Grade the Redskins Win Over the Jaguars

The Redskins dominated the Jags on Sunday winning 41-10 in a blowout.  Winning is all that matters, but to really delve into a game and look at it more closely, there are positives and negatives from every game.  So I'm curious to know what everyone at Hogs Haven thinks about the victory.  Sure, it was the Jags, but 41-10?!  That's huge!  Not all wins are the same.  Here's my opinion and you can leave your grade/opinion in the comments.

Pros:

QB Play

Both of 'em.  RGIII and Kirk Cousins both played well while they were in on Sunday.  Robert was only 2/3 for 38 yards, but he should have been 3/3 for about 108 yards.  Oh, and he also had 22 rushing yards on only two runs.  He looked to be on a fire and everyone know it was going to be one of those retro, throwback to 2012 RGIII type days.  We had the zone read rolling and Robert looked confident and sharp.  After the injury, Kirk came in and didn't miss a beat reeling off a 20-yard TD pass on his first throw (and only second play) and reeling off 12 straight completions.  He looked to be totally in command out there and finished with 250 yards, 2 TD's, and 0 turnovers.  Both QB's were money.

Running Game 

You saw that Silas Redd scored his first TD in his first game and is now nominated for the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Week, right?!  The undrafted rookie Silas Redd.  That one.  You know it's a good day when this guy comes in for eight plays and gets eight runs for 41 yards (5.1 ypc) and a TD.  That's a good day.  Oh, wait... Alfred Morris played, too?  Boy did he.  22 carries.  85 yards.  And 2, that's right, count 'em, 1 - 2 TD's!  The run game was rolling and the 'Skins played how the Washington Redskins are supposed to, pounding the rock and playing keep away with a crazy 39 minutes with the ball!

Receivers

This includes WR's, TE's, RB's, and FB's... everyone who caught the ball.  They were coming out of the woodwork.  Niles Paul.  Ryan Grant.  Andre Roberts.  Hell, Darrel Young caught a TD!  These guys were balling.  Niles Paul played more snaps than he's played in his life and just made plays.  Ryan Grant could be nominated for some rookie awards as well as he played.  The man catches everything that's catchable.  People were getting open and really making the QB's and Coach Gruden look very good.

Offensive Line

Say what you want about 'em, but this was one of the best performances our OL has given us in a couple years.  From the run game, to actually giving Cousins a semblance of a pocket to throw from, the line really looked decent.  They did allow three sacks and had a couple of penalties, but lets look at this group relative to what we've grown to expect from them and they played well.  We had 32 first downs and 449 yards!  That's not possible without solid line play.

Play-Calling/Coaching

I say both because not only did Gruden call one heck of a game with excellent balance and continued possession, but he also didn't blink when our starting QB went down and kept the team together and on the path to victory.  A+ for Gruden today.  And don't forget about Haslett.  We have the best defense in the league right now.  He gets a lot of credit for that.  Our plays had the defense continually guessing and was really perfectly balanced, not only between running and passing, but also in the type of passes and the mixture of roll-outs, etc. 

Special Teams

The whole unit.  Andre Roberts is a man when it comes to the return game.  Tress Way is the truth on punts.  Forbath was supposedly hurt, but those FG's were right down the middle.  And Way deserves some credit for doing a fine job on KO's.  That's big-time flexibility when your K isn't 100% and your P can come in and handle those duties for you and you don't miss a beat.  All the coverage teams were excellent, as well.  They were truly the Special Forces against the Jags and Kotwica has to be smiling right now.  After a couple blunders in week one, he really got this group turned around.  The entire coaching staff's insistence on having quality ST's is evident.  It helps our offense.  It helps our defense.  It just helps our whole team win.

Pass Rush

We're talking about 10 sacks.  That just doesn't happen and literally had never happened in our team's history.  10 sacks!  Think about that.  Kerrigan set a career-high with four!  You can really see what Jason Hatcher does to this line and Chris Baker stepped up at NT and the DL hasn't missed a beat while they wait for Cofield to return.  Seven different Redskins got at least .5 sack: Kerrigan, Keenan Robinson, Orakpo, Hatcher, Kearse, Riley, and Ryan Clark.  Wild!  Chad Henne was miserable and their RT has since been released.  Henne completed only 50% of his passes and was held to less than 200 yards (including a pick).

Defense

Really, the defense as a whole deserves credit.  It starts with Haslett.  He's stepped up.  The Jags aren't good, but to allow any team to only score 10 points is solid.  We had pressure on the QB.  Their running game was non-existent.  I'm serious: non-existent.  Henne was their leading rusher (while running away from Kerrigan) with 17 yards!  Gerhart averaged about 1 ypc (7 rushes, 8 yards)!  They managed a grand total of two rushing first downs and four passing ones.  We had 449 yards of offense, they had 148.  We've always talked about how third-down defense is key and our guys have to get off the field, how's 3/13 on third downs for you?  I mean seriously, the defense was basically flawless (well, there was one flaw, but we'll get to that).

Reserves

This game had a lot of people stepping up.  Kirk Cousins, Niles Paul, Andre Roberts, Ryan Grant, Chris Baker, Trenton Robinson, and Tress Way all deserve a ton of credit.  They all stepped up and had big roles to fill and did it to the tune of a 41-10 stomping.  It's unbelievable really.  Our team has great depth right now and Jay Gruden and Bruce Allen deserve a lot of credit for that (even Mike Shanahan... a little bit).

Cons:

Injuries

I know injuries aren't necessarily the team's fault, and thus maybe should be factored into their grade, but there's no doubting the significance of the injuries the Redskins sustained on Sunday and the impact they'll have on the rest of the season.  RGIII, D-Jax, Lauvao, Helu...  These are important players.  On a somewhat lucky note, it seems that RGIII's is the only serious injury and even he may be able to return at some point later in the season.  Luckily our team has great depth and the reserves proved themselves capable and worthy, but still, add these injuries to Cofield, Jordan Reed, and Tracy Porter and this stuff is adding up way to quickly for a team only two games into their season.  We have to get healthy and we have to remain healthy.

Bacarri Rambo

I really don't like to call out any individual, so Bacarri, if you're reading this, just hear me out here.  Bacarri was cut earlier today.  While he deserved it, it still sucks for both him and the team.  Rambo is a guy who showed some promise in college and our fans had hope for him to turn into a productive safety.  That didn't happen, but it's not entirely his fault.  The team and coaching staffs (plural) deserve some blame for not developing some of these guys.  We only have one player left from Rambo's draft last year on the active roster.  That's pathetic.  We have to do better and the early returns on this draft class might mean that we will.  Still, Rambo gave up a big TD to the Jags after taking a poor angle.  He allowed a big one to the Texans after not making a tackle.  It can't happen.  I feel for him and hope he lands somewhere and gets another opportunity.  In his defense, he was forced to start last year due to some garbage team building (where you need your sixth rounder to start as the last line of defense) and then again this year due to Meriweather's suspension.  It wasn't ideal and Rambo really should have been a back-up and given a couple years to develop his game.  He'll need to find ways to contribute on ST's in the future.  Our defense has been great this year and is ranked #1 overall and has only given up 27 points, but had Rambo played a little better on two plays, that number might have been 13.  I'm glad to have Meriweather back and I like our current group of safeties very much.

Penalties

The penalties were atrocious, and in a closer game could have very well cost us the victory.  11 penalties!  For 98 yards!  You've got to be kidding.  That almost doubled up the Jags in the amount of yards they got all day.  It's like we were really trying to help them out.  It has to stop.  This goes on coaching and they'll really need to focus on it this week with the Philly game coming up.  They don't need any freebies.  The OL had it's fair share, there were a couple on ST's, and some on defense, too.  We just have to tighten things up if we're going to actually be a good team.

Final Grade: A

How can you not after this one?  41-10?!  I mean, I know it was the Jags, but beating any NFL team by 31 points is crazy hard to do and crazy rare.  The team executed about as well as could be asked.  They never had a chance and we outplayed them from the start.  It was a very fun day to be a Redskins fan.  The injuries are unfortunate, but you know your team is being built correctly when you can sustain them and still demolish an opponent.  We have the right guys in place leading this team and we just need to keep building on it.  Cut down on the penalties and bring on the Eagles!