After their Week 8 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the ‘Skins were left looking for a hands team. The receiving corps dropped 10 passes from their star rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III, the most drops by any team during any game this season. Maybe their receivers could use some Stickum on their gloves, like the Chargers got caught using earlier this season (allegedly).
The ‘Skins’ receivers didn’t show much improved grips en route to a 21-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers at FedEx Field on Sunday.
Yesterday was the first time in NFL history that the two most recent Heisman trophy-winning quarterbacks faced each other in a game. Last year, Carolina quarterback Cam Newton had arguably the best individual season ever for a rookie quarterback. This year, the Panthers could be as a cautionary tale for the ‘Skins. With only one win coming into Sunday, they showed that going with the consensus top pick is the easy part of the NFL Draft. Surrounding that franchise quarterback with quality players is the hard part for general managers. The string of losing efforts seems to have affected Cam Newton, a young man used to having his efforts rewarded on the field. Even his own father has questioned his attitude on the sideline and in press conferences.
Celebrating their 75th season in this area, the ‘Skins donned the throwback jerseys from the 1937 season—their first in D.C. There’s an obvious parallel, as that’s the year they drafted Sammy Baugh in the first round, a rookie phenom quarterback that would go on to a Hall of Fame career.
How did RGIII compare to Slingin’ Sammy? He completed 23 of his 39 passes for 215 yards. The good news is he didn’t throw any interceptions. The bad news is he didn’t throw for any touchdowns, either. He was again the team’s second-best rusher, carrying the ball 11 times for 53 yards.
There wasn’t a lot to be proud of in this game. The offensive line gave up four sacks, while the defense failed to produce one of its own. The secondary gave up yet another big pass play, with an 82-yard pass to Armanti Edwards that set the Panthers up for an easy score soon thereafter. The ‘Skins’ offense only converted three of 15 third-down attempts. The team drew 13 penalties for 97 yards.
Perhaps the most questionable decision was the call to go for it on fourth down at the Carolina 2-yard line in the second quarter. Down 3-7, the ‘Skins had already converted two fourth-down attempts in the drive. The law of averages suggests that three in a row would be quite unlikely. Head Coach Mike Shanahan could have gone with the conservative approach and taken the easy field goal. Instead, he called a quarterback run from a shotgun formation, which did not fool the Carolina defense.
This game was a lot less close than the final score indicates. The ‘Skins gave up a number of big plays on defense. They got in the red zone only 3 times and scored one touchdown. That touchdown came late in the game. Down 21-6, Griffin was given the opportunity to practice his garbage time offense.
After the game, Head Coach Mike Shanahan surprised many observers during his press conference when he said the game they just lost was “a must-win”. He went on to say, “When you lose a game like that, now you’re playing to see who, obviously, is going to be on your football team for years to come. Now we get a chance to evaluate players and see where we’re at. Obviously we’re not out of it statistically. But now we find out what type of character we’ve got and how guys keep on fighting through the rest of the season.”
‘Skins fans, your head coach just broadcast to the world and to his players that he is giving up on this season. ‘Skins fans will have a bye week to dissect and cut up those comments. A 3-6 record comes with pretty short odds of getting to the playoffs, to be sure. But those comments aren’t from a head coach trying to motivate his team. It’s from a head coach that presumes he will be running this team again after another losing season.
