Ashburn, Va. – As Redskins head coach Jay Gruden roamed the city of Houston, Texas Saturday night in his traditional pre-game city walk, he might have been thinking about his game plan for the opposing team the following day or he might have been thinking that his stomach was growling pretty loud. Whatever was going through his mind, it’s not likely that he was imagining his team allowing a blocked extra point attempt or blocked punt.
There were other plays Gruden would not have envisioned as his team lost 17-6 to the Houston Texans. For instance, there were two fumbles given up in the red zone. One of his best players bumped into another during what could have been game-changing punt return. And then there was his second-year safety taking a hideously bad angle, letting the opposition wide out waltz right into the end zone for a touchdown.
These types of plays not only shock and dismay coaches, they force him, his staff and his team into serious self-examination. Jay Gruden… welcome to your new job in the National Football League. You are now officially baptized into the Kingdom of Head Coaching.
During his Monday post-game press conference, Gruden did not skirt the issue of the part he played in the loss the previous day. He used words like “if I had to do it all over again…” more than once although not immediately.
After the game, there was a lot of discussion on sports talk radio and TV about whether or not the Redskins ran the ball enough. Early in the presser, Gruden was asked if he thought he should have called more run plays in the second half.
“We had a good balance [in the play-calling between run and pass plays]” Gruden answered. “I think we had about six plays in the two-minute warning/two-minute drills in the first half, and about eight passes in the two-minute drill in the fourth quarter. That’s 14 passes, or somewhere around there — I think we’re right around 50-50 throughout most of the game if you take out the two-minute drills. Some of the plays that really hurt us were when we tried the reverse. We lost nine yards. And some of our boots and designed play-actions to get [quarterback] Robert [Griffin, III] out of the pocket… we were very unsuccessful on those. I think we ran five of those and we completed four of them for like five yards or something. Defense did a great job over there in Houston playing those things, so we’ve got to do a better job on those. When we decide to do some play-actions, we’ve got to do a better job of making the teams pay and at least try to get some better positive plays out of them. We didn’t take advantage of those whatsoever.”
But then a few minutes later, wide out DeSean Jackson’s unique talents were brought up and the question of how to best use him so that he was not ‘just another receiver’ was asked. As the head coach answered the question, it was as if you could see the wheels turning in his head and the realization becoming apparent that, perhaps he could have used running backs Alfred Morris and/or Roy Helu, Jr. more. Without the threat of the run, the downfield passing game does not open up. That’s when he admitted he perhaps could have called more rushing plays.
“He is very explosive and throwing him some short balls, letting him run after the catches is one thing,” Gruden said of his star receiver. “But we’ve got to get him the ball out in space a little bit more, and we tried the reverse and it didn’t quite work. There are some other things we need to try moving forward to get him the ball because he’s electric when he gets the ball. It’s good to see him out there. He competed very well; Pierre [Garçon] did too – but we’ve got to utilize those guys a little bit more, but when you say that, you talk about not utilizing your running game. So we’ve got to have good balance on our team, but it does start with the run game. If I had to do it all over again Sunday, I probably would have run the ball more than I did.”
Gruden’s honesty and openness in his dealings with the media is refreshing. There is none of the rhetoric or double-talk that we heard so much with one very recent head coach.
With all of the negatives in the game against the Texans on Sunday, the positives should be noted. The defense played well (except for safety Bacarri Rambo’s miss on Houston receiver DeAndre Hopkins’ touchdown) until they wore down in the fourth quarter and couldn’t get off of the field. Wide out Andre Roberts has shown that the Redskins finally have a downhill-running grown man returning kicks and punts. The special teams’ coverage was much better than in 2013 so far. Griffin has a rocket-of-an-arm and can throw the ball accurately; his pass to tight end Niles Paul was perfect albeit the resulting fumble on the play was tragic. Not enough can be said about Morris and even Helu in the run game. And, despite the problems with the pass protection, the Redskins’ offensive line creates the holes necessary for the two aforementioned backs to get it done more often than not.
It’s easy to imagine the reaction of Redskins fans all over the nation when the final seconds ticked away during their team’s loss to another bad team (the Texans were 2-14 last season). “Aw sheesh… here we go again.” Or “Can we EVER get our special teams right?” And “RGIII is never going to be right again.”
The good news is that, while it was, at times, ugly and frustrating; much of what happened on Sunday is correctible. For instance, while Gruden wasn’t happy about Helu’s missed block that let Houston rookie RB Alfred Blue get in and stop Tress Way’s punt, he admitted that it could have been avoided had he done something differently. After stating that Helu “just was out to lunch on that one play,” he explained why that would not keep him from trusting his player in that same situation at a later date after a mistake like that.
“The thing was Roy was in that series at running back,” Gruden explained, “and we went three and out. We ran the reverse, they got the loss and we ran two other plays. Roy said he was a little bit winded and lost a little bit of focus and so, that’s an instance when we might have to put a defensive player in that spot at that time.”
It is not unusual to hear typical coach-speak after a team’s loss in the NFL. We often hear statements from coaches like ‘I need to do a better job.’
But Gruden has a way of expounding on what he says that indicates he is not just spewing the ‘same old thing.’ It’s not only refreshing, it should give fans hope. This is not a “my way or the highway” kind of guy and, if his team knows that, they are more likely to want to win for him.
Jay Gruden is not only a new head coach leading the Redskins; he is a rookie head coach. He is going to make mistakes in his “execution” just like the players will. He has been a play-caller before but not while also carrying the responsibilities that come with being a head coach on game day. That he is honest enough to admit he can do things better is a good thing.
“Yeah, we could have done better in the first half,” the coach answered yesterday when asked if he could have called the game differently. “[In the] first half we were poor. I was poor in the first half and we could have had a nice lead. However, we didn’t execute and I took some shots with play-actions that failed miserably, and didn’t quite work out, but you’re right.”
Hail.