Washington Redskins: Preseason Week 3 Takeaways

On Friday night, the Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills by a final score of 21-16 in Week 3 of the preseason. Let’s break down some of the more important aspects of the game.

Week 3 of the preseason is generally a dress rehearsal. This was no different for the Washington Redskins. The starters played most (if not all) of the first half, giving them extended play before the regular season. This leads to many seeing this week as the most important of all the preseason games. So it’s good news for Redskins fans that they managed to pull out the win.

Related Story: Washington Redskins: Preseason Week 1 Takeaways

Who played well and who didn’t? Which positions looked strong and which looked weak? What should the fans focus on the most?

Passing Game

One word. Drops.

Starting quarterback Kirk Cousins wasn’t perfect. He missed on some throws, and threw an interception that wasn’t pretty. However, his receivers didn’t do him any favors on Friday. Everyone and their mama was dropping passes during this one. Jordan Reed and Pierre Garcon both had drops that made you rub your eyes to make sure you saw the play right.

By the second quarter, it was back to business for Cousins and Co., however. The quarterback threw three touchdown passes in the quarter, one to Garcon, one to Reed, and one to Ryan Grant. DeSean Jackson had a few nice plays, including one where he put multiple defenders on skates. Vernon Davis, Niles Paul, and Logan Paulsen all showed why they will be making the team this year as well.

Grant made an extremely impressive move on his defender and showed the jets off to score a 38-yard touchdown.

I’m a big fan of his, and if he can contribute this passing game will enter the “unfair” realm.

The offensive line looked good once again. Morgan Moses left with an injury, but should be fine. Center Kory Lichtensteiger got pushed around some. New acquisition Bryan Stork should be with the team soon enough though and could push for the starting spot (via Mike Jones of the Washington Post).

Running Game

Bad news to start this one off. Rookie running back Keith Marshall left the game after just one carry with a sprained elbow.

The good news is that Robert Kelley continued to impress. Kelley ran the ball 12 times for 51 yards.

In a battle for the third running back spot, Kelley seems to be creating some space between him and Marshall. However, Marshall is an extremely intriguing prospect, and it doesn’t seem likely that the Redskins would give up on him this quickly. They might opt to have four running backs on the roster to start the season.

All we know for sure is that the Redskins are looking for a third running back, and these two are the last options. Also, the fact that we haven’t gotten a rendition of “Same Girl” with Marshall playing Usher and Kelley (obviously) playing R.Kelly is extremely upsetting.

There’s really nothing else to mention about the Redskins offensive line that wasn’t already mentioned. They looked good as a unit, but Lichtensteiger got pushed around too much.

Defense

Let’s start with the bad news again. Ryan Kerrigan and Quinton Dunbar both left the game with injuries. Dunbar is listed as day-to-day with a shin injury, while Kerrigan injured his groin and looked like he wanted to get back in there.

There were too many big plays given up in the running game. Four rushes of over ten yards is pretty bad, especially when one of those was a 37-yard touchdown run. Outside of those big plays, the defense tended to lock the running backs up relatively well, however. Preston Smith stood out with some nice plays.

The passing defense was easily the highlight of the game for the Redskins. Ziggy Hood, Ricky Jean-Francois, and Michael Wakefield all recorded sacks, while the secondary locked down the receivers. Bashaud Breeland and Josh Norman gave their assignments fits while they were in. Norman had a couple of pass deflections, and Breeland threw in one of his own for good measure.

Kendall Fuller was the standout performer of the day however. He followed a solid Week 2 with an even better Week 3. The rookie cornerback had two pass deflections and had an interception on the final play of the game to seal the Redskins victory.

Overall

This is a tough one for Redskins fans to complain about. The Redskins had their fair share of mistakes, but in the preseason it’s much easier to overlook them and see the positives.

The random positives include:

• Tress Way continuing to punt the ball over the mountains like Uncle Rico
• Solid play by the second unit on the offensive line
• Contributions from players like Grant and Martrell Spaight

Meanwhile the only real negatives were some bad fumbles, a missed field goal by Dustin Hopkins, too many big plays, and a few early drops.

I’ve got arguments for most of those. One of the fumbles came from Colt McCoy, who’s the backup quarterback, so let’s not worry about that too much.

I’d rather a kicker miss in preseason than the regular season, let Hopkins get his footing.

Defenses in the preseason don’t tend to run the most complex plays. Vanilla defenses will give up some big plays.

Related Story: Washington Redskins: Preseason Week 2 Takeaways

Cousins has barely played this preseason; it’s no surprise he wasn’t on the same page as his receivers early on.

All-in-all, this was a positive dress rehearsal for the Redskins. With just one more preseason game to go, they really do seem to be figuring out the small stuff. On to Week 4.