Earlier on Thursday, Mike Florio took a look at the limited running that Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III has done out of read-option looks this year and opined that “defenses eventually will stop falling for it” as a result.
Griffin’s offensive coordinator seems to agree with that assessment. Shanahan said Thursday that defenses are better prepared to face the read-option than they were last season, when Shanahan said it was “easy at times” to fool defenses.
“Now it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. It’s just not as -- you’re not shocking people like you were last year,” Shanahan said, via Mark Maske of the Washington Post. “And when teams are completely committed to stopping something, I don’t care what it is, they’re gonna stop it. And you’ve got to do other stuff and make them worry about other stuff before you want to come back to that and attack it.”
It doesn’t help that Griffin has appeared limited after missing the entire offseason recovering from knee surgery, but the need to constantly adjust is one shared by all offensive coordinators. Shanahan said that the offense has been “a little hit or miss” when it comes to attacking the areas left vulnerable by a focus on slowing the read-option, something that has to improve if they are going to put defenses on their heels as they did when things were rolling for them last season.