Q: Sunday's loss at Detroit reminded me of last year at Dallas when the Redskins rallied to tie the game late, only to lose it a few seconds later. That team rebounded with four consecutive victories to win the NFC East, so has that been a topic of discussion this week, and do you think this team can make a similarly strong rebound from such a disappointing loss?
A: As you noted, this bunch has bounced back before and their history goes back before this season. Last year they were 2-4 after six games and and went 7-3 the rest of the way to take the NFC East title. They are mostly a blue-collar team and they take the same approach whether they win or lose — they go out on the practice field and work on what went wrong. They may or may not go on another winning streak but if they don't it won't be because they got down and panicked.
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Q: When you look at the numbers, it appears as it quarterback Kirk Cousins is spreading the ball around pretty evenly, but is there a receiver he tends to lean on more in clutch situations?
A: Cousins does spread the ball around in most situations. But when he really needs a play, he will look to either Jordan Reed, who is about 90 percent certain to play against the Bengals after missing the last two games with a concussion, or Jamison Crowder. Most everyone knows about Reed. Crowder is a second-year player out of Duke who stands all of 5-foot-8, but he makes up for his lack of size with excellent route-running skills and sneaky speed.
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Q: What has been the biggest reason for the improvement in a running game that averaged 75.7 yards in the first three games and 142.3 in the last four?
A: I'd love to give you some fancy analysis about a change in scheme or something different the running backs are doing, but the simple truth is that they started to run better because they started to run more often. They had 12 and 17 rushing attempts in their first two games. Since then they have had fewer than 26 rushing attempts in a game just once. Jay Gruden and offensive coordinator Sean McVay, who calls the plays, may have become a bit too enamored with Cousins and his arsenal of weapons in the early going. Once they started committing to having a balanced attack, the offense has been more efficient and, not surprisingly, they started winning some games.
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Q: Other than strengthening the run game, what has this team been able to do in going 4-1 the last five weeks that it failed to do in the back-to-back home losses to open the season?
A: The defense has started to play better. They have held opponents to 20 points or fewer in each of their last four games. They had injuries to both of their starting safeties, cornerback Bashaud Breeland was out for two weeks, and Ryan Kerrigan went out of the Browns game early with an elbow injury, among some other bumps and bruises. In almost every case the backup played as well as or better than the starter. It's not a dominant defense by any means, but they are finding different ways to get it done every week.
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Q: Given what the Cowboys are doing, racing out to a 5-1 start, how much of a must-win is this game for the Redskins?
A: It's probably too early to start saying "must win" for the Redskins. They showed last year that they can make up a lot of ground in a hurry. And even if Dallas does run away with the division, the Redskins are in the thick of the NFC wild card race whether they win or lose on Sunday. But it would be very disappointing to go into the bye at 4-4 after doing so much good work to win four straight to get to 4-2. The Redskins can survive a loss, but their schedule has them facing five 2015 playoff teams in a seven-game span that starts against the Bengals. And if they are going to get themselves into the upper echelon of NFL teams, they will need to play well in that stretch.
Next game
Washington Redskins (4-3) vs. Cincinnati Bengals (3-4)
Where: London
When: 9:30 a.m. Sunday
TV: Ch. 19, 45
Radio: 700-AM, 1530-AM, 102.7-FM, 104.7-FM
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