Last year the Washington Redskins awarded right tackle Morgan Moses with a hefty five-year contract extension that would solidify the team’s offensive line on both sides. On the other side of the line is All-Pro Trent Williams who is regarded as one of the top three left tackles in all of football. Add in Pro Bowl right guard Brandon Scherff and the Redskins have three of the top players at their respective positions along the offensive line.
Unfortunately for the Redskins, Scherff is out for the remainder of the season while Williams and Moses battle through injuries not to mention a new teammate beside them on almost a weekly basis. The Redskins offensive line has been hit hard with an insane amount of injuries. The team has also lost starting left guard Shawn Lauvao and right guard Jonathan Cooper for the season.
To make matters worse, Williams and Moses have been penalized at a higher clip than at any point in their careers.
Moses is leading the NFL in penalties. The fifth-year veteran mentioned that he is always talking with game referees to know exactly what he is being penalized for.
I asked RT Morgan Moses about his league leading penalties and what he thinks is the reason he’s getting flagged. #redskins #httr #nfl pic.twitter.com/svuwiCbEfg
— Lake Lewis Jr (@LakeLewis) December 14, 2018
Williams mentioned after yesterday’s practice mentioned that he too has spoken with game refs to make sure they are all on the same page as to how the game will be called. He was recently called for holding despite having a cast on his surgically repaired thumb. He joked that he couldn’t hold anything with the cast let alone an opposing player.
When looking at film of some of the player’s penalties is it objective as to how the calls are made?
Some of the same calls on the pair have not been called on the opposite side of the ball when Pro Bowl Linebacker Ryan Kerrigan is ‘not’ held. Still, both Williams and Moses will not make any excuses and both said within locker distance from each other that they have to continue to play their games.
A Redskins win over Jaguars would …
While addressing the media yesterday after practice, coach Jay Gruden spoke about Moses’s penalties.
“Yeah, a couple hands to the face, a couple false starts, a couple holdings,” Gruden said. “He’s such a big guy, sometimes he gets the hands up there in the face every now and then and he’s had a couple false starts. Like I said, he’s tried to time them and jumped. But the holding calls that we’ve had, three or four of them that were said weren’t holding calls the day after and some of them are legit. A lot of times if he gets beat, he’d rather have a holding call than get the quarterback hit too. I think Morgan’s really done a good job this year as far as fighting through. He’s played with some tough injuries now with his ankles and feet and all that stuff. He’s done a great job fighting through and being there for us. Unfortunately, he’s had a couple penalties.”
Both Williams and Moses will have their hands full Sunday against the Jaguars front three led by Pro Bowler, Calais Campbell. It will be interesting to see how the game is called especially with the Redskins having yet again another signal caller in Josh Johnson under center.
Moses mentioned that getting used to another QB’s cadences is another nuance that sometimes gets overlooked that lineman has to take into account.