Third down has been a mess for the Washington Redskins the first two weeks of the season.
Offensively, they have not been efficient. Their conversion rate of 36.4 percent is tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 19th in the league.
The news on the defensive side is worse. Opponents have converted 57.7 percent of their third-down attempts. That puts Washington’s defense last in the league by a wide margin. Jacksonville and Minnesota are tied for 30th in the NFL at 51.9 percent.
“Yeah, that’s been an issue,” Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. “In the first half, [the Dallas Cowboys] had two — third-and-8 and a third-and-9 — in the first drive of the game they converted. Sometimes it’s a lack of pass rush, sometimes the hook dropper not getting where he’s supposed to be, sometimes it’s the rotation was wrong, what have you. Like I said, it goes back to the communication and we have got to do a better job of communicating. Players have got to be where they’re supposed to be and we’ve got to do a better job of getting after the quarterback.”
Gruden’s argument about improving the pass rush is an evergreen one for a coach. However, the Redskins had four sacks on Sunday to vault them into a tie for eighth in the league just two weeks into the season. The third-down issues appear to be extensions of other flaws, notably the kind of poor communication that forced the Redskins’ defense to twice call timeout last Sunday because of substitution confusion. Gruden identified consistency and communication as the team’s prime problems.
“I think we’ve just got to do a better job communicating on defense, making sure we’re in the right spot, getting the calls out to the defensive backs, linebackers, defensive line,” Gruden said. “Offensively, making sure we know exactly where to go with the ball, when to go to it and just do a better job of letting the players know what we’re trying to accomplish with each play call both offense and defense. The players have got to understand what we’re doing and do it to the best of their ability.”
The third-down woes are counter to last season. Washington’s defense was 12th in third-down percentage in 2015. The offense was fifth. Which is why the failures so far this season stand out even more.
Golston injury continues challenge for Redskins’ defensive line
After sustaining a hamstring injury in the Redskins’ 27-23 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, veteran nose tackle Kedric Golston was placed on injured reserve on Monday. To replace Golston, the Redskins signed rookie defensive lineman Matt Ioannidis from the practice squad.
The Redskins depth on the defensive line was greatly tested on Sunday after Golston was injured on the first play of the game. Washington only dressed five defensive linemen. Defensive end Kendall Reyes was inactive because of a groin injury and undrafted rookie defensive end Anthony Lanier was inactive for the second consecutive week.
“Kendall’s injury, hopefully we’ll find out a little bit more about his this week,” Gruden said Monday. “We brought Cullen Jenkins back, and he filled the void there and played pretty well for his first game. And Matt has been here, and he played well in preseason. We hope that he can also fill that void. And [Chris] Baker should be OK and obviously Ricky [Jean Francois] and the rest of the guys will be fine.”
Golston, 33, is in his 11th season after the Redskins re-signed him on a one-year deal in the offseason. With Golston out, the Redskins turned to Ziggy Hood at nose tackle when they were in their base 3-4 defense. Hood played a total of 47 of the team’s 68 defensive snaps on Sunday and had one tackle.
Ioannidis was selected in the fifth round out of Temple. Throughout training camp, the Redskins experimented with the former Temple defensive end at nose tackle at times, but it proved to be a difficult transition for Ioannidis. He was cut on Sept. 3 when the Redskins trimmed the roster to 53 players and was signed to the practice squad.
Murphy working his way up
Trent Murphy was projected as part of the defensive line depth in the offseason. But, Junior Galette’s season-ending Achilles tendon injury in the offseason forced the Redskins to switch Murphy back to outside linebacker. He had to lose the weight he had gain to work on the interior during his return to the position he was drafted to play in the second round in 2014.
Murphy struggled as a linebacker in his first two seasons, which in part prompted the move to the defensive line. That was before Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, when Murphy had one of his best games as a pro: 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hits and a forced fumble.
“Yeah, he did really well,” linebacker Ryan Kerrigan said. “He had a great week of practice, so I’m not really surprised he did so well. He’s really improved his craft over the years.”
— Anthony Gulizia contributed to this report
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