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Playoff Game - breakdown/discussion

Om

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Figure we don't get to break down individual playoff games around here very often. Let's use this thread to talk about the game itself---we have many threads and many months ahead to talk about Big Picture and where we go from here. Home playoff games deserve their own thread.

Just a couple thoughts to get it rolling. I know some of you have already been doing this in other threads, so please feel free to cut and paste them in ...


* Defensively our lack of individual pass rushing talent was screamingly evident. The Packers used Rodgers’ mastery of quick releases and the no-huddle to force our hand. We could not bring in sub packages and dial up the blitzes we’ve needed all year to get pressure---we needed our down linemen to win individual battles up front and apply pressure on Rodgers. No one did. Watched them all night long and must have muttered to Boone a dozen times, 'no one is winning up front.’<o:p></o> Kerrigan, Preston Smith, Swaggy, Knighton, Francois, Paea … not a single one of them won their matchups last night. It basically left Rodgers and the Packers offense free to do anything they wanted.<o:p></o> To me the single most glaring reason the Redskins could not beat Green Bay last night was a lack of pass rushing talent up front. It led to Green Bay's offense slowly taking over the game. <o:p> </o>

* Offensive, Kirk was just a little bit off, but only compared to what we saw from him over the last month of the season. The man did okay for his first playoff game—but just okay given the standard he set for himself down the stretch. To win last night he would have had to be great. Yes, there was pressure, and yes, Dom Capers was in Sean McVay’s head last night and was one step ahead of our playcalling just enough to keep us from putting together those long, TD-producing drives we’ve begun to take for granted. And no, there still was no consistent running threat. But Kirk was just okay. He didn't step up in the pocket a couple of times it looked like he had a real opportunity to either extend the play of take off and run. Hadn't seen that hesitation much recently and it was very noticeable when it happened.
<o:p>
</o>
 
Agree. I think the game was turned when they got the substitution penalties. I could see Rodgers body language change as he figured he could outsmart us - that then led to better play for the Pack.

No shame in losing to the Packers, Rodgers is an all time great. I just wish we hadn't been the team to assist him getting into a groove.

On the other side of the ball, I'm seeing a lot of people (not here) say Kirk played poorly. I don't think he played great (especially as you say Om when compared with the last month) but to say he was bad is a stretch as well.

If I'm Scot, I'm sitting down with Gruden this week and asking what I need to get you to get a running game going. Keeping our D off the field for more than a 3 and out would have helped immensely last night. And we definitely need more pressure up front.

OLine, DLine and Secondary.
 
I see Barry's name popping up in other threads, so let me put my 2 kopeks in on him in last night's game here.

I thought he was brilliant early--the game play coming in produced a safety and allowed GB one first down in their first four possessions. But GB came with the no-huddle and took away Barry's ability to substitute and dial up 'packages' to manufacture pressure. Rodgers' quick read and release didn't help. Barry had to put 11 guys on the field and leave them out there, in hopes they could win their one-on-one matchups up front and hopefully generate pressure by winning occasionally up front, getting heat on Rodgers and hopefully creating a turnover here and there. He just didn't have the horses.

Nothing we haven't known all season---we don't have pass rushers. GB used good strategy and a HOF QB to expose that and take over the game.
 
In a nutshell, I'd say poor execution, of a poor gameplan.

All of our weaknesses were clearly visible.

Failure of an offense to show up against better defenses.
Lack of pressure on defense.
Lack of in game adjustments.
Average QB play.
 
I don't think it's a coincidence that very single team with playoff experience beat every single team without it this weekend.

The Packers played like seasoned vets and we played like ... well, not like that. :)

The good news is, now The Redskins have some playoff experience too. Hopefully that will mean something over the next few years.
 
Heard someone on the radio this morning saying the 4 starting quarterbacks who won this weekend had 37 playoff starts between them, and the four who lost had ... zero. It matters.
 
All in all a learning experience and not the right talent yet. Rodgers looked pretty pedestrian when we were getting pressure. Pressure is the great QB equalizer. Thanks for the recap OM. That's about what I feared. Good insight on Barry being stuck so much with the quick offense. He'll need to improve his scheming, which hopefully will be aided by more talent infusion by Scott. Kirk was looking good until Capers schemed it up. Still a lot to ask of a first year starter to carry a team with this teams deficiencies. He'll learn from this and be better next time. That's something he's demonstrated solidly and i have no concerns with.
 
Heard someone on the radio this morning saying the 4 starting quarterbacks who won this weekend had 37 playoff starts between them, and the four who lost had ... zero. It matters.

It matters huge, and one thing Kirks' demonstrated in spades this year is his ability to take away from a game and learn from it. It's a good feeling going into next season with that position taken care of.
 
By the way, apropos of nothing ... nod of respect to Henry's daughter ... she's one tough cookie. It got COLD up there in the nosebleeds last night, and the kid hung tough even as the game clearly slipped away. Made me proud. Ya done good brother.
 
Yeah it was pretty cold. She had a blast though. She was quite surprised at how well behaved you guys were. :)
 
Well? Fiddlesticks...

My reason for hope... Scot McCloughan can fix player personnel...
My reason for Despair... What Scot McCloughan can't fix... Jay Gruden & Joe Barry.

We were out coached again... I'm pretty sure Wade Phillips wouldn't have jacked this one up. Joe Barry has finished his 3rd campaign as a DC with a YPA in the bottom 5 of the league again. Jay Gruden hasn't figured out how to run the ball effectively, even when we average over 4 yards per carry. With this lot, I'm thinking we'll be lucky to win 6 games next year.
 
That one belongs in the "Bad Stuff" thread, SP. This one is to talk about the game last night.
 
I dont understand how we got such amazing pressure on Rodgers in the beginning but then it just fell off to zero. But, I don't understand either how we had zero run D against Eddie Lacy who is injured either.

The refs just flat out refused to call any holding penalties against the Packers. When I saw one of their OL basically choking Kerrigan right in front of Skeletor I knew we were screwed with the refs.
 
I think GB going no-huddle forced us to go w/o the substitution packages that Barry used to mask our pass-rush deficiencies all year and rely on just his down linemen to generate consistent pressure. We just don't have those guys. And then the guys we DO have simply wore down, particularly given how quickly Rodgers got rid of the ball there for a while. Kerrigan, Smith, etc. ... none are elite pass rushers to begin with. Add to that that we have no rotation to speak of we could go to to keep them at least moderately fresh, and you have a situation where our guys just wore down.

That said, I'm just going off what I saw watching from the stands in the heat (or cold) of the moment. I'll go back and watch the early part of the game later today probably, to see how much of the pressure we got early was scheme, vs how much was due to individuals guys actually winning their matchups.
 
Yeah, I see that. but players and coaches do all sorts of things to slow that stuff down.

bogus challenges like the Thompson catch that was clearly a catch
fake injuries
call timeouts

I definitely think that dopey eyed bum took full advantage of our players being tired and gassed but we could have at least tried to stop them. Plus, Gruden was trying to call a timeout on the first penalty and that stupid ass ref was in such a rush to get the ball set up for Rodgers he didn't even bother looking at him screaming for a TO.
 
I dont understand how we got such amazing pressure on Rodgers in the beginning but then it just fell off to zero. But, I don't understand either how we had zero run D against Eddie Lacy who is injured either.

The same reason our D looked good early in the prior four games, then shit the bed in the last wuarter or two every... single... game. Lack of overall talent in much of the personnel and D coaching staff, including Joe Barry.

Nick
 
I agree with Om and Henry that the biggest difference between the two teams was experience on the field, and maybe more importantly experience on the sidelines. When they went to hurry up I immediately thought," uh-oh we're in trouble".

Cousins missed a couple throws at the most critical times, but overall I felt like he played pretty well.
 
Playoffs baby! It's a different kind of pressure to any other game they play. It's a knock out tournament every round and the stakes just get higher. I think last night we saw the difference between a battle tested playoff team and one that just had it's first real taste.

My impressions of the game from a feel standpoint.

We came out early and we were pumped for this game. The crowd was in it and the team was just off the charts. You should have seen Wifey during that opening Qtr, she was not a happy bunny. But that kind of enthusiasm and energy only carries you so far, and we never could throw that knockout punch early. I don't think we looked rattled, we just looked kinda like overexcited kids playing a little out of their depth. Like when they run out into the school playground for the first time, they love it, but you know they're gonna skin a knee and come back in tears.

The safety was the perfect start. The follow up drive SHOULD have been a touchdown. I put some blame on DJax for not getting that ball inside the post, but how could they not punch that in from the 1 yard line? Especially seeing how easy they made it when Kirk ran in later! 3 tries and nothing. So FG. And a 5 point lead that should have been 9.

And then the next Touchdown to put them up 11-0, but they missed the XP! THAT should have been the knockout blow. That COULD have been an 16-0 lead and the Packers were TD's down.

I just looked at it as if we were out of our depth with some silly mistakes.
DJax not getting that ball in.
When does Dustin EVER miss a PAT at home?
The 12 men on the field TimeOut disaster?
The SECOND 12 men on the field!!

True enough Kirk didn't look as sharp as he had, but then neither did anyone else. Even Reed dropped a few balls and he's been as safe a pair of hands as you could hope for down the stretch. On the Coaching front we sometimes looked great, and other times looked all at sea.

Experience. They had it. We didn't.

When the going got rough they never looked flustered. When we were behind we played like we were desperate. that's when Cousins took a dip, when he tried to force things. He could have had 3 or 4 interceptions last night.

From a football standpoint it seemed to me to turn on the offence when Long went out from LG. Jess (Wifey) turned to me and gloated "So not going to sack Cousins were we!" (I'd been talking to her earlier in the week about how we had the 5th lowest sack count in the League). So I watched closely and it was tha LG spot. It was a turnstile. 9 times out of 10 if Cousins was gonna get hit, pressured or sacked it seemed to come from the left. If Morris got stuffed in the backfield it was when we ran left. And on that left Guard spot it was either McRib or an injured Long. Yeah Trent didn't play like a Pro-Bowler and Morgan Moses got into trouble a couple of times, but fix those spots and give us another off season to drill them and I think we're onto something good.

Djax did a disappearing act, right when we needed him the most, but Reed proved he's a beast again, even if he did drop a couple of passes. I think we need Garcon back.

I thought Morris was having a good game despite our O-Line woes. But his yardage was limited as essentially in the second half we went to the pass. (Cousins threw 46 times. We had 18 run plays!) But till then Morris was averaging close to 5 yards a carry and busted out a couple of long ones.

In the second Qtr, GB I felt started to get a little desperate to find something that would work against us and suddenly... Hurry Up offence. I've always thought that seems like a bit of a last gamble to go to essentially the hurry up offence. And then getting us with the 12 man plan threw us for a loop and you could just feel the momentum shift.

And then there was our Defense. Ugh.

We played a blinding 1st quarter and then we were done.
We seemed to play soft most of the time and Rodgers just started to pick us apart because we couldn't contain him or sack him. How many times did we get pressure on him and have him scampering. I saw Knighton chasing him around, Kerrigan chasing him... Man is a slippery eel!

I think it was clear that it's our D that needs work. I'm not knocking them really, I think they've done an outstanding job with the players they had to paper over the injuries and deficiencies. But eventually we ran out of luck and gas.

TBH though I'm not terribly sad or unhappy today. As seasons go I enjoyed this one immensely. The team made a quicker rise than expected, looked good at times, really good at other times. We won our division, spanked our rivals, made the playoffs, found a QB who can carry us forward and put alot of pieces in place for the future (thanks to Scotty!. We found Compton and Foster, we found Dusty, we extended Hall's career, Reed emerged, the RGIII distraction wasn't, Synder stayed out of it, we got a catchphrase, we got a winning streak, we defied expectations and ticked alot of the boxes we needed to.

2015 was a GOOD season. :D

I'm sad it's ended but I'm please I was here for it.

Oh and I found a great bunch of BGO Obsessed guys and gals to talk football with for the first time in 25 years, so that's a good one. :D
 
I think what is most disappointing for me from yesterday is that some of the characteristics of our bad play from dreadful seasons past resurfaced...

a) Inopportune penalties on defense that extended drives for GB and led to scores.
b) Inability to convert touchdowns from inside the 5 yard line.
c) Missed extra point (leaving points off the scoreboard in general).
d) Inability to stop the run in crucial in-game spots and subpar tackling in certain situations.
e) Not taking advantage of a huge win in the field position battle in the first half.
f) Going three and out offensively in the most crucial of spots (i.e., see the drive following the Packers going up 24-18).

You combine all that with subpar play on both lines and yes, you're going to lose by 17 points.

Despite what was easily our worst performance in over a month, we showed that we are good enough to hang around with some of the elite teams in the league for a half or so.

Being a four quarter team against the cream of the crop in my estimation will still require two years of solid drafting and player development.

While Sunday was a gentle reminder that there is loads of work to do, we should still take solace in the fact that we've made an enormous jump this year and have escaped NFL doormat territory.
 
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That one belongs in the "Bad Stuff" thread, SP. This one is to talk about the game last night.

That's just my 1st reaction... We were out-coached... that was it. In a home playoff game we got crushed in, how do you actually separate game analysis from "the bad stuff"?

The one play that I've been arguing about on Twitter right now is the Matthews sack on Cousins. Matthews was lined up over Scherff... Long (could've been LeRibeus) stepped down to help Lichte with his man & Trent was left to handle Perry. Matthews ended up circling around, stunting to the right of Trent. It was argued that Trent should've passed off Perry to Long and taken Matthews on the outside. However, Long/LeRibeus never actually had Perry and Trent was stuck trying to handle both men. Now, people on twitter were quick to say Trent was to blame... I think Cousins should've recognized this and went to his check down (Reed was open). It was 1st & 10 and we were in GB territory. Long was really out of position to take Perry if Trent passed him off, so maybe Long was to blame. The only guy I'm not willing to blame is Trent in that case, because the jail-break had already happened & blocking assignments are out the window when you have two players. Trent had a bad game, but I don't think this one play was on him.
 

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