1. The Redskins abandoned the run in the fourth quarter vs. Dallas on Monday, but both the offensive coordinator and the head coach say that wasn’t the plan – and won’t be in the future.
Last season, the Redskins passed the ball 63 percent of the time and only one team had fewer runs than Washington. Through the first three games this season, the Redskins are tied for eighth.
Monday, of their 16 fourth quarter plays 14 were runs.
“We had very quick drives,” offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said. “We’re happy with how we’ve run the ball this year. It’s something I believe in and when the game dictates, it’s what we’ll do.”
And Shanahan said, “When you have a one-point lead with seven minutes left, and you’re on your 15-yard line, that is not a time to run out the clock. You need to do whatever you think you can to move the chains.”
Coach Mike Shanahan said his goal is for his teams to be around the top 10 in the league in carries.
“If not, that means we’re not as effective as we need to be [offensively],” he said.
2. Kyle Shanahan said quarterback Rex Grossman’s job is to “protect the ball” on his fumble.
“He has to make sure to keep two hands on it,” Shanahan said.
OK, that’s not a surprise because it’s obvious Grossman needed to better protect the ball. The problem is, on a similar play earlier in the game Grossman carried the ball the same way. He just happened to get out of bounds. It’s an issue; it’s been an issue throughout his career.
3. Receiver Anthony Armstrong (hamstring), fullback Darrel Young (hamstring) and safety DeJon Gomes (hamstring) all were limited in practice Thursday. They’re expected to be game-time decisions at St. Louis on Sunday.
4. Now on to defensive coordinator Jim Haslett. Yes, he defended his blitz call but that also is to be expected. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, then you shouldn’t be in his position. His point: that cover zero blitz worked the first nine times they ran it this season.
“Would you take it back? Yeah, of course you would,” said Haslett, speaking publicly about this play for the first time. “Coaches always second guess themselves, but it’s a great defense.”
All night Dallas had thrown short against that blitz; they were going to do so again. Haslett said he talked to a Dallas assistant who said Dez Bryant was supposed to run a comeback route. It was obvious he wanted to go short during the game. Then Tony Romo improvised.
“It was on the fly,” Haslett said. “He got the ball and started running for his life and just threw it up. They made a play and we didn’t.”
5. Not surprised by this, but Haslett wasn’t bothered by DeAngelo Hall’s comments after the game. Haslett was unfazed by comments Hall made last season, too.
“He’s an emotional guy, he’s high strung,” Haslett said. “He felt bad about the play. Stuff like that doesn’t bother me. I played the game. I was probably worse than that. I understand; guys get like that.”
6. Haslett called Monday’s outing the best game for safety Oshiomogho Atogwe and corner Josh Wilson. Have to agree with him. And Haslett said LaRon Landry played an excellent game – and longer than anticipated.
“I was surprised he could last that long,” he said. “It means he’s in great shape and that he had no mental errors for a guy that hasn’t done much. He had one technique error but he was sharp. He played great. He covered a lot of the field and tackled well.”
7. Nose tackle Chris Neild is going to develop into quite a personality for Washington. The more fans get to know him, the more they will like him. Just a prediction. Go back and watch Landry’s hit on Laurent Robinson along the sidelines and see which player is one of the first to get over there – and the first to shout down at Robinson. Yes, it’s Neild, who was then shoved away by defensive line coach Jacob Burney. Neild said he could see the hit coming and was just a bit amped. He also said he has no idea what he shouted to Robinson.
8. Neild also is playing much better. Have to admit when we watched him in practice this summer he was far from being ready to help. This is where trained eyes help and coaches clearly saw stuff they liked. Now everyone else is seeing it; gee, you think they know more than us? Hmmm.
Anyway, Neild played 18 snaps Monday according to Haslett. The heat and humidity meant he would get more action, but his performance means he’ll continue to get more.
“We might have to give him more time,” Haslett said. “Every time he’s out there he keeps showing us stuff.”
9. Neild said there’s a reason why he’s playing better and in some ways it’s very subtle. He said early in camp and in the preseason games he wasn’t putting enough weight on his hand. Neild said he wanted to be able to see the whole offense.
“Sometimes I would lean back too far and almost have no weight on my hands,” Neild said. “It would slow down my game because I would think about it too much.”
Now, he said, he’s “definitely more comfortable in my stance.”
Neild also said he was guessing too often early on – guessing where the linemen were going and what play was being run.
It’s made a big difference.
10. Running back Tim Hightower is well aware that the Rams allow 5.4 yards per carry. It means something – and it doesn’t. When asked if he’s “licking his chops” about this opportunity, Hightower said, “Yes and no because it’s so hard; different teams show up different weeks. They had a rough loss last week too. I don’t think they’ll be the same team they were last week as I don’t think we’re going to be the same team we were Monday night. A part of you says yeah there are opportunities. You are what you are. You can’t hide that. But you don’t want to fall into that trap and say one team’s success guarantees another’s.”
11. Mike Shanahan said the players will practice Monday and Tuesday, then be off until the following Monday. He wanted them to know their schedule so they could focus more on the game than on what their schedule will be during the bye week.
12. Haslett on Phil Costa’s accusation that the Redskins were calling out the snap count: “I thought it was a guy who needs to get the snap back better.”
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