ASHBURN — After victories like the Washington Redskins’ 47-14 thrashing of the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Jay Gruden can so easily see the improvement his team is making in his second year as its coach.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins effectively got the ball to the Redskins’ playmakers, then watched while they ravaged the Saints’ porous defense. The offensive line blocked with a tenacity that allowed running backs Alfred Morris, Matt Jones and Chris Thompson to gain an average of 7.2 yards per carry. The running backs hit their holes decisively and made plays. Washington’s defense looked like the formidable unit it was in the first two weeks of the season.
The maddening thing for Gruden is getting the Redskins to find that consistent effort — particularly on the road, where they are winless this season.
All four of the Redskins’ victories have come at FedEx Field. While progress is being made, Washington cannot turn the corner beyond being a sub-.500 team until it proves it can win, or at least compete, regardless of where the game is played.
“I am getting some grey hairs, that’s for sure,” Gruden joked on Monday. “We haven’t been the most consistent team throughout the season. We talk about adversity and bouncing back from tough times through not only the season, but in a game, in a quarter. It’s very important for our guys to have that tough mindset and be resilient. They’ve shown that so far, but we’re still 4-5 with a long way to go to reach our goals. You can see the growth, at least I can. You can feel it.”
The Redskins would like to feel it even more when they visit the undefeated Carolina Panthers (9-0) on Sunday.
It is hard to disregard the fact that the Redskins have faced their toughest opponents on the road this season. Including the Panthers, the Redskins’ road opponents have a combined record of 34-12. Their home opponents so far are a combined 20-26 — and all of their wins have come against teams with losing records.
Not only are the Redskins playing tough teams on the road, but they are playing teams that are historically good at home. The Redskins played the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium, where quarterback Tom Brady has a 95-15 regular-season record in his 16-year career. Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is 42-16 at the Georgia Dome and 30-31 elsewhere.
However, the Redskins’ struggles away from FedEx Field extend beyond just unfriendly scheduling.
“Yeah, there’s a lot more to it,” Gruden said. “Playing on the road, it’s obviously tough. Getting out to a fast start, we got out to slow starts in two of those three games. Atlanta, we were kind of even for most of the game. But against New England, against the Giants, we were off to a terrible start, which allowed the crowd to get into it, make us one-dimensional on offense. Very important for us to get off to a faster start on the road, especially against Carolina. You kind of quiet the crowd a little bit.
“You get a little bit of momentum, get your confidence up, so it’s going to be important for us to get out to a fast start. But, you know, there’s a lot of things that we can do and we’re going to have to do better, especially against Carolina.”
The Redskins’ inability to win on the road has cost them the opportunity to string together a pair of victories this season. Since hosting in the first two weeks, the Redskins have not had back-to-back home games. The predictable pattern — win at home, lose on the road — has Washington craving a victory on Sunday.
Against the New York Giants, the Redskins allowed their opening punt to be blocked for a safety, setting a grim tone for the rest of the game. They trailed, 12-0, at the end of the first quarter before losing, 32-21. The Redskins could have pushed the Patriots in a 27-10 loss, but seven dropped passes prevented Washington from getting past itself, let alone the defending Super Bowl champions.
Their best effort came against the Falcons, who were 4-0 at the time. Dustin Hopkins’ 52-yard field goal pushed the game to overtime, only for it to end with interception returned for a touchdown when wide receiver Ryan Grant slipped and fell trying to catch Cousins’ pass.
It’s those types of fundamental mistakes that have stalled the Redskins on the road, something the team needs to correct if they want to legitimately capitalize on the dreadful NFC East.
“The coaches really shouldn’t have to say anything to anybody,” inside linebacker Perry Riley said. “It should be us veterans, us leaders, getting this team, grabbing this team by the throat and saying, ’Look, there’s only two ways to go. You can go uphill or you can go downhill. We’re trying to go uphill. This is what we need to do.’ The rest will follow, and we should be able to do that and get the job done.”
• Anthony Gulizia can be reached at agulizia@washingtontimes.com.
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