Jay Gruden hired as head coach of the Redskins

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

Overall his schemes were fine with me (with the exception of how he handles opposing TEs, WTF?!), it was the timing of his play-calls. I hope he at least learned some lessons because it always seemed he would have the least clutch call ever when we needed it the most.

Regardless of how our D works out next year, ALL I ASK is better third down defense. We seemed to be great on first and second only to fold on third no matter how far the down-and-distance.

That least clutch call you're talking about, I think, was the product of having no safeties with any skill. Safety is the position that gives you flexibility to make blitz calls. If you have a safety with speed and range, he can cover the space needed to limit big gains in the event the QB beats the blitz.

We just didn't have that, AT ALL. So when Haslett did dial up a blitz he was really taking a risk that our safeties would give up the whole shebang. And in a lot of cases as a result, he had to play cover 2 and let the TE free up the seam. At least with a TE you don't get beat over the top for a TD.

He just had nothing to work with. He has a good attacking scheme and two good edge rushers. He desperately needs safeties, then he'll put together a decent enough defense.