Week 5 of the 2018 NFL season was one to forget for the Washington Redskins. However, quarterback Alex Smith wants their embarrassing loss to the New Orleans Saints to serve as a learning experience.

Washington simply could not get anything going against New Orleans on primetime. Smith has challenged his team to bounce back starting this week, via the Jake Kring-Schreifels of the team's official website:

“I think every guy in there has got to look at themselves in the mirror and be real with themselves, things they have to get better at, need to get better at to help this team and we all have them,” Smith said. “If you do that and then you do move on. It's one game. We're four games into the season. We have a lot of football left ahead of us. We're playing a really good football team right now, so we have new opportunity, new challenge, new week. I think once you do move on from it and start your prep, you do. You leave it behind you and get ready for this next challenge.”

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There are a number of reasons to be concerned with Washington's performance in Week 5. They showed plenty of promise with a solid win over the Green Bay Packers and had an extra week to prepare for the New Orleans Saints thanks to the bye. Yet, the offense could only muster up 19 points against a porous Saints defense. They also managed to make quarterback Drew Brees' historic night look like it was scripted. Although it never easy to play in the Superdome, the fact that they were not even able to compete despite having an extra week to prepare is inexcusable.

Fortunately, it appears Smith is hardly ready to throw in the towel. He has taken his fair share of responsibility for Washington's struggles on offense. He made it clear that getting in a shootout is not something this group wants to do. Their recipe for success has already been established thus far in the season. This offense is at its best when running back Adrian Peterson has room to run.

Washington will have an opportunity to re-establish its run game against the Dallas Cowboys this week. They will certainly need it considering Dallas has arguably the most formidable pass-rush in the NFL.