Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Where are we? How the Redskins stand after eight games

Here is how the Redskins stand after eight games:

Record: 3-5
vs. NFC East: 0-1
vs. NFC: 3-3
Home: 1-2
Away: 2-3

Opposition cumulative record: 33-26
Cumulative of teams beaten: 10-12
Cumulative of teams lost to: 23-14

Offensive MVP (season to date) Hey, it’s too bad that Robert Griffin III dropped all of those passes against the Steelers or he would have—wait, he didn’t drop those passes? Well, then, he’s still the offensive MVP. Honorable mention: Alfred Morris

Defensive MVP: Perry Riley hasn’t done much spectacular this year, he has been a tackling machine. Per Pro Football Focus he has 41 tackles, eight assists and just five misses. He has been steady all year long. Honorable mention: Stephen Bowen

Top three storylines:

Defenseless against the pass—They gave up only 215 passing yards to the Steelers last week but they still are on pace to give up over 5000 yards through the air this year. They played their bend but don’t break style against Pittsburgh but Ben Roethlisberger was perfectly content to slice and dice through the Redskins defense with short passes. Once he got his team near the goal line he threw two touchdown passes to tight ends and one to his fullback.

In no rush—Intertwined with the problems in pass defense are the problems rushing the quarterback. In four of the last five games they have only one sack and they barely laid a hand on Roethlisberger. Ryan Kerrigan, who started out hot, has just one sack in the last five games.

RG3 is still The Man—As noted above, Griffin wasn’t really responsible for his subpar statistical performance. If some of the 10 dropped passes had been caught, Griffin might have had a chance to work his magic at the end. He is what separating this team from being an unwatchable, one-win team.

Next three games

Sunday. 4 vs. Panthers—They just fired their GM and Cam Newton appears to be regressing; 1-5, in last place in the NFC South.

Nov. 18 (after bye) vs. Eagles—That he Eagles had to send out an announcement that Michael Vick will remain their starting quarterback tells you all you need to know about what a panicked mess this team is. 3-4, tied for second in NFC East

Nov. 22 (Thanksgiving) @ Cowboys—Either their talent level isn’t as good as advertised or they are playing as less than the sum of their parts. Or both. 3-4, second in NFC East.

Strong finishes not a part of Redskins' recent history

The Redskins finished the first half of their season with a 3-5 record and in last place in the NFC East. One of the primary reasons they have a losing record is that their defense has allowed 227 points, tied for the second-worst performance in the NFL.

Naturally, the Redskins hope to improve substantially in both areas for the second half of the season. If they want to make a run at a playoff spot they will have to go 6-2 and hope that other teams falter enough so that 9-7 will get them in on tiebreakers. And if they are going to do that, it would help to cut back the points scored against them to something closer to the NFL average, which is about 185.

If they accomplish either one of those goals, however, they would be bucking some pretty strong historical trends.

Read the rest of the post on CSNwashington.com

Finally, the Redskins' throwbacks make their debut

Finally, the Redskins debut their throwback uniforms this Sunday against the Panthers. Take a look at them in the video after the jump.

Need to Know: Hall should be fined, not suspended

Here is what you need to know on this Wednesday, October 31, four days before the Redskins take on the Panthers at FedEx Field.

Hall should be fined, not suspended

DeAngelo Hall gave his side of the story of what happened near the end of the Steelers game on LaVar and Dukes on 106.7 The Fan on Tuesday. Hall did not deny that he dished out some verbal abuse to head linesman Dana McKenzie but he did say that is was a two-way conversation.

“From that particular camera angle you can’t see what that ref is saying to me,” Hall said. “So it looks like I’m just out there giving him a piece of my mind and he’s smiling and walks away. And that’s not the case at all. He’s dishing it out just as much as I’m dishing it out.”

Although Hall said that he wished the incident had not happened, he did feel that he had a point. He believes that there should be mutual respect between the players and officials. “Nobody is going out there trying to bully the referees and likewise, they shouldn’t be out there trying to bully us,” he said.

It would be surprising if Hall gets suspended for his tirade, regardless of the culpability of the head linesman in the incident. If you recall, in September Bill Belichick actually grabbed a replacement official by the elbow in the wake of a controversial call on a last-second field goal. The Patriots coach was fined $50,000 but he was not suspended.

It is hard to see the players’ union accepting a suspension for Hall when he didn’t touch an official after Belichick had only a financial penalty for making physical contact with one.

Mike Shanahan indicated on Monday that he might decide to take disciplinary action after the league decided on punishment for Hall. The CBA likely would prohibit the team from fining or suspending Hall as sanctions in such matters are exclusively the purview of the league.

Fact checking Shanahan

When Mike Shanahan was asked about calling the pass play to Robert Griffin III during the Redskins’ loss to the Bucs, there were two startling things in his answer.

“After looking at that play, you feel like a complete dumb-s--t because you want him to be wide open. I’ve run that play probably 10, 15 times with [John] Elway, probably 20 times or more with Steve Young, and with Robert, what you usually do is against the right defense – which is man coverage – no one usually accounts for the quarterback and he’s by himself out there.”

One surprise was his use of profanity. The other was his claim that he sent John Elway out on pass patterns 10 to 15 times and that Steve Young went out for passes 20 times. That seems like a play you might pull out a lot less frequently than that.

A look at the records indicates that Shanahan may have been exaggerating how often he ran the option pass to the quarterback.

In 1993, when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator of the 49ers, Young had his only two career receptions for a net of two yards. Elway had three career receptions, all coming in seasons when Shanahan was either the Broncos’ head coach or offensive coordinator, for 61 yards and a touchdown. He also caught a pass from running back Steve Sewell for 23 yards against the Redskins in Super Bowl XXII.

So either the play was successful only six of 30 or 35 times it was called or Shanahan’s memory back to the glory days is slightly faulty. The guess here is on the latter.

Today’s schedule

11:15—Open locker room

1:00—Practice (closed to the media after first 30 minutes)

After practice (approx. 3:00) Robert Griffin III and Mike Shanahan news conferences

Note: Although we have not received official word from the team, there is every reason to believe that they will be on a normal schedule following Hurricane Sandy.

In case you missed it

Tarik’s Steelers game grades: Offense, defense, special teams

A must-win game for the Redskins

Days until: RG3 vs. Cam @ FedEx Field 4; Eagles @ Redskins 18; Thanksgiving Redskins @ Cowboys 22; Ravens @ Redskins 39

After Sandy looks like business as usual at Redskins Park

It looks like it will be business as usual at Redskins Park for preperations for the Panthers game, despite the look in the picture below. Check out the story on CSNwashington.com.

Need to Know: 'A must-win game' for the Redskins

Here is what you need to know on this Tuesday, October 30, five days before the Redskins take on the Panthers at FedEx Field.

A must win

Usually, players and coaches shy away from using the term “must-win game.” They’ll say that every game is one that has to be won, that no game is more important than any other, and so on and so forth.

But yesterday Mike Shanahan made it clear to his team that Sunday’s game against the Panthers is different and worth of the label.

"I think everybody knows it's a must-win game if you're 3-5 at the bye week,” Shanahan said on a conference call with reporters. “If you have any chance at the playoffs, everybody understands at the midway point that you've got to start playing your best football or you're eliminated awful quick,

What he meant, of course, is that the Redskins are now 3-5 and their bye week will start after the Carolina game. Eight NFC teams, half of the conference, have either three or four wins. The current Wild Card leaders, Minnesota and Green Bay, have five wins. Going into the last seven games of the season with four wins means that you have a chance to be in the playoff conversation.

At 3-6, however, you are likely to be spending your bye week vacation planning the extended vacation that starts right after the regular season ends on Dec. 30.

A coach can’t play the “must win” card very often, as it tends to lose its effect of overused. We’ll see if Shanahan’s message gets through to the team.

The cost of drops

My friend Zac Boyer of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star took a look at the Redskins’ dropped passes on Sunday and tweeted the following (@ZacBoyer):

Hard to quantify production lost with drops because of open space, consecutive plays. But #Redskins' 13 passes off hands were for 128 yards.

What did the drops do to Robert Griffin III’s numbers? As it was, his stat line was 34 attempts with 16 completions (47% completed) for 177 yards (5.2 per attempt) with one touchdown and no interceptions. That was a QB rating of 72.8.

If all 13 passes had been caught (an unrealistic assumption but we’re just roughly figuring here), Griffin would have been 29 of 34 (85.3%) for 305 yards (8.9 per attempt) with 2 touchdowns (adding in the ball that Aldrick Robinson could have had in the end zone) and no interceptions. His QB rating would have been 123.5.

This is not to say that Griffin had a great game and that he was undone only by his receivers. He misfired on a few passes including some of the drops and one second-quarter overthrow of a wide open Logan Paulsen for either a big gain or a touchdown when the game was still competitive.

At the same time, it would be a mistake to say that the Steelers provided a blueprint for how to shut down RG3. The Pittsburgh defense gave him a rough time, no doubt about it, but Griffin and the Redskins were undone in large part at their own hands—or, more precisely, lack of them.

Today’s schedule

No availability, scheduled day off.

Mike Shanahan said yesterday that the team planned to resume its normal schedule tomorrow. With the effects of Hurricane Sandy fading here in Ashburn there appears to be a good chance that preparations for the Panthers game will be able to proceed as scheduled.

In case you missed it

Trading deadline pushed back to Thursday. Deal or no deal for the Redskins?

Redskins Rewind: Tarik looks back at his Friday game preview.

Days until: RG3 vs. Cam @ FedEx Field 5; Eagles @ Redskins 19; Thanksgiving @ Cowboys 23; Ravens @ Redskins 40

Mike Shanahan press conference live blog 10.29

Trade deadline may be pushed back: Deal or no deal for the Redskins?

The NFL may decide to push back the trade deadline from Tuesday at 4 p.m. due to Hurricane Sandy.

But will it matter to the Redskins? Will they make a deal?

Go here to read the story on CSNwashington.com

Need to Know: Redskins have no margin for error

Here is what you need to know on this Monday, October 29, six days before the Redskins take on the Panthers at FedEx Field.

No margin for error

Against the Steelers we saw what it looks like when the bend but don’t break defense doesn’t get much help from the offense and breaks.

While Ben Roethlisberger and company were doing the proverbial hot knife through butter thing through the Redskins defense, scoring touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal on their first four possessions, RG3 and the Redskins offense struggled.

--First possession (Steelers 7, Redskins 0): After gaining nine yards on first down they tried sending Alfred Morris on the stretch play left twice. The results were zero and minus-three yards and a punt.

--Second possession (Steelers 10, Redskins 0): Griffin dragged the Redskins kicking and screaming into the end zone. After Leonard Hankerson and Dezmon Briscoe dropped touchdown passes, RG3 fired one into the end zone on fourth and goal at the two and Santana Moss held on.

--Third possession (Steelers 17, Redskins 6): This possession ended after Josh Morgan’s pass to RG3 fell incomplete. Griffin pushed off on Ike Taylor, drawing a flag, and took a pretty good shot from Ryan Clark as the pass sailed long.

--Fourth possession (Steelers 20, Redskins 6): With perhaps a chance to creep back into it with a score before halftime, Redskins pulled off the hat trick of drops. First Evan Royster couldn’t handle a screen. Then Morgan couldn’t secure the ball before being hit. Finally, Moss had the ball squirt out on a pass that would have moved the chains.

The point here is not to “blame” the offense for the loss. The Redskins did not turn the ball over and the Steelers had to drive from inside their own 30 on all but one of those four first-half scoring drives. The defense did not hold up its end of the deal.

The point is that the Redskins have no margin for error. If the defense can force an occasional punt and the offense can hum along unencumbered by drops and other miscues they can stay in most games. If one aspect breaks down, it’s tough to win. If there are multiple failures (let’s not forget the special teams problems, with a blocked extra point and 12-yard punt), they get the ugly result we saw on Sunday.

Slogging through Sandy

We are going to keep our coverage rolling here on CSNwashington.com as best we can during Hurricane Sandy. The Redskins will announce later this morning what they are going to do with their Monday media schedule. It is hard to see them having the usual 3:00 p.m. Mike Shanahan presser in the auditorium at Redskins Park but we will see.

As long as writers and/or producers have power and an Internet connection we’re going to continue to analyze and cover any developments surrounding the teams we cover. So if you’re stuck at home, either off work or telecommuting, check us out as you usually do.

Oh, and stay safe. This storm looks huge and nasty.

Today’s schedule

As noted above, to be determined.

In case you missed it

Redskins drop one to Steelers.

RG3 doesn’t get much help on his worst day.

Days until: RG3 vs. Cam @ FedEx Field 6; Eagles @ Redskins 20; Thanksgiving Redskins @ Cowboys 24; Ravens @ Redskins 41

Drops lead to RG3's worst day

Robert Griffin III has started eight NFL games and has finished seven of them. For the first time, he didn’t either lead his team to a win or have the ball at the end with a chance to do that.

Griffin certainly put up the worst numbers of his young career. The rookie completed 16 of 34 passes for 177 yards and one touchdown. His rating was a very pedestrian 72.8.

It is safe to say that the mediocre stats were not all Griffin’s fault. The Redskins dropped 10 passes during the game. To put that in perspective, they came into the game with just 11 drops in their first seven games.

Yes, the ball was wet due to rain that was light in the early going and got heavier and steadier as the game went on. But the Steelers were playing in the same rain with the same balls, Ben Roethlisberger threw 33 passes, and they only suffered a few drops.

"A lot of people will blame the elements but as players we can't do that,” said Griffin.

Not all of the drops were exactly on target as sometimes receivers dropped a pass that was a little behind him or led him into a defender. Griffin certainly was willing to take responsibility for that aspect of the issue. “I’m going to have to look at it on film and say I need to give that guy a better look here, a better look there,” he said.

It started to get ugly in the second quarter. On the same series, Leonard Hankerson and Dezmon Briscoe both dropped sure touchdown passes. Finally, on fourth down Griffin stuck one in to Santana Moss and he caught it to make it 10-6.

That was as close as the Redskins would get. The extra point was blocked. Roethlisberger was sharp and the Steelers scored in each of their first four possessions. Meanwhile, the drops helped torpedo drive after drive and the Redskins found themselves down 20-6 at halftime.

Griffin did not make up for the lack of productivity through the air with his legs. After rushing 20 times for 227 yards in the previous two games, Griffin carried just three times (he had six official attempts but three of those were attempts to run out the clock) for eight yards.

But if you can’t get much going on offense because nearly a third of your pass attempts are on target but dropped, it’s hard to make up for it with the quarterback running.

Griffin didn’t run much but he did go out on a pass pattern. He handed the ball off to Josh Morgan on an end around. Morgan pulled up and heaved the ball deep to the quarterback, who was double covered. The pass fell incomplete and Griffin was called for pushing off a defender. He also gook a pretty good shot by Ryan Clark in the process.

But at least he didn’t drop the pass.