ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Robert Griffin III replaced his mantra of “focusing on San Francisco” with a new one following a 17-13 loss to the 49ers Sunday as a result of all that focus.
“We’re going to go back and look at the tape we came in here and focused on San Francisco,” Griffin told reporters following the game.
“We have to watch the tape I feel the defense played well,” he said.
“We’re going to go back and watch the tape and try to get better each week,” Griffin continued.
The tape. The tape. The tape.
SEE ALSO: Robert Griffin III remains the focus, and, for now, the starter for Redskins
That’s not going to protect Griffin any more than the offensive line did Sunday in San Francisco.
That Redskins-49ers game tape probably looks like a hostage video — a team held hostage by its struggling prima donna quarterback whose protection lies inside Redskins Park, not on the field.
Griffin turned in one of the worst performances we’ve seen from a Redskins quarterback Sunday — even worse than his play the week before in a 27-7 loss to Tampa Bay at home.
At least that game, it looked like coach Jay Gruden trusted Griffin to try to run some sort of downfield offense. It didn’t work — he completed 23 of 32 passes for 207 yards, two interceptions, and six sacks against the Bucs — but Griffin was part of the game plan to try to win.
Sunday in San Francisco, Griffin was seen as a liability before he even took the field. Gruden put together a game plan that would limit Griffin’s opportunities to lose the game, not win it.
He threw the ball just 19 times, completing 11 for 106 yards — which meant he threw no interceptions. But it also meant he was not trusted to win the game, either — until the end, when they needed him to win it, and he failed miserably.
Pierre Garcon spoke of those lack of opportunities following the game Sunday, after he took perhaps the best shot the offense had all day at a big score — besides handing the ball to Alfred Morris — when he took the ball on an end around and threw a deep pass to DeSean Jackson. Naturally, the ball went out of bounds.
“We had a lot of opportunities to score,” Garcon told reporters. “We weren’t taking none. Being conservative. That’s what it is.”
When asked about the team’s offensive struggles, Garcon said, “Throw to the receivers. That’ll fix the problem, especially down in the red zone.”
The last quarterback Garcon saw on the field who threw the ball to the receivers was Colt McCoy, and that memory hangs over the Redskins locker room.
While leading Washington to a 20-17 overtime upset win over the Cowboys in Dallas on “Monday Night Football” — the last Redskins victory — McCoy completed 25 of 30 passes to eight different receivers.
There are two records that exist in the Redskins locker room (three if we want to count Gruden’s contention that his team should have been 7-2 instead of 3-6, save for a few bad breaks).
There is the 3-8 record the team has, but there is also the 6-5 record that coaches and players believe they might have had if McCoy had continued to start, instead of being benched the last three games. Which might have given this team a real chance to compete for a playoff spot.
Gruden told you as much in an interview last week with NFL.com, when he said, “We have a guy behind [Robert] that played pretty well, and people are looking, ’OK, he’s 2-0,’” Gruden said. “There’s always pressure on the quarterback to perform. And if you don’t perform, like any other position, somebody’s behind you pushing you.”
The problem for Griffin is not the San Francisco tape, it’s the Dallas tape. It’s a favorite of Redskins coaches and players, the one they keep running back in their minds.
When asked by reporters Monday in a conference call interview if Griffin will be the starter Sunday in Indianapolis against the Colts, Gruden said, “It’s Monday afternoon at 3 o’ clock, and right now we have every intent for Robert [to be the starter] but we’ll look at the tape and make our evaluations here shortly.”
When Gruden looks at that tape, he will see a franchise held hostage.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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