The Washington Redskins received “a good slap-in-the-face wake-up call” at the hands of the New York Giants in the early part of the season, scoring just 14 points while allowing 45, including three touchdowns to tight end Larry Donnell. A large part of the problem was converting once on third down in eight chances – six of those situations needing eight or more yards to move the chains.
And this isn’t a problem limited to just that contest. So far this season, the Redskins have garnered a mere 2.76 yards per play when faced with needing eight or more yards on third or fourth down, the lowest in the league by a wide margin.
To complicate matters, the Giants lead the league in sacks on first down with 17, which occur on 4.5 percent of all first-down plays – an NFL best.
If the Redskins are going to have success today against the Giants, they will have to find a way to solve defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.
Pierre-Paul has 3.5 sacks in his past two games after being credited with none in the previous four games. According to the game charters at Pro Football Focus, he is the fourth highest-graded 4-3 defensive end among those who have taken at least half of their team’s snaps. Plus, he is starting to heat up, turning in one of his best performances against the Titans last week.
Breakdown: After a run of 5 weeks without a +1.0 grade, Jason Pierre Paul was back to his dominant ways. Pierre-Paul was able to take advantage of the Titans having to play two third string tackles for most of the game, as he recorded two sacks and three hurries.Signature Play: 2Q 13:38. On a play that was nullified due to a illegal hands to the face by right tackle Terren Jones on Pierre-Paul, he is able to beat Jones quickly on an inside move and deliver a hit to Zach Mettenberger.
It won’t be as simple as running the ball either, as Pierre-Paul is the highest rated 4-3 defensive end in terms of stopping the run. And he plays on what can already be considered the weak side of the Redskins offensive line: the left side.
For example, Redskins’ running back Alfred Morris has averaged 3.4 yards per carry when he bounces to the outside on the left side of the field compared to 5.4 yards per carry on the right side. When the Giants faced the 49ers in Week 11, Frank Gore ran the ball 19 times for 95 yards – 10 of those runs were to the right side, away from Pierre-Paul, for 74 yards. When the 49ers did test Pierre-Paul, they managed one yard on three attempts.
