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The Washington Redskins are coming in hot. And by “hot,” I mean they’ve won one game in a row now, doubling their season’s win total after rookie signal-caller Dwayne Haskins defeated the Detroit Lions.
If you haven’t guessed by now, 2019 has not been a good year for Washington. They are 2-9, with issues stemming from the coaching staff, front office, and players. Just about nothing has gone right. Maybe Week 12 could be the start of a turnaround, though. That win against a bad Lions might not seem like much now, but who knows.
Now in Week 13, they face off with the Carolina Panthers. And one of the biggest questions has to be about rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins. What should you watch for when it comes to Haskins against the Panthers?
Connecting
Haskins had quite a few opportunities for big plays. Terry McLaurin in particular broke free a number of times, but Haskins simply overthrew him.
It’s not expected that a rookie quarterback suddenly hits on every single one of those. However, if he gets the same opportunities, Haskins needs to connect a few times.
We’ve already seen he has more than enough arm strength. Now can he show he can put the proper touch on the football to get it to his receivers where it needs to be.
Get Into the End Zone
To be fair to Haskins, this isn’t solely on him. The Redskins have struggled to get into the end zone all year.
In fact, in Week 12 their only touchdown was a kickoff return by the electric undrafted rookie, Steven Sims Jr. in the second quarter.
Still, though, Haskins needs to bring some energy and hope to the offense.
The good news is, he showed that at the end of the Lions game. Haskins made a few good throws and got the Redskins into field goal range twice to help them win. Now he just needs to finish off the drives and get them into the end zone.
Just to clarify, even if they get a rushing touchdown, that works. As long as Haskins is orchestrating the drives, it should not matter who actually scores in the end.
Fire
I’m just going to say it. I had no issue with how the game ended last week. Haskins missed the final snap because he was taking selfies. Actually, he missed the final snap because the clock at the field went to 0:00 and he went to celebrate.
So yes, he missed the final snap but it all started because of a clock error. And I’d rather a rookie be all jacked up about his first career win than anything else. Clearly he cares.
You saw the fire on the field, too. Haskins was pointing at his receivers when they made nice grabs and got fired up himself after his two big runs. That’s especially true after his 11-yard scramble with under a minute to go in the fourth quarter of a tie game.
Haskins struggled for the most part, but he did make some plays. It’s good to see that he was able to get fired up after those. That shows that he believes in himself and wasn’t down due to the prior bad plays.
The Redskins are 2-9 with just five games left to go in the 2019 season. They can still build a lot of positives the rest of the way though. That all starts with their rookie at quarterback. Dwayne Haskins just needs to keep building and hopefully he gives fans something to truly be excited about but the end of the year.