Plusses and Minuses vs. Browns

Yes.

Washington running back Silas Redd out for the season as well | ProFootballTalk (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/08/14/washington-running-back-silas-redd-out-for-the-season-as-well/)

The snake bites keep coming! Oh yeah!
Wow.

Sent from my S6 Edge

Redd wasn't a guarantee to make the roster, still sucks for him

Why do you care if he gets hurt? Not like a big drop off if KC comes in. Honestly at this point losing Niles hurts more then losing RGIII.

Because if he gets hurt we owe him 16M next year. If he sucks and we cut him, we owe him 0. That said, it shows he still doesn't understand the context. This is preseason, why are you taking hits? To me, Cousins is great until his first INT and he crumbles. RG3 is the same way, but after the first big hit - he gets scared and crumbles.

Last night I saw the same team I've been watching for years. It's still early. It's preseason. I saw improvements in the OL play on defense and I think our secondary is better, although Hall may not recover in time for the opener.

Here's what I saw last night:
Pros:
- Preston Smith played well.
- Our rushing attack looked good enough to keep us in games.
- OL overall improved, still not a superior line, but making strides.
- WR group has a lot of talent even without the Jackson in there.
- The Redskins players seems to be building a bond. I didnt see that last year.
- Cousins and McCoy looked pretty good with/vs backups. Again. Preseason and Game 1. Can't put too much stock in that.
- Matt Jones. This kid runs hard. He may be after Morris' spot.

Cons:
- RG3 did not play well. He only had 8 passes, so the jury isn't out. He got 36-ish yards on those passes. I saw him move to the 2nd read a few times which made me happy. Still question the decision making. Even the bomb to Garcon he wasn't decisive, pumped the ball and threw it to the wrong shoulder. Garcon adjusted and should have caught it. While the result looked okay, I highly doubt that was the plan.
- Tackling. Defense was letting them get way too many YAC. Lazy tackling, poor tackling, etc. I was hoping that would change with ol' Haslett outta here.
- Missed assignments. What drove me crazy last year was big plays on coverages that were clearly blown. We had one in the endzone. If they catch the ball near our DB, I'm typically much less upset than standing alone. Only Redskins drop wide open TDs.
- Special Teams. I think we need to look for a Kai replacement. He's a good kicker, but we have gotta start having our opponent on the 20. Roberts fumbles sometimes, that one was bad. Not worth pulling him off yet. I'd be interested in seeing that tiny guy (#19 I believe) that KC threw to a lot trying that role.
- Nothing I saw made me think we can make much noise this year. I hope we're building, but this team, in my opinion, lacks the talent to compete. I simply don't believe in RG3. I hope he proves me wrong. Truly. But I'm not seeing the progression I had hoped to by this time based on camp reports/8 preseason throws.

Minus - Gruden laughing and clapping Garcon on the shoulder after his drop.

Can't find the link, but read earlier today that the Garcon pass was an in-route adjustment based on the safety's reactions that both Garcon and RGIII read the same. As a result, Garcon altered his route and Griffin made the same adjustment on the fly. If Garcon and Griffin are making the same reads and adjustments, that's a good thing and would certainly explain why the pass may not have been better (Garcon should have caught it regardless - two hands on the ball = catch the damn thing).


Also this bit on our 4th round Guard.

John Keim ‏@john_keim
One thing I've noticed: Arie Kouandjio blocks with some attitude. Not sure how he'll develop overall, but has some nasty

If he can develop into a starter, he and Scherff could make our interior OL a whole lotta mean.

Other good stuff from last night:

Johnny Manziel was the Browns’ leading rusher with 14 yards. The Redskins gave the tailbacks very little running room as the combined to rush for just 27 yards.

The good, the bad, and the ugly from Redskins vs. Browns | Rich Tandler's Real Redskins (http://realredskins.com/2015/08/14/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-from-redskins-vs-browns/)

Kai doesn't necessarily need to be replaced as the place kicker because he's poor at kickoffs. Any active player can kickoff. I've seen teams use their punters to do kickoffs. Tres Way has a big leg. Perhaps he'd be willing to give it a try, if asked.

The one thing that the decision-makers shouldn't do is keep doing the same thing and hope for the best. We need better kickoffs. End of story. They need to find a way to get them or the team will surely pay the price for not fixing the problem. If that means Forbath needs to replaced as the placekicker because they can't find anyone on the team who can kickoff through the end zone, than so be it.

Nice article with snap counts for every player last night. Martrell Spaight led the defense. The first team offense played 27% of the team's offensive plays.

Snap Judgments: Redskins @ Browns Snap Counts - Hogs Haven (http://www.hogshaven.com/2015/8/14/9151315/snap-judgments-redskins-browns-snap-counts)

Plus:

Scherff is going to be good. When he is able to lock onto someone he wins. His hands were too slow some.

Moses looks serviceable.

Alfmo. Jones.

Niles Paul was owning 99 until injured.

Hatcher looked liked the most explosive pass rusher at times. Baker too. Murphy has unbelievable reaction time to the snap. He also looked a lot stronger. Smith is long and strong.

I consider it a plus that our first team consisted of 3 back up LBs. Murphy, Smith, and Houston Bates.


Minus:

Special teams sucked. Our kickoffs are terrible. Fumble, etc., etc.

Too many missed tackles.

We didn't have an explosive pass rush with the exception of flashes from Hatcher. Murphy and Smith don't have that initial move to beat anybody. (Murphy did thread two defender's on the scramble pass. More attributable to his reaction to the snap than an explosive move.) They apply strong steady pressure but are not the explosive rushers that panic QBs. Should improve drastically with starters.

DHall looked a little rusty.

Our back up TEs (Hamm and Dixon) looked weak blocking.

Maybe he needs to see a quarterback psychiatrist. I cannot remember a guy looking so good one minute, then having a complete melt down and then looking the the worst QB to ever wear an NFL uniform.

KC had a couple of real bad quarters of football. Expected from a player with limited starts. Peyton threw 28 picks his first year. Drew Brees has had some big int years. Romo and Luck same deal. The difference is those organizations let their qb's play through their mistakes. KC wasn't given that opportunity and may never get that here. Not with Snyder insisting that Griffin be handed the job after two years of sub par play. Had Shanahan been given more time here, KC would have at least had a chance to compete for the job.