Record : 2-2
The Redskins lost to the Cincinnati Bengals at home, which was the Redskins and RGIII's first home game. They lost by the final score of 38-31, falling to 1-2 for the year. The theme continued for the 3rd straight week, as the Defense gave up huge plays to the Bengals, including the opening trick passing play by one Bengals WR, Mohamed Sanu, to another WR, A.J. Green, for a one play TD pass going for 73 yards. Although the Defense did make some plays, overall they gave up huge passing plays, giving Andy Dalton a 328 yards passing with 3 TD's to 1 INT day, completing 19 out of 27 attempts. Although A.J. Green is a somewhat big name in the WR ranks, the Bengals Offense was not known for big plays, but against the Redskins, they played big. On a positive note for the Redskins Defense, they forced a fumble by BenJarvus Green-Ellis, the Bengals RB who had previously carried the ball 480 times without a fumble. In fact, this was his first fumble in his NFL career, which started in 2008.
The Redskins Offense did not have a great game, with RG3 completing 21 out of 34 passes for 221 yards and only 1 TD. He did, however, rush for 85 yards on 12 attempts, with a very nice TD run in the Redzone. Having said that, he got destroyed by the Bengals Defense, getting his 24 times, including 6 sacks, and one of the hardest hits he has received this year in an option play. There were reports that he had received a concussion test after one of the drives, but he was not hurt. Alfred Morris had an average day, rushing 17 times for 78 yards and 1 TD, since he had to share carries with RG3. When the QB rushes for more yards than your RB, it usually does not end well.
There were a number of questionable calls by Mike Shanahan in the game, including challenging a Redskins punt which was called a touchback on the field. In my opinion, they wasted a timeout there, and with having burned the other two timeouts earlier, that left them with none at the end of the game, where they were trying to go for a game winning drive.
Overall an average performance by the Offense, and a (what has become the norm) poor performance by the Defense.
Now onto Sunday's game against the Buccaneers.
The Redskins were able to win the game by the final score of 24-22, and reaching a .500 record at 2-2. They won the game with a Billy Cundiff FG from 41 yards. But Cundiff is not the hero of the game, in my opinion. Previously he had missed 3 FG's, which placed the Redskins in the situation of trying for a game winning FG. If he had made those 3, then it would have been a different story at the end.
The Redskins cut Graham Gano in preseason because he had missed 10 FG last year. As I had mentioned before, 5 of those were blocked, and 2 were from over 50 yards. Last year, he had made 4 out of 6 FG's from beyond 50 yards. So this year, the Redskins brought in Billy Cundiff to remedy the accuracy of the Kicker. What does Cundiff do? Well, as mentioned above, he missed 3 FG's. One from 41, one from 57, and one from 31. Now the one from 57 yards is not entirely on him, it is on the coaching staff, mainly Mike Shanahan. Cundiff's career long FG was 56 yards, back in 2005. Since then, and including this year before the Bucs game, he was 1 out of 10 tries from beyond 50, with the only made FG being from 51 yards. He had missed one from 50+ this year already, so I have no idea why in the world would Shanahn think that Cundiff could make a 57 yard FG. That is beyond idiotic, and if I didn't know any better, I would start to think that Shanahan had not clue what is going on. But that is another topic all together. Back to Cundiff and his two other misses. The other two were on him, and reminded me of last year's game against the Patriots where he missed a last minute FG from close range, which would have given the Ravens the win. So all those people, including the Redskins coaching staff, that didn't want Gano to be the kicker this year, are most likely regretting that fact, as he had a very strong leg.
Now onto the second bad thing about the game, and it should not come as a surprise, the Redskins Defensive unit. For most of the game they had actually been playing well, keeping the Bucs out of the endzone, and making plays. But towards the end of the game, their now true colors came through once again. The Redskins were leading 21-6 at the end of the half, which is a very solid lead. But by the end of the 4th quarter, they were behind 22-21, after giving up a number of deep passing plays to Vincent Jackson. The they keep the Bucs to only 80 yards rushing in total, but they gave up 299 yards in the air, with Jackson finishing the day with 100 yards on 6 receptions, and Mike Williams with 115 yards on 4 receptions. Those are not good stats.
The Redskins Offense had a very good day, which it needed to. RG3 threw for 323 yards, completing 26 out of 35 passes. He did not find the endzone with his arm, but he was able to do so with his legs, rushing for 43 yards and a TD. He did have a fumble at the 1 yard line, but luckily, Pierre Garcon, who had returned to the lineup after being out two weeks, was able to jump on the ball for a TD. Alfred Morris had another great day, rushing 21 times for 113 yards and one TD. This against a Buccaneers Defense that had come to the game giving up only an average of 47 yards rushing per game. It appears as though the Redskins have a solid rushing game, and an improving passing game, and are able to make plays and score TD's in the Redzone, something they have not been able to do for many years.
Next week the Atlanta Falcons come to town, and they bring with them a 4-0 record and an average of 365 total yards per game, and a league 3rd best 31 points per game. That Offense is led my Matt Ryan, who has passed for 1162 yards, with 11 TD's and only 2 INT's. He will be passing to Roddy White, who has 3 TD's with an average of 15.3 yards per catch, and Julio Jones, also with 3 TD's and 13.7 yards per catch. If the Redskins secondary does not step up their game big time, they are going to have major problems covering these two big, fast and very talented receivers.