Redskins-Bears Reviews (and Analysis)

[GTripp0012]

Offense

It's not as easy task to find positives from this game. Among the many things that went wrong: the Redskins converted just two third downs in this game, both on the same drive, and both through the air. They ran on only one of 12 third down attempts, and that was not a successful run. Donovan McNabb himself was 2/11 in converting third downs through the air. He was only a 40% passer in those situations, and took a pair of sacks (though one sack was nullified by the Bears being offside. The Redskins went 3 and out 5 times, and 7 more times their drives lasted 5 plays or fewer. They did not have a drive last longer than 5 plays after the first quarter.

However, they did do a number of things well in the passing and the running games, and they did these things well throughout the games, just going unrewarded after the first quarter. The Redskins had 9 plays that moved the ball more than 10 yards through the air, which was fewer than what Chicago had, but is still respectable. They had far more ground success than the Bears did, with Ryan Torain ripping off runs of 27, 23, 20, 11, 10, and 9 yards. Add those 6 runs up: it's 100 yards.

Torain, though, more than any other player on this team runs hot and cold in the context of a single game. Torain had 15 carries that gained just 25 yards in this game, with 6 of his carries gaining the other 100. Torain is at his best once he is more than 5 yards downfield because he is a mismatch for pursuing linebackers, undersized corners, and all kinds of safeties. That's a valuable skill, but it does not excuse Torain's role in stringing plays out to the side, which risks holding situations and can result in 4 or 5 yard losses where there was zero backfield penetration. Torain's largest loss of the day was actually called back by holding on Jammal Brown, so Brown takes the blame for Torain's inability to go forward. Because in addition to the "lost yards" criticism Torain also put the ball on the ground twice, he's a tough nominee for player of the game.

There's obviously plenty of blame to go around for the turnovers. McNabb threw 2 interceptions, probably should have been charged with a third except his own time-management error prevented it from counting. McNabb fumbled twice on sacks, doubling his season total. That's five potential turnovers on McNabb alone, but only one was actually costly: the pick six by DJ Moore. Torain's fumbles were more costly, and Cooley is more of a "fumbler" than we would be lead to believe. Brandon Banks fumbled on the first play of the game, and only got it back thanks to a miracle roll. There was a common thread in the non-McNabb fumbles, and that's the fact that Chicago CB Charles Tillman matched DeAngelo Hall blow for blow in interceptions with game-changing forced fumbles, and that player of the week award could easily be his -- had the Bears been fortunate enough to recover more than one of those fumbles, which of course was recovered by Tillman himself. Tillman essentially turned every one of the Redskins ballcarriers into a mobile version of the Jay Cutler turnover machine.

If you threw out all the fumbles, interceptions, and sacks in this game, and the missed field goal, the Redskins had only one problem all day, which was the inability to convert great field position into points. Keep in mind though that one of the reasons the Redskins were able to start so many drives in Bears territory is because (while the defense got 3 and outs early) the offense had great success moving the ball out of their own territory quickly. Looking at the great field position and only ten points scored as a missed opportunity is one way to think about it, but the alternative is to think about it as playing the game on the other teams' half of the field where one defensive mistake results in points for the offense. By that perspective, credit the Bears defense for never breaking in this game, because the Redskins offense was able to move the ball in longer fields. I have had a couple of opportunities to study the Bears before this, and I can say that this is not a first time occurance for the Bears: they generally get more aggressive and more successful on defense the closer they get to their own goal. This is to say: our offensive failures were more the Bears defense dictating to us what we could do rather than the Redskins offense shooting themselves in the foot.

Were the Bears 2/11 on third downs dominant? No, they were not. In that down, with an average distance to gain of 7.2 yards, the Redskins have to be better. But the Redskins offense didn't stall because of a design flaw or because a terrible time in first or second down, it stalled because in convert-or-punt situations, we were punting. The longest 3rd down we converted: 2 yards.

Improving on Third Downs

What to my game notes suggest to be the problem in long downs. I will transcribe:

*3-2 Tim Jennings had late contact on Moss, with no flag. The Redskins had just run for 13 yards in 2 plays. A quick pass on 3rd and 2? For real?
*3-10 McNabb had pressure in his face and used a quick release to get the ball to Cooley at the sticks. Cooley drops it.
*3-2 Moss got wide open in the weakness of the defense (middle) off a rub concept using Cooley.
*3-1 Effective boot action got McNabb outside of pressure, but Cooley was covered. He stopped his route giving McNabb a place to dump the ball for a conversion.
*3-8 Moss is jammed hard inside 5 yards by Tinoisamoa and never regains his balance as McNabb anticipated him open over the middle. McNabb was right and Moss just didn't execute.
*3-7 Rabach gave up middle pressure off a stunt by Peppers and McNabb launched this one downfield high, missing his receiver by a ton. Two closest players were Chicago's safeties
*3-11 The Bears brought one more than the Redskins can block, McNabb took maybe a fraction of a second more time than he had, and couldn't get it to Galloway who wasn't going to have the first down anyway.
*3-10 McNabb beats a blitz successfully, thanks to a big time pickup by K. Williams. Cooley is hit in-stride with a good throw, but gets shoved to the sideline a half yard short of first down yardage.
*3-9 This was an ugly play from the start, disasterous timing, multiple free runs on McNabb and a tight throw that gets to Moss who comes up three yards short and wasn't trying to get much more.
*3-8 The Bears stunt and get the edge pressure on Trent Williams, causing McNabb to pull the trigger a lot sooner than he wanted to with things developing downfield.
*3-11 Trent Williams is beaten far too quickly and to the inside, and Idonije forces a fumble on McNabb. McNabb had poor ball security in the pocket, but he also was trusting Williams to make that block.
*3-1 A run with Torain where Rabach and Lichtensteiger get zero push at the line of scrimmage, and Torain cuts it back into them.


A couple of years ago when I was trying to figure out why the 2008 Redskins could move the ball so effectively and not score, I couldn't pin it all on one fatal flaw, but rather, too many mediocre performances that weaknesses really shined through when the margin of error got tight inside the opponent's 30 yard line. That's probably similar to what is happening here on third downs. It would be easy to chalk it up to a small sample and expect our third down performance to reflect our first and second down performance in time, but I don't think that's the case.

Rather I think that when you talk about the mediocre players on the offense, it really puts pressure on them in third downs when the defense can raise the level of play on the offense in an attempt to get off the field, you really need every individual to do their job to the best of their ability to be a great third down team. Here's a complete list of starters who didn't have a third down gaffe leading to a punt or turnover:

Anthony Armstrong, Mike Sellers.

That's probably just by circumstance, as neither Armstrong or Sellers was gaffe-free in this game (though I thought Sellers had his best game of the year). And it was Armstrong's drop that put us in a third down situation we should not have been in, leading to a Cooley drop.

Nothing about the Pass Protection unit?

The thing here is that the Bears' defensive ends had a whale of a game going against us on stunts and speed rushes alike. Julius Peppers was all over the place on film, as was Israel Idonije. But the Bears defensive tackles, aside from a nice tipped pass or run stop by Matt Toeina here or there, were non-factors in this game from the start to the finish. DT Anthony Adams is having a great season for Chicago, and he was neutralized most of the day by Lichtensteiger, Rabach, and Hicks. Cooley had a great day blocking, both against the run and the pass, sometimes given Peppers in a one-on-one assignment (with help to the inside, as long as he wouldn't get beaten around the edge).

The Redskins like to use Cooley as a blocker because he is versatile, and expands the edge on the opponent, taking away the ability of teams to stunt and exploit Rabach or Hicks, both of whom really struggle to sort protections and get everyone picked up. On the other side of the interior line, Lichtensteiger is great at sorting protections, but he and Rabach can both be overpowered by skilled linemen on the rush.

The Bears run defense had an issue whenever we could get on Peppers, Urlacher, and Briggs on the same play. They really ask a lot of their stars, and I think Shanahan^2 took advantage of it with a full on assault of rushing concepts, mostly zone concepts but some man, just throwing the whole kitchen sink at a Bears run defense that is among the best in the NFL. We really gave them way too many looks to properly adjust to at halftime, which along with great open field running ability, was the reason for Ryan Torain's big fourth quarter. That, and securing the football, finally.

Torain and Keiland Williams are both developing excellently as pass protectors. Outside of Trent Williams, the biggest difference between last year's pass pro and this year's pass pro is that we really are staying on our guys, making sure that it's not okay for Torain and Williams to be Marcus Mason and Quinton Ganther on blitz pickups. It's night and day the kind of protection our current replacement backs are giving compared to what we got from last year's replacement backs. Torain and Williams are both somewhere near Rock Cartwright in pass protection ability, which is respectably above average. Mason and Ganther might have well been paper cutouts of themselves. We're also using Cooley more creatively in protection schemes, without really taking away what Cooley does in pass patterns. It also helps the unit that Stephon Heyer is not overextended beyond his capabilities. Heyer was the RT for one drive in this game: the Redskins only TD drive.

The final piece in the protection unit is McNabb, but I'm not sure what kind of upgrade in the protection unit we're getting from him at this point. He's hurting, and hasn't been able to extend plays much since the Green Bay game, and McNabb holds the ball just a fraction of a second too long on some plays. I do think it's in an honest attempt to make a play happen downfield though, not that McNabb is unaware of his assignments as a quarterback. Like I said, I'm just not sure if we've upgraded the pass protection unit at the quarterback position. It seems clear that we're certainly not any worse off than last year.

[GTripp0012]

Defense

This review could easily examine nothing more than the ineptitude of the Bears offensive line, which doesn't execute nearly well enough to play at most successful D-I colleges. For the Bears though, the bigger problem is that it may be too late to fix the problem: when they did pick up the Redskins rush to give Cutler a clean pocket, they were playing with a quarterback who was unable to complete passes to wide open receivers in the Redskins zone secondary. As Redskins fans have seen over the last 21 games, what Bears fans are seeing with Cutler could be a function of the perception of pressure and the breakdown of passing fundamentals, even when pressure isn't really there. The Bears OL lost the battle with the Redskins pass rush, but they played above expectation in this game: it was expected that the Redskins would get to Cutler early and often, and they were there often if not early, but not often enough to explain the Bears' passing game woes.

Pass Pressure on Jay Cutler

The Redskins had 11 pressures on the quarterback, plus three sacks in addition to these pressures (the Rocky McIntosh sack was the result of a pressure). They knocked him to the ground a number of times. However, this amount of pressure was not out of line for the Redskins facing even a good pass protection unit and quarterback combo, so it should be argued that the Bears OL raised it's level of play, particularly J'Marcus Webb (2 sacks allowed, 1 holding penalty) and Olin Kreutz (0 sacks, 1 pressure allowed). The Redskins were obviously going to win any match-up with Orakpo in it, and if you had told Bears OL coach Mike Tice that Albert Haynesworth was going to make a mockery of the pass blocking abilities of LG Chris Williams in this game, Tice would have pulled out whatever remains of his hair. But the Bears won the rest of their matchups. All the rest of the Redskins pass rushing success came against blocking TE Brandon Manumaleuna, who has been a disappointment since signing a big money contract (for a TE) with the Bears.

Cutler had decent protection all day, especially in the second half when halftime adjustments made by Mike Martz kept the Redskins rush completely off balance. The Redskins responded by blitzing against most empty or offset sets employed by Martz. On a play by play basis, this matchup was won by the Bears passing game, getting the open receivers and protection they desired. Nearly any time Cutler was pressured in this second half, he made a bad decision. The thing was, Cutler played most of the second half proactively, attacking the Redskins defense. This mindset may have hurt him when he was trying to wait out his receivers on a blitz, as Cutler was painfully inaccurate and never had a clear picture of the defense.

Is our run defense declining?

I don't have a clear, direct answer to this question. With the Bears, there was no reason to prepare during the week to defend the run, as any success the Bears enjoyed with the rushing game would have been academic. The Bears are going to live and die with the pass.

Still, the Bears were able to create chunks of yardage with cutback runs. The Redskins didn't have a backside contain defender, they used an edge rusher to take away Cutler's ability to use the bootleg to move the pocket. This opened up the backside edge for the Bears' running backs, and Chester Taylor used this seam a lot better than Matt Forte did. Forte is the best back in the league outside of the backfield, but he's a below average back inside of it. Many of the interceptions in this game were created by a reliance of the Bears on empty backfield formations, just using their personnel to the best of it's ability. I don't think our run defense is declining, as Albert Haynesworth and Ma'ake Kemoeatu both showed up on film like they haven't all year. But the Bears were able to get their running backs outside of our front six defenders and into the secondary when they wanted to. Fletcher had a couple of tackle attempts that could have been stuffs in the hole, but instead ended up being drag and hold on situations where the runner turns mediocre blocking into a successful gain.

The Lions don't really run it either, so perhaps the Redskins will revisit this at the bye.

DeAngelo Hall

These are Hall's coverage numbers for the first half: 3 targets, 3 completions, 3 first downs allowed, 34 passing yards allowed, 11 YPT. That's more or less Hall's year to date in coverage. When we talk about what a great game he had (and he did have a great game, by all standards), we're essentially just talking about one half. At the half, Hall's season long coverage statistics were horrible. Hall had nearly given up 70% successful completions and had given up 9.3 yards per attempt. Small sample, sure, but no quarterback in NFL history had done that well over any significant length of time. Throwing against Hall, QBs were doing that well.

The crazy thing about small samples is that one half of football can change everything. Hall dropped a yard in YPA for the season in his 7 second half attempts, and dropped more than 6% in terms of allowing successful completions (2/7 in the half and there's no bonus included for interceptions).

More importantly, Hall also provided the offense the Redskins needed to win the game. Two of Halls interceptions were among the difficult variety that I often get on him for not making when I talk about playmaking corners, because the ball wasn't in the air very long. One time, he got inside of Devin Hester on a curl. The other, he got inside of Johnny Knox on a slant. Those are skilled plays by Hall, who also showed up in run support in this half for the first time since week two. He got into the game in a multitude of ways, adding tackles on runners to his interception total. While two of the four interceptions were gifts from Cutler, one of the gifts would have put the Redskins in poor field position...except that Hall took it back 92 yards for the score, the only score of the second half by either team.

That was all the offense the Redskins would need to overcome the Bears in this one, and makes it the second game of seven possible where Hall has tied or led the Redskins in scoring.

Redskins Pass Defense

While pass defense is still the overall weakness of the Redskins, I think it's now safe to say that this 2010 Redskins pass defense is an improved unit compared to our pass defense units of the pass. You do have to consider who they have played: the Bears were an easy draw compared to such a difficult slate of opponents to begin the season. But considering who they played, and then realizing that the Redskins now are in the top half of the league in creating turnovers (more thanks to fumbles than interceptions), that their yards allowed per game is on the decline, and the defense is out there winning ball games against the Packers and the Bears, and keeping them in the game against the Colts, it's critical we don't look at this side of the ball as a liability.

We have a better pass defense than the Jets, Patriots, and Cowboys, per DVOA. Ranking 22nd in anything might not be something to write home about, but those AFC East teams are winning games with similar efforts to how our secondary is playing. They both rank in the top quarter of the league in Total DVOA. We're giving up far fewer points than the Jets or the Patriots or the Cowboys.

We're lacking a little bit in special teams (though our special teams are our one advantage in trying to beat out the Eagles and the Giants for this division). Those teams create points through special teams and points through offense. We prevent points by the opponent through special teams and prevent points through offense. Right now, we're scoring up to league expectation on the defensive side. It's time for the offense, led by Donovan McNabb, and special teams, led by Brandon Banks, to meet up with the defense, led by DeAngelo Hall, in the end zone for much-needed dance choerography.

[SmootSmack]

Torain and Williams pass blocking performances compared to Ganther and Mason isn't something to be overlooked. Good observation

What I'm starting to notice about Kyle Shanahan as I watch and re-watch these games is that he's extremely creative in devising formations and plays but where I think he's struggling is when to use them.

[RobH4413]

Great job as always G-tripp.

Missed the majority of the game unfortunately this week, so glad to catch up this way.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Torain and Williams pass blocking performances compared to Ganther and Mason isn't something to be overlooked. Good observation

What I'm starting to notice about Kyle Shanahan as I watch and re-watch these games is that he's extremely creative in devising formations and plays but where I think he's struggling is when to use them.

I think the fact that the offense isn't clicking play-to-play is limiting his ability to freely call some stuff. He's sticking to the stuff he trusts McNabb to execute. I really believe as McNabb picks the offense up it will open stuff up a little and allow KS to be more diverse in play calling. My only complaint this year has been some head-scratcher play calls on 3rd downs generally. We seem to have one or two a game where we eschew the obvious high percentage play for something "creative" that doesn't end up working.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Torain and Williams pass blocking performances compared to Ganther and Mason isn't something to be overlooked. Good observation

What I'm starting to notice about Kyle Shanahan as I watch and re-watch these games is that he's extremely creative in devising formations and plays but where I think he's struggling is when to use them.

I do like he creativity...but knowing when to run it is freaking huge. He is extremely inconsistent, he will "get hot" but that is usually last a quarter or quarter and half at the most. Its just is important for the playcaller to get in a rhythm as well as the quarterback. For some reason when the pace of the game is-i dunno how to put it but-faster?, he and Donovan seem to do well. Id like to see hurry up some, Id like to see shotgun as opposed to Donovan play actioning 4 plays in a row, Id like to see an well excuted screen pass, I dont like to see 3 consecutive boots in the redzone...Ive been up and down on the playcalling and when we try stuff...

[RobH4413]

Game Balls, Gassers & Observations: Redskins 17, Bears 14 - Redskins Journal

another solid breakdown here...

[MTK]

Good stuff here too

Redskins' Playing Time Vs. Bears

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Good stuff here too

Redskins' Playing Time Vs. Bears

Interesting take from Shanny about the 2nd McNabb interception, shifting blame to Galloway stating he needs to be more aware and essentially to look for the ball

[saden1]

There's obviously plenty of blame to go around for the turnovers. McNabb threw 2 interceptions, probably should have been charged with a third except his own time-management error prevented it from counting. McNabb fumbled twice on sacks, doubling his season total. That's five potential turnovers on McNabb alone, but only one was actually costly: the pick six by DJ Moore. Torain's fumbles were more costly, and Cooley is more of a "fumbler" than we would be lead to believe. Brandon Banks fumbled on the first play of the game, and only got it back thanks to a miracle roll. There was a common thread in the non-McNabb fumbles, and that's the fact that Chicago CB Charles Tillman matched DeAngelo Hall blow for blow in interceptions with game-changing forced fumbles, and that player of the week award could easily be his -- had the Bears been fortunate enough to recover more than one of those fumbles, which of course was recovered by Tillman himself. Tillman essentially turned every one of the Redskins ballcarriers into a mobile version of the Jay Cutler turnover machine.

McNabb definitely played like crap...I cheered that delay of game penalty...thank god because that would have been the ball game for us. I can't hate on Cooley...that was an amazing pouch out by the Tillman...Got to give Cooley some props for being smart enough to shove the ball out of bounds. Torain I can forgive because he came right back out and played hard and held on to the ball for dear life. All in all this offense needs a lot more work. They are as inept as they come in the NFL.

[GTripp0012]

The local coverage of the Redskins is better than I ever remember it being before this year. Full game breakdowns from Rich Campbell and Ryan O'Halloran are something that Redskins fans are privy to that most teams fans do not get.

CSN and other local news sources must have realized the demand. Their work is something I find quite valuable week to week.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

The local coverage of the Redskins is better than I ever remember it being before this year. Full game breakdowns from Rich Campbell and Ryan O'Halloran are something that Redskins fans are privy to that most teams fans do not get.

CSN and other local news sources must have realized the demand. Their work is something I find quite valuable week to week.

Their post game stuff is a weekly must read. Two thumbs up to both of them.

[30gut]

Good stuff GTripp

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Improving on Third Downs
What to my game notes suggest to be the problem in long downs. I will transcribe:

*3-2 Tim Jennings had late contact on Moss, with no flag. The Redskins had just run for 13 yards in 2 plays. A quick pass on 3rd and 2? For real?
If they're gonna throw a slant i question the choice to throw a slant to Moss-have to believe there was a better play on 3rd and short then a slant
*3-10 McNabb had pressure in his face and used a quick release to get the ball to Cooley at the sticks. Cooley drops it.
execution
*3-2 Moss got wide open in the weakness of the defense (middle) off a rub concept using Cooley.
*3-1 Effective boot action got McNabb outside of pressure, but Cooley was covered. He stopped his route giving McNabb a place to dump the ball for a conversion.
*3-8 Moss is jammed hard inside 5 yards by Tinoisamoa and never regains his balance as McNabb anticipated him open over the middle. McNabb was right and Moss just didn't execute.
*3-7 Rabach gave up middle pressure off a stunt by Peppers and McNabb launched this one downfield high, missing his receiver by a ton. Two closest players were Chicago's safeties
execution
*3-11 The Bears brought one more than the Redskins can block, McNabb took maybe a fraction of a second more time than he had, and couldn't get it to Galloway who wasn't going to have the first down anyway.
execution
*3-10 McNabb beats a blitz successfully, thanks to a big time pickup by K. Williams. Cooley is hit in-stride with a good throw, but gets shoved to the sideline a half yard short of first down yardage.
*3-9 This was an ugly play from the start, disasterous timing, multiple free runs on McNabb and a tight throw that gets to Moss who comes up three yards short and wasn't trying to get much more.
execution
*3-8 The Bears stunt and get the edge pressure on Trent Williams, causing McNabb to pull the trigger a lot sooner than he wanted to with things developing downfield.
execution
*3-11 Trent Williams is beaten far too quickly and to the inside, and Idonije forces a fumble on McNabb. McNabb had poor ball security in the pocket, but he also was trusting Williams to make that block.
execution
*3-1 A run with Torain where Rabach and Lichtensteiger get zero push at the line of scrimmage, and Torain cuts it back into them.
execution

Great idea posting the 3rd down plays.
I'm in another redskins forum where i suggested starting a thread that discusses 3rd downs and RZ thread but with no takers.
I see a lot of execution failures part of which is understandable because the defense is gonna out execute the offense sometimes.
But the offense has to do better across the board from the playcall to the pass-pro to the QB/receivers play.

A couple of years ago when I was trying to figure out why the 2008 Redskins could move the ball so effectively and not score, I couldn't pin it all on one fatal flaw, but rather, too many mediocre performances that weaknesses really shined through when the margin of error got tight inside the opponent's 30 yard line. That's probably similar to what is happening here on third downs. It would be easy to chalk it up to a small sample and expect our third down performance to reflect our first and second down performance in time, but I don't think that's the case.

Rather I think that when you talk about the mediocre players on the offense, it really puts pressure on them in third downs when the defense can raise the level of play on the offense in an attempt to get off the field, you really need every individual to do their job to the best of their ability to be a great third down team

Your statement above reminds me more of the Skins offense circa 2009.
Which i believe people underestimate from a coaching standpoint.
Zorn-Sherman Lewis et al produced a more effecient passing game with mcuh less talent across the board: mediocre QB, bad OL, no running game and average WRs.
They got rid of the all the 5-7 step drops and went all short game.
Kyle(McNabb) and the offense staff ,imo, have to step up and help this offense become more effective/effecient through his playcalling/gameplanning.

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Defense

Pass Pressure on Jay Cutler

The Redskins had 11 pressures on the quarterback, plus three sacks in addition to these pressures (the Rocky McIntosh sack was the result of a pressure). They knocked him to the ground a number of times. However, this amount of pressure was not out of line for the Redskins facing even a good pass protection unit and quarterback combo, so it should be argued that the Bears OL raised it's level of play, particularly J'Marcus Webb (2 sacks allowed, 1 holding penalty) and Olin Kreutz (0 sacks, 1 pressure allowed). The Redskins were obviously going to win any match-up with Orakpo in it, and if you had told Bears OL coach Mike Tice that Albert Haynesworth was going to make a mockery of the pass blocking abilities of LG Chris Williams in this game, Tice would have pulled out whatever remains of his hair. But the Bears won the rest of their matchups. All the rest of the Redskins pass rushing success came against blocking TE Brandon Manumaleuna, who has been a disappointment since signing a big money contract (for a TE) with the Bears.

This is just great, it has easily topped Haynesworth throwing Alan Faneca like a rag doll during the preseason.

[Monkeydad]

Originally Posted by Ruhskins

This is just great, it has easily topped Haynesworth throwing Alan Faneca like a rag doll during the preseason.

I saw his post-game interview. Funny stuff. He said he wasn't even sure if he was credited with the sack since it was the offensive lineman who made the tackle, because he didn't touch the QB.

He was and deserved it. He should get a sack and a half for that one.