This week's Redskins Drive of the Game, presented by Ford, was highlighted by the longest opening drive of the year for the Redskins as they hit the field in London and easily covered 80 yards with rookie Robert Kelley's first career rushing touchdown finishing off the drive.*
New stadium, new continent, new field, no problem. The Washington Redskins' offense had no trouble settling in Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London against the Cincinnati Bengals. Right from the opening kick, the Washington offense found its groove, marching 80 yards in 15 plays for a touchdown. It was the longest opening drive of the season for the Redskins.
When the Redskins offense is at its best, there are numerous players involved in the effort. The opening drive Sunday was no different as five Redskins touched the football on the touchdown drive. Tight end Jordan Reed, who missed the previous two games due to injury, was involved immediately by catching a seven-yard pass from Kirk Cousins. After a run for no gain, Cousins hit DeSean Jackson with a four-yard completion to move the chains.
Cousins picked up another first down by finding Reed for 12 yards followed by a 17-yard completion to Jamison Crowder to move into Bengals territory. In his first career start, rookie running back Robert Kelley ran for four yards on back-to-back plays to set up another third and short, in which Cousins completed a pass to Pierre Garçon for a fourth first down of the drive.
After a three-yard run for Kelley and an incompletion, Cousins again converted on third down by finding his good friend Reed for 12 yards to move the Redskins to the Cincinnati 11-yard line. After a seven-yard completion to Crowder, the Redskins turned back to the rookie Kelley, who made a quick cut behind the line then barreled forward into the end zone from four yards out for the touchdown.
"It was my first time starting in the NFL," Kelley said. "It felt good. It's something that you dream about. It felt good for me.
"Scoring a touchdown in London, that's crazy."
The opening drive Sunday was only the beginning for Washington as it went on to total 546 yards – Cousins threw for 458 himself – in what felt like a disappointing tie, 27-27. Kelley finished with 21 carries and 87 yards in his first start while Reed totaled 99 receiving yards and a touchdown, looking as if he hadn't miss a beat.
"I think it's so much week to week in this league that it's hard to have a broad scope of the offense as a whole," Cousins said. "I think we had 500, 600 yards of offense today. That's pretty good. Guys made some unbelievable plays and if we don't do that against the Vikings, then I think the narrative is going to be that our offense is sputtering and we're not doing enough. So it's so much week to week, but we certainly did a lot from a yards perspective today."
