Washington Redskins: Defensive line needs another strong performance
Success starts up front on defense for the Washington Redskins, and their defensive line needs to come up big again taking on the Colts in Week 2.
The Washington Redskins will need another strong output from their defensive line if they want to start the 2018 season 2-0. Last week against the Arizona Cardinals, the Redskins held the opposing offense to 213 yards and a large reason being dominant defensive line play.
That performance included holding Arizona’s All-Pro running back David Johnson to nine carries for 37 yards rushing and limiting Sam Bradford to 153 yards passing. This week, they face a taller task in Andrew Luck and the Colts who have a much more fluid passing attack. The stakes are higher, but the expectations haven’t changed.
Washington’s defense got off to a fast start in week one keeping the Cardinals on their side of the field. They dominated time of possession by nearly 17 minutes. However, Bradford is no Luck, who has more mobility and better pocket awareness that can help extend drives. Luck, who hadn’t played since 2016 due to his highly publicized shoulder injury, provided a decent performance last week throwing for 319 yards and two touchdowns.
Bradford has battled his fair share of injuries over his nine-year career, but he stood virtually no shot against the Redskins defensive front. The combination of Da’Ron Payne, Matt Ioannidis and Jonathan Allen consistently got the best of Arizona’s offensive line.
“The defensive line is definitely tone setters,” said Payne, the 2018 13th overall pick, via Redskins.com. “We’re going to go out there and dominate and get everybody pumped on the team. We did what we had to do.”
Ioannidis graded out as the highest defensive lineman in the NFL for week one according to Pro Football Focus on Twitter. He finished with a sack and three quarterback hurries in only 27 snaps.
The Redskins kept guys fresh along their defensive line utilizing a healthy rotation of players. Backups Ziggy Hood and Tim Settle combined for 26 total snaps. They will likely continue this approach it if continues to be successful.
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The Colts might have a little bit of a stronger O-line following the sixth-overall selection of Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson. However, Nelson struggled in his debut as Luck constantly faced pressure. He will have a tough task of rebounding lining up across the likes of Payne and Allen.
Washington won’t want to get used to the expectation of facing poor offensive lines, but they should stack as much success while they can.