The season got off on the wrong foot for the Redskins with losses in their first two games, but things have stabilized with victories over the Giants and Browns the last two weeks to leave the team at 2-2 ahead of their short road trip to Baltimore this weekend.
The wins don’t mean that everything has gone right for the team, however. The defense has had trouble in each of the victories and ranks 25th in points allowed and 29th in yards allowed for the season overall. They’ve struggled to stop the run -- the Browns put up 163 yards last Sunday -- and they are worst in the league on third downs, leaving defensive coordinator Joe Barry to make a harsh self-assessment.
“Well, not good,” Barry said, via the Washington Post. “A job of a coach is no different [than] a teacher. And if a math student simply isn’t just getting the good grades on math tests, you could say, ‘Oh, that kid is just dumb.’ Well, I look at it as: The teacher is not getting it out of him. I put a lot of pride and a lot of input on myself to get it done, and we’re not getting it done right now. I’m not getting it done.”
The Redskins gave up a lot of yards last season, finishing the year 28th in that metric, but they were in the middle of the pack in points allowed on their way to a division title. A similar shift will likely be necessary for a shot at repeating that accomplishment this year, so it may be a good sign that the team has at least shown an ability to adjust in the second half by allowing nine points after halftime the last two weeks after giving up 38 before the break.