Redskins Notes & Quotes 10-28-2014
Notes
– Monday’s win over the Cowboys was the Redskins first win on Monday Night Football since December. 3, 2012 vs the New York Giants.
– The Redskins finished the game with five sacks, the most by any team against Dallas this season.
– Linebacker Ryan Kerrigan recorded his 32nd career sack in the second quarter, giving him 7.5 on the season, one shy of his career high.
– The Redskins didn’t allow a rushing touchdown for the third consecutive game. This marks the second three-game stretch this season in which the team has held opponents without a rushing touchdown (Weeks 1-3).
– The Redskins now have 27 points on the opening possessions of second halves this season, tied with Miami for most in the NFL
Quotes
Jay Gruden – On if the play of quarterback Colt McCoy eases pressure on the possible return of Robert Griffin III:
“Well, we are not going to rush Robert back no matter what happens. You know, we are going to make sure that he is 100 percent, and until we feel like he is 100 percent, Colt will still play. And Colt did a great job obviously leading us to victory against Dallas, but it’s all going to be predicated on when the doctors say he is 100 percent, when Robert feels like he is 100 percent and when I feel like he is ready to take the game time reps.”
Jay Gruden – On if he has grasped the magnitude of this win and what it could mean for the season:
“I read somewhere after we lost our fifth game that we were playing meaningless games from here on out, which is pretty far from the truth. You know, we wanted to come out against Tennessee and get a win, and then obviously come out and compete against Dallas on Monday Night Football and prove that we aren’t dead, you know? We still have a pulse, our heart is still beating, and we have a lot to play for still. And that’s what that game meant for us, man. It showed the hard work that we put in. The resilience that we’re showing is paying off, and we’ve just got to keep it going. You know, we dug ourselves in a mighty hole at 1-5, and we understand that moving forward, but we’re not dead. We still have a little bit of a pulse left.”
Jay Gruden – On the learning curve for the quarterbacks in gauging DeSean Jackson’s speed:
“We throw to him plenty in practice, but sometimes he gets on that fast track – that turf out there – and then he’s rolling. We’ve just got to get them out there. We’ve got to get them out there to him and continue to work him. Sometimes he gets jammed at the line of scrimmage and doesn’t get going quite as fast, but when the ball’s in the air, he’s got unbelievable speed and tracking ability to go get it. So we’ve just got to understand as quarterbacks, all of them, they can lay it out there a lot farther than they think they can. I think we’ve only overthrown him maybe twice since I’ve been here in practice. It’s pretty incredible. That’s an incredible guy tracking the ball. The first deep one, if he throws it out there, it’s a touchdown, but at least we completed the dang thing.”
Jay Gruden – On cornerbacks Bashaud Breeland and David Amerson:
“They were outstanding, both of them. Not so much in the cover ability, which they both covered extremely well, but tackling. They were great tacklers. There were some open field tackles, and really you look at Breeland, you see all the plays that he had were good – the pass breakups, the tackles – but I thought the most impressive play he had was coming all the way over from the other side of the field and tackling DeMarco Murray at the five-yard line on his long run. A lot of players might have taken that one off, and if he wasn’t hustling and flying from the other side of the field, he scores there. Instead of him scoring, we held them to three points on that possession. That’s the two plays that Breeland broke up on [Dez] Bryant back to back. That whole series right there was very impressive for Breeland. Amerson was steady, as always, but the guy who really didn’t get a lot of love was [Brandon] Meriweather. He had probably his best game since I’ve been here. He had tackles. He had sacks. He had fumbles, fumble recoveries, forced fumble, he was all over the place so it was great to see him show up in a big way the way he did.”
