The 3-5 Washington Redskins will look to keep the New Orleans Saints (4-5) from getting to .500 this Sunday at FedEx Field when they host them for Week 10. The home team also will look to match their longest single-season home winning streak in three years and improve their overall record in the process. Washington currently leads the series 16-8 with their most recent victory coming in 2012 when they beat the Saints at their house in a 40-32 shootout.
Unfortunately, the Redskins struggles on the road continued last week as they lost to the New England Patriots 27-10. The offense struggled to get anything going at all, either in the air or on the ground. Hopefully however, playing in the comforts of home may do this team some good and enable them to gain some momentum. The Redskins were 3-5 last year after eight games and but are in a much better place this year versus last.
Head Coach Jay Gruden was asked if he feels more comfortable going into the second half of the season at 3-5 this year compared to last year.
“You never feel comfortable at 3-5,” Gruden said this week to reporters.” You know, I think there’s always got to be a sense of urgency no matter what your record is and we have that getting ready to play an excellent New Orleans Saints team historically. They can put up the yards. Their defense is excellent on third down, so it’ll be a great challenge for us. But I think the most important [thing] is — a coach’s cliché —it’s the most important… and that’s [to] take one game at a time. We can’t look beyond the New Orleans Saints. Each game is very important. Each rep we take at practice is very important. Every minute we spend in the meeting rooms is important and hopefully our guys understand that. So, you know, no rest for the weary, man. We’ve got to get up and play hard.”
This is a perfect time to turn things up and play more physically (and hard) against a Saints team that is struggling as well. New Orleans, with its 29.8 average points allowed and 414.8 yards allowed per game, is ranked among the league’s worst, but the Saints have also managed to produce a three-game win streak. And one of those games was capped by a crazy 52-49 victory over the New York Giants November 1.
With the Saints allowing their opponents an average 122.6 yards rushing, it will be a must for the Redskins coaching staff to look for ways to get the running game back on track.
As discussed in previous weeks, the Burgundy and Gold have a unique backfield with versatile guys; each bringing a different style of running to the table. In order for them to be successful in this department and get back to their early season form, they must eliminate costly mistakes along the offensive line
“We don’t have a lot of mental mistakes in the running game” Gruden said about that area of the offense. “I think guys are going to the right people for the most part. We’re just physically not getting it done from time to time. It might be a cutoff we don’t get. We don’t get our head across the way we should or could. We may lose on a double team. We might give up too much penetration. We might not get up to the backer fast enough. Our tight end might get beat on an inside move on an inside run, which can’t happen. A lot of it is physical — hat placement, fundamentals — more so than…
“[The] mental [part] is you go to the wrong guy,” the coach continued. “You don’t see that very often, so we’ve just got to keep continuing to teach the fundamentals. Like I said the other day, it’s a lot of new guys playing, like [TE Derek] Carrier we just got. [C Josh] LeRibeus is playing center for the first time. [LG Spencer] Long is playing left guard for the first time. [RT Morgan] Moses and [RG Brandon] Scherff were together for the first time on the right side. So we’ve got to bear with them and continue to let them grow and develop. We don’t expect a perfect product all the time, but we do expect them to get better and they will.”
Winning the line of scrimmage will be huge in getting the running game going.
When the running game is a success it opens up an area in which, for the most part, the Redskins have had success… the passing game. The Saints are allowing an average of 292.2 yards per game. Of course, Washington’s receivers must catch the ball in order for the passing game to work but, for most of the season, they have done just that. If Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins can be as sharp as he was last Sunday, they will have a shot at moving the ball down field in chunks and putting points on the board.
Washington’s defense has played pretty well against the pass despite all of the injuries in the secondary. The area of focus and something that has been a huge issue for them has been their ability to stop the run. This unit is ranked 29th, allowing an average of 132.5 yards. In the past five games the Redskins defense has allowed a staggering 748 yards on the ground leaving many scratching their heads as to why.
It all comes back to one simple reason: fundamentals.
Gruden addressed this recently.
”That’s fundamentals, too,” he said. “We’re missing tackles. Yeah, we don’t have a lot of, ‘Oh gosh, I never saw this team run an inside zone before.’ Sometimes we just get bounced out of the hole or we miss a tackle in the hole or what have you. Schematically, we’re always looking to improve our scheme offensively and defensively as coaches. And then we’ve just got to do a better job fundamentally and making sure we’re teaching the fundamentals so the guys can play fast and they’re doing the right thing and when they get in the right spot, finish plays. I think offensively and defensively last week, that’s the most disappointing thing. We were in the right [spot], we just didn’t finish plays, whether it was dropping passes or missing tackles. We’ve got to do a better job of coaching them up and letting them go.”
As he did last week, Saints Head Coach Sean Payton will be looking to take advantage of the Redskins defense by running the football with their workhorse running back Mark Ingram who is averaging 4.2 yards a carry. Washington’s defensive unit as a hole must tackle more effectively by squaring guys up; bending the knees, wrapping the runner up and driving through him to get him to the ground. Far too many times opposing teams are getting yards after the catch or after first contact because of arm tackles and just plain awful technique. If the Redskins can improve in stopping the run and making sure tackles, it will increase their chances of getting the Saints off the field on third down and giving their offense more opportunities.
The Redskins are 3-1 at home this season and, fortunately for them, New Orleans has struggled on the road, winning only one of its four games away. Washington has shown several times this season that this ballclub has the ability to be one that can dominate in the trenches and move the ball at will.
With anything that one does, being consistent and doing the little things is what brings great success. This is something the Burgundy and Gold hopes to show the home crowd Sunday.
Prediction: Washington 24, New Orleans 17