In the coming weeks, Redskins.com will be looking back on the second half of the 2019 season to provide an in-depth perspective on each game. Here are the games we've revisited so far:
This week's revisited game is the Week 10 matchup between the Redskins and Jets.
Quarterback Dwayne Haskins was named the permanent starter in the bye week after the loss to the Bills, while running back Derrius Guice played for the first time since Week 1 after being taken off Injured Reserve.
Despite Haskins and Guice both getting their first-career touchdowns off a 45-yard screen pass, the Redskins lost the contest, 34-17, for their fourth consecutive defeat.
First Quarter
-- The Bills focused their running attack mostly on plays outside the tackles in Week 9. They used Frank Gore to pound up the "A" gap occasionally, but the offense mostly avoided the Redskins defensive interior. The Jets had the opposite mentality, at least on the first drive. They used Le'Veon Bell to run straight at the defensive front, and they were getting plenty of push from their center and guards. See the push the Jets' offensive line got on this four-yard gain:
-- On the other side of the ball, Adrian Peterson was making defenders look silly. Technically, the play below shouldn't even have worked because it wasn't blocked correctly. It was designed for Ereck Flowers to pull and block the outside linebacker, while the fullback would move across the play to block the middle linebacker. Tackle Morgan Moses was supposed to work his way up to the backside linebacker, leaving an open lane for Peterson.
Flowers and the fullback ended up blocking the same player, while Moses couldn't reach the backside linebacker. That left two linebackers to potentially make the tackle. One was out of position, leaving just James Burgess to meet Peterson in the hole. He whiffed on the attempt.
-- The Jets' receivers did a good job of getting separation against the Redskins' secondary, whether they were playing man or zone coverage. Part of that had to do with the route patterns the Jets were running, but some of it came from mistakes and miscommunication from the defensive backs, which defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio talked about in his introductory phone conference.
One of the biggest examples of that came on the Jets' 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Daniel Brown. Quarterback Sam Darnold rolled out to his left, which caused cornerback Josh Norman to come off his zone assignment to defend a quarterback scramble. That left safety Landon Collins to defend against two players. The lapse resulted in an easy touchdown for Darnold.
Second Quarter
-- Any player or coach will say that losses are never the time to heap praise on anyone, but Daron Payne's performance throughout the game was overshadowed by its outcome. The box score shows that he had five tackles, but his impact goes further than that. He had the pass deflection that forced a field goal attempt, and he was the one who brought the pressure that forced Darnold to throw an interception. It was a solid overall performance from the former first-round draft pick.
-- The one play that showed Redskins fans just how exciting this offense could be was ironically nullified by a clear holding penalty. Other than the mental error from Brandon Scherff, this play showed off almost every reason why the team drafted Haskins and Terry McLaurin. Haskins slung the ball 53 yards off his back leg without setting his feet while McLaurin sped past defensive backs for the easy catch and ran for another 14 yards before being taken down. It's been said a lot, but it deserves to be said again: this play alone is enough to be positive about this offense's future.
-- Guice's first three touches of the game came after the kickoff team recovered a fumble at the Jets' 27, and it didn't look like he missed a beat after missing over half the season. In those three plays, he showed exactly why the team is so high on him. He showed off his speed on an option play that went nine yards; he displayed his elusiveness on the next play by avoiding two tackles for a two-yard gain; and then he demonstrated his value as a receiver in the backfield with a five-yard catch and run. He didn't touch the ball again for the rest of the half, but he proved his worth with the limited playing time.
Third Quarter
-- As previously mentioned, the Jets' receivers were successful at getting separation against the Redskins' secondary, but that wasn't the case during the Jets' two offensive drives of the third quarter. The Jets were clearly trying to put the game away. They were aggressive with their play calling and even converted a fourth down at midfield. Washington's secondary, however, did just enough to keep Darnold and Bell at bay. Watch here as Jimmy Moreland provides solid pressure against Jamison Crowder to force a punt.
-- A lot off attention gravitates toward McLaurin, which is certainly well-deserved, but that opens up opportunities for other young receivers who were pleasant surprises last year. Kelvin Harmon is one of those players. He was second on the team with 53 receiving yards against the Jets -- 24 of which came on the play below. The play was designed to get Harmon in space by using McLaurin and Trey Quinn to run off the corner and free safety, leaving Harmon open to make the catch in space. It was a well-designed play, and it allowed Harmon to show his worth as one of Haskins' most reliable options by converting a crucial third down.
-- As mentioned above, the Jets were trying to put the game away in the third quarter. The play calling could be aggressive, but it wasn't sloppy; it was methodical. There weren't many plays that gained a lot of yards, but Bell consistently gained three yards on every carry to keep his offense on the field. The Jets had to wait until the fourth quarter to get their score and put the game out of reach, but they controlled the clock and kept the ball away from Haskins, which in many ways was just as good as getting points.
Fourth Quarter
-- The Jets' first touchdown of the quarter was the true dagger of the game. It put them up 27-3 and all but eliminated the Redskins' chances of a comeback. The play is dependent upon two routes by Demaryius Thomas and Crowder. Thomas ran an eight-yard hitch while Crowder ran underneath, turned up the field and sprinted to the end zone. That held up Norman and Fabian Moreau long enough for Crowder to speed past both players and make the catch at the Redskins' six-yard line. All Crowder needed to do after that was walk in for the score.
-- Guice was spectacular on his 45-yard screen pass, but the blocking from his teammates was even more superb. Scherff and Quinn were the two players who made this play a success. Scherff sealed off the edge with a block on cornerback Arthur Maulet as Guice ran past him. Quinn not only blocked his man, but also got in the way of another trying to take an angle. The result left Guice untouched until the five-yard line, and he took care of the rest for his first-career touchdown.
-- Some of Haskins' best throws of the game came after he threw his fourth-quarter interception. He completed eight of his 14 passes from that point on, and that includes s 41-yard bomb to McLaurin and a one-yard touchdown to tight end Jeremy Sprinkle. The touchdown pass involved simple play action motion and Sprinkle peeling off his block at the last second to get wide open in the middle of the end zone. The same can be said on the ensuing two-point conversion, as Haskins scrambled to find Quinn open on a crossing route.
Although the game was essentially lost before the offense found its footing, there were plenty of opportunities to keep the game competitive. And even though there were times where the entire team looked out of sync, there were also moments where it showed improvements from the previous game.
