It should be a running back show when the Washington Redskins face the Cincinatti Bengals at FedEx Field on Sunday in Preseason Week 3
The 27-27 tie against the Bengals last October in London was a sour spot for the Washington Redskins. That game proved every win counts as they could have used that win to get into the playoffs. Quarterback Kirk Cousins threw for 458 yards and two touchdowns in that game.
That’s all good, but he’s not the focus for Sunday’s preseason matchup. The attention will be on the running backs, particularly Samaje Perine and Rob Kelley. Perine rushed eight times for 45 yards and caught one pass for 29 yards in the Redskins’ second preseason game against the Green Bay Packers.
It seems like the guy is coming into his own, slowly but surely. Given the fact there are still doubts he can take over Kelly as the starter, Perine will do well as a RB2 on the roster. But then there are the numbers: Kelley has only 13 yards out of 12 carries. Ouch.
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In his defense, he’s been bombarded when he’s gotten the rock with the first-team offense. Perine broke out in the second team, so that should be remembered. Redskins head coach Jay Gruden also highlighted this while speaking to the media recently, per Redskins.com’s Perry Mattern:
"“Rob Kelley hasn’t gotten many good looks…Other guys came in there, we got [Samaje] Perine some good looks and he had some good hits.”"
The Redskins need to get better looks at both Kelley and Perine Sunday. No disrespect to Mack Brown or Matt Jones, but the conversation is where it is. Jones already knows he has to play his heart out to stay relevant, while Brown needs to work just as hard if he wants that RB4 spot.
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This upcoming preseason game should give fans a closer look at the future of the Redskins run game. If it doesn’t, then there’s a lot more work needed. There’s only one preseason game left after Sunday. Things need to take form sooner than later.