In true preseason form, last night's game pitting the Washington Redskins vs the Atlanta Falcons had enough penalties for four regular season games. I guess sloppy play is expected, but this sloppy? Jay Gruden and company can't be very pleased with all the mental mistakes, and I wouldn't want to be in the film room with the coaching staff today.
The low-lights outweighed the highlights by far on Thursday night, but with just one series from Kirk Cousins under center, should we have expected more?
Here are some of my observations from the game:
1st Quarter
Offense:
- run to left; Long got stood straight up and caused play to fail
- holding call on Moses negates nice run by Jones off right side
- excellent punt(55yds) by Way. Pinned ball inside the 2
Defense:
- Preston Smith nice job holding the edge and making tackle on Freeman
Offense:
- McCoy underthrew Paul on short crosser
- Ty N and Moses gave up easy pressure on McCoy; Colt made a nice throw for 19yds. Moses could have been called for holding again
- Vernon Davis dropped an easy TD from McCoy. Davis looked very fast though
- McCoy underthrew Thompson on a short pass
- Hopkins drilled a 41 yard FG
Defense:
- Will Compton great read and tackle on run to left side(loss of 1)
- Dunbar probably had PI on deep pass. Not called
- Nice inside stunt by Preston Smith on 3rd down. Gets pressure on Ryan. Look very explosive off the snap
Offense:
- Rookie Maurice Harris stopped short of first down on 3rd and 5
- Cravens makes nice special teams tackle on punt return
Defense:
- T Murphy nice play to stop Freeman for a loss in backfield
- Good open-filed tackle by Compton after catch by Sanu
*Murphy looks very active, and was moving well in first quarter
2nd Quarter
Defense:
- Nacho with poor help on deep ball to Robinson, resulted in a big gain
- Nice touchdown saving breakup in endzone by Toler
- Reyes missed tackle led to big gain by Coleman(2nd missed tackle by Reyes)
- Riley nice coverage on Freeman out of backfield; pressure by Murphy off edge forced bad pass
- Spaight and Nacho blew up draw
- Pressure off edge by Smith - but he was called for offsides(this will become a theme by the OLB's)
Offense:
- Nice screen set up to Marshall for 5 yards
- McCoy scrambles for 8 yards and a first down on 3rd and 5
- LeRibeus fails to block anyone on outside zone to right. Loss of 1
Defense:
- Dunbar loses coverage on Robinson. Resulted in big gain. Dunbar has been playing poorly this evening in coverage
Offense:
- M Jensen couldn't hold block on outside run. Loss on play
- Quick screen pass to Grant comes up short on 3rd and long
Defense:
- Murphy gets pressure off edge. Looked very explosive again
- Murphy lined up offsides on the next play
- The Spaight/Cravens combo is getting gashed by the run; poor job filling by both
- and just as I say the above, Cravens reads a play beautifully, shoots a gap and makes a big tackle for loss
3rd Quarter
Defense:
- Redskins give up huge 101 yard kickoff return for TD
Offense(Suffield):
- Ross fumbles on 5 yard hitch route, but recovered his fumble
- Tress Way hits 63 yard punt. Way has been booming them all night
Defense:
- Trail with great play on run to the edge. Cravens cleans it up nicely
- Huge completion against Jeremy Harris down left sideline
- Trail with another great defensive play this time on a run to right
- Phillips absolutely blows up a quick screen pass to WR
Offense:
- Nice pass from Sudfeld to Paulsen for 28 yards
- Reiter with a great block on Kelly run up the middle
- Kelly with nice vision to bounce run to the outside and take ball down to the 1
- Kelly powers in from a yard out for the TD
*Reiter showed good blocking on that series
Defense:
- Great play on pass rush by Cravens. Knocked down pass attempt
- Paea caused disruption in backfield on a run play.
Offense:
- Sudfeld throws a bullet to Ross on a roll-out
- Reiter got out and made a good block in space on screen to Kelly. Kid is playing well at center
4th Quarter
Defense:
- Nice hit by Garvin on RB - caused a fumble
Offense:
- Sudfeld nice quick pass to Ross for 1st down
- Nice rollout by Sudfeld to his right, and hits Jensen for TD
Defense:
- Crawford with good penetration and stop for loss in backfield
Offense:
- Blitz off the corner gets to Sudfeld. No one touched DE