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Team Notes week 2 2016
NEWS, NOTES, RUMORS AND OTHER GOOD STUFF
Directly from the desk of FlashUpdate Editor Bob Harris. The good; the bad; and yes. ... Even the Bears. There is no better way to jump start your weekend than browsing these always educational -- often irreverent -- team-by-team, Fantasy-specific offerings. ...Access specific teams by clicking on a team name in the schedule appearing directly to your left or by clicking on a helmet below; return to the helmets by hitting the link labeled "Menu" following each teams notes. ...
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Arizona Cardinals
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Kyler Murray, Desmond Ridder, Clayton Tune
RBs: James Conner, Michael Carter, Emari Demercado
WRs: Zay Jones, Michael Wilson, Rondale Moore, Greg Dortch, Zach Pascal
TEs: Trey McBride, Geoff Swaim
Atlanta Falcons
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Taylor Heinicke, Logan Woodside, Kirk Cousins
RBs: Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, Cordarrelle Patterson
WRs: Drake London, Darnell Mooney, Mack Hollins, KhaDarel Hodge, Van Jefferson, Scott Miller, Jared Bernhardt, Josh Ali
TEs: Kyle Pitts, MyCole Pruitt, John FitzPatrick
Baltimore Ravens
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Lamar Jackson, Josh Johnson
RBs: Derrick Henry, Justice Hill, Melvin Gordon, Keaton Mitchell
WRs: Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman, Nelson Agholor, Tylan Wallace
TEs: Isaiah Likely, Charlie Kolar, Mark Andrews
Buffalo Bills
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Josh Allen
RBs: James Cook, Latavius Murray, Ty Johnson
WRs: Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, Trent Sherfield, Deonte Harty
TEs: Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox, Quintin Morris
Carolina Panthers
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Bryce Young, Andy Dalton
RBs: Chuba Hubbard, Miles Sanders, Raheem Blackshear
WRs: Adam Thielen, Diontae Johnson, Jonathan Mingo, D.J. Chark, Terrace Marshall Jr., Laviska Shenault, Ihmir Smith-Marsette, Mike Strachan
TEs: Tommy Tremble, Stephen Sullivan, Ian Thomas, Hayden Hurst
Chicago Bears
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Tyson Bagent, Nathan Peterman
RBs: Khalil Herbert, D'Andre Swift, Roschon Johnson, Travis Homer, Khari Blasingame
WRs: D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen, Tyler Scott, Trent Taylor, Velus Jones Jr., Equanimeous St. Brown
TEs: Gerald Everett, Cole Kmet, Robert Tonyan, Marcedes Lewis, Jake Tonges
Cincinnati Bengals
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Jake Browning, Joe Burrow
RBs: Zack Moss, Chase Brown, Chris Evans, Trayveon Williams
WRs: Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Trenton Irwin, Andrei Iosivas, Charlie Jones
TEs: Irv Smith Jr., Mike Gesicki, Tanner Hudson, Drew Sample, Mitchell Wilcox
Cleveland Browns
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Tyler Huntley, Deshaun Watson
RBs: Jerome Ford, D'Onta Foreman, Pierre Strong Jr., Nick Chubb
WRs: Amari Cooper, Elijah Moore, Jerry Jeudy, Cedric Tillman, Marquise Goodwin, David Bell
TEs: David Njoku, Jordan Akins, Harrison Bryant
Dallas Cowboys
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Dak Prescott, Cooper Rush, Trey Lance
RBs: Ezekiel Elliott, Rico Dowdle, Deuce Vaughn, Hunter Luepke
WRs: CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Michael Gallup, Jalen Tolbert, KaVontae Turpin, Jalen Brooks
TEs: Jake Ferguson, Luke Schoonmaker, Peyton Hendershot
Denver Broncos
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Zach Wilson, Jarrett Stidham
RBs: Javonte Williams, Jaleel McLaughlin, Samaje Perine
WRs: Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims Jr., Lil'Jordan Humphrey, Brandon Johnson
TEs: Adam Trautman, Chris Manhertz, Greg Dulcich
Detroit Lions
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Jared Goff, Teddy Bridgewater
RBs: David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs, Craig Reynolds, Zonovan Knight
WRs: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Josh Reynolds, Kalif Raymond, Jameson Williams, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Antoine Green
TEs: Sam LaPorta, Brock Wright, James Mitchell
Green Bay Packers
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Jordan Love, Sean Clifford
RBs: Josh Jacobs, A.J. Dillon, Patrick Taylor
WRs: Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Dontayvion Wicks, Samori Toure, Malik Heath
TEs: Tucker Kraft, Ben Sims, Josiah Deguara, Luke Musgrave
Houston Texans
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: C.J. Stroud, Case Keenum, Davis Mills
RBs: Joe Mixon, Dameon Pierce, Mike Boone, Dare Ogunbowale
WRs: Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs, Noah Brown, Robert Woods, John Metchie III, Xavier Hutchinson, Tank Dell
TEs: Dalton Schultz, Brevin Jordan
Indianapolis Colts
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Joe Flacco, Sam Ehlinger, Kellen Mond, Anthony Richardson
RBs: Jonathan Taylor, Trey Sermon, Evan Hull
WRs: Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs, Alec Pierce, Isaiah McKenzie, D.J. Montgomery
TEs: Mo Alie-Cox, Kylen Granson, Will Mallory, Andrew Ogletree, Jelani Woods
Jacksonville Jaguars
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Trevor Lawrence, Mac Jones, C.J. Beathard, Nathan Rourke
RBs: Travis Etienne Jr., Tank Bigsby, D'Ernest Johnson
WRs: Gabe Davis, Parker Washington, Tim Jones, Jamal Agnew, Christian Kirk
TEs: Evan Engram, Brenton Strange, Luke Farrell, Elijah Cooks
Kansas City Chiefs
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Patrick Mahomes, Blaine Gabbert, Carson Wentz
RBs: Isiah Pacheco, Clyde Edwards-Helaire
WRs: Marquise Brown, Rashee Rice, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson, Kadarius Toney, Richie James, Justyn Ross, Skyy Moore, Mecole Hardman
TEs: Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, Blake Bell, Jody Fortson
Los Angeles Rams
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Matthew Stafford, Jimmy Garoppolo, Stetson Bennett
RBs: Kyren Williams, Royce Freeman, Zach Evans, Ronnie Rivers
WRs: Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua, Tutu Atwell, Ben Skowronek, Demarcus Robinson
TEs: Tyler Higbee, Brycen Hopkins, Colby Parkinson, Hunter Long, Davis Allen
Miami Dolphins
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Tua Tagovailoa, Mike White, Skylar Thompson
RBs: Raheem Mostert, De'Von Achane, Jeff Wilson, Salvon Ahmed, Christopher Brooks
WRs: Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Odell Beckham, Braxton Berrios, Cedrick Wilson, Chase Claypool, River Cracraft
TEs: Durham Smythe, Jonnu Smith, Julian Hill, Tyler Kroft
Minnesota Vikings
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall, Sam Darnold
RBs: Aaron Jones, Ty Chandler, C.J. Ham, Kene Nwangwu, Cam Akers
WRs: Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, K.J. Osborn, Brandon Powell, Jalen Nailor
TEs: Josh Oliver, Johnny Mundt, Nick Muse, T.J. Hockenson
New England Patriots
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Bailey Zappe, Jacoby Brissett
RBs: Rhamondre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, JaMycal Hasty
WRs: DeVante Parker, Demario Douglas, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, Kayshon Boutte, Matt Slater, Kendrick Bourne
TEs: Hunter Henry, Pharaoh Brown
New Orleans Saints
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Derek Carr, Jake Haener
RBs: Alvin Kamara, Jamaal Williams, Kendre Miller
WRs: Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, A.T. Perry, Keith Kirkwood, Lynn Bowden, Michael Thomas
TEs: Juwan Johnson, Taysom Hill, Foster Moreau, Jimmy Graham
New York Giants
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Tommy DeVito, Drew Lock, Daniel Jones
RBs: Devin Singletary, Matt Breida, Gary Brightwell, Eric Gray
WRs: Darius Slayton, Wan'Dale Robinson, Jalin Hyatt, Parris Campbell, Isaiah Hodgins, Sterling Shepard
TEs: Darren Waller, Daniel Bellinger, Lawrence Cager, Chris Myarick
New York Jets
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Trevor Siemian, Tyrod Taylor, Aaron Rodgers
RBs: Breece Hall, Israel Abanikanda
WRs: Garrett Wilson, Xavier Gipson, Jason Brownlee, Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Mike Williams, Charles Irvin
TEs: Tyler Conklin, Jeremy Ruckert, C.J. Uzomah, Kenny Yeboah
Oakland Raiders
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Aidan O'Connell, Gardner Minshew, Brian Hoyer
RBs: Alexander Mattison, Zamir White, Ameer Abdullah, Brandon Bolden
WRs: Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers, Tre Tucker, Hunter Renfrow, DeAndre Carter, Kristian Wilkerson
TEs: Michael Mayer, Austin Hooper, Jesper Horsted
Philadelphia Eagles
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Jalen Hurts, Marcus Mariota, Kenny Pickett, Tanner McKee
RBs: Saquon Barkley, Kenneth Gainwell, Boston Scott, Rashaad Penny
WRs: A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Julio Jones, Olamide Zaccheaus, Quez Watkins
TEs: Dallas Goedert, Jack Stoll, Grant Calcaterra, Albert Okwuegbunam
Pittsburgh Steelers
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, Mason Rudolph, Mitchell Trubisky
RBs: Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren, Anthony McFarland Jr.
WRs: George Pickens, Allen Robinson, Calvin Austin III, Miles Boykin
TEs: Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington
San Diego Chargers
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Easton Stick, Justin Herbert
RBs: Gus Edwards, Joshua Kelley, Isaiah Spiller, Elijah Dotson, J.K. Dobbins
WRs: Josh Palmer, Quentin Johnston, Jalen Guyton, Derius Davis
TEs: Donald Parham, Stone Smartt
San Francisco 49ers
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Brock Purdy, Josh Dobbs, Brandon Allen
RBs: Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason, Kyle Juszczyk
WRs: Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings, Ray-Ray McCloud, Ronnie Bell, Danny Gray
TEs: George Kittle, Charlie Woerner, Brayden Willis, Ross Dwelley, Cameron Latu
Seattle Seahawks
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Sam Howell, Geno Smith
RBs: Kenneth Walker III, Zach Charbonnet, DeeJay Dallas, Kenny McIntosh
WRs: DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jake Bobo, Cody Thompson, Dareke Young
TEs: Noah Fant, Will Dissly
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Baker Mayfield, Kyle Trask
RBs: Rachaad White, Chase Edmonds, Sean Tucker, Ke'Shawn Vaughn
WRs: Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Trey Palmer, Kaylon Geiger, Deven Thompkins, Rakim Jarrett, Russell Gage
TEs: Cade Otton, Ko Kieft, Payne Durham
Tennessee Titans
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs: Will Levis, Malik Willis
RBs: Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears, Julius Chestnut
WRs: Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins, Treylon Burks, Nick Westbrook_Ikhine, Tyler Boyd, Kyle Philips, Colton Dowell, Chris Moore
TEs: Chigoziem Okonkwo, Josh Whyle, Trevon Wesco
Washington Redskins
Compiled by FootballDiehards Editor Bob Harris | Updated 14 September 2016As Associated Press sports writer Howard Fendrich suggested, from Kirk Cousins' zero-TD, two-pick performance and a total of nine penalties to the admittedly misguided coaching decisions and the out-of-its-depth defense, the Redskins did not look ready to open the regular season.
So now the question becomes: Can they get their act together in time to host the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday and avoid an 0-2 start?
"I think we were ready to play," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Tuesday. "We just didn't make the necessary plays to win."
Not even close.
After winning the NFC East last season despite never beating a team with a winning record, the Redskins opened this season with a dismal 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night.
There were all sorts of problems for Washington (0-1).
Cousins showed, according to Gruden, that he still has some growing up to do as an NFL starter.
There were the two interceptions and also other issues, such as miscommunication with DeSean Jackson on a run-pass option and several poor throws, including a trio early that were too low.
Indeed, ESPN.com's John Keim noted, Cousins missed too many important throws and did not have a good game. He missed Jordan Reed in the end zone (the ball was a bit late) and on the next play he missed Jamison Crowder on a third down in the red zone, leading to a field goal. Crowder might have gotten inside the 5-yard line. And there was one particularly bad interception in which Cousins got a little greedy.
"He's going to have some bumps along the way. That's what all quarterbacks go through," Gruden said. "How he responds to those downs will make or break him as a quarterback."
The running game, which was not really targeted for improvement in the offseason, flopped early and then was abandoned: Washington's 12 rushes were a league-low in Week 1. Gruden partially tried to explain that away by saying his team was behind in the second half, so wanted to accumulate chunks of yards via the pass.
"That's the approach we took for this week," he said. "Next week could be totally different."
Gruden acknowledged that there were "two bad decisions," in hindsight, on fourth downs in the first half. On fourth-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 40 during his team's opening possession, Gruden opted to punt.
Then, later, on fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 38, he chose to go for it -- and Cousins completed a pass to running back Chris Thompson short of the first-down marker.
"Wasn't good," Gruden said.
Those two words apply to Washington's defense, too.
The front seven did not generate much of an effective pass-rush, except Ryan Kerrigan's early sack-strip of Ben Roethlisberger, which went for naught when the Steelers wound up recovering the football.
The run defense was nonexistent, as DeAngelo Williams replaced the suspended Le'Veon Bell and gained 143 yards while scoring two touchdowns. And Antonio Brown was allowed to roam free for eight catches for 126 yards, including a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 play.
Brown was mostly covered by Bashaud Breeland, while this offseason's big splash, $75 million signing Josh Norman, stayed on his side of the field.
"We have just got to go back and look and correct our mistakes and then study Dallas and figure out things that we might be able to do differently from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint and go from there," Gruden said, speaking generally about his team's defense. "But the game is done. We've got to learn from it and move on."
As Keim summed up: "The Redskins definitely have the firepower offensively, and early in the game they did a good job of using a variety of personnel packages and featuring different targets. But they never got the run game going; they were slowed too much by one penalty and when they had chances to get up early, they settled for two field goals and not touchdowns. It was a little bit like the Green Bay playoff loss last season; a good team comes roaring back after the Redskins don't capitalize on early chances.
"This game is not a death sentence for the Redskins. But it is a telling one. The Redskins still have enough to compete in the NFC East. They still can win nine games. But Monday is the sort of measuring-stick game the Redskins needed to have. The same is true of Cousins. They didn't live up to it; neither did he."
A few final notes. ... Jones was in the starting lineup after separating his left shoulder on Aug. 19, but he lost 4 yards on his first two carries and finished with 24 yards on seven carries. Washington totaled 55 yards rushing, including just 28 in the first half. Chris Thompson was more productive than Jones thanks to a touchdown run.
Reed caught three passes for 39 yards on the Redskins' opening drive and was a nonfactor with four catches for 25 yards the rest of the way.
Kicker Dustin Hopkins made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 31, 40 and 34 yards. Hopkins was the Redskins' entire offensive production until Thompson's touchdown.
DEPTH CHART
QBs:
RBs: Brian Robinson Jr., Austin Ekeler, Chris Rodriguez
WRs: Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Dyami Brown, Jamison Crowder, Byron Pringle, Mitchell Tinsley
TEs: Logan Thomas, Cole Turner, John Bates