Here are the five biggest takeaways from the Washington Redskins’ 24-13 loss to the New York Giants, dropping the Skins to 3-11:
1. Colt McCoy gets injured after not looking 100% to start.
In the beginning of the week it looked as if Colt McCoy would be unable to be ready for this game, but he recovered enough and was named the starter. After nicely marching the team down the field on the opening offensive possession, McCoy aggravated his neck injury when getting pushed forward by the offensive line after being wrapped up by Jason Pierre-Paul.
After settling for a field goal on the drive, McCoy headed to the locker room with the same neck injury. Although he returned to the sidelines before the next offensive possession, he did not return to the game.
2. Robert Griffin steps in shows glimmers of hope.
Starting the second offensive possession at quarterback, Robert Griffin was given a chance to redeem himself after being benched earlier a few weeks ago. After a rocky first possession where Griffin’s indecisiveness led to yet another sack that ended a possession, Griffin responded with a nice touchdown possession comprised of three impressive down the field passes.
Two possessions later, it looked like Griffin succeeded in putting his body on the line to get more points. Scrambling to his right, he outraced a defender to the pylon and appeared to leap into the end zone. It didn’t turn out to be the case, however, as he was ruled to have lost possession of the ball before reaching the end zone and dd not recover before falling out of bounds.
Griffin looked average for the remainder of the second half after all momentum was loss. Griffin made some nice plays with his legs to extend players but at times continued to take sacks after not making the correct reads. It will be another interesting soap opera to follow for the rest of the week as we see who will start against Philadelphia.
3. The defense plays well except against Odell Beckham Jr.
While missing a handful of opening day starters, the defense did a good job stopping the hot Andre Williams to less than three yards a carry.
However, the defense could do nothing to stop the Giants sole receiving threat in Odell Beckham Jr. Beckham completely torched the defense, scoring touchdowns against David Amerson and E.J. Biggers twice. Beckham accounted for exactly half of the Giants’ offense and all of the team’s points and it became maddening that Jim Haslett did not find a way to double Beckham to take that option away. It is ridiculous to think of that one player can beat an entire professional football team but that was the case on Sunday.
4. An undisciplined football team racks up the penalties.
The Redskins committed 10 penalties for a total of 130 yards, five of which were personal foul 15-yard infractions. Two came against Baushad Breeland, who now has a reputation for letting his emotions get the best of him, two against Santana Moss who was verbally assaulting the referees at the end of the half, and one on Nick Sundberg for a late frustration hit out of bounds.
These kind of undisciplined fouls are what costs teams games and could have easily been the difference today with the huge turning point at the end of the first half.
5. Next week a small chance to play spoiler.
Although the Redskins could play a major factor in the decision of who wins the NFC East title by playing Philadelphia and Dallas over the next two weeks, it is hard to see them pulling the upset in either case. The Redskins are completely beat up on both sides of the ball and continue to be unable to settle on a starting quarterback which does not help any situation.
Just two more games until the Redskins to attempt to make major improvements in the offense through the draft, free agency, and possible coaching overhauls. This team has to start spending their money smarter instead of on free agent busts like Andre Roberts and Shaun Lauvao if they intend to not being cellar dwellers for the near future.