The Sports Xchange

After winning just nine times in 38 games, you can forgive the Washington Redskins if they were a little excited following a dramatic 31-30 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Down 24-0 in the second quarter, Washington rallied for the victory. But this is a hard team to figure out heading into its bye week. Yes, the Redskins (3-4) are tied for second place in the NFC East and just a game out of first place. But they’ve also been spanked by the New York Giants and New York Jets and blew second-half leads in losses to the Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons.

Early in the season they ran the ball at will on opponents and nobody could run on them. The last month those areas have become disasters. Injuries to key players – cornerbacks DeAngelo Hall (toe) and Chris Culliver (left knee), linebacker Ryan Kerrigan (broken right hand) – have left a wire-thin defense incapable of stopping the run and using players signed off the street or rookies to help Bashaud Breeland in the secondary

And while the Redskins get a week to heal, their reward for that rest is to travel to New England to face the unbeaten Patriots. The issues that surfaced early in the Tampa Bay game aren’t going away with just a week off.

“We could be better in certain areas. Obviously, we could be worse,” coach Jay Gruden said. “I like to see the progress that we’re making. I like to see the attitude the players have, the resilience, the ability to come from behind and not let outside forces get in the way of their production. But we’ve got a long way to go.”

The return of left tackle Trent Williams and tight end Jordan Reed from concussions made a massive difference against Tampa Bay. Reed is simply a matchup nightmare for opposing safeties and linebackers and takes pressure off quarterback Kirk Cousins.

If the Redskins harbor any hope of staying in the NFC playoff race, it begins with the idea of getting more impact injured players back – including deep threat DeSean Jackson (left hamstring), starting center Kory Lichtensteiger (neck) and Kerrigan. It may not help against the Patriots but it could later in November and December.

REPORT CARD VS. BUCCANEERS

–PASSING OFFENSE: A. Cousins has been volatile with these grades all season. Sunday he trended upward again with a 33-for-40 passing performance. He finished with 317 yards and three touchdowns. Cousins also didn’t throw an interception and was sacked just once. Add in an 11-play, 80-yard drive to win the game – his third last-minute scoring drive in four weeks – and you can overlook the strip-sack fumble that led to a 43-yard Tampa Bay touchdown. The pass to Jamison Crowder for 18 yards that set up the final series of downs was a thing of beauty.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: F. Alfred Morris had a career-low five rushing yards on six carries. Rookie Matt Jones managed just 29. The best run of the day was Cousins going for an eight-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The running game has cratered and, while injuries on the offensive line are a legitimate excuse, the Redskins need to find an answer. Fast. A 50-yard rushing performance versus Tampa is just the latest debacle and puts far too much pressure on Cousins.

–PASS DEFENSE: C. This group has held up OK despite injuries to its top two corners in DeAngelo Hall and Chris Culliver. But there’s only so long you can go with players like Will Blackmon and Quinton Dunbar, a converted wide receiver during training camp, playing critical minutes. Plus, Bashaud Breeland (hamstring) is hurt, too. Jameis Winston passed for 297 yards and two touchdowns. And that’s not counting that Tampa Bay played with just four receivers and two went down with injury. Mike Evans (eight catches, 164 yards, one touchdown) dominated the secondary.

–RUN DEFENSE: D. Make it three weeks in a row of struggles against opposing running backs. That’s a trend and it’s a bad one for the Redskins. The Jets posted 221 rushing yards last week. Tampa Bay followed with 190 total, including 136 from Doug Martin. Atlanta’s Devonta Freeman started it all by gashing them for 153 rushing yards three weeks ago. The solution isn’t easy – part scheme to help out the secondary, part personnel like Trent Murphy and Preston Smith struggling at right outside linebacker. Jason Hatcher playing on a sore knee doesn’t help as teams run outside and away from Terrance Knighton in the middle.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C. This unit gets downgraded some because Tampa Bay came within a whisker of blocking three punts in the first half. That’s already bit the Redskins this season. Kick returner Rashad Ross has also made some questionable decisions in recent weeks, including bringing one out of the end zone to the 14 against the Buccaneers – though he also had a 30-yard return to help start a scoring drive. Dustin Hopkins had four of six kickoffs go for touchbacks, a 34-yard field goal in the fourth quarter and the successful onside kick.

–COACHING: B. Can’t give an “A” when your team comes out in what the head coach calls a must-win game and lays an egg falling into a 24-0 hole. But give the Redskins coaches credit – they identified weaknesses in the Tampa Bay defense and used a variety of boots and fakes to gain yards where the running game couldn’t. Cousins even scored a touchdown on a zone-read look.