WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

Notes, Quotes

The Sports Xchange

October 11, 2018 at 3:02 am.

–A simple pass play by the New Orleans Saints in Monday’s win over the Redskins showed a secondary in flux. On third-and-20, quarterback Drew Brees found a receiver wide open down field. Slot cornerback Fabian Moreau was trailing the play. The Saints suddenly had an easy first-and-goal in a game they would win easily 43-19.

It epitomized a Washington secondary that has had communications issues from the start of the 2018 season. Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise. Josh Norman is the lone veteran among the cornerbacks who has started several years. Quinton Dunbar, on the opposite side, is in his first year as a starter. Moreau is in his second year. He was a special teams player as a rookie.

Greg Stroman is a little used reserve – except when he was suddenly playing for Norman, benched for one series to start the second half of the New Orleans game because of a blown assignment. That has repeatedly become an issue early in the season and head coach Jay Gruden’s frustration was evident. The Redskins have given up 62- and 64-yard touchdown passes the past two games.

“That’s something that we have to get corrected,” Gruden said. “That can’t happen in pro football. You don’t see that happen in pro football. We’re together too long. We run the same coverage for too many times. We’ve got to coach that better. We’ve got to make sure that never happens again. That’s an absolute embarrassment.”

–Redskins quarterback Alex Smith had a rough game Monday, his worst with Washington. He is missing wide receiver Josh Doctson (heel), Paul Richardson (shoulder) is playing through immense pain and Jamison Crowder (ankle) has dealt with various nagging injuries since training camp and would not have participated had Wednesday’s walk-through been a real practice. That doesn’t even include the three wide receivers at the back end of the roster who are on injured reserve and done for the season (Trey Quinn, Robert Davis, Cam Sims). Chemistry has been elusive so far.

“Regardless of where you are at, I guess it doesn’t totally matter,” Smith said. “I mean we’ve got to get ready to play. Yeah, are there reps where maybe more time would have helped? Maybe, but at this point that doesn’t do us any good. I think we’ve got to go.”

BY THE NUMBERS: 1 – Sacks by Redskins starting outside linebackers Preston Smith and Ryan Kerrigan.