Agree with you pretty much Henry, but it still boggles me how we bog down inside the 15 yard line or thereabouts.
It's certainly not that we can't pass...
Cousins is playing pretty well. We have weapons to pass to all over the field. Reed, Vernon (I'm loving his addition to this team by the way!), Garcon, Crowder can all be short yard receivers and are great at finding space. Even DJax who is supposed to be our deep threat can catch them pretty reliably short.
I don't necessarily blame the O-Line either, as it's much improved over recent years. Cousins is rarely sacked these days (especially now he's learnt to throw the ball away instead of taking the sack) and even when the pocket does break down he's looking way more comfortable on the roll out with every passing game (that 3rd and 13 to Crowder was a thing of beauty!).
I like watching Cousins play to be honest, I like watching him learn and grow.
While we're not a great running team, we can do it well enough when we need to. Look at Sunday. Our first TD was a run from Kelley. That right there should have put notice on the Bengals that we will run for the Touchdown...
The problem is that our run game is horribly inconsistent. That needs to change.
One play we'll get 7 yards. Next we're minus 3. And then when it's not working we get pass happy. Which then makes us one dimensional and predictable, especially in the red zone.
Sunday was a classic example. We looked like two different teams. First half and second half.
In the first half we started out trying the run, got a touchdown, but then as the Bengals defense was spritely and we were struggling to pop out more than 2 yards a carry we went straight back to the Pass.
Kelley ran 10 times for 29 yards. No threat there so the Bengals would naturally key onto our passing game. As the field compresses our receivers struggle for room as there's no run threat to keep the defense honest and out of Zone. Plus, Defenses are now super wary of the Cousins to Reed combo.
Result... 10 points in the first half.
Second half Kelley runs 11 times for 58 yards, good for 5.3 yards a pop. Coincidentally we look like a better team in the second half scoring 17 points (ok so a little better!)
Point is that this game could have easily been a win. We could EASILY be a 6-2 team right now. Dare I say even 7-1. The only game I think we were outclassed in was the Steelers game.
The Skins have a tradition of good workhorse running backs. We've never really had an Eric Dickerson or a Herschel Walker. We've had the likes of John Riggins, grinding out yards consistently. That's what we need right now. A grinder. A smash mouth running back who is ALWAYS good for 3 or 4 yards a carry. That would do us wonders. It's what we had in Morris, and I'm still a firm believer that alternating him with Jones last year did us no favours. I think he'd be a reliable grinder behind this O-Line. So now I'm hoping we just put Kelley in now and just see what he can do as starter for the year. I'm over Jones I think. He's always been inconsistent and fumbling is an issue.
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