John Matthews
WMAL.com
DETROIT — (WMAL) 49 seconds.
That was the amount of time it took on the game clock for the Redskins defense to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory Sunday, spoiling a dramatic rally from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit, and limping out of Detroit instead with a 20-17 shocking loss to the Lions.
The Redskins, who spent the afternoon moving the ball with ease, entered the fourth quarter with just three points on the scoreboard due to a pair of costly fumbles that prematurely ended Washington drives.
“We fumbled twice. That was big. We can’t fumble first and goal at the 6, running into the end zone,” Coach Jay Gruden said, referring to the second of running back Matt Jones’ fumbles, which cost the Skins a likely 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Washington also lost three points in the second quarter when Dustin Hopkins’ 45-yard attempted field goal plunked off the top of the left upright for only his second miss of the season.
But on a day when Kirk Cousins (30-39, 301 yards) actually looked like the franchise tag performer he thought he was, the Redskins were primed for a comeback.
Trailing 13 – 3 with two minutes gone in the fourth, Cousins led the Skins down the field on a nine-play, 75 yard drive, highlighted by a 27-yard Cousins to Vernon Davis pass to the goal line. Davis was pushed out of bounds inside the one, but two plays later, Cousins dumped a pass to Robert Kelly to move the Redskins to within a field goal at 13 – 10.
With eight minutes left, the Redskins needed a defensive stop, and they got one. Preston Smith’s sack of Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford took the air out of Detroit’s next drive, and the Lions punted, leaving Washington with 75 yards to go and 5:20 on the scoreboard.
The Redskins’ final drive was a thing of beauty. Offensive coordinator Sean McVay kept the Lions defense on its toes, mixing in four Chris Thompson runs with four Cousins passes to drive the Redskins to the Lions’ 19 yard line. By making the Lions respect the run, Washington made the final play of the drive possible. Cousins faked a handoff to Thompson, which got the Lions interior to commit inside. But by the time they realized Thompson didn’t have the ball, Cousins was motoring outside and running for a 19-yard bootleg touchdown.
“It’s never going to be perfect, and we had our fair share of mistakes,” Cousins said. “But we kept playing and it was a good reminder that when you keep playing, usually good things happen.”
It was an almost perfect drive for Washington. The only imperfection? Leaving 1:05 on the clock.
On a day when the Redskins had lost both of their starting cornerbacks to injury – Josh Norman to a concussion and Bashaud Breeland to an ankle sprain – the bend-but-don’t-break Redskins defense… broke.
Without their best pass protectors, the Redskins opted to rush three linemen and provide extra backfield coverage – but that only gave Matthew Stafford more time to find his receivers.
“You give a gunslinger like Matt Stafford time to find where his receivers [are] at, and his receivers get open,” defensive end Ricky Jean Francois said.
Stafford (18-29, 267 yards), in the midst of a career breakout season, drove the Lions down the field, hitting Marvin Jones and former Redskin Andre Roberts for long passes down the middle field, and helped his own cause with a 14-yard scramble in between. After two incompletions from the Redskins 18, Stafford found ancient warrior Anquan Boldin at the four yard line. Boldin dived into the end zone with 16 seconds left to give the Lions the winning 20-17 score.
The Redskins (4-3) have no time to sulk as they say goodbye to their four-game winning streak. They need to check on their injuries – aside from losing Norman and Breeland, all-pro left tackle Trent Williams sprained his knee at the end of the game – and pull out their passports for a Thursday night flight to London, where they’ll face the 3-4 Cincinnati Bengals at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
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