The Redskins Blog

Takeaways Being Taken Away On Defense

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Since the dawn of the Jim Haslett era in Washington, takeaways have been a concerted effort for the Redskins defense.  Haslett has built his team around players with a nose for the football, and playmakers throughout the secondary.

Through 16 games last year, the Redskins had 25 takeaways on defense.  Through six game this year, the Redskins have eight, which leaves them tied for 19th in the league.  This puts them on pace for 21 this season.

Cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who had six of the team’s 14 interceptions last year, has been limited to one interception this year.  He discussed how game-planning a quarterback plays into being able to make plays in the secondary:

“I think, from a scheme stand point, we’ve tried to do the things that are gonna help us win games,” he explained.  ”And consequently, it did hurt us in terms of trying to get turnovers.  We had to put guys arount Cam Newton, we had to put guys around Michael Vick.”

By playing more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage, it took them out of the equation to force turnovers, especially in the secondary.

“We feel like we’ve been trying to get in the best defense that we can, to win the game,” he said.  ”But you have to be put in a position to make those plays.  We’ve been facing some guys and some quarterbacks over the last couple of weeks that have hand-cuffed us in that area of the game-plan a little bit, as far as being able to sit in some zones and pick some things off.    We are trying to get turnovers, but at the same time, we can’t sit in our coverages and allow the quarterback to run all over the field.”

After back-to-back games against two of the game’s best scrambling quarterbacks, Hall expressed his anticipation of facing a Bills quarterback that plays in the pocket.

“[Ryan] Fitzpatrick isn’t a scrambling type of guy, so hopefully we can scheme something around trying to get some turnovers,” he said.

Check out the rest of Hall’s thoughts, below: