Redskins Notes & Quotes 10-7-2014
The Washington Redskins played tough, but fell to 1-4 after losing to the Seattle Seahawks last night on Monday Night Football. The team didn’t turn the ball over on offense, but had no answer for Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson on defense.
The Seahawks jumped out to an early 17-0 lead behind Russel Wilson’s nearly 100 yards rushing in the first half. The Redskins settled in after that but Wilson’s magic was too much to overcome as they fell 27-17 to the defending Superbowl champions. The Redskins now find themselves 3 games out of first as the Eagles and Cowboys both have 4-1 records.
Notes:
– Ryan Kerrigan recorded his NFC leading sixth sack (tied for the lead in the NFL) on the season and became the eighth player to record 30 sacks with the Redskins, joining Dexter Manley, Charles Mann, Monte Coleman, Ken Harvey, Brian Orakpo, Dave Butz and Andre Carter.
– DeSean Jackson posted a season-high 157 receiving yards (his 22nd 100-yard game in his career, second with Redskins) on five receptions with one touchdown which was the 34th of Jackson’s career. Jackson’s 31.4 yards per reception were his most in a game in which he caught at least five passes. Jackson now has 25 catches and 19 total touchdowns covering 50 yards or more since entering the league in 2008, both stats are the most in the NFL. He is now tied with teammate Santana Moss for 10th-most in the NFL since the 1970 merger.
– Kirk Cousins completed 21-of-36 passes for 283 yards with two touchdowns and a passer rating of 102.0. Cousins has exceeded a passer rating of 100.0 in three of his four games this season. The fourth game of course was the 4 interception stinker against New York.
– The Redskins could not get the running game going as Alfred Morris gained only 24 yards, on 13 carries. Essentially, that was the difference in this game for Washington.
– The Redskins fell to 4-1 against defending Super Bowl champions on Monday Night Football. The Redskins had previously won Monday night games against the Dallas Cowboys in 1978, the Cowboys in 1993, the St. Louis Rams in 2000 and the New York Giants in 2012.
– The Redskins bad luck in prime-time and against mobile quarterbacks continued to show it’s face as Washington is now 3-17 in prime-time games since Joe Gibbs retired, and Wilson rushed for a career-high 122 yards and a touchdown.
Quotes:
Jay Gruden – On the team’s offensive struggles:
“They haven’t put it together, fully. It’s a process. We have to keep working at it. You know, we’ve got to get the running game going, we have to get more than 1.9 yards a carry, and it’s not good enough. When we take some shots we have to do the best we can. But overall as a group offensively, our running game is not quite good enough, obviously our deep passing game is not quite good enough. We’re not quite good enough anywhere, and obviously that starts with the play calling, so I’ve got to do a better job to get these guys prepared. We’re going to get there, I think we’ve got the talent on the team to get there. Seattle is a great football team, great defense; they’re going to make a lot of teams struggle offensively. But moving forward I think we competed and we will compete in the future.”
Jay Gruden – On if he thought the defense improved in the second half:
“Yeah, I thought so. I thought we came in at halftime and Coach [Jim] Haslett did a nice job of making some adjustments to get those guys off the field. He kept getting the ball back for the offense; the problem is we kept getting backed up. We were at our own 1 one time, we were at our own 8, our own 10, we were unable to flip the field position, which just kept giving them opportunity after opportunity. So, we’ve got to do a better job offensively to at least flip the position or special teams. And again, we’ve got to get a turnover somewhere. We aren’t getting turnovers, and we aren’t really changing the momentum with our special teams. There was a couple areas where we’ve got to really figure out what to do. When you’re playing these close games, eventually somebody’s got to get a turnover. We’ve got to block a kick, somebody’s got to do something. I see these ESPN highlights all the time, I see blocked kicks for touchdowns and interceptions for touchdowns and we’ve got to figure out a way to get some of those.”
QB Kirk Cousins – On the 60-yard touchdown to wide receiver DeSean Jackson and then his 57-yarder later:
“I’m still learning on how to play with a guy like DeSean. He’s in a category in his own. It takes some time to build that chemistry and learn how talented he is, how much you can let the ball go and he can get it. He is so good at tracking it in the air. I’m still learning how to work with him. Those two plays show how good he is. It’s just a matter of every week getting him the football, because when the ball is in his hands, good things happen.”
WR DeSean Jackson – On why the team is not producing wins consistently:
“You know, it’s a process man. New coach, new quarterback that’s getting a lot of new experience and things like that. There’s a lot of new players added to the team here, so we’re trying to find our identity or continually go out there and just give us a chance to win. That’s the best I can say.”
FS Ryan Clark – On his disappointment last week in how the team handled adversity:
“Without question. I think for me I was very disappointed with our reaction to adversity last week. I was very disappointed in the way we attacked after we were punched in the mouth. I think tonight that is what I wanted to see. I want to win. I understand that we don’t get paid to play football. We get paid to win football games. Period. We have to be better. For me, at this point in my career, I can’t play for a group of men who will lay down, and we didn’t, so I can live with that.”
LB Brian Orakpo – On how hard it was to deal with Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson getting outside:
“That is a difficult thing. You normally – the edges – you can see Russell getting out but at the same time the way we are playing is playing play run, run. It’s hard man, it’s hard. You are trying to read the mess and you really can’t tell who has the ball. Russell who kept it a lot more than he would on his keeps this game than he showed on film. I guess he knows that we play our stuff a little but more aggressively than other teams when we are trying to stop the run. He did a good job, it was almost like he wasn’t even reading, it was almost like it was designed keeps the way he was hitting the edges and his quarterback boots and things of that nature.”
LB Ryan Kerrigan – On adjustments made from first half to second half:
“We just kind of just tried to play the bootlegs a little bit better. I mean, that is where he was really effective early in the game was on those keepers, which we didn’t see much of those on film in the previous weeks so you’ve got to tip your hat to them for adjusting during their bye week.”
Jay Gruden – On his challenge:
“I saw his whole body was two yards in front of the line, it looked like. The ball was at the 48 [-yard line], around there, and he went all the way up at the 50 [-yard line]. I don’t know. It looked it was clear from up in the box and looked like it was clear from the sideline. We challenged it and lost again. I thought it was worth a challenge. It was close, but they said the ball had never crossed the line, but it looked like it did on the replay.”
