Zorn: Too much space on several coverages
ASHBURN – It was a little too much cushion here, a missed jam there and a whiff on a tackle attempt, or two. Or three. And it added up to frustration for the Redskins’ secondary. Not to mention a lot of third-down success for the New York Giants.
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What won’t change is the Redskins’ strategy of playing off receivers. What must change is their tackling.
“That’s our issue,” said secondary coach Jerry Gray. “We have to be a better tackling secondary to go where we want to go. Those things snowball. Guys understand that.”
They do.
“Missed tackles,” corner DeAngelo Hall said when asked what he didn’t like about the 23-17 loss.
The combination of the missed tackles and the coverage issues prevented the Redskins from third-down success. And it made it difficult in what should be a friendly situation: third-and-long.
On situations where the Giants faced third and at least five yards, they gained 25, 17, 10 and 26 yards. The Redskins prevented a first down only twice in those situations.
The reasons varied. Safety LaRon Landry missed a tackle on the 25-yarder; quarterback Eli Manning had six seconds to throw on the 17-yarder; Hall allowed too much cushion on the 10-yarder and later failed to jam receiver Steve Smith on the final big gain.
“I wouldn’t say he struggled,” Gray said of Hall. “What he has to do is go challenge the guy. He has the ability to do that. That’s the big thing you have to do and not just be prepared to get interceptions.”
And that relates to what’s perceived as soft coverage. The Redskins like to mix zone and man looks and on almost every play the defensive backs line up around seven yards off the receiver. Hall, for example, played press coverage once vs. the Giants.
But on that play, Gray said, Hall’s technique failed him as he turned his shoulders too soon, allowing Smith to get past.
“If you’re better at the line, you eliminate that completely,” Gray said.
Monday, Redskins coach Jim Zorn said there was too much cushion on some coverages. But Gray didn’t think that was the case.
“Not really,” Gray said. “Other than [one screen pass] what other off-man coverage was too much? To me, you can challenge and press and do those things, but you still have to make a play.”
But, Gray said, what happens sometimes is the corners get caught looking too long at the quarterback. Hall does that on occasion; it helps him read the play longer, but it also allows the receiver to get free.
Regardless of the reason, the end result was unsatisfactory.
“They made plays and we didn’t get off the field,” corner Carlos Rogers said. “That’s something we have to correct. There’s a lot of things we do [well] in practice that we didn’t do in games.”
