Skins Stats & Snaps: Redskins @ Chiefs (Offense)

Snaps- Jay Gruden and Matt Cavanaugh used 18 of their 24 offensive players over the course of a season-low 50 snaps. The 6 that did not play included 4 inactives (Brian Quick, Mack Brown, Tyler Catalina and Ty Nsekhe), 1 player who worked solely as a special teamer (Chase Roullier) and 1 active player who did not take a snap in any capacity (Colt McCoy).

3rd Down- The offense's third-down struggles continued, as Kirk Cousins and company converted on just 4 of 11 tries on the money down. This is especially concerning when you consider that they faced a season-low of just 4.73 yards to go on these plays, with seven of them requiring 5 or fewer yards to move the chains. Washington has yet to crack the 50% mark on third downs this season.

Turnovers- Washington's only turnover of the night came on the final play of the game when Chris Thompson couldn't hold onto a lateral from Jordan Reed. Justin Houston scooped the fumble up and took it the rest of the way for a Kansas City defensive TD.

Rushing- The Burgundy and Gold rushed the ball more than they passed if for the third consecutive game. That is the first time this has happened in the Jay Gruden era (i.e. the start of the 2014 season).

Red Zone- The Skins cashed in on one of their two trips to the red zone. Their 50% conversion rate in the red area ties a season high (Week 2). However, if they found the end zone on their second venture inside of the Chiefs' 20-yard line then we would probably be looking at a 3-1 Redskins team going into the bye.

The Redskins Are For Real- Their .500 record says that this is an average team, but when we take a closer look we find that the Redskins have been far better than their mediocre record indicates they are.

Washington ranks 12th in PFF's ELO rating system, 2nd in SRS and 4th in DVOA.

A big part of why they don't have a record to match those rankings is that they have faced one of the very toughest schedules in the NFL. Their opponents have gone a combined 12-4 so far, with half of those losses coming against the Redskins. According to Football Outsiders, the Skins have faced the most difficult schedule of offensive opponents. Pro Football Reference ranks their schedule as the toughest overall in the league through 4 weeks.

QUARTERBACKS

Quarterbacks (2 Players)
Player	Snaps	Snap %
Kirk Cousins *	50	100%
Colt McCoy	0	0%

Kirk Cousins (Traditional Stats)- Cousins' looked good for the second straight game, and he did so in one of the toughest places to play at and against one of the league's best teams.

He completed 14 of his 24 passes for 220 yards, 11 first downs, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. He completed 58% of his passes, averaged 9.17 yards per attempt and had a passer rating of 116.7.

He also was not sacked for the first time since Week 16 of last season and has not thrown an interception in his last 90 attempts (since Week 1).

Kirk Cousins (Rushing)- Cousins had yet another impressive showing as a runner in this game. He ran the ball 7 times (including a kneel down and a fumble that lost 1 yard combined) and posted team highs in rushing yards (38 yards), rushing first downs (3) and rushing average (5.4 yards). Three of his five actual runs led to first downs on third or fourth down. The 7 rushes and 38 yards were both new career highs Captain Kirk.

Kirk Cousins (Advanced Stats)- This was by far Kirk Cousins' best game of the season according to the advanced metrics. He posted season highs in QBR (92.8) and PFF grade (87.2), which both ranked second among all QBs in Week 4 (behind only Dashaun Watson in QBR and Russell Wilson in PFF grade).

Cousins top-tier numbers came as a result of his production on deep passes (3 of 5 for 133 yards and a touchdown), on plays under pressure (158.3 passer rating on the 8 attempts that he was blitzed on) and on the ground (see above).

Kirk Cousins (MNF Records)- His record on Monday Night Football dropped to 0-5. Only five other signal callers in NFL history lost their first five starts in Monday night games. They were Joe Namath, Archie Manning, Fran Tarkenton, Vince Evans and Rodney Peete. That's great company to keep for Cousins, he's just doing it for the wrong reasons this time.

Kirk Cousins (More Records)- Cousins' numbers in this, his 50th NFL game, pushed his career completion total over 1,100 and his career passing yardage total to over 13,000. Kurt Warner, Dan Marino, Matthew Stafford, Derek Carr, Marc Bulger and Andrew Luck are the only other players in history that have accomplished either one of those feats in 50 or fewer games. Stafford, Bulger and Luck were the only other players who have done both.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Wide Receivers (5 Players)
Player	Snaps	Snap %
Terrelle Pryor	43	86%
Jamison Crowder	36	72%
Ryan Grant	22	44%
Josh Doctson *	17	34%
Brian Quick	Inactive	N/A

Terrelle Pryor- Pryor was extremely inefficient in Week 1 (6 receptions and 66 yards on 11 targets) and virtually disappeared in Weeks 2 and 3 (4 receptions for 50 yards combined); but after Monday night, we can finally say that he had a good game as a Redskin.

Pryor caught a 44-yard touchdown pass against Marcus Peters on the first drive of the game. That play was both  the second longest reception and the longest touchdown reception of his career. It was just his fifth career receiving TD.

In all, he caught 3 passes for 3 first downs and a season-high 70 yards on 5 targets. He also posted season best numbers in the following categories: catch percentage (60%), first down percentage (60%), yards per reception (23.3), and yards per target (14.0).

The touchdown definitely sticks out for Pryor, but the other play I'll remember him for in this game was his drop on a second-quarter third down. That was Pryor's third drop of the year (tied for 6th most among wide receivers), and it allowed the Chiefs to get the ball back and score their first TD of the game on the ensuing drive.

Jamison Crowder- Pryor was widely regarded as the biggest disappointment on both the offense and the entire team going into Monday, but perhaps after this game it's Jamison Crowder who should be viewed as the most disappointing Redskin of the 2017 season.

Crowder only caught one pass against the Chiefs and he lost 7 yards on the play. This was just the sixth time that he caught one pass and the second time that he has not gained any positive yardage in his entire 37-game career (including playoffs). Unsurprisingly, the -7 yards was a career low for Crowder. His target, reception, yardage, first down and touchdown totals are also all career lows for Weeks 1-4 of a season.

Crowder has been on the injury report for three of the team's four games this season, so there is a better than average chance that his injuries are what is causing his production to sag. Hopefully, he will get healthy during the bye week, because the Redskins will certainly need him to play like his old self down the stretch if they hope to make a push for the playoffs.

Ryan Grant- The Ryan Grant renaissance continued, as Grant caught 2 of his 3 targets for 16 yards, 2 first downs and a touchdown. The TD grab came against Pro Bowl corner Marcus Peters. Peters had only allowed 4 scores in his last 18 games going into this game, so it was quite impressive to see Redskins receivers score twice against him on just 8 real offensive drives.

Over the course of 4 games and 123 snaps in 2017,  Grant is now up to 10 receptions, 8 first downs, 2 touchdowns (already tied for a career high) and 119 yards. Every one of those numbers eclipse his totals from both 2014 and 2016, and he played in 16 games and on 178 and 270 snaps in those years. Only his 2015 full-season stats are better, and he is on pace to surpass all of those figures by Week 11.

Grant ranks second among Redskins wide receivers in receiving yards and first downs. He has caught as many touchdowns as the other four wideouts on the team have combined.

Josh Doctson- It's good to see Grant finally producing on game day, but Josh Doctson getting 17 snaps and getting less playing time than Pryor, Crowder and Grant is not going to cut it.

On those 17 snaps, Doctson caught 2 of his 3 targets for 27 yards and 2 first downs. He also nearly caught a game-winning touchdown pass, but he was unable to haul in what would have been a tough catch for the go-ahead score.

Doctson leads all Redskins wideouts with an average of 1.65 yards per receiving snap played (minimum of 10 total snaps, sorry Brian), so it would only stand to reason that maybe the Redskins should give him some more snaps on passing plays.

Brian Quick- It shouldn't have shocked anyone when Brian Quick's name showed up on the inactive list. He had only taken 1 offensive snap in the last two weeks, and he has played on just 7 snaps and been targeted only once all season.

TIGHT ENDS

Tight Ends (4 Players)
Player	Snaps	Snap %
Vernon Davis *	35	70%
Niles Paul *	25	50%
Jordan Reed	13	26%
Jeremy Sprinkle *	7	14%

Vernon Davis- Vernon Davis is Benjamin Button; he only appears to be getting younger as he ages. Vernon Davis is el caballo, a thoroughbred with unheard of physical talents. Vernon Davis is the Wolverine; he is 33 and has only missed 12 (6 of which were in his rookie year) out of a possible 215 games in his last 15 years as a football player (including his entire college career). Vernon Davis will never die.

Of course, I'm kidding (kind of), but what this guy is doing on the football field makes you think that way. Davis led the game with 89 yards receiving and his 69-yard reception was the longest play of the night, the second longest play of his career. The Redskins would go on to score a touchdown and take momentum back after Davis' long gainer. His 89 yards was his second most in a game since 2013 (93 yards last year vs. the Bengals).

His yards per reception average of 20 in 2017 ranks 1st in the NFL and he has the 4th highest PFF grade (85.3) among all tight ends on the season.

He is now pace to become just the ninth tight end in history to put up 640 yards in a season in which they were 33 or older. Four of the other nine are Hall of Famers.

Niles Paul- Paul started and played on about 50% of the offensive snaps for the third consecutive game. After not being targeted in Weeks 1 and 2, Paul got 1 look from Cousins for the second week in a row. He dropped a screen pass on that play.

Jordan Reed- Reed returned from injury, but only actually made his way on to the field in obvious passing situations. He was targeted a team-high 5 times on 13 snaps, which equates to an amazing 38% target-to-snap ratio. He caught 3 of those passes for 21 yards and 1 first down.

Jeremy Sprinkle- For the second straight week Sprinkle started, played on 7 snaps and was not targeted. He is operating purely as a third blocking tight end and he will likely not be active on game days unless one of the other three tight ends is injured. Reed and Paul tend to get hurt a lot though, and Vernon Davis is 33-years-old, so we should expect to see Sprinkle on the field again this season.

RUNNING BACKS

Running Backs (4 players)
Player	Snaps	Snap %
Chris Thompson	26	52%
Robert Kelley *	12	24%
Samaje Perine	12	24%
Mack Brown	Inactive	N/A

Chris Thompson- Chris Thompson was bound to see some regression with his efficiency, and that is exactly what happened against the Chiefs. He received more snaps than every other RB on the team combined, but he only totaled 27 all-purpose yards in the game. The 27 yards came courtesy of 6 rushes for 23 yards (3.8 YPC) and 4 yards as a receiver out of the backfield (2 targets). Half of his runs were successful and went for 5 or more yards, but he only gained 4 yards on his 3 other rushes.

This was the first game of the year in which CT did not gain over 50 yards from scrimmage, score a touchdown or pick up at least 3 first downs (0 first downs). Yet, despite that, he still leads all running backs in receiving yards and ranks second among all running backs in receiving touchdowns.

Chris Thompson is averaging under 11 total opportunities per game (targets + carries + returns). I know Jay Gruden wants to keep him healthy, but I would like to see that number rise at least a little bit.

Rob Kelley- Rob Kelley returned after missing last week with a rib injury, but only got on the field 12 times before suffering yet another injury. He did make a few nice plays in the limited time he had though. Three of his seven runs were successful (43%) and two of them went for 5 or more yards, which is an area that he has struggled with.

On the downside, he did lose 4 yards one rush and was stuffed on a 3rd-and-2 at the goal line. He also dropped an easy reception.

Kelley finished the game with 23 yards, 1 first down and a 3.3 YPC average.

Samaje Perine- You certainly wouldn't think it after you watched Perine struggle to recover a fumble that moved the Redskins back 7 yards before going out of bounds (credited to Kirk Cousins, which is probably unfair), but this was Perine's best game as a runner. He didn't pick up any first downs, but all six of his runs in the game were successful and he gained 5 or more yards on 4 of them (66%). He picked up 27 yards and averaged 4.5 yards per rush in the game, both of which were team-highs by a running back.

He now leads the Redskins with 143 rushing yards, but his performances in Weeks 1-3 give him a YPC average and success rate that rank dead last on the team.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Offensive Linemen (9 Players)
Player	Snaps	Snap %
Shawn Lauvao *	50	100%
Spencer Long *	50	100%
Morgan Moses *	50	100%
Brandon Scherff *	50	100%
Trent Williams *	46	92%
T.J. Clemmings	6	12%
Chase Roullier	ST Only	0%
Tyler Catalina	Inactive	N/A
Ty Nsekhe	Inactive	N/A

Offensive Line (Run Blocking)- The line paved the way for the offense's third straight 100-yard day on the ground. Callahan's guys also helped Washington's runners to average 4.7 yards per rush and 2.08 yards before contact per attempt, both of which were the team's second best averages on the season. The Redskins also posted a season-high 54% success rate in the running game.

Offensive Line (Pass Blocking)- The offensive line did not allow a single sack in the game against a Chiefs team that is still tied for 9th in the league with 11 sacks. They also somehow only allowed Cousins to be hit on one play over the course of his 24 passing attempts. Finally, the line did not commit one false start or holding penalty in the game.

The last time the Redskins gave up 0 sacks and none of their offensive linemen were called for a false start or a holding penalty was in the team's 2012 win over the Giants on Monday Night Football.

Pro Football Focus has the Redskins as the ninth best pass-blocking offensive line in the league.

Trent Williams- Trent Williams only missed 4 snaps after aggravating an injury to his kneecap and was able to extend his streak of games without allowing a sack to 9. Williams made his 100th career start in the game.

Brandon Scherff- Scherff earned a PFF grade of 82.1 against the Chiefs, the fourth highest grade by a guard in Week 4.

Morgan Moses- Justin Houston registered 4 sacks and 3 hits in Weeks 1-3. Last week, Morgan Moses only allowed Khalil Mack to pressure Cousins once (a sack). Something had to give on Monday night.

It was Moses who won the day, by holding Houston to just 1 hurry in the game.

Other Offensive Linemen- In fact, all five starting offensive lineman allowed 0 sacks, 0 hits and 1 hurry. The only Redskins lineman that allowed a QB hit in the game was backup T.J., who took 4 snaps at left tackle after Williams was injured.

ALL OFFENSIVE SNAPS

Offense (24 Players)				Offense (continued)
Player	Snaps	Snap %		Player	Snaps	Snap %
Kirk Cousins *	50	100%		Josh Doctson *	17	34%
Shawn Lauvao *	50	100%		Jordan Reed	13	26%
Spencer Long *	50	100%		Robert Kelley *	12	24%
Morgan Moses *	50	100%		Samaje Perine	12	24%
Brandon Scherff *	50	100%		Jeremy Sprinkle *	7	14%
Trent Williams *	46	92%		T.J. Clemmings	6	12%
Terrelle Pryor	43	86%		Colt McCoy	0	0%
Jamison Crowder	36	72%		Chase Roullier	ST Only	0%
Vernon Davis	35	70%		Mack Brown	Inactive	N/A
Chris Thompson	26	52%		Tyler Catalina	Inactive	N/A
Niles Paul *	25	50%		Ty Nsekhe	Inactive	N/A
Ryan Grant	22	44%		Brian Quick	Inactive	N/A

*All statistics are courtesy of Air Yards, CSN Mid Atlantic, ESPN, NFL.com, NFL Gamebooks, Pro Football Focus, Pro Football Reference, Redskins.com, Sharp Football Stats and The Washington Post*

Skins Stats & Snaps: Redskins @ Chiefs (DEF/ST)