The pregame intro was pretty hype...and it pretty much went downhill from there.
Sure, Chip Kelly's new offense was nothing short of eye-popping in the 1st half, but they did take their foot off the gas and came back to Earth a little bit in the 2nd half. Still, I think that was slightly aided by the fact that no one had seen this offense in the pros yet, and Griffin and the Redskins offense gave the ball away in the 1st half like they were serving up free samples at your local supermarket.
No, to me (no surprise) the real story was RG3 and the Redskins. John Gruden lamented that Griffin looked rusty, tentative, and didn't appear to be getting a lot of zip on some throws. I believe the 1st 2 points to be true, but on the other hand I didn't really see the lack of velocity on most of his passes. Griffin’s rust seemed to display itself mostly in mental mistakes. His 1st interception was a ball thrown into at least double coverage to Santana Moss, and Moss simply wasn’t open. His pitch to Alfred Morris along the goal line was too high and outside, which resulted in a safety. His 2nd pickle, on an out pattern to Moss, was thrown a beat late...which is a recipe for disaster on that particular route.
The moment I at least stopped worrying about the possibility of Griffin’s knee spontaneously combusting was on a 4th quarter scramble to escape the pocket. It was the kind of Houdini bulls*** that you saw RG3 employ when he was healthy last year...the near come-from-behind win against the Giants on the road comes to mind in particular. However, once escaping, Griffin’s throw to Leonard Hankerson sailed over his head incomplete...yet another sign that Griffin was still ironing out the kinks.
Washington's other biggest problem this year might be public perception. As a reigning division champion technically returning basically all of their starters from last season, they are being thought of by some as a possible Super Bowl candidate, which to me is ludicrous. 1st of all, unless you are a dominant team, a degree of luck always plays a part in your record. The Skins were only 10-6 last year. 1 more loss to a division foe, which they very easily could've had, and they go from hosting a playoff game to not even being in the playoffs at all. Also, consider the fact that they have had to withstand an $18 million salary cap hit each of the last 2 years. I'm not a capalogist, but to me that's somewhere between a couple to several starting caliber NFL players. You think the rest of the offense, where aside from RG3 and Trent Williams there aren’t really any blue chip players, could use some of that cap room? You think a defense that still boasts 38 year old London Fletcher as its most important player (and that’s not a good thing) could use it? Especially a defensive secondary that is not NFL worthy at all? The answer to all of those is a big fat yes.
The fact is that even with a competent replacement level quarterback under center instead of Griffin (and I’m actually a Kirk Cousins fan), this is a 4 or 5 win team. Alfred Morris is a solid back. They make up for their lack of a big play receiver with some decent depth at the position. Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo look like great bookend rush linebackers when healthy, at least on paper. Overall, the talent just isn’t there. You can say it’s a good thing that they basically return their entire team from a year ago if you want. I counter that they weren’t able to and didn’t improve their roster in any way during the offseason. Combine that with Griffin working his way back into football shape on the fly and a 1st place schedule on their plate, and the Redskins might be looking at a lost season here already…just saying.
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