Washington Redskins can continue to win with defensive domination

The Washington Redskins defense leaves opponents with few holes to attack

The primary focus of every NFL team’s weekly game plan is to identify and exploit their opponent’s weaknesses. Teams facing the Redskins this year are having an increasingly difficult time finding those weak links, especially in their defense.

As an offensive coordinator how would you attack the Redskins number one ranked defense? Obviously, running up the gut is an exercise in futility. Matt Ioannidis, DaRon Payne, and Jonathon Allen have shut down that avenue.

Each of them require double teams which leaves Washington’s superb inside linebackers, Mason Foster and Zach Brown, free and clear to meet the ball carrier at the line of scrimmage.

Running up the middle on this team might yield one or two yards a pop – if you’re lucky. Try to block Payne or Allen with a single player and your running back is going down in the backfield.

Maybe you could try to bounce something outside. Guess again. Despite the whining about Washington’s outside linebacker’s lack of sack totals, Ryan Kerrigan and Preston Smith are both having outstanding years.

I have no doubt that by the end of the season Kerrigan will again post his standard double digit sacks and Preston Smith will probably come close. Remember, Smith’s sacks come in bunches and usually in the second half of the season. But, sack totals aside, where these two excel is at setting the edge. They turn everything back into the teeth of this defense where Ioannidis and the Alabama Wall devour running backs.

So teams will attempt to throw the ball against the Redskins, almost by default. Fortunately for Skins fans those efforts might not prove much more effective. The Redskins have a very impressive group of cornerbacks. While Josh Norman garners most of the attention it is actually Quenton Dunbar who Pro Football Focus has rated as a top-five cornerback. Dunbar is currently nursing a leg injury which will give Fabian Moreau an opportunity to prove that he may in fact be the best CB on this Redskin team.

Remember, it was Moreau who was shooting up draft boards a couple of years ago after running a 4.3 40 yard dash and having scouts raving about his performances in both work outs and All Star games. He was a first round fixture on many draft boards until an untimely pectoral injury dropped him into the third round and into the Redskins laps.

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Moreau will likely prove to be the most talented cornerback in a group that includes, in addition to Norman and Dunbar, Greg Stroman and Adonis Alexander, the highly coveted former Virginia Tech star. Washington’s cornerback group is loaded at the starting positions as well as with very high quality depth.

If this defense has a weakness it’s among the safeties. And unfortunately for opposing offensive coordinators trying to find a kink in one of the NFL’s best defense, the weakness is in the lack of depth in this group because the starters the Redskins have patrolling the secondary are as solid a duo as you’ll find anywhere.

DJ Swearinger and Montae Nicholson excel in coverage and in run support. The speed with which they fly to the ball is absolutely scary.

When all these pieces are put together it is quite a task to find a soft spot which to attack. The NFL’s best defense is dominating opponents and appear to be getting better by the week.