ASHBURN | Matt Jones had hoped the referee didn’t see him, but that was wishful thinking after he had taken two small steps before the ball was snapped in the third quarter of the Washington Redskins’ 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday.
Jones was flagged for the false start, which he said was a product of his own anxiousness. The Redskins running back saw Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons bearing down on the line of scrimmage and was overeager to get in position to make his block.
“I should have never done that at all because I see everything,” Jones said. “But I was just so anxious because I saw the blitz coming. We see it all the time. I was just ready to fit up on him.”
The false start penalty was one of five the Redskins were flagged for on Monday, something they hope to correct by Sunday’s game when the Dallas Cowboys visit FedEx Field. Jones was hard on himself for the miscue, but he considered it something to be easily correctable.
Four other penalties came against the offensive line — two on center Kory Lichtensteiger, one on left tackle Trent Williams — as quarterback Kirk Cousins mixed in different snap counts. The miscommunication was costly and put the offense in unfavorable down-and-distance situations, which forced the Redskins to readjust their play-calling when they felt they had the right looks in place on the play prior.
“The false starts, there’s really no excuse for that ever, really as far as I’m concerned,” coach Jay Gruden said on Wednesday after practice at Redskins Park. “It’s something we really have to address and we addressed it. [Offensive coordinator Sean] McVay and I addressed it. We had [five], and that’s really five too many if you ask me. It’s a discipline thing and we weren’t very disciplined and we’ve got to make sure we work on our cadence every day and take a lot of pride in it.”
Often times, the false start penalties stalled the offense. In the first quarter, after Lichtensteiger’s first false start, the Redskins faced second-and-9 rather than a medium-yardage situation after Cousins completed a six-yard pass to wide receiver Pierre Garcon on first down. Two plays later, the Redskins settled for a field goal.
“Our offensive line and myself, we just all got to be on the same page,” Cousins said. “You know, we’re all dependent on each other and if one guy isn’t on the same page then we’re all affected. So we have to all be together, all 11 at all times. That’s a challenge to get all 11 guys going in the same direction on every play. The snap count is certainly an example of that.”
Williams’ false start made a bad situation even worse. The Redskins were facing first-and-20 after tight end Vernon Davis was called for holding, which wiped out Jones’ 10-yard gain on the play. After Williams started early on the next play, the offense was backed up to first-and-25 and the possession concluded with the Redskins failing to convert on fourth-down.
“I mean, anything that’s negative and can be avoided, it frustrates you,” Williams said. “Penalties are a part of a game, but it’s a part of the game you can minimize with focus. Without the penalties, it’s a different game and we take that squarely on our shoulders. We just got to be better.
“It’s something we’ve got to definitely work on. It’s just proof that the little things can definitely lose or win you a game. We’re not breaking the glass and screaming, going crazy about it, but it’s a point of emphasis for us to be better in pre-snap and cut out the self-inflicted wounds.”
The communication issues weren’t limited to the offense. During the first defensive series, strong safety David Bruton said he had a difficult time getting the call from inside linebacker Will Compton and relaying it to his side of the secondary, which included cornerback Josh Norman, in time before Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger got to the line. The problem was compounded by the Steelers’ efficient use of a no-huddle offense.
On the sideline, Bruton and Norman had a brief argument about the mixup but it quickly subsided. The defense forced the Steelers three-and-out on that drive, so it wasn’t costly. That said, Bruton knows it can be and the Redskins hope to avoid that on Sunday.
“We’re one unit,” Bruton said. “If one of us is on the wrong page, it’s a touchdown. We have a lot more pressure to be on our p’s and q’s. It was just straight focus today. It sucks, but we can take it as a learning experience, you learn from your whoopings more than anything else.”
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