John Matthews
WMAL.com
LANDOVER, MD — (WMAL) This Redskins team doesn’t make things easy.
On Sunday at Fed Ex against Philly, a dumb penalty, a special teams failure and a dumb interception allowed the Eagles to tie the Redskins at 14 in the second quarter without their offense even taking the field.
That confounding calamity of incompetence for a time concealed the fact that, otherwise, the Redskins thoroughly dominated what had been thought to be a very good Philadelphia team, and ended up beating them, 27 – 20.
Setting aside that aformentioned four-minute nightmare, the Redskins actually did a lot of good things Sunday.
The defense, for the most part, dominated the game, sacking Eagles rookie quarterback Carson Wentz five times, keeping him offtrack for most of the afternoon, and keeping the Eagles from scoring any touchdowns on offense.
On the other side of the ball, the Redskins offense found its running game. The Redskins trio of backs ran over the stout Philly defense, rushing for 230 yards, led by Matt Jones, who carried 16 times for 135 yards and a touchdown.
Kirk Cousins continued his uneven season by throwing a 64-yard pick-six to the Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins, but he also showed plenty of the flash that earned him a franchise tag deal.
With Cousins’ favorite target, Jordan Reed, sidelined with a concussion, Cousins was forced to feed the ball to other targets. He hit DeSean Jackson for a 35-yard pass, and followed with a 16-yard touchdown to Jamison Crowder late in the first quarter to open the scoring.
Cousins then drove the Redskins down the field again on their next possession, hitting Vernon Davis in the end zone with a 13-yard strike.
For Davis, it was the former all-pro tight end’s first touchdown in more than two years, and he proceeded to celebrate by “shooting” the football hoops-style towards the goal post, and was immediately flagged for excessive celebration.
“They talked about dunking it and said you could get a penalty but they did not address the shooting,” Davis said. “I wanted to ask [Gruden] about that, but in my mind I was like, ‘I’ve never gotten a penalty [for doing it], maybe I’ll be OK.’ But of course it didn’t go that way.”
The 15-yard penalty proved to be costly. Instead of kicking the ball through the end zone as is his normal custom, Redskins kicker Dustin Hopkins had to kick off from the Skins’ 20-yard line, and he managed to only reach the Eagles’ 14-yard line, which allowed Eagles returner Wendell Smallwood to score his first NFL touchdown on an 86-yard romp along the left sideline.
The biggest difference between Sunday’s Redskins team and the one that took the field in previous years is that, in the face to trouble, the Redskins didn’t fold.
Cousins followed up his costly interception with a 13-play, 75-yard drive capped by a one-yard Matt Jones touchdown run to give Washington a 21-14 lead at the half.
“You can never hit the panic button in this game,” said Cousins. “You just keep playing. If you hit the panic button in this business, you don’t belong in this business.”
The Skins managed to stay ahead of the Eagles in the second half by running the ball on offense and stifling drives on defense. Each team traded field goals twice to complete the scoring.
A month ago, the Redskins were at 0-2, and staring at a long season. Four weeks – and four wins – later, and the team is starting to find its rhythm while trying to recognize its flaws, including a penchant for giving up big runs in the middle of its defense and making occasional costly mistakes through shoddy special teams play and turnovers.
“We can’t find a way to blow teams out sometimes,” said defensive end Chris Baker. “We always have to make it hard. But we did a good job responding,” he added.
Now it’s on to Detroit to face the Lions next Sunday.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: AP/Mark Tenally)
