Three Plays from Gameday: Week 3, Bears

For each Redskins game in the 2019 season, Andrew York plans to pick three plays and break them down in an effort to highlight individual Redskins players.

For the Week Three matchup against the Bears at home, the three plays will focus on an edge rusher, Montez Sweat, the quarterback, Case Keenum, and a safety, Landon Collins.

Redskins vs Bears, Week 3 highlights | NFL 2019 on YouTube

[00:20] Montez Sweat explodes past the LT, using his long left arm to hold him off while Sweat bends around the edge and pursues the QB to get the sack.

These are the plays Sweat was drafted to make and it’s really nice to see him finally making them. Sweat didn’t necessarily show much in the way of pass rush moves on this play, and it seems like he’s still developing those moves, but rather he seemed to explode off the line so quickly that the LT simply couldn’t react fast enough to seal the edge. That’s exactly the speed at OLB we have been missing for years.

A better QB than Trubisky would have probably thrown the ball away rather than taking a sack, but it was still a great play by Sweat. I think a big part of his problem the last few games was that the game was too fast for him, but it finally seems to be slowing down.

[6:32] Case Keenum throws into triple coverage for a pick when there is an open receiver nearby.

This is similar to one of the plays I highlighted last week in which Case threw into triple coverage, though he was lucky then to avoid the pick.

Here, Vernon Davis (85) is a leaking TE at the top of the screen and the intended receiver. Jeremy Sprinkle (87) is lined up on the boundary at the very top of the screen. I don’t know what coverage Case thought he saw, but he clearly decides Davis is going to be his target pre-snap and stares him down, leading to numerous DBs closing in and, of course, an INT.

Meanwhile, Sprinkle has no DBs nearby when he starts his route and could have made for an easy first down completion.

Also, note at the end of this clip that one of the players to rush in and attempt a tackle on the pick return is Terry McLaurin (17). He ran from the complete opposite side of the field to try to help on this broken play and was almost the first one there.

[6:52] Landon Collins does an excellent job here of immediately diagnosing a run play and exploding through the OL to get a TFL.

Collins explodes so quickly through the line that Taylor Gabriel (18) at the bottom of the screen isn’t able to react quickly enough to block him. Collins shows good vision finding the hole in the OL as well, all the while keeping his eyes on the ball carrier.

That kind of quick reaction time and explosive movement is really hard to scheme against, and this play could have had a big impact if the rest of the team were keeping it more competitive.

Which of these plays do you think is most interesting?

Are there any players you would like to see highlighted in the next article?

Also, now that we’re several weeks into the regular season, there is enough tape to start breaking down individual players going forward. Let me know if you’d like me to keep making these 3 plays articles, or if you’d prefer to see profiles of individual players based on their play so far this season.