Let's not blame Breeland

[Prowl33]

On so many levels that was an ugly game, but I don't think Breeland can be blamed for getting beat constantly by Antonio Brown, arguably the best receiver in the NFL right now. He was right there with him for most of those catches, but someone like that unless you are the best corner in the league is going to be a step ahead of you.

So the question is how to fix it. They could of tried normal on him everywhere, but like has been said, then you have to change what so many others are doing to adjust for that, and who is to say that on a lot of those Norman wouldn't of got burnt too. Do you have D Hall sit over the top of him every play and try to read the QB maybe? Or is the answer Breeland needs to take this lesson to fuel the fire and get better, which seems like what he is doing. Or do we blitz more to force Ben to deliver some off balls and throw sooner?

[cowboykillerzRGiii]

I'm with you... he played his azzz off, just was facing a freak who made ridiculous plays. One to Befriend had his arm between the ball and AB yet still got beat.


I hate to say, as a long time D Hall fan...I think he is dragging this youthful secondary down a notch. Seeing him late to nearly every AB catch just showed me he's either lost a step or is constantly out of position. Either one vs Big Ben and AB equals disaster for this D!

[oj]

Breeland was right there, I just hope he hasn't lost his confidance. The thing that upset me is gruden made no attempt at adjusting. He just watched the same thing happen again and again. That is poor coaching, you do something to help your guy even if it is wrong. Breeland is his guy to take care of and he failed. Theres 52 other players wondering the same thing.

[riggofan]

Breeland was right there, I just hope he hasn't lost his confidance. The thing that upset me is gruden made no attempt at adjusting. He just watched the same thing happen again and again. That is poor coaching, you do something to help your guy even if it is wrong. Breeland is his guy to take care of and he failed. Theres 52 other players wondering the same thing.

I disagree completely with that. First off, the idea that he didn't get any help is complete nonsense. They were rolling the safety over to help him all freaking night. I'm guessing you missed D. Hall on that 4th and 1 TD to Brown.

Secondly, you want to destroy a player's confidence? Then sub him off or show him that you don't trust him when he fails. Breeland is one of our starting CBs. That's not how you handle it.

[cowboykillerzRGiii]

D Hall was definitely supposed to provide some help over the top.. and I can point to more then one play where he was just late and could've made a play if he were quicker to react or quicker to get there

[markshark84]

Who is blaming Breeland???????????????

He is an above average CB in the NFL, and I am HAPPY to have him on the skins.

People also need to realize that 1 of those TDs was on a 4th and 1 were PIT went deep and Brown beat Breeland. That happened again on a 3rd and short. Breeland sure didn't learn from his mistakes IN-GAME, so hopefully he will learn after looking at film and talking with his coaches. I know they are TOTAL excuses and Breeland should have expected these to happen (at least when I saw the lineups -- in both situations --, I TOTALLY told myself that if I were the HC/QB, I'd be calling a long pass play given the iso on the outside). There was also another one where PIT could have done it but they didn't....

The PIT coaching staff did a GREAT job of no-huddle, pre-snap movement, etc. to get the matchups they wanted. If they like a matchup, they kept it no huddle. If they couldn't do that, they used pre-snap movement to get what they wanted. Our DEF was not smart or talented enough to make the proper adjustments. It was basically a big-brother vs. little-brother scenario where the big bro had more experience and knowledge about what works.

As far as the 2ndary, they didn't do anyone any favors against PIT. I would give them a grade of a C- for their collective performance. It didn't help that they had to cheat in to help with our inept rushing defense (which is why they didn't get a D grade).

[HEROHAMO]

This falls on our D coordinator.

Either have Norman cover or Breland and Hall double him. Pretty simple.
Covering an NFL caliber Wr is tough. Covering the best Wr in the league extremely difficult. If Darrelle Revis can't hold a Wr to no touchdowns. What makes Barry think that Breland can go one on one virtually the whole game?

This week Dec Bryant will be the Wr. Either have Breland under/Hall over the top or Norman shadow him. Very simple.
If Barry can't make simple adjustments he needs to go. Barry has time to adjust. Not much time. The great ones make these adjustments on the fly real time in game.

[riggofan]

This falls on our D coordinator.

Either have Norman cover or Breland and Hall double him. Pretty simple.

That would be Breeland and Hall doubling Antonio Brown while he makes the TD catch.

So who does it fall on now?

[Deadskins]

This falls on our D coordinator.

Either have Norman cover or Breland and Hall double him. Pretty simple.

That would be Breeland and Hall doubling Antonio Brown while he makes the TD catch.

So who does it fall on now?

Well, Hall should have been the deepest of the three, not the shallowest, and he hasn't even gotten over to where the other two are yet. But the ball was underthrown, Brown turned around and made the catch behind him. Breeland was in perfect position to make the play, but the ball went right between his hands. He should have just batted it away, but he went for the pick and missed. Tough break for Breeland, but Hall was out of position and not in on the play.

[riggofan]

Well, Hall should have been the deepest of the three, not the shallowest, and he hasn't even gotten over to where the other two are yet. But the ball was underthrown, Brown turned around and made the catch behind him. Breeland was in perfect position to make the play, but the ball went right between his hands. He should have just batted it away, but he went for the pick and missed. Tough break for Breeland, but Hall was out of position and not in on the play.

Yeah I've heard a few times that Hall was late on the play to help. Not surprising, because he was almost certainly expecting Williams on that 4th and 1.

I think you're right that it could have been a pick, unlucky for Breeland as much as anything.

Joe Barry's fault? Not exactly.

[SKIN4LIFE]

I saw Revis get burned by AJ Green this week and on one TD his safety was out of position too. It happens. Green had better stats against Revis than Brown did against Breeland. Oh, and Revis has a line that puts pressure on a QB. I'm still very high on Breeland. Maybe we can sign him at a discounted rate right now since he just had a bad game. He will be a free agent at the end of the year, lock him up SM.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

Overanalysis. If anyone is blaming Breeland they are too ignorant of the game to be taken seriously.

1) The best receiver in the game has beaten cornerbacks better than Breeland consistently for more than one season.

2) Teams do not usually have a cornerback shadow a specific receiver. It's just not done. It's very different playing one side versus playing the other. Everything is backwards.

3) Hall is learning the free safety position. He had the misfortune of starting against Brown and Roethlisberger.

Let's move on. He may be covering Dez Bryant this week.

[riggofan]

Overanalysis. If anyone is blaming Breeland they are too ignorant of the game to be taken seriously.

Seriously, man. And I swear half those throws he and Roethlisberger had no business completing. It was just insane.

Bottom line to me is that nobody had a game to hang his hat on, but the problems stopping the run are what doomed us. Painful to watch.

[DarthMonk]

This falls on our D coordinator.

Either have Norman cover or Breland and Hall double him. Pretty simple.

That would be Breeland and Hall doubling Antonio Brown while he makes the TD catch.

So who does it fall on now?

Well, Hall should have been the deepest of the three, not the shallowest, and he hasn't even gotten over to where the other two are yet. But the ball was underthrown, Brown turned around and made the catch behind him. Breeland was in perfect position to make the play, but the ball went right between his hands. He should have just batted it away, but he went for the pick and missed. Tough break for Breeland, but Hall was out of position and not in on the play.

Precisely.

[riggofan]

This falls on our D coordinator.

Either have Norman cover or Breland and Hall double him. Pretty simple.

Well, Hall should have been the deepest of the three, not the shallowest, and he hasn't even gotten over to where the other two are yet. But the ball was underthrown, Brown turned around and made the catch behind him. Breeland was in perfect position to make the play, but the ball went right between his hands. He should have just batted it away, but he went for the pick and missed. Tough break for Breeland, but Hall was out of position and not in on the play.

Precisely.

So, it wasn't Joe Barry's fault?

[HEROHAMO]

So, it wasn't Joe Barry's fault? [/quote]

I can understand if Breeland gets beat once for a touchdown. But when it happens twice it indicates lack of adjustments on Joe Barry's part. The fact that Josh Norman is not being utilized in order to take away the other teams no.1 threat demonstrates Joes lack of an effective defensive gameplan. Once it was clear Breeland was over matched it was time to make the adjustment and have Norman cover AB.

Josh Norman is being paid shut down corner money. He should be covering the opposing teams best Wr. Especially if Breeland demonstrates he isn't able to. Which clearly was the case. Even though I love Breeland.

Your laughing why? Your the one defending Joe Barry who's defense just got torched? You seem like the type of guy who would accept a participation ribbon. If you can't see that adjustments needed to be made? You can't see that there was a solution to covering AB. Honestly it's above your head Riggofan.

[riggofan]

Your laughing why? Your the one defending Joe Barry who's defense just got torched? You seem like the type of guy who would accept a participation ribbon. If you can't see that adjustments needed to be made? You can't see that there was a solution to covering AB. Honestly it's above your head Riggofan.

Just disagree about what was wrong with the defense. Not sure why you want to get personal about it. Seems like kind of a dickish comment.

[SkinsJock]

Overanalysis. If anyone is blaming Breeland they are too ignorant of the game to be taken seriously.

Seriously, man. And I swear half those throws he and Roethlisberger had no business completing. It was just insane.
Bottom line to me is that nobody had a game to hang his hat on, but the problems stopping the run are what doomed us. Painful to watch.

I agree - nobody can cover Brown when he makes plays like that

this was more a really well played game by the Steelers and poor to no run defense by us than anything else ...

it would have been nice to see a better performance from our guys but I doubt that even if every Redskins played his best game we would have ended up winning that game - they are at another level and we're getting better ...

nobody should 'blame' anybody - learn from the mistakes and beat the pukes this week is all

[Deadskins]

I can understand if Breeland gets beat once for a touchdown. But when it happens twice it indicates lack of adjustments on Joe Barry's part. The fact that Josh Norman is not being utilized in order to take away the other teams no.1 threat demonstrates Joes lack of an effective defensive gameplan. Once it was clear Breeland was over matched it was time to make the adjustment and have Norman cover AB.

First, I would dispute that Breeland got beat twice for TDs by Brown. He had tight coverage, just went for the pick and didn't get it. Second, having one corner shadowing a particular receiver, simply isn't done. Not only because it causes confusion on the defense, but the receiver only has to go in motion to gain separation from the snap. You give a receiver of Brown's pedigree that kind of advantage he would have done a lot more damage than he did. And, if you "adjusted" to that philosophy mid-game, what kind of message does that send to Breeland? I submit that making that change would do more harm than good in the long run. Breeland did get an INT early in the game on a nice play. Really, the only issue I had with his play was in run support, when he took bad angles and whiffed on the RB twice.

[SkinsJock]

this was from Mark Tyler ....

.. In the secondary, Bashaud Breeland is not as bad as he looked Monday night. He was asked to match up one-on-one against the best receiver in football. Breeland did one thing wrong - he failed to make plays on the football in coverage. Make no mistake, on all but one occasion, Breeland was in good position. It wasn't like he missed his assignment, or just got flat out burnt - he just failed to make plays. I'm confident, that when put into that position again, Bashaud makes the players to at least knock the ball down 8 out of 10 times. As for his shoddy run defense...well, he just needs to work harder on that.

Keeping with the secondary theme, we have some quality players on the back end. Hall looks to be a very solid free safety. He will come up and make plays, and although we didn't see him on deep help much, it was more because of scheme than his inability to do so. Norman is a stud, and he will get his. He's going to make plays, as was evident Monday night. Strong safety is a concern right now, but we have the chess pieces to make it work. We just nee to find the right combination, and if that means benching Bruton in favor of Ihenacho, so be it.

This is not all doom and gloom. This is a good football teams searching for its identity early on. We may not become a smash-mouth, wear you down, grind it out squad. We may be more like the Patriots, with a quick, efficient passing game that utilizes our tight ends, and exploits defenses with crossing routes, rubs and the occasional big shot downfield. However we end up, we have to trust that the coaches know our team's strengths better than we do, and will do their best to continue to put us in situations to succeed.

If if there is one thing I know in football, it's that you're never as good as you think you are, and you're never as bad as you may look. Teams tend to get better, not worse, as the season goes on, and this should be the case for our Redskins.

Redskins - find your identity, work that identity, and go out and beat the Cowboys!

[DaSkinz Baby]

I find it very funny how we listen to what Bart Scott says and I been saying that since we hired Joe Barry. But ask yourself this what really has Joe Barry done? Was he successful in Detroit as a DC? Was he fielding a top Linebacker unit in San Diego? Why is it the Redskin brain trust didn't hire Wade Phillips who goes to Denver and turns that defense into arguably the best out, how can we fire Jim Haslett and end up hiring someone worse? Jay Gruden then hires Joe Barry a mediocre Linebacker coach and that is being nice. We all know and Monday's game shows the utter incompetence of a Jay Gruden coached team. All he wants to do is try to make his arena football league offense work in the NFL. It won't. Jay won't win against a winning team. That is factual information. I am glad someone with some serious football knowledge finally called out that fool Joe Barry. Watch, the Redskins never make any adjustments during the game or halftime. They continue to hammer square screws into round holes and wonder why they aren't a team that can beat other teams with winning records. #FACT Then to hear this fool at the podium say that having Norman shadow the best receiver on the field is too complicated? You mean to tell me between Breeland, Norman, Hall and the other safety they are too stupid to cover that way? Seems pretty stupid for some gump like Barry to call bullcrap defenses then basically call your players stupid. Is it me people? What am I missing??

[Deadskins]

What am I missing??

A lot. Say you do have Norman shadowing Brown. Brown goes in motion from right to left. Norman then has to chase Brown across the formation, avoiding other DBs, and is already in a trailing position to Brown. Also there is no way to disrupt Brown's route off the line of scrimmage. You can't give a WR like Brown that kind of advantage; he's dangerous enough as it is.

This isn't to defend Barry as a DC. I think we should have hired Wade Phillips as well. But that is water under the bridge.

[DaSkinz Baby]

What am I missing??

A lot. Say you do have Norman shadowing Brown. Brown goes in motion from right to left. Norman then has to chase Brown across the formation, avoiding other DBs, and is already in a trailing position to Brown. Also there is no way to disrupt Brown's route off the line of scrimmage. You can't give a WR like Brown that kind of advantage; he's dangerous enough as it is.

This isn't to defend Barry as a DC. I think we should have hired Wade Phillips as well. But that is water under the bridge.

Okay I can get with that however you mean to tell me there is nothing that no other qualified DC would have done to atleast change? Also have you seen any type of change or adjustment by the defense since Barry was hired? Breeland is a damn good CB and I have seen him play lights out against other receivers however I just think there could have been something changed to atleast cause a bit more hesitation. I just don't have any faith in Joe Barry and I think it's only going to get worse, especially when he is basically calling his secondary stupid. Thoughts???

[Deadskins]

What am I missing??

A lot. Say you do have Norman shadowing Brown. Brown goes in motion from right to left. Norman then has to chase Brown across the formation, avoiding other DBs, and is already in a trailing position to Brown. Also there is no way to disrupt Brown's route off the line of scrimmage. You can't give a WR like Brown that kind of advantage; he's dangerous enough as it is.

This isn't to defend Barry as a DC. I think we should have hired Wade Phillips as well. But that is water under the bridge.

Okay I can get with that however you mean to tell me there is nothing that no other qualified DC would have done to atleast change? Also have you seen any type of change or adjustment by the defense since Barry was hired? Breeland is a damn good CB and I have seen him play lights out against other receivers however I just think there could have been something changed to atleast cause a bit more hesitation. I just don't have any faith in Joe Barry and I think it's only going to get worse, especially when he is basically calling his secondary stupid. Thoughts???

Like I said, I'm not defending Barry. There probably are things he could have, or should have, done to help Breeland out.

[riggofan]

Okay I can get with that however you mean to tell me there is nothing that no other qualified DC would have done to atleast change? Also have you seen any type of change or adjustment by the defense since Barry was hired?

So your argument is that in 17 games, Coach Barry has never made any changes or adjustments? Ooookay. Seems likely.