By Mark Bacon
The late Yogi Berra once said, “It gets late early out here.”
In Ashburn, VA, HQ of the Washington Redskins, the team can no longer deny a sobering reality: for all the apparent improvements, the Skins are a 2-4 team — just one win better than last season’s record through six games — and issues are bubbling that could render progress imperceptible. As premature as it sounds, the season is already nearing a breaking point. Cousins tenure as starting QB may be over and Gruden’s job security precarious.
After the Redskins’ worst performance of the season, Sunday’s 34-20 loss to the New York Jets, Coach Jay Gruden called next week’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — in Week 7— “…very critical. It’s a code red for us.”
While Washington was a play or two against Atlanta from being just fine, perhaps a play or two against Miami from being in an ideal spot, that’s NFL life. Sometimes you need a magnifying glass, or more, to judge bad from good from great. You are your record, and you will be judged by your most recent game.
For the sake of job security, Gruden doesn’t need this team to revert to a disaster with a bye week looming after the Tampa Bay game. Not if he values his job. Gruden wants to sustain progress, and that ain’t happening if the team has run out of tricks to mask it's bad enough to not reveal it is good. I believe in Washington’s competitiveness and improved mind-set, but I'm not sure it has advanced to having an absolute belief that won’t shatter if controversy intensifies. And I hear cracking noises.
Against the Jets, the Skins played their worst stretch of football during the second half, allowing NY to score 24 consecutive points before the bleeding stopped. It turned a gritty first-half effort, in which Washington led 13-10 at halftime, into a teeth gnashing blowout. And the problems are hot-button issues that very well can turn into divisive drama if the team isn’t careful.
Once again, Cousins threw two more interceptions. He has thrown two picks in each of the Skins’ four losses, on a pace to throw 21 interceptions over a full season, which is unacceptable for any NFL QB. And even more troubling when the quarterback is directing an offense where coaches want Kirk to be a game manager, play it safe and deploy a short-passing attack. Cousins is a better this season, and has had some good moments, including the late fourth-quarter comeback against the Eagles. But his turnover propensity remains, and the more Gruden defends Cousins’ mistakes, the less credible Gruden becomes.
All season Washington has been a third-quarter debacle, having been outscored 46-3 in that period; that blame for that must fall on the coach. This is a one-trick-pony team, so limited that it doesn’t have many adjustments it can make. Gruden’s team has failed in almost every way possible in the third quarter. It’s not just the offense. It’s also the defense, special teams, penalties or lack of depth. That about sums it up, no? Every third quarter speaks to the Skins’ inability to receive a halftime message and implement it. In the third quarter, the players often look like a team that went into halftime too satisfied with its performance.
Can it get worse? Yes. Beyond the third-quarter debacle, the next major concern is that the team’s early-season strength — physical on the interior, run the football and stop the run. It has disappeared. The past two weeks reveal a stunning regression. The Falcons and Jets rushed for 397 yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry. The first four opponents combined for 312 rushing yards.
On offense, Washington’s run game has produced just 85 yards on 41 carries the past two weeks. Alfred Morris has gained only 36 yards his past 19 rushes.
No wonder Gruden ordered the code red. Ashburn is flat lining.
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