For Injury Plagued Redskins Help is Just Around the Corner

The 2012 Washington Redskins Injured Reserve list reads like a veritable who’s who of “core” Redskins. Adam Carriker, Fred Davis, Roy Helu JR, Chase Minnifield, Chris Neild, Brian Orakpo; the list goes on. Not to mention the fact that Brandon Meriweather, who was projected to be a starter for this maligned secondary has yet to see a single snap in 2012 due to injury. Free agent prize Pierre Garcon joins Meriweather on the list of “impact players” who have seen the first half of their first season in Washington from the sidelines.

Garcon’s status is not a positive one as it now looks like he won’t be back until after the bye at earliest. At this point you have to just hope that he doesn’t miss the entire season.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the invincible Captain London Fletcher is expected to miss Sunday’s game with the combination of a “lack of balance” (for which Fletcher is currently undergoing treatment with a Neurologist) and a tweaked hamstring suffered in Sunday’s New York heart breaker.

Now I know the cliché here is that “everyone in the NFL deal with injuries” and that is true, but everyone can’t be the 2010 Green Bay Packers.

Face it – the injury list has had a catastrophic effect on this ball club.

When you have both starting safeties lost for the majority of the year or the complete year (thank you Mr. Jackson) that already sets you up for a lackluster secondary.

Clearly the Redskins passing defense has been under fire since August, but contrary to what some would have you believe that is not just because of a lack of talent in the secondary.

The 3-4 defense is in fact a pressure defense that is based on the philosophy of intense, unrelenting QB pressure. The theory is this – the true talent should be invested in your front seven, that group should create hellish pressure that would make even the most polished quarterback frustrated. The pass rush as well as the threat QB pressure leads to poor decisions — and poor decisions lead to turnovers.

In theory you don’t need “all worlds” defensive backs because the flustered Quarterbacks will throw up passes that are easy to make a play on or will miss the target entirely.

Now subtract the teams franchise pass rusher and arguably the best defensive lineman you have and what you get is what we have seen over the last two weeks – no pass rush, poor secondary play, and most importantly losses.

While the injuries have changed the entire landscape of this team (especially the defense), with a win Sunday the Redskins go into the halfway point of the season in great shape.

Sitting at 4-4 with a terrible struggling Carolina team coming to FedEx Field could put the Redskins in line to be 5-4 heading into the bye; and then help is on the way.

As earlier mentioned Pierre Garcon is eying a post bye week return which will at the very least give RG3 another weapon in his attempt to out-duel the opposing offense every week. More importantly Brandon Meriweather should finally make his Redskins Debut in Week 11 — and hopefully London can be back to his old self by then as well.

I know that Meriweather doesn’t put this defense over the top or magically make them the ‘85 bears, but with a top-five offense they don’t need to be.

For the Redskins to make a real playoff push this season they don’t need an elite defense or even a defense that wins them games. They just need one that doesn’t lose games for them — and even with the worst injury report in recent memory this defense should be able to do just that.

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