Do the Washington Redskins need to make a major change?

 

So it seems that my predictions have not come true to this point.  I had the Redskins being 1-1 going into the 3rd week, and easily handing the Eagles a loss and loosing in a close game to the Packers.  In both games, as is well known, the Redskins looked bad.  The Offense could not get anything going until the second half in each game, and the Defense couldn't stop anyone and were missing tackles left and right.  Although RGIII did start the season, he does not look like the RGIII of last year, nor does Alfred Morris look as dominant as he did last year.  All those things combined have put major doubts in the minds of the fans.  The two main topics of discussion has been benching RGIII until he is back to form and starting Kirk Cousins, and the firing of Jim Haslett, the Defensive coordinator.  I don't agree with either of those two options, and I will try and explain why below.

First let us take a look at the idea of starting Cousins in place of RGIII.
To me, even thinking about this is ridiculous.  We all know that RGIII is the future of this team, not Kirk Cousins.  If the team really thought that highly of Cousins, they would not have traded a bunch of draft picks to move up and get Griffin, and would have just waited until the 4th round and picked up Cousins.  Same with all the other teams in the NFL, they would have taken Cousins much sooner.  Now could it be that Cousins is better than he was projected, yes, and in fact that is true.  But that does not mean he is better than Griffin.  As I said, Griffin is the future of the team, and if you bench him now, after starting him in week 1, not only will that interrupt his comeback, it will also mess with his head.  Many young QB's have been benched, and were not able to recover from that, having doubt in their own abilities.  You might say that RGIII would be fine, and can come back without any problems, once he is 100% both physically and mentally.  Sure, but that does not mean that Cousins will give you a better chance of winning.  Let us look at why RGIII is not successful.
Last year he was running all over the place based on the zone-read-option.  Doing this froze most, if not all, of the players who had contain on his side.  They didn't know if Griffing was going to hand the ball off or run it himself.  If they stayed in place, even for a second, then Griffin would hand the ball off to Alfred and he would hit the line hard.  If they went in for Alfred, Griffin would keep the ball and make a huge run, or simply pass it.  This year, the Eagles and the Packers gambled that Griffin won't run, so the players that had contain didn't worry about the possibility of RGIII keeping the ball himself, and crashed in on Alfred.  This makes it much harder for Alfred to find holes, since he has a guy bearing down on him from the side, so he can't cut back.  So the Redskins started passing, and didn't try the zone-read.  Again, since the Defense did not have to worry about Griffin making a run for it, they came after him hard, and the O-Line had no chance of stopping the attack.  The O-Line is designed for a zone rushing attack, which is perfect for the zone-read-option.  But they are not built for a traditional passing offense, they get beat and pushed around easily when they have to stand their ground.  Even though Griffin has not made any big runs, there is still a slight threat of him doing so.  But if the Redskins put Cousins in, that small threat is gone.  With Cousins starting, the Defense wouldn't even have to gamble, and could easily bring everything to stop the pass and stuff Alfred.  Sure Cousins can scramble, but he isn't a threat to break it and make a big run.  With Cousins in the line-up, the number of sacks and QB hits would increase greatly, as would the turnovers.  So the best option is to keep Griffin in, and let him gain confidence in his knee and in his ability to run.

Now onto the possibility of firing Jim Haslett.
Changing coaching staff during the season is never a good idea, in my opinion.  Because even if you promote within, some of the ideas and philosophy will change, and that can hurt the team more than it helps.  Granted, if the coach in question has lost total control over everything, then yes, replacing him/them would be the better option.  In this situation, I really don't think the problem is with Haslett or the Defensive schemes and play calling.  From what I have seen, the main issue is missed tackles.  It doesn't matter who the coach is, it is up to the players to make tackles on the first attempt, and not let the opponent continue to move down the field.  In the Packers game, there were over 30 missed tackles.  That is an insane number for a professional team.  If the Redskins were able to make tackles, they would have been able to get off the field, and give their Offense a better field position.  This was true in both games.  In the Eagles game, they even did a graphic on the number of yards McCoy had after the first hit.  They did it with only 3 of his runs, yet the number was about 50 yards.  Again, another staggeringly high number for a professional team.  Can Haslett do things differently to make the Defense better, sure he can.  But when you have two rookies in the secondary adding to an already suspect squad, you can't bring pressure as much as you would like, since the LB's would have to help out the secondary.  As it is, the front of the Redskins Defense is getting to the QB's, but that is not enough.  It would help if the Defense was able to intercept the ball, but before even getting to that, they need to work on the most fundamental aspect of football: tackling.

The problem with the Redskins isn't just a player or two, or a coach.  It is the whole team.  They are making mistakes that they weren't making last year.  They do not have full confidence in their own abilities and strengths.  They have doubts, on both sides of the ball.  That is something that they need to work out over time, and I know they will work it out.  Does that mean that the Redskins will go on a winning streak starting these coming weeks?  No it does not.  But it does help that they are playing against the Lions at home, and then against the Raiders, one of the worst teams in the NFL.  They should be able to use these two games to get back on track and get back to where they were last year, at least I hope they can.