QB Robert Griffin III. Sort of think this is obvious, right? Griffin threw for 323 yards, rushed for — and two touchdowns. He drove the Redskins into position for the game winner in the final one minute, 42 seconds and never panicked despite the headset going out on the final drive. Here’s all you need to know about the final drive and more of his day. Griffin rarely forces passes, hence the one interception. There are a few passes he’s gotten away with, but it’s rare when one of his throws should have been picked. He’s averaging a hefty 8.63 yards per pass attempt, though that is helped a lot by the receivers’ yards after the catch. And he excels in the play-action; that’s why the Redskins are so good in the middle of the field. The fakes create such good throwing lanes and Griffin has taken advantage. Griffin is playing much better than I would have imagined through four games. Tougher tests lie ahead, but as long as Griffin proves durable the Redskins will enter those games feeling they have a chance in large part because of him.
RB Alfred Morris. The more he plays the more I like him. Maybe I need to re-watch some of the previous games, but it appeared Morris did his best job of pressing the hole this week. He also gained 70 yards after contact. In fact, he gained positive yards after contact on 18 of his 21 carries (two others resulted in negative yards after contact). I won’t bore you today with talk about body lean, etc. I did like how he ran with great urgency on the fourth and 1 in the second quarter, starting to his left then cutting back hard the other way (safety Ronde Barber got sucked inside, leaving a gap on the edge). It helped that left end Michael Bennett barely moved after the snap (there was an offsides penalty) and created an opening. But still… Meanwhile Morris pressed the hole well enough to help on several excellent runs. On his 39-yard touchdown run, for example, Morris starts to the right and about a yard from his line, he cuts back to the left. Here’s the effect of his pressing the hole this way: the backside safety got caught inside as did the strongside linebacker, enabling Logan Paulsen and Joshua Morgan to seal that side. Morris made a hard cut inside corner Eric Wright – who had little interest in tackling in this game – and was gone. If Morris is impatient or cuts too soon, this hole isn’t created. One more example: On the Redskins’ first play in the third quarter, Morris takes a pitch to the right, with Paulsen and right tackle Tyler Polumbus leading the way. Morris takes care of linebacker Lavonte David with a slight dip to the inside. Davis bites on the dip slightly and changes his angle; Morris continues around the end for 13 yards. Morris wasn’t perfect and his protection still needs work. The Bucs blitzed two linebackers through the Redskins’ right and Morris failed to get the inside guy and both made their way to Griffin for a sack and near-safety. On the next play he helped pick up the end.
LT Trent Williams. This wasn’t quite Willis Reed territory (Google Reed/leg injury/playoffs if you don’t know I’m talking about – and please don’t let me know if you didn’t; I’ll feel old). But if you saw Williams late last week you would have said there’s no way he plays. And even if he wasn’t at his best, Williams did not do anything horribly wrong – and it’s much better to have him in the game than Jordan Black. That’s not even a shot at Black, just reality. Liked how Williams moved to his right on a stretch zone that way and ended up driving end George Johnson into the ground on a three-yard Morris run inside the 10. There were times I wondered how much it affected him. End Michael Bennett nearly got around him on one rush outside and the inability to drive off his right leg as hard could have played a factor. But Williams also got off the ball slightly late and he still recovered. Another time he didn’t reach the linebacker hitting the hole on a three-yard loss – was it because of his leg? And there was one time in which Williams was in space in the middle of the field against a corner and couldn’t react as well as he normally does in those situations. But he blocked down well on Morris’ touchdown and he did not give up a sack or do anything that called attention to himself in a negative way. He battled, as on this fourth-quarter play in which the end tried to rush him inside and looked to have a path, but Williams was able to keep him away from Griffin. Overall, considering how he walked around the facility last week, Williams was remarkable.