Five pass attempts. Three sacks. Three hits. Two completions. Two fumbles. And a concussion. One couldn't be entirely surprised when quarterback Robert Griffin III ended up motionless on the bottom of a pile in the Redskins' 21-17 exhibition victory over the Lions on Thursday.
Following a 10 yard effort in the first quarter, Washington's front protection started wilting fast. Reserve left tackle Willie Smith permitted two sacks, including one he didn't even see, and rookie guard Brandon Scherff would let through a third. Head coach Jay Gruden was sparse with words following the outing of a group he thought had shown improvement and hope this summer.
"It was not a very good performance by our first-team offense, to say the least," he said.
Griffin would attempt five passes and would be hit six times. Detroit saved the best for last, overpowering the Redskins' line to snag the nimble-footed signal caller for good. Rolling right on a fateful 3rd-and-16 inside his 20, Griffin lost hold of the ball apparently of his own accord and received two hits on the way down in pursuit of it.
The collision drove his right shoulder into the turf, what trainers would soon call a stinger. That, Gruden said, was nothing to fear. But what they didn't know yet may hinder their plans going forward. About a second after Lions end Corey Wootton landed on top of him, Griffin's brain had enough.
A concussion, they said. Failed the test, they said.
"We have to do a better job of protecting the quarterback, better scheme-wise and stay out of those nasty third-and-long," Gruden said, assessing the charred ruins. "We have a lot of work to do."
More so, however, Griffin has a lot of work to do.
Despite that progress all those concerned said they saw in their quarterback this spring and summer, he looked the same as he always has in the real-time of the actual game. He was supposed to make better decisions. He was supposed to check down to the nearest man. He was supposed to not just take off when he didn't see something immediately.
He has a concussion right now because he didn't do what he was told. That 3rd-and-long was supposed to be a check-down and a punt. He was supposed to walk off the field bummed, not into the locker room dazed.
An indecisive quarterback is meat for pass rushers. They smell it and go after it.
DeAndre Levy came through the middle unblocked to deck Griffin onto his back on a poor 3rd-and-6 attempt for Andre Roberts and Detroit's Philip Hunt overpowered Willie Smith to strip the ball loose on a 3rd-and-2 that was ruled an incomplete pass. Levy nearly bent him in half and Hunt led a tandem of rushers that waltzed into the Redskins' backfield like they were going into a Wal-Mart at 2 a.m.
Griffin's motions have never appeared fluid or continuous, as a single person performing a single action, but rather a schizophreniac alternating personalities as he goes along. He runs confused and listless. His arms and legs flail about like a child fleeing a wasp, and his attempts at sliding are well-documented. They're less slides than they are a surprised man running into a moving car.
If the Redskins' fate rests on Griffin learning his lesson, they're in trouble. Griffin is team owner Daniel Snyder's addiction, an addiction he denies he has. Like the alcoholic who insists he doesn't have a problem, yet who nightly finds himself in an unconscious stupor, it falls on those around him to intervene and purge him of this disease.
First in war, first in peace, last in the NFC East. Such is Washington. That was the adage attributed to the old Senators baseball club ("last in the National League") back when things were black and white, and it looks entirely to be the fate of the Redskins football club in the days of high definition.
As long as that man is under center.
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