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Skins Stats & Snaps: Redskins @ Saints (Offense)

A look at the stats and snap counts for every offensive player on the Redskins in the team's Week 11 matchup with the New Orleans Saints

NFL: Washington Redskins at New Orleans Saints Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

Snaps- Jay Gruden utilized 19 of his 25 offensive players over the course of 69 snaps against the Saints. Five of those six who did not play were inactive (Terrelle Pryor, Brian Quick, Jordan Reed, Arie Kouandijo and Spencer long). Of course, Colt McCoy was active, but did not see the field.

Yardage- The Redskins’ 456 yards of offense represented the team’s second highest offensive output of the season (Oakland). This was the third 400-yard performance by the Skins’ offense this season.

Points- For the second week in a row, the Redskins put up a new season-high in points. Last week they hit 30 for the first time, and in this game they did themselves one better by putting 31 on the board. This was the first time since Weeks 16 and 17 of the 2015 season the team has scored 30 or more points in consecutive weeks.

Say what you want about this team, but you can’t put their last couple of losses on Kirk Cousins and the offense.

Opening Drive Points- The offense scored on their opening drive of the game for the eighth time this year. That is tied with the Rams for the most first-drive scores in 2017.

That score also ties this team with the 2014 team for the most opening-possession scores by a Redskins team since 1999, which is far back as drive data goes.

3rd Down- Washington just can’t seem to figure things out on third down. They went 4-for-12 (33.3%) on the money down, making this the fifth straight game in which they have failed to move the chains on over 36% of their third downs.

Their 36.7% conversion rate on third down ranks 22nd in the NFL. Last season, they ranked 5th with a 45.2% success rate.

4th Down- The Redskins moved the chains on both of their 4th-down attempts. They have now gone for it on fourth down a whopping seven times in the past two weeks (5-for-7). The team has converted 7 of their 11 4th-down tries this year, and that 63.6% conversion rate ranks 4th in the NFL.

Good for Jay Gruden for A) having the guts to go for it so often, and B) wising up to something that analytics guys have been talking about for years.

Red Zone- The Redskins’ red-zone renaissance continued on Sunday. The offense scored touchdowns on all three of their trips inside of the Saints’ 20. This was the fifth time this season the team posted a success rate of 75% or better in the red area, which is something they did on only three occasions all of last season.

Washington’s 59.3% red-zone scoring clip has them ranked 9th in the league in this all-important metric.

Rushing- The Redskins rushing attack, led by Samaje Perine, finally produced at a high level. The team ran the ball 33 times for 156 yards, 6 first downs, a touchdown and a 4.7 YPC average against the Saints.

The yardage total and average were the team’s second best marks of the year, behind only their dominant rushing against the Rams in Week 2.

They failed to gain any yardage on 12% of their runs, but picked up 5 or more yards on 24% of their rushes.

QUARTERBACKS

Kirk Cousins (Passing)- This was arguably Cousins’ best game of the season. He completed 22 of his 32 passes for 322 yards, 3 touchdowns, 15 first downs and 0 interceptions. He was not sacked until the final play of regulation.

He went 6-for-9 for 89 yards, 3 first downs and 2 touchdowns on third down. His pair of third-down scores ties a season-high.

He averaged 10.1 yards per attempt and finished the game with a 132.6 passer rating, both of which ranked 1st among all starting quarterbacks in Week 11. These were Cousins’ best numbers in those statistics this season outside of his Week 3 trouncing of the Raiders.

KC also completed over two-thirds of his passes for the seventh time this year (68.8%), which is something that only Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Alex Smith have done more often in 2017.

Kirk Cousins (Red Zone)- Remember how Kirk Cousins sucks in the red zone? Well, guess what, that was a totally false narrative driven by two end-zone interceptions which took place in Weeks 1 and 2 of 2016.

Two of Cousins’ three TD passes on Sunday came inside the Saints’ 20-yard line. He has tossed 11 scores and has only thrown 1 pick in the red area this season.

Kirk Cousins (Rushing)- Cousins scrambled three times for 11 yards and a first down. Two of his rushes came on third down, he picked up a first down on one of those plays and set the team up a yard short of the sticks for the fourth-down conversion on the other one.

He leads the team with 14 rushing first downs and is tied for the fifth most chain movers in the league by a quarterback.

Kirk Cousins (Advanced Stats)- Cousins earned an 84.7 PFF grade for his efforts on Sunday. That was the third highest rating on the team and one of the highest grades handed out to a quarterback in all of Week 11.

He also posted the third highest QBR and raw QBR by a quarterback this week (83.7 and 82.2). Only Matt Ryan and Tom Brady outdid Cousins here.

Kirk Cousins (Records)- Captain Kirk either surpassed or tied Mark Rypien for several team records.

Cousins’ 42nd consecutive start moved him into second all-time in Redskins history, behind only Joe Theismann’s 60 straight starts.

He surpassed Rypien in career completions (1,255) and now sits alone with the fourth most completions in franchise history. Cousins is just over 1,000 yards for jumping Rypien for fourth place in passing yards, as well.

Finally, he tied Rypien for the most 300-yard passing games by a Redskins signal caller, with 13 300-yard performances. Two more 300-yard efforts will move Cousins into second on the list.

This was Cousins’ eighth 300-yard game with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions since the start of the 2015 season. That is tied with Tom Brady for the most such games in this time frame.

The only other players who have done this five or more times since 2015 are: Drew Brees (6), Russell Wilson (6), Aaron Rodgers (5) and Ben Roethlisberger (5). Every one of those guys has one won a Super Bowl and is going to the Hall of Fame.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Josh Doctson- For the fourth time in the last five weeks, Josh Doctson set at least one new career personal record. He tied career highs in targets (7) and receptions (4) and set new marks in first downs (4) and receiving yards (81). Doctson could have had an even bigger game if he had been able to find a way to haul in two difficult targets in the end zone.

The craziest thing about Doctson’s day is that he broke his yardage record in the first quarter and his first-down record in the second quarter. He was targeted on five of Cousins’ first seven passes, all of which came in the first frame of the game; but after that, he received just one target each in the third and fourth quarters.

Doctson could have had a monster game if they had continued to look his way in the second half.

Jamison Crowder- Crowder led the team with 8 targets and 7 receptions. He gained 72 yards on those receptions and tied a team-high with 4 first downs. It was certainly nice to see Crowder hold onto the ball this week, after committing multiple drops against the Vikings.

The diminutive third-year slot receiver took his only rush of the game for 4 yards. He has run the ball at least once in each of his last five games.

It should be noted that 3 of his 7 catches and 41 of his 72 yards came on the Redskins’ final drive of regulation. Nevertheless, Crowder has been on a hot streak as of late.

After not topping 7 targets and 52 receiving yards in each of his first six games, Crowder has received 8 or more targets and gained at least 72 yards through the air in his last three contests. He averaged 3.2 receptions for 25 yards in his first six games and 6.7 receptions for 90 yards in his last three outings.

He now leads the team in both targets (62) and receptions (39).

Ryan Grant- Ryan Grant played on both his second highest snap total (53) and snap share (77%) of the season. He caught all 3 of his targets for 59 yards, 2 first downs and a touchdown.

This was the fourth time this year Grant has caught every ball thrown in his direction. His 59 receiving yards in the game represent not only his second highest receiving total of the year, it was the second highest total of his career.

Grant was wide open on his 40-yard touchdown from Cousins, which was both the longest play of the game for Washington and the longest play of Grant’s entire career. Grant also set a new single-season career highs in first downs (19), 20-yard receptions (4) and touchdowns (3) with that play.

Literally the only major counting receiving statistic that Grant has not set a single-season career high in yet is targets (39 targets), but he is only four passes away from doing so (42 targets).

Maurice Harris- Mo Harris had a career day against the Vikings last week, but he was merely an afterthought in New Orleans. Harris only played on nine snaps in the first half and was not targeted.

Terrelle Pryor- Terrelle Pryor’s season has mercifully come to an end. The 28-year-old former quarterback will be placed on injured reserve after undergoing ankle surgery on Monday.

His PFF grade of 43.1 ranks him 108 out of 115 qualifying receivers this season.

He was only able to muster 20 receptions for 240 yards, 15 first downs and 1 touchdown on 37 targets and 378 snaps.

There have been 86 30-target seasons by a Redskins’ wide receiver since target data became available in 1992. Pryor’s 240-yard year ranks 80th on this list. Only Bill Brooks, David Patten, Josh Morgan, James Thrash, Chris Doering and Joey Galloway had less receiving yards on 30 or more targets.

This isn’t just about volume and sample size, either. Terrelle Pryor ranks in the bottom-25 of that list in yards per game (26.7), yards per reception (12) and yards per target (6.5).

In a nutshell, Terrelle Pryor’s 2017 campaign was one of the worst seasons ever by a Redskins starting wide receiver. Pryor has probably played his last snap for the team.

Brian Quick- Quick was held out because of a concussion for the second straight week. When he returns, he should see increased opportunity now that the Pryor experiment has officially ended.

TIGHT ENDS

Vernon Davis- VD had yet another big day for the Burgundy and Gold. Davis played on a season-high 90% of the snaps, which is also a 2017-high percentage by any Redskins tight end.

He caught 3 of his 6 passes for 67 yards and 2 first downs. Old man Davis has now gone for over 58 or more receiving yards in seven of his last eight games. He’s hit 65 yards in six of those games.

Two of his receptions came on on a touchdown drive in back-to-back plays , a 5-yard catch on third down and a gain of 26 on 4th-and-5. He caught a 36-yarder on a fourth-quarter scoring drive.

He leads the team and is tied for 8th in the NFL with 7 receptions of 25 or more yards this season. Here are the players who have caught more 25-yard passes in 2017: Brandin Cooks, T.Y. Hilton. Adam Thielen, Antonio Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, Tyreek Hill and Marvin Jones.

Davis was far from perfect on Sunday, though. He failed to haul in a 2nd-and-7 first down and flat-out dropped a first-down pass in overtime. The Redskins went three-and-out on that OT drive and never got the ball back. He leads the team with 5 drops this season.

Jeremy Sprinkle- The rookie tight end saw his snap count drop with the return of Niles Paul. The Redskins like to show two and three-tight end looks to start games, so he did make his fourth start of the year, despite the reduced playing time.

Sprinkle received a target for the second time in the last three weeks, and for just the second time this season.

He caught his first career pass for a 7-yard touchdown which put the Redskins up by 15 points with just under six minutes left in the game (that hurts to type).

Sprinkle is the third Redskin this season whose first catch of the year came on a touchdown (Doctson and Harris).

Niles Paul- Paul played on 34 offensive snaps against the Saints, his highest total since Week 3. He caught both of his targets for 11 yards and a first down. This was Paul’s first multi-target and multi-catch game since the final week of the 2014 season.

He took a fake-punt run for 5 yards and the first down. Had he not moved the chains there, the Saints would have taken over possession of the ball inside of Washington’s red zone. Instead, the Redskins finished the drive with a touchdown.

This was easily Paul’s most active game of the season.

Jordan Reed- Reed was inactive for the third straight game and for the fourth time this season. His ailing hamstring looks like it may keep him out of this week’s game against the Giants, as well.

He is three more missed games away from matching the seven contests he sat out of in his rookie season. With Reed’s luck, he will tie or beat that personal record in 2017.

RUNNING BACKS

Chris Thompson (Playing Time)- Chris Thompson tragically suffered a broken fibula in the third quarter of Sunday’s game and is out for the rest of the season. Thompson only played on 18 snaps and a 26% snap share before exiting, both of which are his lowest totals since Week 16 of the 2015 season.

CT only got 1 start all year, but led all Redskins runners in snaps in seven of the ten games he played in.

Chris Thompson (Rushing)- Thompson took his four rushes in New Orleans for 17 yards and 0 first downs. He lost yardage on two of his runs (-2 and -1) and picked up gains of 4 and 16 on his other two totes.

Through 10 games, Thompson led all Redskins running backs in both number of runs for a loss or no gain (17) and in the percentages of his rushes which did not gain a yard (27%), but he led this group in both the number of percentage of his runs that gained 5 or more yards (23, 36%), 10 or more yards (8, 13%) and 15 or more yards (4, 6%).

He also led the RB corps in both yards per carry (4.6) and missed tackles forced (13).

Chris Thompson (Receiving)- It was fitting that Thompson caught his only target in the game for a 16-yard touchdown. He scored on a receiving TD in the first week of the season, too. He was truly spectacular as a receiver out of the backfield this season.

Chris Thompson (The GOAT)- This hurts, but let’s take one last 2017 look at the GOAT.

  • Thompson set new single-season career highs in receiving yards (510), yards from scrimmage (804), receiving touchdowns (4) and total touchdowns (6).
  • He caught 39 of his 54 targets for 510 yards and 4 touchdowns. He is still tied for the team lead in receptions and sits alone at the top with the most receiving touchdowns, total first downs, total touchdowns and yards from scrimmage.
  • Here are Thompson’s totals next to totals of the player who ranks second on the team in a few of those aforementioned statistics: total touchdowns (6 to 3), first downs (33 to 22) and yards from scrimmage (804 to 527). He’s produced at least 150% of the level of the next closest guy on the team in all three of those major offensive stats.
  • CT currently ranks 5th in yards per route run (2.34), 4th in passer rating when targeted (125.4) and 4th in PFF receiving grade (87.2) among all qualifying running backs.
  • His 510 receiving yards leads all running backs, which is 63 yards more than what 2nd place Alvin Kamara has.
  • Chris Thompson is the king of YAC. Thompson leads the NFL with 485 yards after the catch. That is 90 more yards than Alvin Kamara’s 385 yards of YAC.
  • Thompson’s 510 receiving yards this season ranks 10th all-time by a Washington RB in team history.

Samaje Perine- Perine finally broke out and had the game the team and fans had been waiting to see from him.

The fourth rounder out of Oklahoma set new career highs in nearly every major statistic: snaps (48), snap rate (70%), rushing attempts (23), rushing yards (109), rushes of 5 or more yards (6), long rush (30), yards per carry (5.1), yards from scrimmage (126), first downs (4) and rushing touchdowns (1). Wow, Samaje really had himself a day, didn’t he? That’s not all, though.

He ranked 3rd in the NFL this week in both rushing yards and yards from scrimmage. His 4.2 yards after contact average ranked 4th among all running backs in Week 11.

This was Perine’s first 100-yard game and the first such game by a Redskin since Rob Kelley crushed the Packers for 137 yards on SNF almost a year ago to the day. That was also the last time a Washington runner toted the rock 23 or more times in a game. There have only been six other 100-yard rushing performances and three other 23-carry games by a Redskin since 2015.

The rookie has definitely improved as the season has gone along. He was only averaging 3 YPC through the first six weeks of the season, but has gone on to average 4.75 since then. He posted a success rate above 33% in just one of the first four games he rushed the ball; he has topped 50% in each of his last three contests (50%, 56%, and 52%).

Samaje Perine is now the unquestioned lead back of the Washington Redskins. He leads the team in carries (89), rushing yards (327) and yards after contact average (2.8).

Byron Marshall- The team’s newest RB only played on 3 snaps and took his only carry of the game for a gain of 2 yards on 1st-and-17. With Chris Thompson out for the season, Marshall looks to be in store for a lot more work.

Marshall has a 70-plus catch, 1,000-receiving yard season on his college resume, so we have at least some evidence which shows he is capable of producing as a third-down back.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Offensive Line (Pass Blocking)- The line only allowed 4 hits and 2 sacks on the road to a Saints team that ranks top-10 in sack percentage and adjusted sack rate. Half of the hits and all of the sacks didn’t come until the Redskins’ last four offensive plays of the game.

No Washington O-linemen were called for holding penalties on Cousins’ dropbacks.

Offensive Line (Run Blocking)- The line paved the way for the team’s second best day of the year in terms of rushing yards and rushing average and only committed one penalty in the process.

Trent Williams- After missing both Weeks 8 and 9 with a knee injury, Williams was out there with the offense for 100% of the snaps for the second straight game.

The Redskins are averaging 145 rushing yards in 2017 contests which Williams takes every snap in and 74 yards rushing in games that he does miss a play in. Coincidence? Maybe. Small sample size? Well, yeah. Still interesting, nonetheless.

Shawn Lauvao- Lauvao aggravated his stinger and left the game after just 30 snaps, a season-low for the eighth-year guard. He jumped early on one of his last plays of the day and was flagged for a false start.

UPDATE: Lauvao was somewhat unexpectedly put on injured reserve today.

Chase Roullier- The rookie out of Wyoming finally looks to be getting the hang of things. He didn’t allow any pressures and posted an 84.4 PFF grade, the third best rating on the offense.

Roullier reportedly just had surgery on his hand, which casts extreme doubt on his status for Thursday night’s tilt with the Giants. Expect our next player to step in and man the pivot for the offense.

Tony Bergstrom- Bergstrom stepped in for Lauvao at left guard and took the last three snaps of a late second-quarter drive.

It looks like he will be the third center to start a game for the team this season. Unbelievable.

Brandon Scherff- Scherff’s 90.0 PFF run blocking grade was tops in the league going into Sunday Night Football.

He did gave up a key sack to Cameron Jordan in overtime, but that was the only pressure that he allowed on 37 pass-blocking snaps.

His overall rating of 89.0 ranked 1st on the Redskins’ offense and 1st among all guards in Week 11.

Morgan Moses- Moses was in on 100% of the offensive snaps for the eighth time this season. He ranks second on the team in offensive snaps (5 behind Cousins) and fourth in snaps from scrimmage. Only D.J. Swearinger has played on more total snaps than Moses (includes special teams).

Moses did commit a face-mask penalty against the Saints which negated a 6-yard run by Perine on first down and that was the primary catalyst for a stalled drive in the fourth quarter. He also recovered Cousins’ fumble on the last play of regulation.

Ty Nsekhe- Bergstrom would be replaced by Ty Nsehke at left guard. Nsekhe played a season-high 36 snaps in the game (13 snaps in 2017 prior to Sunday). The last time he played more was Week 13 of last season against the Cardinals, the last game of Trent William’s suspension.

Arie Kouandijo- Kouandijo was a healthy scratch. He has only played in two games all season (Weeks 8 and 9 vs. Dallas and Seattle), but he may get an opportunity against the Giants because of Lauvao’s recurring stinger injury.

Spencer Long- Long was inactive for the third time in the last four weeks. He had only missed 50 of the team’s last 1,130 snaps going into the Week 7 matchup against the Eagles. He has missed 259 snaps since that game.

UPDATE: Long was also placed on IR today.

ALL OFFENSIVE SNAPS

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

Poll

With Chris Thompson out for the remainder of the season, which one of these players should be the focal point of the Redskins’ offense going forward?

This poll is closed

  • 12%
    Jamison Crowder
    (10 votes)
  • 2%
    Vernon Davis
    (2 votes)
  • 56%
    Josh Doctson
    (45 votes)
  • 5%
    Ryan Grant
    (4 votes)
  • 23%
    Samaje Perine
    (19 votes)
  • 0%
    Jordan Reed
    (0 votes)
80 votes total Vote Now