Robert Griffin III said after the Washington Redskins' 24-16 loss that it felt like the Philadelphia Eagles' defense knew what plays were coming.
RGIII's comments were taken as a shot, at least tangentially, at coach Mike Shanahan.
On Monday, Shanahan said he viewed the Eagles' success as merely a defensive scheme to take away the pass.
"Our first year, everyone played us with eight-man fronts, sometimes almost nine-man fronts," Shanahan said, per ESPN.com. "When you do that, you have guys wide open like we did last year. That's one reason the play-action was so good. This year (teams are saying), 'We're playing you more passing and you have to earn the right in that run game,' which we've been able to do.
"You're not always going to get that deep ball so you have to dump it off and be patient," Shanahan continued. "That's part of the NFL. No matter what quarterback you're going against, no matter what system you go against, you have to relate or adjust your game plan accordingly. That's one of the reasons we ran the ball so much against a team that was very good at stopping the run."
Griffin still hasn't fully regained the consistent pinpoint accuracy he deployed last season, either, making tighter windows even harder to thread.
Shanahan's reasoning is that the Redskins' struggles out of the gate this season have to do with how opponents defend the pass early. Once the running game is established, it opens up the pass game.
We also will point out that, when a team is down 24-0, it changes the defense's mindset.
*We recapped every Week 11 game on the latest "Around The League Podcast." *
