Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III’s comments about the Eagles defense knowing what was coming and other reasons for the team’s loss in last week’s game touched off a lot of reaction inside and outside the team, leading Griffin to circle back and say he regretted making them.
Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who would bear some of the blame for calling plays that the Eagles defense sussed out without much difficulty, said he took issue with the notion that the Eagles saw what was coming. Shanahan pointed to 160 rushing yards in the first half as a sign that the Eagles’ crystal ball wasn’t sniffing out everything coming their way. That said, Shanahan didn’t have any problem with Griffin’s comments after the quarterback sought him out to explain what he was talking about.
“You guys make a big deal of it, and it’s understandably so,” Shanahan said, via the Washington Post. “I totally understand that. But I try not to pay too much attention to quotes because you never really know what someone was trying to say or if they meant what they said. What helped me was Robert did come -- and I didn’t ask him to -- but he came in and talked to me on Monday about it and tried to clear it up with me and tried to explain what he meant to say, and what he was meaning. Once I heard him and talked with him, I was fine with it and it made sense to me what he told me, and I had no problems with it.”
There’s a lot of scrutiny of Griffin going on right now, which is both understandable because it is a quarterback league and a bit hard to figure since the Redskins defense has been atrocious enough this season that you wonder how many points the offense would have to score to actually have a shot at a winning record. Without those wins, though, the crticism and discussion will continue to be a major part of life for everyone in the organization.