly were some good throws. He hit both Santana Moss and Leonard Hankerson right in the hands on stride and he threw some darts to Chris Cooley and Fred Davis. Davis also dropped one catchable ball.
For the day, Griffin was 6-13 with one interception
His targets:
Complete: Hankerson 2, Cooley, Davis, Moss 2
Incomplete: Paul, Moss, Davis (dropped), Hankerson 2 (1 INT), Garçon, unknown
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