Studs
Seriously?
Duds
QB John Beck. After the game, my initial thought was: the guy had no chance. You saw the same rush I did. But after watching again, Beck clearly did not help himself or his line. The guy tries to make a play so it’s difficult to fault him, but sometimes it’s too much. When the Redskins were in field goal position in the second quarter of a 7-0 game, Beck executed a bootleg to his left. Nobody was open, so he started to run upfield. Problem was, four Bills were in the way so he took a six-yard loss on first and 10. That pretty much killed the drive. Throw the ball away. Later in the game he took a sack when Marcell Dareus threw him to the ground. Beck could have thrown that away, too. At least in that case they needed three scores and he’s trying to keep the play alive. But the first one? Bad decision. Other times he waited too long to make decisions by eyeing downfield throws. Problem was, after a while you should know that the pocket will collapse. Why? Because it did on just about every play. So look to move the ball and find the underneath guys. Saw a few opportunities for that, some of which might have resulted in first downs. For example, on the first third down of the game, Beck tried to squeeze a pass between a safety and a corner to a diving Terrence Austin. Low percentage, especially against a cover-2 look. Niles Paul was open underneath and would have extended the drive.
The big downfield plays aren’t happening for a variety of reasons – Beck is inaccurate deep; the receivers don’t get open; time to throw. Know this and adjust. Didn’t like how, on his fumble, Beck took his eyes off the receivers six yards behind the line of scrimmage, just tucking and running. He missed Jabar Gaffney being open because of this. And he lost the ball, too. Beck threw two more interceptions adding to his tough day. He did have good moments; liked the 17-yard pass to Terrence Austin; good rhythm. He’s a tough guy, but his pocket instincts weren’t the best Sunday. Again, far from all his doing. I know Beck was under siege and he’s working with receivers who are too young or past their prime. He needs more help than they can provide; they need more help than he can provide.
LG Will Montgomery. He’s a center. Really, I should end his list here because I don’t blame him; he’s doing what he’s told and he’s trying. But he’s a center. The Redskins needed to do a better job of finding a backup guard who could help in a pinch so they wouldn’t have to shuffle this much because of one injury. Keep that in mind when watching Montgomery. Anyway, time and again he lost leverage or just simply was not quick enough to handle a certain move. On consecutive plays at the end of the third quarter he practically tackled DT Kellen Heard to keep him from getting a sack. How a holding penalty wasn’t called is beyond me. There was also one play in which he was setting lightly on his front hand and moved it just a bit before the snap, a tipoff that he was about to set up for a pass (on a second and four in the third quarter). On the third play of the game, he failed to pick up a stunt, his shoulders turned too much to the outside and he couldn’t react in time. Montgomery was decent at center. Did I make that clear?
LT Sean Locklear. I like that he was a standup guy after the game and answered questions about this mess of a game. He wasn’t alone from this group but it’s worth mentioning. Now … he is not suited for left tackle (a theme here). Even when younger and he had to fill in at left tackle for Walter Jones that wasn’t his best spot – far from it. He’s a right tackle at best. There was one time in which it almost appeared Locklear had a false start as he tried to set quickly for a rush; he was still beaten wide. Got beat wide a couple times and allowed one sack. He doesn’t get much if any push in the ground game. Didn’t like how he was moved back three to four yards on several occasions, forcing deep cutbacks by the running backs. He didn’t get a lot of pop in this game. Got shoved back into Beck on one pass set (not a sack). Oh, man, another one: On the first play of the second half, Torain ran to his right and cut back left. Locklear ran down the line and turned back to block the outside ‘backer, Nick Barnett, on his side. But he never made contact and when Torain cut back the ‘backer stepped into the hole as Locklear turned and watched. Now, Torain already was being tackled but that’s not the point. Just a bad day for Locklear.
RG Chris Chester. We’re getting to the broken record portion, aren’t we? Chester had been playing better of late, but did not have a good day. He allowed a sack late when he failed to get a hand on a blitzing linebacker between he and right tackle Jammal Brown. Chester needed to get his right arm on him to at least slow him down, but that didn’t happen. There were too many examples of penetration allowed, disrupting plays. The first drive of the second quarter highlighted his struggles. Out of seven plays I wrote his name down for four bad ones: a whiffed backside block, another missed backside block, getting shoved back and falling; and getting pushed back. Chester is not their problem, but he did have a bad day.
C Erik Cook. He was not nearly as bad as the above three, but he did not exactly have a stellar day, either. Cook did not have the same leverage issues he had in his first two outings, but part of that could stem from the fact that they passed a lot more because of the score. Cook did get shoved back into Beck’s face on one pass set and he and Montgomery allowed Dwan Edwards to get through them for a sack. Just a lot of power. Cook did have a couple times where he was able to get to the second level on run blocks, but could not sustain them. But there was some improvement.
RT Jammal Brown. Again, he wasn’t as bad as the others, aside from Cook. But Brown is a veteran lineman who needed to be a rock right. He wasn’t. He lost backside blocks, was beaten wide and beaten inside. He was pushed to the ground on one play and pushed back a couple more times. He tried to cut linebacker Chris Kelsey on one set, failed and Kelsey helped sack Beck. Yada, yada, yada… the Redskins got skunked.
Field goal unit: Mike Shanahan blamed Graham Gano’s low kick on the blocked field goal and he’s right, it was low. But there’s no doubt the Bills had beyond-normal penetration; they moved the line back a good four yards so even if it was a high kick it might not have had a chance. Most kicks the line gets moved back a yard or maybe two. Nick Sundberg was knocked on his backside when 305-pound end Cedric Johnson slanted to his left and drilled him. And Kedric Golston, at right guard, was shoved back by at least two players and maybe three. When he stopped, he was four yards from the holder. Golston and Sundberg had no chance. Hard to say the kick had a chance.
WRs Anthony Armstrong/Donte Stallworth. With Santana Moss out, and coming off a good season, Armstrong needed to put himself in position to do more. I really like Armstrong, but he was targeted four times and didn’t catch a pass, partly because aside from one play he wasn’t getting enough separation, though another pass was too low (he got one hand on it). I wonder if he’s completely healthy because last year he did get open, not just on deep routes as he was a good route-runner underneath. He’s a tough kid. As for Stallworth, he tripped on the deep ball that was intercepted. Armstrong is not a longtime vet, but he did play well last year; Stallworth is a longtime vet. Both are now in a position to do more; you can’t expect the young receivers to be ready for a big role in the passing game. Of course, I’d also like to see them used more on some shorter routes just to start sustaining drives – and they can’t do anything about that. They’re on this list because there really wasn’t one group that should be excluded, aside from the running backs.
Notes
…A major culprit for Sunday’s woeful showing? The poor run blocking. If this offense can’t run, it has no chance. There’s one play in particular that stood out: the second play of the second quarter in which Ryan Torain lost one yard on a stretch zone run to the left. When Beck handed the ball to Torain, there were four Bills players already past the line of scrimmage; the right end had shoved left tackle Sean Locklear three yards back; left guard Will Montomgery was about two yards back and right guard Chris Chester was a yard back. Torain made his first cut four yards deep and had no chance at a positive gain as nobody held their blocks. It was like that much of the day.
…Oops, found another run that was worse. The third play of the third quarter – the Redskins were flagged for illegal formation, so it doesn’t count as a play. But it’s still worth pointing out. The safety is five yards upfield when Torain gets the handoff; another defensive tackle is four yards upfield and the backside tackle is two yards upfield. Torain lost two yards. Like I said, the play didn’t count but it was telling.
…On six of Torain’s eight runs there were at least three Bills defenders on the Redskins side of the line of scrimmage. Only once did Buffalo use an eight-man front to stop the run — and that was the time Torain gained six yards.
…The one thing that’s difficult to tell when watching the game again is how the receivers really did downfield. Beck clearly tries to go through progressions, even when being pounded. But he’s either looking off a receiver too quickly – a problem in the past – or they’re just not open. My guess? A combination of both.
…Tight end Fred Davis had good numbers, but that’s different than having a good game. Seventy two of his 94 receiving yards came after the Redskins trailed 20-0. His run blocking wasn’t all that good, either. So he ends up with good-looking stats, but the bulk of his catches had little impact. It’ll look good at contract time.
…Here’s the breakdown on how many players the Bills rushed on the 44 pass drop backs (there were three bootlegs) and Beck’s numbers in each situation:
1. Three players: two times. Beck: 2-2, 23 yards.
2. Four players: 29 times. Beck: 13-29, 141 yards, one interception, a fumble and six sacks.
3. Five players: three times. Beck: 0-3.
4. Six players: seven times. Beck: 2-5, 20 yards, one interception, two sacks.
Note: The ninth sack occurred on a bootleg.
…Beck threw off a five-step drop 26 times; a three-step drop eight times and a seven-step drop seven times. And the three bootlegs, of course. But the three step drops all came out of shotgun formation. They handed off once out of shotgun. When he took a seven-step drop, he was hit once and had a clean pocket three times, with one mild pressure. He also threw a screen pass out of this look and scrambled once after having 3.82 seconds in the pocket.
…In other words, the number of steps in his drops weren’t the issue. There were very few moving pockets as the bulk of the passes called for straight drop backs. Sorry, didn’t break all that down.
…Here’s another stat: Beck unloaded six of his 44 passes in under two seconds (unofficially of course). Now, this could be a function of he and the receivers not being in sync or him not completely trusting them yet. It could also be a function of an offense that reads high to low. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s Ryan Fitzpatrick, by comparison, threw the ball in less than two seconds (unofficially) on 16 of his 27 pass attempts. He was playing behind a reshuffled line, had one receiver out with an injury. But this is also the style of the offense. But the point is this: get rid of the ball faster. It’s no wonder Fitzpatrick never gets sacked. But I like how the Bills have tailored their offense around their talent. When Cam Newton was coming out of college, one scout I trust said he hoped Newton would go to Buffalo. Why? Coach Chan Gailey knows how to creatively use his players.
…You really don’t want to read more about this offense, do you? Then we’re done.
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