Snap Judgments: Week 4- Redskins vs. Giants- DEFENSE

The Good: Tress Way.

The Bad: The defense, Captain Kirk, playcalling (I guess), Logan Paulsen, injuries, the South Park curse, O-line, the halftime name change survey, getting out-coached, Phil Simms, the thought of Mike Shanahan watching that game and cackling....and the list goes on.

What....was.....that?!?!

We're about to break down the defensive snaps because...well, that's what we do. But if there was ever a time to take the film straight to the dump, it's now. The takeaways are there but I'll warn you that this week has high OUTLIER potential. With guys banged up and the game well in hand in the 2nd half, you'll likely see some inconsistencies with the weeks prior and the weeks to come.

***Disclaimer: This is my own count. Plays aborted by pre-snap penalties are not included while plays with accepted in-play penalties are included.

Defense took 81 snaps against them

42 snaps resulted in passes

39 snaps resulted in rushes

• Believe it or not, the Redskins did a good job forcing the Giants into 16 3rd down situations (~50%), where only 9 were 3rd-and-4 or less.
• Save your praise. The Giants converted 11 of their 16 3rd downs. That's ~70% conversion!

Personnel Packages

• The Redskins played every single snap of the 1st half with 5 DBs on the field (E.J. Biggers was the 5th DB). The Giants completely dictated who they wanted the Redskins to put on the field and the Redskins complied.
• Not until midway through the 3rd quarter did the Redskins roll their base 3-4 package.
• The game did give us our first look at the goal-line package which has a pinched line with Baker and Geathers at DT and Jenkins and Kearse at DE. Will Compton is the 5th LB instead of Trent Murphy. Meriweather and Clark round off the unit.
• Haslett unveiled his first dime packages of the year. The first was a 1-4-6 set on a 3rd-and-7. Hatcher was the lone D-lineman. Trent Murphy spelled Keenan Robinson. Slot corners Porter and Biggers joined Amerson, Breeland, Meriweather, and Clark to make up the 6 DBs. The play resulted in an incomplete pass from Eli.
• The second Dime look was a 2-3-6 set on the goal-line. Keenan Robinson was subbed out for EJ Biggers. This play resulted in a Perry Riley 'hands to the face' penalty. The Giants punched it in from the 1-yard line on the next play.
• The Redskins rushed 5 or more defenders on only 5 of the Giants' 42 pass plays. That is, by far, the lowest utilization of the blitz Haslett has produced all year. How pressuring Eli was not the primary focus is beyond me.

Defensive Snaps

Player Notes

• Bashaud Breeland played every snap in the 1st half but was left off the field for the first two drives of the 3rd Quarter. He came in sparingly after that but Tracy Porter took primary duties at LCB until garbage time in the 4th quarter.
• Other than the second unit that came in during mop-up time, Trent Murphy was the least utilized defender in this game. If Murphy's not on the field, you know the pressure isn't being dialed up.
• EJ Biggers was left for dead last week, and with the return of Tracy Porter all signs pointed to him getting phased out of the lineup. Guess we were wrong. Biggers saw the largest bump in playing time from 33% last week to 64% this week.
• With Amerson and Riley both missing multiple snaps this week, the Redskins now do not have a single player that has played every snap this year.
• Jason Hatcher has seen a steady decrease in snaps from week to week. 70% in Week 1, 62% in Week 2, 56% in Week 3, and 54% in Week 4. Not much of a difference from last week but still you'd want your best lineman to be out there more than half the time.
• At 42 passes and 39 rushes, the Giants appear to have had a balanced attack but they ran the ball 17 out of their 20 snaps in the 4th quarter. The pass game and their 3 split wide formations killed the Redskins defense.