Even though, the Redskins lost to the Jets last Sunday in Metlife Stadium, Bashaud Breeland kept the Redskins in the game for the first half by making spectacular plays for the first half. Breeland totaled 4 tackles (3 solo) along with an interception, two pass deflections, a forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries on the day.
In the second quarter, Breeland lines up on the left outside against wide receiver #87 Eric Decker in off-man coverage. It’s 1st and 10 on the Jets 37 yard line. The Redskins bring a blitzer, #30 Kyshoen Jarrett, to rush the quarterback forcing Fitzpatrick to throw hot to his right.
Decker runs a quick slant underneath Breeland’s cushion and catches the quickly thrown ball by Fitzpatrick. Breeland, already turned towards the receiver, sprints forward and attacks the wide receiver. He is able to slap the ball out of Decker’s hands while tackling him to the ground for the pass breakup.
This is a perfectly read play by Ryan Fitzpatrick as he places the ball to Decker in-stride. Simply give credit to the second year veteran from Clemson to force the incompletion.
Another quick slant by the Jets on first down later in the second quarter. In this play, Breeland is covering wide receiver #15 Brandon Marshall in press-man coverage.
After the snap, Marshall releases from the line of scrimmage taking a quick step outside, and then cuts inside. This actually gives him the separation on Breeland shaking him off balance for the easy reception over the short right side of the field.
Marshall rushes for the first down, but Breeland recovers and attempts to bring him down. As Marshall is falling to the ground Breeland aggressively reaches into Marshall’s hands and yanks the ball free forcing the fumble for the Redskins defense.
This is an extremely aggressive play. Typically, when a defender attempts to bring down a ball carrier by himself, he will go for the sure tackle and not the strip. Usually, it’s not until a second defender initiates a gang tackle the defender (usually second to arrive) will go for strip. Breeland must have been really confident that Marshall would not have slipped away if he failed to strip the ball.
With 47 seconds left in the 1st half, Breeland makes his best play all game: his interception. Breeland lines up against Brandon Marshall on the right side of the field (offense’s perspective). Running back #30 Zac Stacy splits out far right forcing inside linebacker #56 Perry Riley into man-to-man coverage. A clear mismatch.
Breeland plays press-man coverage against Marshall’s out-n-up route which is supposed to be cleared by Stacy running a quick-drag route over the middle of the field to initiate the rub-concept. Breeland sticks to his man, even after colliding with Perry Riley, and continues up the field blanketing Marshall. Fitzpatrick forces the ball to Marshall regardless.
Breeland turns, locates the ball, and makes a diving spectacular catch. This interception is squarely on Fitzpatrick. It’s an extremely impressive play by Breeland. No doubt about it, but this throw should have went underneath to Stacy and nowhere near Marshall who was covered perfectly by Breeland the entire play.
This sets up the Redskins for a quick field goal before half giving the Redskins the lead 13-10.
Going into the second half, the Redskins luck could not sustain them.
On 2nd and 4 at the Redskins’ 35 yard line, Fitzpatrick has Marshall on the right outside running an outside release go-route down the sideline. The Redskins are in Cover 1 Man meaning that Breeland is all by himself on his side of the field against Marshall. After the snap, Fitzpatrick gets pressured and lobs a pass purposely towards his wide receiver. Marshall makes an incredible adjustment towards the ball to cut inside Breeland catching it right before it hits the ground.
This play really should have been over at this point. Unfortunately, free safety #38 Dashon Goldson speeds into Breeland attempting the tackle and simply collides with Breeland as opposed to Marshall after the catch. This dislodges Marshall freeing him for the long touchdown.
I don’t blame Breeland for this touchdown. Breeland overruns his man, but the pass was thrown short where it would have been extremely difficult to stop to disrupt the catch. Really give credit to Fitzpatrick and Marshall and blame Goldson for the poorly angled tackle attempt.
At the start of the 4th quarter, the Jets have 2nd down at the goal line with 2 yards to gain. On the right, the Jets have wide receiver #87 Eric Decker in the slot and #15 Brandon Marshall split out. Strong safety #34 Trenton Robinson decides to swap receivers with Breeland telling the cornerback to cover Decker as he will cover Marshall.
After the snap Decker takes a quick jab step outside and then cuts inside on his slant route. Fitzpatrick fits the ball into his Decker’s numbers not allowing Breeland to make a play on the ball. It is Decker’s quick jab step outside that sets up him to have the inside clear for the touchdown throw. Breeland attempts to recover, but can’t in time allowing the tall wide receiver to box him out.
Chris Ivory had a fantastic game rushing for 146 yards on the ground against the normally stout Redskins run defense. One of his biggest plays came against the Redskins during the 3rd quarter in which he almost broke free for a 73 yard touchdown, but he stepped out of bounds after accumlating 32 yards up the right sideline.
The Jets run pistol dive aiming for the strongside A-gap between the center and the right guard. The Redskins defenders fill this hole forcing Ivory to run laterally to his right. Kerrigan sits in the strongside C-gap not making any progress as Breeland sprints forward to help fill the gap between Kerrigan and the other defensive lineman that was thoroughly blocked.
Ivory sees Breeland’s pursuit and angles his path further outside making his way to the sideline for the big gain.
In my opinion Breeland is responsible for setting outside contain to make sure Ivory doesn’t get to the sideline. Him not being there allows Ivory to escape for the big gain where if Ivory cut inside instead of outside after initially running laterally the other Redskins’ defenders could have helped tackled him down for a smaller gain and not risked a long touchdown.
Breeland’s first half was spectacular. He showed amazing ball skills all first half and flashed as the cornerback the Redskins saw last season. In this game, he was the sole reason why they even had a chance. Unfortunately, a top tier cornerback for one half is not enough to win when you combine it with offensive ineptitude against a very underrated opponent. Hopefully the Redskins will rebound next week against a 3rd place Buccaneers’ team in the NFC South.
Follow Samuel Gold on Twitter: @SamuelRGold.
