The Takeaways – Week 15, Cardinals at Redskins
December 19, 2017
by Steve Thomas
That was a big relief. Honestly, I’m not sure I could take another week of agonizing over a third pathetic performance in a row from the Redskins, particularly since the opponent this week was the Cardinals, who are a less than optimized NFL football team. I’m sure fans would have somehow figured out how to blame Bruce Allen for such a loss, the traffic jams coming out of Fed Ex Field, the high price of gas, and every other bad thing in the world. Fortunately, the Redskins came away with a 20 – 15 win, though. It wasn’t pretty, but as I said on The Hog Sty’s recap show, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. At the end of the year, this “W” means the same thing as the Redskins’ big win up in Seattle earlier this year. The bottom line is that Washington did enough to win and keep the dream of a non-losing season alive, and we should all be happy with that, all things considered. Forget the draft order – this isn’t the NBA. We are Redskins fans, and we should be rooting for the Redskins to win their games. As always, we have a quick look at the big “watercooler-style” Takeaways from the this week’s win (that felt good to type that):
Blaine Gabbert is hot garbage as a quarterback
The most obvious, glaring Takeaway from this contest was that Cardinals quarterback Blaine Gabbert was absolutely terrible. He missed passes high, low, left, right, long, short – basically, any way a pass could be missed, Gabbert did it. He was victimized by multiple drops from Cardinals wide receivers not named Larry Fitzgerald, and in fact had a potentially game-winning touchdown pass dropped, but still: Gabbert did not look like a starting quality pro quarterback. The Redskins benefitted tremendously from his poor play. It appeared as though as slightly more accurate quarterback, or a quarterback who had gotten a bit more help from his wide receivers, might have been able to swing this game the other way, but that’s the way the game goes.
The Redskins took just enough advantage of Cardinals mistakes to win
Look, I already admitted that this game wasn’t pretty. It was a case of the Redskins playing down to their competition. All the same, though, it was noteworthy that the Redskins did in fact take just enough advantage of the opportunities that were presented to them in order to win. Washington was able to take advantage of the Blaine Gabbert fumble in the game’s first possession, caused by Anthony Lanier’s sack, and put the ball in the end zone just two plays later for the touchdown. The defense was able to flip the field on Arizona via a 3 and out late in the 1st quarter, which in turn gave Kirk Cousins and company a somewhat manageable 67 yard touchdown drive early in the 2nd quarter. The same situation occurred in the 4th quarter, and Washington was able to eek out a must needed 30 yard field goal drive. The point is, despite recent play, the Redskins were able to take just enough advantage of what the Cardinals gave them in order to win. That’s a positive, like it or not.
The rushing attack continues to be horrible
The rushing attack, or rather the lack thereof, continues to be a glaring Takeaway for the 2017 Redskins. This team wasn’t a strong rushing team when fully healthy at the beginning of the season, and now, as the walking wounded parade marches closer to the stopping point, Washington quite simply can’t consistently run the ball at an NFL level. Although, to his credit, new running back Kapri Bibbs showed some promise, the Redskins just can’t count on themselves to run the ball with any sort of consistency. This is one area in which the Redskins will have to make significant improvements for the 2018 season.
Kirk Cousins bounced back from last week, sort of
Make no mistake: Kirk Cousins wasn’t Awesome Kirk, but he for darn sure played significantly better than he did last week against the Chargers. He didn’t throw any interceptions, didn’t make huge mistakes, made some plays, and generally did what he needed to do in order to win. It’s not much, granted, but it’s a Takeaway and it’s the truth. Was this a $24M performance? No. Was it a competent, winning effort? Without question. At this point, it seems likely that we all know what Kirk Cousins, professional quarterback, is, and I find it hard to believe that the Redskins front office isn’t going to make more of a mess of this situation truly feels as though they still need to see more from this guy in order to make a final decision as to his fate as a Redskin. Time will tell. I, for one, can’t wait until it’s resolved one way or the other.
Washington’s special teams are an embarrassment
Special teams are very, very special this year – going into week 15, the Redskins were last in punt return coverage, 30th in punt returns, and not much better in kickoffs. This week, of course, featured what is surely the longest successful unintentional onside kick in NFL history, as Niles Paul (and others) inexplicably decided not to recover a kickoff after the ball didn’t bounce directly to him. I love ‘ya, Niles, but come on, man. There is little doubt that the severe injury situation has effected the team’s abilities in special teams, but dumb mistakes like what we saw this week are just that – dumb. Something needs to change, drastically so, going into next year.
That’s it for this week. I’m excited about the win, and you should be, too. Don’t worry about draft order or whether you can figure out a way to blame Bruce Allen for your burnt breakfast this morning. Enjoy the last few Redskins games. There’ll be plenty of time to agonize over the rest of this nonsense in the offseason. The Denver Broncos are next up, so we’ll be back with another set of Takeaways after what I hope will be the second win in a row.