For the second time in three games, wide receiver Jamison Crowder had little impact in the first half, but responded with a touchdown in the third quarter vs. the Cardinals.
Wide receiver Jamison Crowder thought he had a chance at the end zone, so he broke to his left. Quarterback Kirk Cousins didn't have a feel for his receiver's thinking.
And so when the Arizona Cardinals' Cover-0 pressure in the pocket came, Cousins, who decided not to give himself a max protection check, was forced into an errant pass, throwing behind Crowder and towards cornerback Patrick Peterson, who intercepted the pass before it hit the ground.
"It was really nothing I could do," Crowder said. "I had what we call an option route, so I had the choice to either sit down or break in. Breaking in, I saw the safety kind of flip his heels. I felt like if I broke in, I could've caught it and potentially score. So I guess it was a little miscommunication, they got some pressure, the guy was in his face so he had to get it out of his hands."
"I wasn't really sure which way he was going to break, and when he did break in, I felt the rush and kind of forced it in earlier than I wanted to," Cousins said. "The result was what it was."
The mistake sealed the Redskins' 31-23 defeat to the Cardinals Sunday afternoon in Glendale, Ariz., casting a blemish on Crowder's second half, which saw him collect three passes for 42 yards and a touchdown.
Often an integral part of the offense, Crowder entered the locker room at halftime, with the team trailing by three points, without a catch. He remained in hopeful spirits though knowing that his day would turn around with some patience. After all, he had experienced a similar situation two weeks earlier against Green Bay.
The Packers held him to just one catch for five yards over the first two quarters before he broke out with two big pass plays that netted a touchdown and a combined 97 yards.
"What kept me motivated was to tell myself to keep playing," Crowder said. "The Green Bay game, I only had one pass in the first half, but the second half they were able to find [me]. Just got to keep playing. It's a long game, so second half they were able to find me a little bit today."
The results weren't as explosive, but Crowder found the end zone for the seventh time this season as a receiver. He grabbed a 5-yard pass on the Redskins' third drive of the third quarter and finished the series with a 26-yard touchdown reception.
Lined up with two other receivers to Cousins' right, Crowder used his teammates routes to disguise his sprint up the seam, making a quick plant on safety Tony Jefferson and becoming wide open for the easy score.
"It was the right call at the time against their defense," Crowder said. "We had ran that earlier in the game, and I came back to the sideline and told them I was open on the play. We came back to it, Kirk was able to get some time, and able to find me."
Crowder finished his day with a 14-yard grab in the fourth quarter, but first half red zone struggles and the defense's inability to get off the field prevented the Redskins from victory.
"We can move the ball, we can get down the field, but we got to take advantage of a lot of opportunities," Crowder said. "I feel like we left some plays out there on the field."
