Tasked with erasing a seven-point gap for much of the second half of Monday night’s 27-17 loss to Seattle, the Washington Redskins’ offense found itself facing odds as long as the field in front of it.
The Redskins began three drives in the third quarter within their own 10-yard line, including one from the 1-yard line midway through the period. All three ended with a punt; all three lasted just three offensive plays except the second, which started with a 22-yard reception but ended with Washington facing third-and-23.
Only twice did the Redskins lead a drive into Seattle territory — in the third quarter, when Kai Forbath made a 27-yard field goal, and in the fourth quarter, when Andre Roberts caught a 6-yard touchdown pass.
They also scored on a 60-yard catch-and-run by DeSean Jackson in the second quarter.
“When you’re backed up like that against a great defense, the odds are stacked against you,” said quarterback Kirk Cousins. “When you get down in the strike zone, you get down in the red zone, you want to come away with touchdowns instead of field goals, so that missed opportunity there when we had to kick a field goal was tough. But when you’ve got bad field position, it is a challenge to go 80, 90 yards against arguably the best defense in the NFL.”
In all, the Redskins started, on average, from their own 17-yard line. That contrasted mightily with the Seahawks, whose average start was on their own 35-yard line — including one drive in the third quarter that began at midfield.
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And it included an onside kick attempt in the third quarter, when, after Forbath’s field goal, the Redskins attempted to catch Seattle by surprise. Forbath’s attempt looped directly to Seahawks tight end Cooper Helfet, who caught it at his own 44-yard line.
“[Special teams coordinator Ben] Kotwica had a plan for it, and we knew we were working on the pooch kicks and seeing how they lined up, and we thought we had a good numbers advantage on the onside kick,” said coach Jay Gruden. “It didn’t work out, so we lost some field position.”
The onside kick was a product of the Redskins’ attempt to keep the ball away from Percy Harvin, the Seahawks’ kickoff returner. Harvin, who entered averaging 20.1 yards per return, did not touch the ball on special teams on Monday.
Tight end Luke Willson returned the opening kickoff from Seattle’s 15-yard line and took it 20 yards; wide receiver Doug Baldwin also returned a short kickoff, taking the ball from his own 12-yard line and gaining 19 yards.
“We lost field position all night on the kickoffs, and we kind of knew that coming in,” Gruden said. “We didn’t want to kick line drives to them, right to them, and let them return it, so we thought if we could stop them at the 28- or the 30-yard line with the pooch kicks, that’s better than risking kicking it to them deep with room to run, so that was a decision we had going in.”
The short field position also strained the Redskins’ defense, which, as its counterpart was trying to drive the length of the field, had to stop Seattle from going half of it. Seattle started from the 50-yard line with 6:40 left in the third quarter and, after an offensive penalty, went three-and-out; it also failed to pick up a first down on the next drive, when it started at its own 40-yard line.
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“No matter where we start, we’ve got to put our best foot forward and make stops,” said inside linebacker Keenan Robinson. “That’s what the defense’s job is to do. Obviously, field position helps, because if you do get stops, then when we get the ball back to the offense, you know, 35, 25 instead of the ball at the 10 or inside the 10, so obviously, it helps, but we’re only going to control what we can control. We’ve still got to make plays no matter where we start.”
Seattle’s longest drive, a 12-play, 68-yard series, lasted seven and a half minutes in the fourth quarter and ended when running back Marshawn Lynch caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Russell Wilson.
The Redskins marched down the field on an 11-play, 75 yard drive that ended with the Roberts touchdown, and Forbath sent the ensuing kickoff into the end zone for the only touchback of the game.
Then Seattle responded by putting the game out of reach with a 43-yard field goal by Stephen Hauschka with 21 seconds remaining.
“We did a great job of holding them to a field goal or getting the ball back on three-and-outs, but we’ve just got to figure out how to score on defense or get the ball back to our offense,” said Redskins nose tackle Chris Baker. “Our offense did a good job, you know? We just have to find a way to get the ball back to them as a defense.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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