ASHBURN — If the Redskins defense looked vanilla in Sunday’s 31-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, that was by design.
With a series of injuries in the secondary, last-minute replacements and five new starters picked up in the offseason, defensive coaches were trying to keep the game plan simple. The idea was that reducing the number of complex coverages would give the Redskins a chance to play more fundamentally sound defense than the unit did in Philadelphia to open the season.
It wasn’t enough.
“We wanted to challenge them and make them earn their grass,” coach Jay Gruden said.