The Washington Redskins won a big Week 6 NFC matchup with the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, but despite being victorious, coaches and players spoke about the need for consistency.
Washington will now have a chance Sunday afternoon to break a trend that has been developing all season long when they face divisional rival, the Dallas Cowboys.
It was obvious after the game that Redskins coaches and players knew that they couldn’t continue the trend of winning big games and then playing flat the following week and losing. Since the start of the season, the Redskins have been impressive in wins over the Arizona Cardinals (Week 1), Green Bay Packers (Week 3) and then yesterday against the Panthers. Unfortunately, the Burgundy and Gold have fallen on their faces in follow up contests in Week 2 against the Indianapolis Colts and last Monday night against the New Orleans Saints in Week 5. During loses, the play calling has been inconsistent as the Redskins offense struggled to find balance in the run and passing games. On defense, the Redskins were plagued by miscommunication far too often.
Quarterback Alex Smith mentioned that the team must get their minds set for a great week ahead.
“ … We’ve got to have a great plan, get our mindset back, recover, have a great week of preparation with all the details all week with the greatest sense of urgency as we prepare,” Smith said. “Then you have to go out there on game day and execute, so there’s a thousand things that have to get done and battle as you’re trying to win, to help you get a W.”
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Safety D.J. Swearinger said after the win that the team can’t go up and down and has to stay consistent in their preparation. The vocal safety also issued the message to his teammates that there shouldn’t be any laughing this week but to be businesslike with the Cowboys coming to town on Sunday.
Today while speaking to the media from his weekly Monday press conference from the INOVA Sports Performance Center at Redskins Park, coach Jay Gruden chimed in about the team needing consistency.
“Well, that’s what we are trying to do,” Gruden said. “We’ve been hovering around .500 the last three years here, or four years, I guess it is. That’s something we have to do, we have to handle success equally as well as we handle adversity. These guys have to come in and prepare and understand what’s at stake here every week. Every team is a different opponent with great challenges and Dallas is no different. We know what type of rivalry it is, what type of big game it is for everybody, but the key is to just keep your preparation up and continue to focus, even after a big win, you’ve got to work harder the next week. The better you are, the harder you’ve got to work.
“Like I said, hopefully, it doesn’t take us to get our teeth kicked in like it did on Monday night for us to pick up the tempo in our focus and preparation,” Gruden said. “I feel like we have good preparation. I feel like our guy’s work extremely hard throughout the week but for whatever reason, we’ve had a tendency to have flat game after a big win, for whatever reason. That is something that we have to talk about and make sure we guard against, whatever we have to do.”
The NFC East-leading Redskins one-game game lead over the Cowboys and Phialdephia Eagles. On Sunday, they look to win two consecutive games for the first time this season.