Week 3: Bengals @ Redskins | 1 PM Fox

[Rafael122]

Home opener, sounds like it's gonna be a sell out. Redskins look to bounce back after a horrific loss last week in St. Louis.

Garcon and Merriweather are still out. This should be a good game, and it probably won't be a cakewalk. That Hawkins guy on the Bengals scares me to death, same size as Amendola. Would not be surprised if he picked us apart all game long.

[Higga]

I was at the game. RG3 is the truth, but we may end up with one of the worst defenses in history.

[LyricalRico]

^ The defense as a whole isn't completely terrible IMO. The linebackers have been very good and the D-line has been at least adequate. The biggest problems seem to be in the secondary. Hall just can't cover anybody, and the safeties just aren't making any plays. Josh Wilson shouldn't be a team's best DB. Hopefully Merriweather gets healthy soon and can regain his form from early in his career.

The offensive line is the other big problem, especially if Trent Williams misses any time. They continue to allow the other team to get pressure without blitzing. Hopefully the Shanny's will commit to the run (not the option, but carries to Morris) to slow that pass rush down a bit.

[Nivek]

In my postmortem, I wrote about the same issues Rico mentions: the team's problems are the offensive line and the defensive secondary.

Everyone knew these were problems going into last offseason. I thought the Skins needed 2-3 new starters on the offensive line, a starting quality corner and 1-2 starting safeties. They basically added none of the above, unless you want to count Brandon Meriweather as a starting quality safety (I don't -- plus, he's been hurt anyway).

I think that f-ing ridiculous cap penalty hamstrung the offseason. And it'll hamstring the next offseason too. I think they're going to have get ruthless with the high cap number guys for next season and let them go so they can upgrade where they need help most.

[LyricalRico]

I thought the Skins needed 2-3 new starters on the offensive line, a starting quality corner and 1-2 starting safeties. They basically added none of the above, unless you want to count Brandon Meriweather as a starting quality safety (I don't -- plus, he's been hurt anyway).

Agreed. And that was my main issue with the Cousins pick at the time - why pick a guy who hope never plays when you still need starters elsewhere? But seeing how much RG3 is getting hit, it may turn out that we need Cousins.

I think that f-ing ridiculous cap penalty hamstrung the offseason. And it'll hamstring the next offseason too.

The one "silver lining" is that they seem to now have enough talent/depth everywhere else that they can almost spend their entire 2013 draft on OL and DB players.

[Rafael122]

They still have $6 million to play with this season if they need to make a move. But yeah, everyone knew what the weaknesses were and they failed to address it, besides QB I mean.

They really need to stop running the option play. Maybe once a game, but I counted 3 times that they ran it and RG 3 got destroyed on each one of them. He's 215 pounds, he isn't 240 or built like an Andrew Luck. Those hits will take a toll eventually.

[LyricalRico]

They really need to stop running the option play. Maybe once a game, but I counted 3 times that they ran it and RG 3 got destroyed on each one of them. He's 215 pounds, he isn't 240 or built like an Andrew Luck. Those hits will take a toll eventually.

OTOH, the option/pistol seemed to be what got them back in the game. So I guess it's a trade-off.

[Rafael122]

I suppose, and maybe they ran it more because Trent was out, but come on man, Griffin, love the kid, he's going to be great, but he is TINY. They need to protect him, otherwise he'll land on IR by Thanksgiving.